AIB Roast My Take On The Show

All India Bakchod has gone more viral than ever. All thanks to their Roast show that recently got aired on Youtube. It had garnered over a million eyeballs and triggered so much drama post release. Several questions were raised, people took offence, banned the video, the team was asked to remove the video from Youtube, an FIR was filed against the actors who participated, phew! A bunch of people including influential personalities thought that the show was highly offensive for it had jokes that were highly racist, vulgar and crass.

Everyone has the freedom to speech and expression. As long as the other person whom you are actually casting a joke on doesn’t feel affronted. I and my friends keep picking on each other; in fact don’t we all do the same with people whom we are comfortable with? They did the exact same. They joked about people, about their own set of friends, people from their industry who took the joke very sportingly. Have an opinion, it’s perfectly fine, but don’t waste time filing a complaint or feeling pointlessly upset for it wasn’t even on you.

After the outrageous responses from aam aadmi, Aamir Khan posted his opinion on how he disliked the show as he found it NOT offensive but violent. He very subtly without too much hue and chaos expressed his take on the show, and the moment this came on the internet, hypocrisy took a toll on us yet again. It was shocking to see people who actually were on AIB’s side, became anti Roast suddenly. Why, why can’t we stand by our views ever? Get influenced, but don’t start following someone blindfolded. It’s a very sad state when I see young minds getting influenced in such a way, for we are supposed to be the bright future of the nation. The day we get over our pretence, change would start happening on its own.

Thank You Ma Pa

I was just reading a narration from the speaking tree website about a brutal tale of revenge in Mahabharata between Pandavas & the Nagas. Suddenly while reading that, I recollected some of my golden days when I used to go to my dad every single night for a bedtime story. We were then living in Noida and my parents had to travel 17kms everyday to work. Unlike today, the commutation wasn’t so easy and they would have to wake up early and catch a chartered bus leading to their destination. Well why I’m giving you this information is because, every single night when I go to him and demand for a bedtime story, he would tirelessly narrate me one. Not even once as much as I remember has he said no to me.

From mythological tales to Thenali Raman’s clever instances, he would go on and on till I felt sleepy. It’s surprising how our parents never get tired of doing things unendingly for us. From the tiniest to the biggest sacrifices, they have done everything to make our lives better. No matter how much we try, we can never ever return their favour and undoubtedly we owe our lives to them. Even though we have the right to live our life our way, but there’s always a subtle way to tell our parents what we really want in our lives. As being our creators, they would always appreciate that we confronted in them and help us achieve our goals.

It goes without saying that our amazing childhood is just in our memory and can never be relived, but what’s important is that we appreciate the little things our parents have done for us & to be there for them whenever needed.

Mom, Dad… I Love you till the moon and back.

Did she choose to stay? (If I Stay-Gayle Forman)

I do not usually prefer reading romantic novels as I feel they have too much drama involved in them and they tend to go overboard with love & sweet nothings. However, when my sister who too is an avid reader, suggested If I Stay to me, I was undoubtedly a little put off for I was a little finicky to read it. She did mention that it is not stereo-typically romantic, and I wondered what else could it possibly be. So, I decided to give it a shot & went ahead with it.

To my surprise, I got quite involved in the process of flipping through the amazing novel & felt as if I’m Mia (The main character of the book). Gayle Forman has beautifully written as to how it is to have an out of the body experience & what it’ll be like to decide whether one should choose to stay or pass on when there is no motive or anything left behind in your life. A simplistic novel with characters that came out of the words and became a part of my life, which doesn't happen while I read a dramatic novel.

Now, let’s come to what I deciphered from the book. The value of relationships in one’s life; be it love, family, friends. Everything holds its own place and is important in its own way. We definitely cannot weigh what’s more important to us. I understood that even if there’s nothing left behind, there is still one reason to hold and stay back. Very few people recognize & identify that, and that’s all it takes to realize the sole reason for your survival.

So, guys go ahead and give it a read to get a deeper understanding on relationships & life together. Kudos to Gayle Forman for the work.

Little Women-The Classic

I’m quite proud of myself for I have re-joined the army of book freaks. A new addition to my collection is a classic called Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. An autobiographical representation of Louisa herself & her sisters written in 1869, based in New England. Struggle of 4 sisters & her mother, while their father is fighting a civil war of the nineteenth century. The story unwinds not only the struggle but also different aspects about their social encounters & their rookie attempts to fall in love. After all what’s a classic with a slight touch of contemporary romance, right?

I do have really high expectation from this classic for I’ve heard it’s one of the greatest written piece of art. Now from where did I hear about this book is a little interesting. As a die-hard “Friends” fan, I remembered an episode where Joey places his book “The Shining” in his refrigerator for he is too scared to read it further, so Rachel challenges him to get through “Little Women” as she claims it to be one of the best reads she has ever had. So, yes! That’s how I wanted to go for it & give it a shot.

So far just a chapter old & I already loved the writing as it’s simple yet so descriptive. Honestly, I do not know much about classic novels as I haven’t majorly read old work. So, it would be unfair for me to draw a comparison & judge her piece of art. However, post “Little Women”, I’m sure to devote time to flip through as many classics as possible.

Shikhandi & Other Tales They Don't Tell You-A Good Read

So I’m done with “Shikhandi & Other Tales They Don’t Tell You”. It did raise a lot of questions in my head while flipping through the pages about queerness but I felt a few stories weren’t really relevant to describe the queer presence in our mythology. They have been mentioned forcefully without much to connect to. Although I did like how female goddesses had been practising polygamy when it came to sexual desires, but with time they were denied freedom & came to be considered as sacred prostitutes.

Author Devdutt Patnaik has penned down his thoughts in a very subtle yet thought provoking manner. He has not derived to a hard hitting conclusion, rather gave a way for the readers’ thoughts to flow in a direction. Explaining the difference between transgenders, cross dressers & transsexuals has been established very well for people to understand the respective kinds clearly. The best I liked about this book was the stories from different “religions”, as we call it, so that no one can question about the facts written in their own.

Having multiple sexual partners or having sexual desires towards same sex is nothing to be frowned upon. We as humans rather individuals have the right to live the way we want to & nothing can stop us from doing what we want. Yes, surviving in a patriarchal & a hypocritical society like ours is difficult, but all we need is a fighting spirit & you’ll be ready to conquer the world. People need to understand that being a queer is not having a disease or a malfunction in one’s body, they are as human as you are or I am. LGBT protests, social experiments will not change the mind-set of individuals who still are evolved enough to understand this delicate issue. It only comes with opening up oneself to changes.

Hope the change & acceptance comes soon! 

Shikhandi And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You-The Beginning

So, I’m finally done with the Shiva Trilogy. Much to my surprise, the third sequel “The Oath Of The Vayuputras” did not match up to my expectations. Even though, it had a few surprises, but to a large extent failed me as an avid reader. Don’t worry, I am not here to give you spoiler alerts (not that are any), but want the current readers to decipher the ending on their own.

A new addition to my collection is author Devdutt Pattanaik’s “Shikhandi And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You”. While going through the jist of the material, I got to know that it’s about queerness. The author has cited examples from the Indian mythology and has explained that how something that is frowned upon in our society now, has been in the pages of our history since ages.

Just a few pages old, I have already started liking his writing style. He has beautifully & very intelligently portrayed the importance of desire, lust & fear. He has kept his thoughts straight, to the point & with minimalistic use of ‘jargon’.

Just waiting to read all the stories that have been ‘forgotten’ with time and hopefully this book would be one of my best investments.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT?

Every morning I wake up, get dressed and look at myself in the mirror. Somehow behind all the confidence I possess, I still see a little bit of fear in my eyes. Fear of being a victim of something brutal and ravaging incident that could shake my innermost senses. And then I ask myself a question, “Why should it be so difficult for me, for women to step out”?

I just finished watching an episode of a TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ and I must confess that it really stirred me to the core. The cases that came and the way they were handled by the Indian government just made me feel so unwanted and uncared as a citizen. The statistics that were highlighted in the show about the rape cases were startling. But what took me by not surprise rather shock were the numbers of the pending ones. I mean is it so hard to get justice in this country. I wouldn’t compare my country with any other as I do not know about the judiciary system there, and moreover I am not interested in getting to know about their process. I care about where I am and where my future family is going to be.

Nirbhaya’s case got justice after outrageous reactions by the public from every nook and corner. But then every second day there is some or the other similar incident happening in and around us. “The latest estimates suggest that a new case of rape is reported every 22 minutes in India.”(Source-wikipedia). While I was doing a little research on this atrocious crime that breaks a woman, I came across a statement in wikipedia itself that says: “Marital rape is not a criminal offence.” I was so confused that I went further on with my research and I see this:

“Treated as a form of noncriminal domestic violence – India”

followed by two other countries which is useful to be mentioned here. After providing an established and a clear cut definition of rape, marital rape is declared as a noncriminal domestic violence. It makes me feel sad by seeing at the state of the country and the law that is so blindfolded towards such despicable issues. 

Why do we as humans need something as inhumane & scurrilous as Nirbhaya’s case to fight our battles? I am glad that TV shows are now starting to contribute in a true sense towards the betterment of society in getting these mayhems into the spotlight. But the question why do we need someone to push us time and again? Why to care of what society will think? Has society been supportive towards the victim? Then why bother to give a second thought to fight for what is right?

A woman is the one who gives birth to a man. If she can give birth, she can destroy as well. I have heard this a lot of times at a lot of places by a lot of people but now it truly makes sense. Until we unite as one, nothing will change and for that to happen each one would have to change their perspective towards this beastly crime which is even worse than terrorism.

Open your minds to a new world where we can breathe in peace as there is no perfect time to fight a crime for it’s NOW.