Meri jigri Dost

It's friendship day and I am sure all of us would walk down the memory lane, reminiscing about our school and college days when each of us would tie colorful friendship bands on each other's wrist, write friendship messages on people's hand and t-shirts with sketchpen, send innumerable messages to our friends and do every possible thing to make this day special. Schools and Colleges used to look really colorful on friendship days. I miss those silly days.

Today, on Friendship Day, I wish to introduce you all to my best friend. A woman (other than my mom) who knows me well. The brave girl who has seen my unpredictable temper tantrums and has actually stuck to me despite my famous ego problems. She is my biggest strength and my biggest weakness too.

Friends, let me introduce you to my jigri dost Sangi aka Sanjay Singhania kii female version

Sangi and Me giving Parag Sariwala pose ;-)

Memories of my jigri dost: She is my Chaddi Buddy...meri bachpan kii dost. We were classmates in school but weird we never spoke to each other. Infact we were introduced to each other by our grannies. We were not too close, but as time passed by, our bond had become more strong and deep. We have several fond memories like going for regular morning walks for just 2 days :), trying to make chocolate mousse and adding salt to it coz we had added excess sugar, planning an exhibition after Sangi learnt to make imitation jeweleries and a famous fight in Water kingdom :). We had lots of fun and we still laugh when we remember those incidents. I would say that those were the best days of my life.

Geographically durr but dil se durr nahi: However, the fun filled days were short lived when she shifted to a distant place during the last year of her graduation. I missed her sorely especially when I would look at girls of my age laughing and gossiping in whispers, I felt a lump in my throat when the grocerywala uncle asked: aajkal tumhari dost nahi aati fatafat lene (fatafat was her favorite and Grocerywala uncle did not have to bother about it's stock, as Sangi would ensure that all the stocks are emptied within a month) . I missed her presence a lot. But as time passed, we became more mature and got busy with our lives. But nevertheless, we stay in touch with each other, she knows what's happening in my life and vice-a-versa. We are as different as Chalk and Cheese: She is maha enthusiastic, I am lazy. She is a chatterbox, I talk to the point, she is fashion conscious, I am fashion illiterate....the list is endless, but the point is despite our different attitude and behavior, we understand each other and are best friends. Woh kehte hai naa Opposites attract, well it stands true in our case.

I wish to dedicate this song to Sangi. The lyrics of the song goes this way: Bane chahe dushman zamana humara, salamat rahe Dostana humara :)

P.S: Oh I forgot to mention the reason for comparing Sangi with Sanjay Singhania. Well if you have seen Ghajini (hindi version), you would know that Aamir Khan suffers from short term memory loss and that his name in the movie is Sanjay Singhania. My friend Sangeeta also has memory lapses. For example, if she narrates an incident to me, chances are that she would not remember anything if asked about it after 2 days :)

But nevertheless, I love her for what she is and am proud of her.

P.P.S: Oye sangi, I wrote the post, chal as promised take me to JW Mariott now :)

Oh and Happy friendship Day to all of you. Tum nahi hothe toh mere blog ka kya hotha. Thanks a lot my blogger pals for reading my crap regularly...I am lucky to be in your company :)

Respect Her!!!

• Mr. Maharaja Kaushik- the coach of Women's Hockey Team has been accused of sexually harassing the players.
• 3 minor girls get raped and killed in Nehru Nagar- Kurla, Mumbai
• A recent survey stated that Delhi is considered to be the most unsafe place in India for Women. Around 85% women said that they do not feel safe in Delhi. Goa is also considered unsafe by foreign tourists.

Welcome friends, welcome to a Nation where women is considered nothing less than a Sex object, where the law gives Gays Right (No intention of offending the LGBT community) more priority than drafting a 'Sexual Harassment in Workplace' bill.

Welcome to a nation, where on one hand a women is called the Lakshmi of the house (obviously, it is she who brings Gold and money to your home in the form of dowry) and on the other is treated as a burden to the family (Coz in India it is the responsibility of a girl's father to conduct a marriage on their expenses).

Pardon me for this nonsensical rant, but could not stop myself from ranting.

Today as I flipped through the pages of a newspaper, I found more than half of the newspaper carrying stories about Rapes, Sexual Harassments and Molestation. Tired, I switched on the TV and was greeted by the same Rape, Sexual Harassment stories. I switched off the TV and sat on the veranda only to find an uncle residing in the opposite building in a drunken state slapping his wife black and blue. It was a sick sight to watch. We complained to the Cops for the nth time, who took him to the station for the nth time and sent him back home for the nth time coz his loyal wife is scared to complain against him.

India is a nation of diversity, and not just languages and culture; even the treatment meted out towards women in different parts of the country proves this.

So while a girl child is welcomed as Lakshmi or Durga in West Bengal or Southern States, a girl born in Punjab or Haryana is considered to be a huge burden to the family and is often killed after birth. Often, the mother who has given birth to a girl child is sent back home as though she has committed a crime. The father of the child seldom realizes that it is his chromosomes that determine the sex of the child. So shouldn't he be punished for committing this heinous crime.

Obviously, I have no answers to my rants but yes I do have some wishes that I hope gets fulfilled some day:

I hope that the honorable Judiciary System takes a note of the crimes meted out towards women and make the laws more stringent.

I hope that girls stop compromising on certain things to climb up the corporate ladder or to get selected in a National Team. Set an Example by saying a FIRM NO.

I hope that the government does something about protecting the women.

I hope that every family treats women as equal and treat them with respect.

I hope that the media does not make such stories a fodder to fill their space and time. It's good to inform people but definitely not good to harp over it.

But most importantly, I hope that Women do not keep quiet and learn to fight for themselves.

Holy S**t

I wish to ask all of you who are reading this post a set of questions:

1. Who according to you is greater- a person who behaves with the poor with decency, or the one who is supposedly an ardent follower of God but treats people like dirt?

2. Who according to you should be respected in the Society- Someone who treats his bahu beti with respect, or someone who abuses his bahu beti under the same roof where they have performed yagnas?

3. Who would you tolerate- Someone who is an atheist but abides with the law and social mores, or the one who goes to every temple existing in the city but does not abide with the law.

4. What would you do if a girl is abused/beaten or burnt in front of your eyes- Would you go to protect her, or just close the windows and doors saying that it is her KARMA and she has to bear it.

I know you would agree to the part which is marked in red. But sadly, major part of the society would not agree with us.

I am angry...angry because no matter what some GOOD spiritual leaders teach, society is filled with hypocrisy. These GOOD spiritual leaders teach their followers to love everyone...serve everyone...but why is it that we distinguish people on the basis of caste, religion, economic status etc? Why do we tell a mom who brings her mentally challenged son along to stay away from the bhajans? Why differentiate between a madrasi and a non madrasi, a gujarati and a non- gujarati? Why play politics in a spiritual group? Why be so selfish? Why this narrow mindedness? Why this pretension of being holier than thou when there is nothing holy in your acts?

Someone told me...its better to be an atheist and be a good human rather than being an ardent devotee of God and doing all the wrong things exiting under the sun. Do good acts, thats any day better than merely singing praises of God and doing wrong things.

There's one thing I want to ask these Leaders or so-called god too: When an individual is wrong, is it not your duty to correct them or are you plain scared that your followers would run away and not fund your ventures???