"The Actual Rape" !!!!!

It was so nice and encouraging to see our 'youth India' coming at fore in support of agitation against delhi rape case.The magnanimity of upsurge stroke a chord with every section of society ranging from affluent businessmen to filmstars and students across the country.This henious act coupled with media attention and intensified by our insensitive government's approach,reached to the drawing room debate of every single Indian and questioned the basic
morality of our neo liberal civilized society that has never been civilized with it's women.The answer still remains eluding.But this incident at least asked this question or say revived this simmering question.Though the rapists have been caught and will surely will sentenced.But is it the answer of our question?Certainly not.
Let this question not fizzle out as a 'one woman victim' case,for this incidence is an amplified reflection of
what we have been doing to our women since centuries.Lets be optimistic again and dare to ask the same shameful question to ourselves.Why always a woman?
Though the suffering of women has a long history in our so called proud country,earlier in the form of sati pratha,child marriage etc to relatively recent female foeticides,rapes,killing for dowry and numerous other.How can we expect our women to be safe in a society ,where a girl is not even safe in her mother's womb?what kind of law we can enact to protect women when they are burnt inside their own kitchen?What kind of protection we can provide to a wife who is daily assaulted by her husband?what kind of equality we can expect for our women,in this male chauvinist society ,where women are considered unequal in every aspect.How can we make our women feel important when they are thought to be unwanted right from birth.
Ain't these daily brutal torture and killing,need our attention too?Lets just delve into it a bit deeper in the quest of answer for our basic question.Why always a woman?
A girl's life(except few fortunate ones) starts with the denial of their family members and remains in that limbo till the end,though as they grow up, life and particularly our society adds more miseries to their life.Right from childhood they are taught to be inferior.Infact being and considering themselves inferior is considered as a sign of a decent girl's identity.They are taught to be a "girl" and behave as a "girl",which is a universal code to make them realize every second that "now that you have unwantedly come to our lives,you will have to suffer for it".Most of them succumb to  such pressure,but those who manage to keep their morale high and march further still have to walk through the thorny bushes.Since childhood their image is attached with the pride and prestige of the family,and they are expected to hold this flag of forced pride high.Though it always amazes me ,boys dont have any such responsibilities.Their mistakes are just a learning experience ,while a girl's mistake might tarnish the whole image of the family. Why so?I always fail to understand.
Now when they grow up ,life is ready to test them with all its storms.In home they are preached by their family member,regarding how to behave.Even a younger brother behaves as if he holds the responsibility to control her life.When they step outside home,the whole world is there to make them feel that they are 'girls'.At bus stops,railway stations ,schools,colleges and in offices there is a whole lot of people who want to take the opportunity of their being(as they consider) an inferior sex.Inside their homes also girls are safe but not free.Even so called liberal people who preach about woman equality and status in society also consider women just as an object to fulfill their carnal desires.
Why are women always addressed as someone's sister,mother or wife?This questions the structure of society that our great forefathers have laid down for us.And the present inequality lies because of this unquestioned legacy that we have been carrying since ages.This male chauvinist mentality has been so
deeply embedded in our thinking that we need a constant detterent belief to flow in our society to avert its impact.The dowry system has aggravated the problem the most in making girls unwanted in society.Initially it started among rich people and that too only as a token of gift to their relatives,has slowely percolated down to the lowest strata of society and has been somehow mandated.Now people don't expect ,rather demand dowry openly,take it openly and flaunt it openly ,despite a stringent law against dowry.Actually it has been so much deeply imbibed in us since our birth ,and practiced so normally that we don't see any fault with that.For affluent families it is okay but for a middle class person it takes their lifetime to prepare for it.Thats what makes a girl burden and we unintentionally contribute equally to that.The killing of women daily in the name of dowry is not an uncommon phenomenon in our society and usually go unnoticed.
Already as if there are less miseries in our women's life,every now and then some psycho will jump and rape a girl,making it more miserable.Girls who are already constrained in every aspect of their lives, become more vulnerable, even now in going to schools and colleges.The recent 'delhi rape case' is just a representation of thousands of women who are raped each day,and generally those news go unnoticed.In most cases the perpetrators are not even caught and move freely in our society.Several women have been raped in assam,manipur and kashmir but nobody noticed.At least this incident ,highlighted by our not so responsible media ,and coupled by the mass upsurge has managed to force us to think about the plight of several women whose death went unnoticed.It is the time to reddress all those cases and even more.
Hanging of those criminals convicted for delhi rape case is not going to help much.Neither a Stringent law can,though it can reduce the numbers.But still there will be rapes,murder and exploitation of women ,untill or unless we decide to address the root cause.It goes into our mentality and deep within our morality ,and that has to be addressed.In such a secular country like ours religion is expected to impart morality and ethics into society.But surprisingly they have also failed.Infact they are acting more of a catalyst in polarizing society against women.Its so hard to imagine that on one hand we revere women as a mother,a sister ,a wife and a daughter and on the other hand we exploit them so much throughout their lives that they regret being a woman.Isn't it an unpardonable crime?And every one of us is a part of this crime.Shouldn't we discuss these issues too?If we really want to bring about a change,we have to change us ,and change fundamentally.We have to take the responsibility.Because  it all starts within home and then trancends outside.The real devil is inside us and we have to fight it.Women don't need our sympathy.Neither do they need our protection and dominance.They need freedom and acceptance.They have shown in every field that given equal opportunity they are at par with everybody or even more. We ,being a responsible citizen,should impart the moral values
regarding respecting women within our home,to our children ,to our siblings and to our neighbours.As Gandhi jee said "Be the change you want to see".We have to change if we want our society to change.The society will be a much better place if we start considering women as the better half of our existence and development rather that considering them as a burden.

Do What You Love...Love What You Do !!!

There is an adage in english "Do what you love,love what you do".Having inculcated this adage deeply inside, I curiously started observing people around
me.And the answer that I got,really blew my rational mind.Because most of the people,I found, were doing something they din't even like.Refusing to accept it,when I broadened my horizon,taking into account people from all strata of society,I got the similar answer.And shockingly though I had to accept that most of us(Indian) don't do
what we love to do.
In our country a child's future is decided even before he is born.The phrase like "my child will become doctor,engineer or IAS " is the most frequent topic
of discussion among our parents.And they take much pride in discussing it among a bunch of similar thinking people.But Just think.Is it really a matter of pride?For me,it's a big 'No'.
People decide the destination as well as path of their children even before they learn to walk on their feet and expect them to follow it throughout their lives.And if child tries to do anything else(even if the most nobel work),everybody criticizes him and start considering him a failure,instead of boasting and supporting him in his endeavour.Is it not a kind of exploitation?
Everybody wants his children to become doctor,engineer or IAS but seldom do we know people who want their children to become a teacher,professor or a research scholar.Why?Because the bitter but truth is that we treat our children as 'product' and want to transform them into something where their 'market value' would be maximum.Most of the children are not even allowed to realize their true passion in whole life and end up a confused soul.This is why we are piling up a huge number of so called educated 'fools' in our country.The repercussions are also before us.Despite having one of the largest pool of doctors and engineers in our country,we have failed to produce any significant discovery in the field of science. 
Every problem has a root cause ,and when I shifted my focus from problem to the root cause,I got scared.The problem has taken a much deeper and worse form and it has reached down to the lowest strata of society.Then the obvious million dollar question is 'who is the culprit?'.Our parents,society or our education system?
The primary aim of schools is to provide an environment for overall development of the students ,where students could get themselves engaged in all the kinds of activities and find their true passion and potential in the process.But nowadays school education has become marks centric.Students are judged solely on the basis of marks they obtain and extra curricular activities are considered as a waste of time.we fail to realize that every child is uniquely special.Everybody has different talent and area of interest.But here we evaluate everybody on the same parameter and make self proclaimed prophecy about their future.Here I recall a famous dialogue of movie '3 idiots'."Had Sachin tendulkar become a singer and lata mangeshkar a cricketer ,would they have been equally successful in their respective lives"?Obviously no.
The second most important aspect is our parents.People often want to fulfill their dreams through their children.They want their children to achieve everything that they themselves could not.And in the process they turn their children into machines,who need need instructions at every step of life.Such children though can walk very nicely on a given path but can not make a new path for themselves.Isn't it a kind of slavery?How sad it is to know that people,knowingly or unknowingly turn their children into their own slaves.Here I want to quote from a famous writer Khalil Zibran's book "The Prophet".He writes for the parents that "your children are not your children,they are the children of Almighty.You may give them your love,but not thought,for they have their own thought".
The last but the most important aspect is our society.I don't know how but our society (which in itself uses double standards in everything) sets standards for us and expects us to follow it without fail.And if anybody wants to go beyond convention ,he is considered as a traitor.This is the reason of plummeting number of students studying arts.People treat art studying students with pity and science studying students suddenly become of higher breed.Studying arts is like embracing death in our society.And dont get me wrong here.It is also not the case that people want their children to study science for making significant contribution in the field of science.They just want their children to study science so that they could walk in the society with false pride.Studying science is not at all a bad thing ,but just think,how will a student who is interested in history ,get any pleasure in the equations of chemistry?By forcing them to study science ,ain't we taking away all their options?
The truth is that our society judges us on the basis of our bank balance,and not on our ability.People earning high(by any means) become the anchor of society,and others want their children to emulate them.Also the most shocking is the fact that people don't want their children to become doctor,engineer or IAS ,so that they will be able build a better society,but because there are more opportunities to loot.Such things are pretty much  common and acceptable in our civil society.People taking unconventional routes are always ridiculed in our society.
Now the time has come that youths of our country decide their own path.Because we can achieve the summit in any field only if we do what we love.We have the living examples of Bill gates and Steve Jobs who even dropped out of the college to follow their hearts and later went on to become world's most successful people.Who can forget Mark Zekerburg?Facebook from being a small social networking site went on to become a billion dollar company,and that is only because a twenty year young man decided to follow his heart.We also have our own example of Rabindra nath tagore who defied to be bound by the conventional mode of education,and still went on to become the first indian to get Nobel prize in the field of literature.
Hence as a student I want to appeal to parents that we have learnt everything from you only.Now lets us free of your thoughts and expectations.Let us decide our destination as well as path.Just support us and share our dreams.We may not earn a lot of money pursuing our dreams,but we will be happy and satisfied.Moreover as far as society is concerned,we form society.And If we change,gradually society will also change.