Zipping Up: Life with a blogging spouse #Humor

Life with a blogging spouse

Doodle inspired by true story. Congratulations to all fellow bloggers who aced it!

Y-chromosome is depleting, will men become endangered or extinct in future?

One of my scientist friends, who is researching on cancer in Israel, told me about this gradual depletion of Y-chromosome from living organisms. Y-Chromosomes, that are responsible for male production, are passed on to one generation of male to next, while women don’t need one. The idea of depletion itself sounds horrific, because men and women both are responsible for the human continuum. Unlike other chromosomes, which exist in two copies, Y exists in a single copy. Studies suggest that genes in Y-chromosome degrade subsequently and are lost eventually from genome.

In humans depletion of Y-chromosome will take place in few million years. However, before that genetic engineering may advance to the point that it may enable female (same sex) couples or infertile males to conceive.  

What if men will not be there? One would say that all bad things associated with men will also end. But on the other hand, all good things associated with men will end too. From a broader perspective, a human, irrespective of the gender, has both the characteristics, good and evil. While women issues can be linked with male dominance, they cannot be linked with male existence. 

If we talk about male extinction from a social perspective, rather than scientific one, what could be the repercussions? After gradual depletion of Y-chromosomes, world will witness high female to male ratio. If men will be in minority, women will be more secure from male atrocities than ever. But if human nature of wickedness persists in the one who dominates, there would be a rapid rise in men-issues. 

Did you know about degeneration of Y-chromosome before? How did it make you feel? Do you have any views on the same? 

Article produced from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-19/y-chromosome-disappearing-what-will-happen-to-men/9342994  (published in January 2018)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5094562/

eXtreme Emotions #womenissues #humor

There are many of us who get extremely emotional. We get tears of sorrow, when we are hurt; tears of joy, even when our best friend achieves something or gets engaged, and tears again when we are too agitated. Many times our hormones are to be blamed for such emotional burst. To men, thank you for understanding us in our highs and lows. If you are a man, do you know about any such woman? If you are a woman, do you witness tears too when dealing with extreme emotions?

When women and traditions stand against women #womenissues

Where there is a mention of tradition or culture, most of the times women are the target. Specifically, in patriarchal societies women go through lot of discrimination. If a man from such society is reading this, imagine the horrors of leaving your comfort to live in someone else’s home and succumbing to the traditions made only for you. Atop it also facing the biases and preconceived notions from someone else’s family. When it comes to stigma and superstitions, a woman is always held liable for the accident she has met or luck/misfortune she has brought. Mostly such judgements are passed by another woman present there. 

I won’t go very far, I will start with traditional Indian (majorly Hindu) practices. Women sit together and talk about wealth in the form of dowry a bride has brought. Mothers of grooms praise or humiliate the newly wed based on that. In still an alien home she is expected to wake up before everyone else, take place in kitchen and relieve everyone who was there prior to her. There are still many homes, where a ruckus is created (by another woman) when she doesn’t abide by 500 rules of marital dressing.  A lot of my friends went through the horror of wearing compulsory bangles after wedding for a year despite the rashes, burns and what not on their hands. Others are decorated like a Christmas tree despite dreading them citing illogical traditions. The head in their family, a woman turned a deaf ear to their agonies. 

Remember the book “Animal Farm”, where Orwell talked about sheep bleating blindly after hearing the bleat of first sheep. This is what tradition has done to us. We are mere followers, blindly accepting everything that has been happening from ages. We don’t intend to question it, not for our sake, not for the sake of our generations to come.

When Karwa Chauth comes, a woman is expected to stay hungry, even if she is pregnant. Because nothing else is important for “mothers”-in-law than their superstitions and sons. Post delivering the baby, birth of a daughter doesn’t create exhilaration like birth of son in many families. If a son is born, lo and behold, there is another set tradition to follow. But again, only for the mother. A mother of a boy is expected to keep another fast for his long life and well-being. Nothing for a daughter. Because in patriarchal societies a man’s life is more significant than a woman’s life. In case she doesn’t want to follow it, she stays silent in a fear that the family of groom will boycott her. After which a biased stigma of separation will haunt her more than him. Therefore, she continues to follow sexist traditions till her death, ignoring her age and health. 

During the wedding, her parents do Kanya-daan. Being a woman, it seems more regressive it sounds. Suddenly she becomes a thing to give in charity from being a daughter who lived with equal dignity. Mothers don’t object it, and future mothers wont object it either. In work places as well, many times, women get insecure by other women and create tsunami of problems for them. Women haven’t totally learned to stand for each other. 

Few days back, I saw a video, where a famous Islamic preacher Zakir Naik was giving a talk about symbolic beating of wife. He seemed to be putting efforts to reduce violence on women through his misogynistic statements. He never said that a wife should not be beaten, not even symbolically. He also didn’t talk about rule of metaphorical beating husbands, for the much bigger sins like when they rape in marriages, abuse physically or publicly or caught in infidelity etc. If you observe closely, you may find sexist things in most of the traditions.

If there is a God, he cannot be sexist. Only a culture, a community, a tradition, a religion or a human can be! Stand up for the women in your life, be it your daughter, wife, sister, friend, colleague or someone-in-law when needed, if you haven’t already. But before everyone else, a woman should learn to stand up for a woman. 

Have you faced pressure to follow sexist tradition in your culture, or religion? Do you also think that we are brain washed from ages? Do you have an experience to share?

The vile predators...

Don't leave

those savage ones
to freely roam
outside the home,
for the daughters
are not secure
anymore,
at night and day
or in any way.
Why some men 
have criminal minds
and others around
are virtuous kind
It could be the
misogynistic thinking
or possibly
a wretched parenting.
Why our society
must be such,
where in dark
the innocent hides,
and out and loud
predator rides... 

When parents of girls fear and stop them from going out alone, especially after the dark...

Image: Google

Unspoken... #sexualabuse

A tear rolled down from her eyes. It was one of the darkest pages of her life that she was about to unfurl. She was a child. She was as pure and as divine as the love of God in a believer’s heart.  She had a smile that could persuade thousands of butterflies to widen their wings for an enchanted look in her eyes. She was a girl with dreams to live. But she lived to be sexually assaulted by her relatives, uncles, cousins, servants, boyfriends, friends, priests, colleagues, bosses, friends, by unknown men or people she trusted the most. 

This story is based on true events. Sometime back hashtag #Metoo showed the widespread prevalence of sexual assault majorly in women. Men kept silent, however sexual abuse is not uncommon in males either, 1 in 6 male children are sexually assaulted. 

mage source: https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf

RapeRoko

To women with love... #women #womenempowerment

Nothing can make you worthier
than the belief that you are.
No one can put you down
if you fearlessly hold your crown.
No one will embrace your imperfections
until you proudly do.
Remember no one is born perfect
it’s subjective, to be true.
The choice to be respected, seen, and loved,
And embracing the honor
to be a woman of all above
is only onto you...

Thousands of women are told daily that they are useless, worthless, and not good enough. They go through a tough time to prove their worth for equal rights, equal wage and equal respect. Women should always tell themselves:
"It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all."- Anais Nin

Survivors story, acid attack survivors

I was sitting in the food lounge with my luggage in Indira Gandhi International Airport. In two hours we had to take our scheduled flight back home to the United states. GK had gone to grab something to eat from a nearby food stall. A bunch of people came into the lounge area and acquired the seats on the next table. They were acid attack survivors. Till now I have heard their stories on talk shows, but today I was watching them for the first time in the real world. They were engaged in dialogs among themselves.  They seemed confined, but happy and contended. 

Acid attacks are reported in 39 countries in the world which include both developed and developing nations. Bangladesh has reported the highest number of attacks. Other countries mainly include India, Nepal, Pakistan, UK, Vietnam, France, Germany, Iran, China and Cambodia.  Chief reasons behind such attacks are the rejection for sex or marriage proposals, unpaid dowry, women going against father, brother, husband or his family.

Globally 80% of the acid attack victims are women and girls. However, in London, this ratio differs. Victims of acid attacks there were around 50 males and 50 females each year from 2007 to 2011. In 2016, the number of attacks on men increased dramatically to 352. From 2017, it is illegal to carry acid in London with an intent to harm and measures are taken according to the degree of harm it has caused. In 2008, an acid attack victim in Iran sentenced her attacker to be blinded by acid in both eyes under the law of an equivalent justice. However, later she pardoned him. In India, the minimum punishment for this crime is 10 years imprisonment, which can extend up to lifetime imprisonment with a fine. But many attackers bribe the system and get bailed out without punishment.

Victims of acid attacks go through huge trauma, including physical, mental and financial stress. They need a safe place to stay, a steady income to manage their expenses and financial aid for several painful surgeries to live a normal life. The government does give them aid, though not sufficient. They also need to gain back their lost confidence and acceptance from others to continue in mainstream without judgmental or prying eyes.

While looking up online about acid attack survivors, I saw pictures of the women who were at airport, on the website of New York fashion week. This fashion show took place after almost two weeks from that day. Walking on the stage surely have helped the survivors in boosting their self-confidence and creating awareness about them among the masses present there. 

Picture courtesy: http://time.com/4485099/reshma-qureshi-new-york-fashion-week-acid-attack

Recently, my sister- in- law told me about a café in Agra, Uttar Pradesh named Sheros (She-heros), which is run by the survivors of acid attacks. Females, who is attacked by their male stalkers, rejected lovers, relatives or fathers, are serving food and working as chefs. It is a justice to the struggles they have been through, to empower them to live a respectful, confident and independent life, even though sometimes their pains are unheard and unattended legally. 

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_throwing

http://www.news.com.au/world/face-melters-the-acid-attack-capitals-of-the-world/news-story/afe10105149eac4aa0c1b7013394d4a3

https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/ritu-mahendru/india-cafe-sheroes-fights-back-acid-attacks

Repercussions of wearing same dress #WomenIssues #humor

Has this ever happened to you or your spouse? What would you do in such a situation?

10 positive quotes from famous people about women #womenequality

Here are the 10 inspiring, funny, positive quotes about women that you may love to read:

1. 

3. 

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. 

10.

Protests across the globe for women safety, equality and freedom

India: After the heinous crime of gang rape and brutal murder of 8 year old girl named Asifa in Kathua village, Kashmir, an outrage triggered in entire nation. Thousands of people protested across India and demanded quick prosecution of rape suspects. Almost 3 months have passed since the unfortunate incidence, with no major advancement. 

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.4621483/why-protesters-in-india-are-demanding-justice-for-8-year-old-asifa-1.4621486

Iran: March 7, 2018, A woman of 32, was sentenced to 2 years in prison on the charge of encouraging people for corruption by removing hijab in public.  Soon after it on March 19, 2018, another Iranian woman got arrested for protesting compulsory hijab and was sentenced to one year in Prison for demanding freedom. So far 29 women have been arrested for involvement in hijab protest. Hijab was not always part of the Iranian culture. On March 7, 1979 a compulsory hijab was imposed on women after declaring Iran as an Islamic state, which was followed by protest. These protesters are being called daughters of Revolution Street.

An excerpt from the book Persepolis

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/02/middleeast/iran-arrests-29-women-after-hijab-protest-intl/index.html

Poland: March 23, 2018:  Women protested and demanded to liberalize abortion. Abortion in Poland is illegal. However, there are three exceptions to it, (a) rape; (b) when there is irreversible damage to the fetus; and (c) if mother’s life is in jeopardy due to pregnancy.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/23/abortion-poland-mass-protests-against-tightening-of-law

Russia: April 17, 2018, Women protest sexual harassment in the absence of laws against sexual harassment. Hashtag #IAmNotAfraidToSayIt became popular and was shared extensively in Ukraine and Russia. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/metoo-russia-women-protesting-sexual-harassment-face-hurdles-n865691 )

Japan: April 6, 2018: A woman mayor protested sexist rules of sumo tradition. According the tradition a woman can not step up to the ring and greet sumo because women are considered as “unclean.”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/woman-mayor-protests-sumo-sexism-off-ring-speech-54281142)

Women all over the world are standing up for equality and their rights.  

P.S. India: March 31, 2018: Muslim women protested anti triple talaq bill. Do they really think it will be better for their own and their daughter's future? What do you think of it?

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/muslim-women-protest-anti-triple-talaq-bill/article23403604.ece

Images are taken from google. 

Ogling and Objectifying women

It is natural for a man, (or even a woman) to get attracted to a woman. Women do not hate attention from men either. But some people instead of a subtle decent glance, ogle at women's body inappropriately. Such an obscene way of staring becomes an obnoxious experience for them. Women are humans, not objects, hence one should be considerate of their feelings while unpleasantly staring at them with owl-eyes.  

Ogling at women is not the only way they are objectified. Using them as an object to flaunt in front of the family, friends, and professional circle without treating them as normal intelligent being is another way of objectification. Bollywood has also played a major role in inciting the objectification of women.
Let us be mindful of other's feelings next time by stopping ourselves, consciously or subconsciously from gawking at other women. 

Reasons to raise kids with gender neutrality

Raising kids with gender neutrality is no easy task. Even if parents raise their kids with neutrality in their homes, it becomes challenge for kids to survive with the standards and expectations of the society when they go out. Gender neutrality focuses on eradicating the bias and stereotypes based on gender. For instance, all roles can be performed by anyone, pink or blue can be worn by anyone. A boy can learn any dance and a girl can show interest in machinery. Some of the reasons to raise kids with gender neutrality are:

1. Gender neutrality promotes gender equality.

2. Give child more choices to choose from.

3. Enables holistic development of a child. 

4. Provides more exposure hence instills more confidence in children.

5. Makes it easy for the child to communicate with all types of people. 

6. Removes gender biases and prejudice from mind. 

7. Boosts creativity. 

Raising a child in a certain way is the dream of every parent. For instance, dressing up kids in a particular fashion or teaching them their native language (many languages unlike English use gender-specific verbs). Hence, if not completely, raising kids with neutrality can be done partially. For instance, not restricting a child to the activities based on gender, rather providing them with all available options can boost her/his creativity and widens interests.

There should be a balance of yin and yang, of femininity and masculinity, of nurturer and protector to balance the universe around us. However, many roles that define femininity are socially-constructed rather than biologically. Our society focuses on gender roles, and then typecast people who do not follow them. During our evolution some of the activities were divided among genders due to biological reasons, which hold least or no value in today’s world. Today most of the jobs do not require physical strength but experience, expertise and technical know-how. And hence age-old gender-roles can be twisted, swapped, and traditional norms can be broken. Many men at present look after kids at home, and women are breadwinner of the family. A large chunk of conservative, patriarchal society would find it absurd, but evolved one would see it as normal. Anyone can be the breadwinner, and anyone who is willing to leave or is less ambitious can raise children, irrespective of their gender.

Bringing up a child with gender neutrality (partially or fully) can help them in respecting everyone equally. Together we can make small efforts to create a society where no daughter gets harassed and no son troubles or stalk anyone’s daughter. Do not let the daughters pay a price because for a biological reason, y chromosome didn’t meet x. It is nature’s work. Every kid is important, irrespective of his/her gender. 

P.S. One of my closest friends, who is from Iran inspired me with her to write this post. A special thanks to her for bringing up this topic in our discussion.

Image courtsey: http://www.dodotoysyk.com/free-pictures-of-kids

Motherhood issues #womenissues

While motherhood has its own joys, women world-wide struggle with many complications after becoming mothers. Here is another doodle with motherhood issues this time

Sometimes we complain that our mothers worry a lot. We must realize it started from the day we were born and this habit of hers has protected us till we became independent and grown up.  Be patient to her, she has gone through a lot while bringing us up. 

P.S. : To Hindi-poetry lovers, long time back I posted a poem on mother-daughter relationship.titled Anubhuti. 

Anubhuti in English means a realization, a feeling of experiencing something. If you like poetry, you may like it too.

Liner Equality #humor

Gk & Me

For the 12th letter of April, L, here is an attempt for bringing up vanity issues in women's life. Many of us love the idea of beautifying ourselves occasionally. And for the occasional enthusiasts, sometimes there are days when we struggle hard to attain equality in the liner application on both the eyes.
Do you have such days as well?

P.S. Meanwhile, men were facing  another issue in their lives.

Killed for honor? What did they kill, their child or their soul? #womenissues #socialissues

A barbaric idea fermenting in minds of some nomadic humans is that honor of a family can be redeemed by killing their children. In this century, we still come across about the news honor killing. This is one of the problems that is prevalent in the entire world, there are cases of honor killing in both developed and developing nations. More than 90 percent of the victims are women. What do these women do different than their male counterparts to deserve a death? And does family’s honor is restored or instead it is stained with blood of their own child’s death and continued for generations to come!

Families with strong patriarchal roots get offended the most by women who want to live their lives other than the established norms of their families. Some of the reasons for which they are killed are refusal to submit to forced arranged marriage, marrying a person against the will of family, seeking for divorce without the consent of husband, having a sexual orientation different from majority of people in the world, and sometimes those women, who are raped, get killed by their families, as if it was their fault. What sort of honor the family is saving itself from by killing women who did nothing! Ever heard of a man being killed by a family for raping a woman, abusing his wife, or bedding with another person outside the family. 

Data adapted from https://sites.tufts.edu

Highest rate of honor killing is reported in Jordan. In Jordan such butcheries are legit by the law, for families to redeem their integrity.  Until 2016, even the law in Pakistan, was similar, if a family pardons such slaughter, the law doesn’t punish the killer. However, in the famous case of Qandeel Baloch, the court passed anti-honor killing law. And soon after it, the bill was passed in the parliament under which the assassin will get minimum of 25 years of imprisonment. 

In India the cases of honor killing are also no less, especially in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan. As per the law, a killer is entitled to strict punishment like any other murderer. Although many cases do not get reported and are kept secret by the groups in village. Government, due to lack of documentation, stays ignorant. 

Can the honor of such families be redeemed after a dreadful, heinous crime? Although, with advancing world, mindset of people is changing too. Media and education is playing a great role in it as well. Let us be brave to breathe till the humans and humanity both will be considered prime religion than any other, and entire world has a mind to let go of trivial issues honorably.

P.S. It was a tough day for me today. Going through the media reports and global scenario of honor killing was awfully depressing. Possibly I couldn't justice to the topic, I hope these atrocities end in the world forever.
Expect a light post tomorrow, outside this years self declared-challenge theme! 

10 Things for which women are Judged and pestered more than men

Here I am sharing some weird and funny reasons for which women are judged more than men. Read on:

1. For not wanting to marry: It becomes worse as she advances to further age.

2. For gossiping with other women.

3.  For being competitive at workplace.

4. For not wanting to have children.

5. For getting paid more.

6. For being overweight or underweight.

7. For sitting with legs wide spread.

8. For having a hairy body.

9. For having too many gray hair, especially at a young age.

10. For having messy rooms.

Do you know any other?

With AtoZ challenge like all- bloggers worldwide, I too pledge to write on each day of April, except on Sundays.

Imprisoned

She couldn’t call it her abode. Living there was an inflicted penalty on her. His venom was turning her pale every day. She was becoming suicidal and depressed. He never trusted her. Any minute conversation with a male coworker or a vegetable vendor, ignited suspicion in him. Daily her character was assassinated for no apparent reason. A fear started creeping in her that her son after growing up won’t respect her either. Someday he may even ruin someone else’s life like his father. One morning, she decided to leave him for a dignified life ahead with her hope, her son.

P.S. Many insecure men put restrictions on women to roam out freely. Such men are not normal but sick. For their insecure and weak minds assume that women in their lives have no strong character. Women continue to live with them, sometimes under social and parental pressure, despite being financially independent.

For this year's April A to Z challenge, I will put forward 26 women issues from 26 alphabets. These issues will be inspired by "real-life events" and will highlight social issues and other faced by women.  Some of these issues might be globally prevalent. 

With AtoZ challenge like all- bloggers worldwide, I too pledge to write on each day of April, except on Sundays.

Drabble is the piece of fiction strictly in 100 words.

Women Health #WomenIssues

Health of women across the globe has always been compromised due to traditional and cultural practices along with gender bias especially in patriarchal societies. In developing nations, pregnant mothers in low-income families are taken often neglected, and hence deliver babies with low birth weight and poor health. In addition to that, post-delivery anemia is common among such mothers during their lactation period. In India, in many traditional homes belonging to low and middle income groups women health and nutrition is neglected especially after delivering a girl child.  According to WHO, in 21 out of 41 countries with data, more than one third of girls belonging to the age group of 15 to 19 years are anemic. Reason behind their vulnerability to anaemia is due to insufficient iron in their diets, menstrual blood loss in periods of rapid growth. Another reason of poor health among women is low socio-economic status, domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse. Studies claim that women are more vulnerable to STDs and HIV infection than men. 

WHO stated that women worldwide are more susceptible to depression than men, which is found to be the leading cause of disease burden in low, middle and high-income countries. More than half a million women across the globe die due to cervical cancer and half a million of them die due to breast cancer. The reason behind high deaths is due to unavailability of screening, prevention and treatment in developing nations. In addition to that most of the aged women suffer and die from cancer or cardiovascular diseases than men irrespective of the country they live in. 

As mentioned on Time.com India tops the chart for top ten countries with high stress rates for women. The possible reason behind it might be overburden of responsibilities on them. Many working women are loaded with responsibilities of their in-laws, husbands and children along with their jobs, which poses a threat of high stress on them. Due to this, they tend to neglect their own health and nutrition-intake. Also, traditionally women used to engage less in physical activities like walking, running etc, which is changing now. However, even today many in-laws or parents demotivate women in their homes to exercise. They associate joining gym with body-building, and getting muscular bodies, and associate running to unnecessary weight loss activity. Learning to swim is considered a pointless activity in many homes. Some traditional homes in backward areas do not allow their female members to engage in any sort of fitness activity either due to the rule of obligatory Hijab or Ghoonghat outside home, or because of the street Romeos loitering around.

Women health is as important as men-health. In a country like India, where women on one hand are worshiped as Goddess, and are looked upon as a nurturer in the family, taking care of everybody’s well-being, their health take a backseat in the process. I would like to render one message to every woman reading this, take care of yourself first and to every man who loves his woman, never let her ignore herself.

P.S. Belonging to metropolitan city of India, prior to coming here, I had noticed more women engaging in fitness activities like jogging, walking or yoga than before. I even saw one women, jogging in saree. I think it is the time, when women should focus more on their health than succumbing themselves to imprudent traditional practices.

Sources: 

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs334/en

http://medcraveonline.com/MOJPB/MOJPB-05-00162.pdf

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/13/study-for-women-india-is-the-most-stressful-country-on-earth

In this years AtoZ challenge, I am writing about women issues. If you are not a blogger and want me to write about certain issue related to women-discrimination or have a story regarding the same, do post your suggestions in the comment box or write to me on my Facebook page.

With AtoZ challenge like all- bloggers worldwide, I too pledge to write on each day of April, except on Sundays.

Getting labeled for getting dressed…

“Did you hear that news?” I asked him. 

“Which one?” he inquired. 

“There are people who never get tired of labeling women with respect to what they wear. When we wear traditional attire, they call us behenji. When we dress in contemporary fashion, they blame our clothes for mounting rape and molestation incidences. Why such mindless generalization? It is nauseating that someone daily has something to comment on our attire. Recently a Botany professor in Kerala made that preposterous comment stating that women who wear jeans, shirts and dress up like men give birth to transgenders. Everyone there protested against him.”

____________________________

P.S. It is surprising to see on one hand scientists are making new discoveries and on the other hand, some educated people (with limited facts) are trying to blame women for everything they can think of. 

P.P.S. Women across the globe are marred by such generalizations, with a culture or religion police on their head.  In many countries women are also banned from using red-lipstick among other things.

Even in normal families, we can find objects like this professor, commenting and talking about what women should and shouldn’t wear. 

Read full news on Kerala Professor

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For this year's April A to Z challenge, I will put forward 26 women issues from 26 alphabets. These issues will be inspired by "real-life events" and will highlight social issues and other faced by women.  Some of these issues might be globally prevalent.

With AtoZ challenge like all- bloggers worldwide, I too pledge to write on each day of April, except on Sundays.

Drabble is the piece of fiction strictly in 100 words.

Frown

“Beta, can you cook?” Mother of the boy started conversation with an old age question. Today was the formal meeting between two families for the alliance of their children. 

Feminist father of the girl replied, “No, she cannot. You see, we never pushed her in kitchen.”
He paused, turned his face towards the potential groom for his daughter, smiled and inquired, “What about you son, I hope you know how to cook? 

DNA information imprinted on Y-chromosomes was taken aback, X-chromosomes present there were perplexed too, something that has never occurred before just happened. Every creature present there was frowning...

कभी पूछ ही लेते 

शाम की चाय के लिए 

 ताउम्र तरसी हूँ मैं 

किसी और ज़ायके के लिए ।

--------

P.S. Cooking is not gender specific and hence not the sole-role of women. In many homes situations are changing but in many homes time is stagnant. Couples are happy where things are changing, husband might be happy where time is stagnant.

P.P.S. Cook for the women in your life (especially mothers) if you have not yet, they would cherish those special warm and fresh meals from you.

------------------------

Drabble is the piece of fiction strictly in 100 words.

Educating her...

Lightly rolling her hands on the bulge of her stomach, she smilingly said, “everyone says it will be a girl”. Her face was pale, eyes were dry, she seemed tired yet somewhere in tranquility. In 6 months pregnancy, she was coming on the job of cleaning utensils in households.
“Are you happy?” I pried.
“ It’s God’s wish, but girl or boy, I will teach my child. I want it to become something, not like me.” She took a sip of milk from the steel glass in her hands and looked far away with golden sunrays falling on her face.

Image courtesy : PoetryLikers

P.S. According to All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), India has registered its best performance on the Gender Parity Index (GPI) at 0.94 in 2016-2017 from 0.86 in 2010-11. More women are educated than men in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Kerala.
However, in many traditional families, living majorly in backward states or rural areas, women still struggle with their basic rights to get higher education to empower their lives. The dogma behind not educating girls in many backward households is that educating a girl is waste of money since their ultimate role is to give birth and take care of the entire family. In some areas, people fear their daughters’ security will be compromised, since schools and colleges are far from their homes.
What is the situation of girl education in the place you live? 

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For this year's April A to Z challenge, I will put forward 26 women issues from 26 alphabets. These issues will be inspired by "real-life events" and will highlight social issues and other faced by women.  Some of these issues might be globally prevalent.

With AtoZ challenge like all- bloggers worldwide, I too pledge to write on each day of April, except on Sundays.

Drabble is a piece of fiction strictly in 100 words.