Why so sensitive

 Years ago I was travelling to our office in my scooter and I happened to hear the sweet voice of  a child and stopped my scooter over the side and listened. It happened to be elocution competition for school kids organized by a mosque and they were kind enough to let the world hear. The subject for the kids as young as 8-10 was 'Are women in Islam scuttled of freedom'. I heard the little girl opening up her speech with- We know increasing sexual abuses against women today. One reason is the dress they wear'.

 I was startled to hear this and imagine the amount of venom injected into the kids to come up with such a statement.

A few days ago the whole India and even parts of the world woke up rudely to what should be seen as the row over a piece of clothing worn by a particular community. There has been talks, discussions and debates on freedom to wear and eat. But do we see the greater picture? What are we fighting at the end of the day? Is the enemy an individual, a party or a religion?

Liberalization promised to bring us many things. Wealth, prosperity, health education, food and opportunities were some of them. The social evils in our land, including casteism, inequality, superstitions were assumed to be automatically eradicated with the onset of education. But we have seen the social indices plunging especially in India. We see rational thought process disappearing slowly from all walks of life. We have been busy giving life to mythical beings and making a larger than life image out of them. 

I remember joining a gym in here and to be welcomed by a larger than life sized image of a loin clad angry Hanuman who seems to have injected a lot of steroids. If we had walked back a few decades, we would have come across less glamorous-more of a monkey version- of Hanuman. The same applies with all religions. The mythical figures have been re-painted to suit the narrative of the privileged. As Marx said once religion is being used as a legalized opium to hide from the masses that they are being tortured and abused.

Colour of the shirt

The sleaziest pick up line for a middle aged flirt would be 'What are you wearing to Office today'

And that is what I asked her today. She was only one of the few who is kind enough to indulge my attempts at flirting with her. 

And then I remembered I was wearing a peacock green shirt. The shirt would be 7 years old this July and I remember it well because I brought it before my marriage. I was the shirt I wore on our first outing together and it so happened that we wore the same colours that day (totally unintentional)

Years had rolled by, there were many things we would not agree on, many things we had to agree because of the other.- Very romantic days and very difficult days. And like the test of time the shirt has managed to hang on to its useable life although the green has faded a bit.