The art of fitting-in!

That Little baby bird was born with hues of the rainbow in her...

The colors were the seven but they had a shade never seen before...

Some loved her and many more hated her...

And then came the birdness-society which decided how much of a bird was she... Could she really be a bird?!

She said her parents are a bird but they said that's not enough... 

They struck the gavel and announced, "There will have to be changes!!!"

First, they came for her reds... They took away her trust and warmth and offered her suspicion...

Then they came for her indigo... The different types of friendships she had and offered her competition...

The next was the green of her extroverted personality and they offered her envy instead...

Then they came for the orange the anger with which she felt strongly for herself and other and offered her indifference...

Then was the turn of the yellow of her laughter they said it was too loud and offered her the proper polite smile instead...

She was left with the blues of her tears and then they said she cried too much and offered her numbness instead...

Finally they came for the violet the essence of her existence... Something that made her what she was despite everything else gone and offered her the fitted-in personality instead...

She accepted none of the muddy colors she was offered but gave away all that was her... 

All her colors dripped off her and all that was left was the grey... One drab shade of grey... 

And on that overcast day... A strong gust of wind blew away that grey bunch of feathers into oblivion...

Now no one knows what happened to her or is she still around... And they pat themselves on the back and say she must have fitted in really well...

(Image courtesy: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/481392647644782410/)

If all is quiet, All is good???!

In the interview of Mr. Sunil Khilnani in the Express this sunday he says "To me one of the great lost treasures in Indian history is the voice of the women"

It made me think can we say that the women today have a voice? Yeah sure there are the frontrunners who are leading the ground breaking changes like temple entry etc. But, what about the common woman... The woman who grows up with the "Sita Complex" (afterall she can never be Sita but she always has to strive for the impossible) juxtaposed with the man who has no such "Ram Complex" and consequently does not mind doing unRam like deeds.

Does the woman who deal with such unRams really have a voice... I know she is fighting for it... and she is fighting for it hard... But, I still doubt whether that 'voice' is forthcoming without the fight...

We as a society love to look at things as "right", "ideal" and the non-ideal is often brushed under the carpet hidden from the world and everyone seems to be in a "quest for seeming perfection". 

In this arguably great quest are silenced the voices of real issues, the real problems of human existence. So, while the society might be having problems like depression, sexual-offences, etc., we do not like to talk about the unIdeal and thus look at people who wish to talk about such things openly with a scorn.

The woman of today who is expected to behave like the demure Sita at home, many a times has an aggressive Kali inside of her who wants to fight for equal respect at work and at home; but that Kali is often silenced in the name of whats "correct".

In this silence we loose the voice of real women, in this silence we strengthen the unRamness around us and in this silence we happily assume that if all is quiet, all is good... We forget that silence can kill not only the Kali being forced to be a Sita but the very fiber of the society where we need to be able to discuss issues we face openly... But, till we have the guts to do that... If all is quiet, all is good!!!!

(http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/whats-happening-now-is-troubling-investors-this-isnt-the-india-they-have-been-told-about-sunil-khilnani/) 

(Picture link: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/381891243372407430/)