On Women’s Day: To all the Women who Dared.

I am biased to my sex. Biased in the sense that our sex has suffered a great deal, an ordeal more appropriately. Ponder how we are regarded in spoken language; the fairer sex, weaker and helpless. Women to this age have to struggle to voice their opinions. They say we are weak in strength I say what about childbirth, they say I am fit indoors I say what about Rani of Jhansi, they say I am not intelligent enough what about Marie Curie. There can be hundreds of examples in any country that you reside in. Far more important is the point that Women are no less than Man. Ever better I should say because we play the role of a house maker equally efficiently as we would be successful wearing a tie and coat. If the role reversal has to happen will men be able to paint themselves in the tapestry of an established homemaker? Not to be too hard on the men folk I should acknowledge the criticism that some women are indeed incompetent to become a homemaker and some men truly can prove themselves at the task.

Sentences splashed with prejudices and stereotypes have been used to define us. There used to be questions in our minds about such assumptions and surmises, but we kept quiet. Suppressing such questions and exclamations into an inflated balloon, which infected by knowledge and ideas, that would eventually explode. And when it did, it burst with such intensity as which cannot be expressed on pen and paper. It was the explosion of our Voice. Our collective voice which gave us the power to vote, to make decisions, to ban redundant customs, to break society imposed shackles and to protect our integrity.

The road to Freedom and Justice is embedded with thorns and angry bushes, which would stop us at every fork. Giving us an option, every time, to succumb to the road mostly traveled by. It must be our decision to take the road less traveled by. Women of every generation have added their bit to the revolution of Justice. Last year women and men from all walks of life came out on the streets of Delhi to demand for amendments in the rape laws of the country. Our voices forced the government to amend the laws. The Ordinance has been signed by the President and the bill to amend the definition and punishment of Sexual Crimes will be introduced in a month’s time.

This calls for a pat on the back, this calls for a yelp of justice, this calls for the first steps towards Equality. I must acknowledge that this change could not have been possible without the support of the other sex and the life of an innocent girl. Though a lot has to change and I being an eternal optimist believe it will. I remember when I was a child and wanted to be a part of something big. I could never come to a conclusion as to what that big thing would be. After 10 years I think this is the big thing. Changing the ideology of the society, fighting for Women’s rights and making the world a more equal place could be the big thing I would want to contribute my small efforts into.

Durbar:A Book Review

65 years of history encapsulated in 300 pages. Durbar reflects the journey of a journalist as privileged as the rulers of the country who saw India in a different light. Tavleen Singh has written a book so gripping and lucid, it’s an endless page turner.

Being a novice in many things political the book helped me connect incidents to its proper roots. Also being born in a family where politics is hardly discussed making sense of history and putting one and two together rested entirely upon my shoulders. As a media student and more importantly an Indian I couldn't have turned a blind eye to such important events in history.

The book delves as much in the Persian carpeted socialist houses of the Prime Minister as much as the bare face of poverty, hunger and dearth of rural India. A blatant contrast of the shining and starched clothes of the ‘drawing room elite’ as Tavleen Singh puts it and of the naked, pot bellied dying children of the villages.

Tavleen Singh through her years of being a political reporter has written a fine memoir of the life of a journalist entangled with the life of politics. An aspiring journalist myself the book opened a window for me to see the world of journalism from a different eye; its wrath and charm. Death threats, mysterious phone calls, stubborn colleagues, connections and smartness.

During the rule of the Congress Party, from Nehru to Rajiv, most of our economic and foreign policies remain unchanged. Indira Gandhi is considered as the strongest Prime Minister India ever had, as far as public opinion goes. Many say it because it was under her that the 1971 Bangladesh War was won. Apart from this she had a charisma, an aura, a personality which exuded something more than confidence; something less than deceit more than faith. Unlike Rajiv she could relate to the poor, so as they thought she did, which is the whole point of politics.

Durbar tries to catch the nerve and pulse of politics. During Rajiv Gandhi’s rule major decisions went wrong. It explained how small incidents ballooned into magnanimous problems which have now taken a deep root in our conscious. The Khalistan movement, the Kashmir conflict, the North-Eastern states problem. The frankness with which Tavleen Singh has highlighted them is commendable knowing that these revelations could come at great personal cost. The cost being relations with her and Rajiv & Sonia being disrupted.

Moreover one can say that finding fault with the government and it’s rulers is easy but finding a solution equally tough. After reading the book I have come to the conclusion that she has given appropriate reasons and alternate solutions. The book is recommended to anyone interested in history and politics. Anyone who is interested in the life of India which at one point and still is a mirage of religion, politics and the Gandhi family.

Nishtha Juneja.