The Drama Queen

Come 1st April and our young-ish yet matured crowd, who are enjoying their midlife years, will be thronging the medical centres, with masks on their faces, hope in their eyes, arms outstretched and a longing for the antibodies. After all, this is almost the final step towards defeating the nasty virus that has held the whole humanity at ransom! It has been over a year that we have been struggling with the tussle between lipsticks and masks. High time, I say!  All sounds hunky dory, right??? Nope. Not at all. Hands down. How could they? How could they have put an age criteria to something as unavoidable as this. How dare they? The whole wide world will now know what has been under-wraps for ages. My age!! How rude!! I know, I barely look a day over 29! I can only imagine the smirks behind their designer masks. Ohhh, hopefully now they will religiously hold on to their masks. Hiding their condescending smiles!! May be, just may be.... Modiji is trying to play an April Fools’ joke on ...

25th March, 2020. Wednesday. The fateful morning. When nobody rang our melodious doorbell... absolutely nobody! We slept in till late. Undisturbed. Only to get up at noon. Coz paapi paet ka sawaal tha.   And then the truth dawned over me. I was the designated cook of the house. I wondered what my cook was doing at her home. Happily enjoying her meals? Was she even thinking about my struggle? Well, I had two small pairs of eyes looking up to me with admiration while the bigger pair of eyes with anticipation. Ohkay! The first meal was easy. Tea and Bournvita and bread-butter. With the fancy garnishing of eyes and nose and smile made with jam. All were happy. For the next two hours. Till I sensed that it was time for the next meal. Already?!   Ohkay!! I had not cooked in ages. But the patriarchal norms dictate that a woman has to be Sarvagun-Sampann.... simple!! Duh!! Well, not that I had not cooked ever. But an over-pampering, low-maintenance husband had made sure that I enter t...

Come 8th March, every year. And we are bamboozled by the free gifts at the shopping malls and discount vouchers at the spa and hell yeah, the lucrative deals at the hospitals, too. Not to forget the in-your-face online commercial brigade. While it is always nice to be offered these discounts, this one day is where it really makes me feel cringey. It undermines the entire purpose of the International Women’s Day. Women’s Day is not a celebration. It is an acknowledgement. Of accomplishment. Of the long way that women all over the world have come and the long way that we still have to go! However, whenever we pause to enjoy these ‘privileges’, we are sent back to where we began from. We need to be included. Exclusivity is not the agenda. We must, definitely, acknowledge, cherish, laud and honour those women and their allies who have challenged the patriarchal version of the female stereotypes and withstood the challenges that were thrown at them. These could be your family members, your ...