~ Reflections ~

I recently read this article by Gloria Steinem called If Men Could Menstruate. Though I don't entirely agree with all that she says, the nerve she has touched upon is very relevant. We (and it is true for both the East & the West) belong to a male dominated society, where most terms and things, from "mankind" to "manliness" get their term from the male counterpart. Language, unknowingly has a tendency of creating a bias in our minds. Even more ironic is the way the Modi supporters have lashed out at Kavita Krishnan for her showing why she disagrees with the #Selfiewithdaughter movement. Though I don't agree entirely with what she says (yes, again !!), the essence of what she says is spot on...  There are innumerable people, from Sunitha Krishnan  to Malala Yousafzai , who have nearly lost their lives on multiple occasions, fighting for women rights.... but the root cause of the problem is closer home than we realize...  The treatment is ...

Have you ever encountered someone with a neurological condition in your daily life... It makes me wonder how anyone can cope with something like this... physical disability is one thing.. but mental imbalance due to things beyond your control is scary... My workplace had one such person who is a Schizophrenic, who was recently fired... I have not worked with him ever in close quarters, so I can't say what the "output" of all his work was... but to think that one would suddenly be deemed useless is very scary.. As if to reinforce the emotion, I happened watch Still Alice , an movie nominated for Oscars, for which Julianne Moore, the protagonist, went to win the award for the Best performance for 2014.  It is scary to think that one can slowly (or is it too quickly) lose memories, thoughts, speech and eventually control over our own life... I wouldn't wish a neurological disease on even my worst enemy, leave alone a friend.  But are we doing enough... ...

We glide through life.... not realizing what is zooming past....  We want to make a name, but don't realize what we are loosing in the process... In the hope of making a name, we loose the people who would actually remember our name... One lives in the hope of becoming a memory. ~ Antonio Porchia 

There was a time when I believed a person is either Black or White... with no Grey.... Good or Bad, with no ambiguity in that thought... But over time, and space... .and the few years that have gone bad... my theory has now evolved... to maybe conveniently accommodate the grey's.... a person is both black and white... we just chose to be a certain way in a certain environment...  PS: For those who still haven't encountered Escher till date, the above is one of his many hand drawn masterpiece sketches.... This one is aptly titled Day and Night

we Plan, we Do, we Conquer.. Plan......Do... Conquer... But when this flow of events occur one too many times, I begin to worry.. Call me a pessimist... call it paranoia... But it keeps nagging me, till there is atleast one quirk in the track... like a hiccup once in a while... to know that it will eventually fall in line..