Love Undefined - Finale

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Previous Chapter : Love Undefined Chapter 8

As soon as the plane landed, Priya couldn't wait to get home but them she didn't have to wait that long. Radha was right outside the airport waiting to receive them. On seeing Priya, tears of happiness started rolling down her cheeks. Tarun's presence made no difference to her. What an irony, Radha thought. She slid her attention to the kid who was talking animatedly to his dad. Gosh , Shrey has grown up so much, she thought. But nothing could actually distract her from the voice inside her head. Talk to Priya, it kept shouting.  Oh yes I will, she shouted back,saying it out loud. 

Narayan kept shooting glances at his wife.  He noticed how weird she has been acting all day. He knew this was something very unusual of his wife. Yet he remained silent. What is she upto, he kept wondering. 

Priya smiled on seeing Radha. That heavy burden that she was carrying all along seem to have lifted suddenly.On their way back home, Shrey kept glancing outside and was marveling at the sight of each and every thing. Now and then he kept shouting, whenever he saw something he recognized. Tarun and Narayan exchanged a few words and other than that nobody really spoke anything. And no sooner, Shrey fell asleep. Silence prevailed until they reached their destination. Tarun freshened up and sooner fell asleep. It wasn't that easy for Priya though. There was this nagging thought that constantly kept reminding her of the fact that she still haven't spoken a word to Radha. Her to-do-list on this visit to India mostly involved Radha.

1) Make peace with Radha.
2)Get along with Radha
3)Try staying calm when Shrey is around Radha and so on...

So much of unnecessary drama and I might as well get it over with, She thought and she tip toed into the kitchen. Radha was preparing dinner and hence she thought the best ice breaker would be to start off with "can I help you prepare dinner?" but before she could actually say anything , Radha initiated. Priya ,what are you doing here? go get some rest, she smiled. ok ma, is all Priya could say and she sprinted through the hall towards the bedroom. 

She couldn't help but smile. Radha actually spoke to her and she did not seem a bit angry. Well that's a good sign, she thought and was so lost in thoughts that she lost track of time until Radha came and called her for dinner. And they had their dinner like one happy family. Later that night Radha put Shrey to sleep and Priya slept peacefully after a really long time. 

The next day Priya got up with a smile on her face. All of a sudden yesterday seemed like a long time ago and all the bitterness between her mother-in-law and her seemed like it never happened. That is when she realized that all this was bound to happen. All this misunderstanding and the cold war and everything. It did not take them apart but actually brought them together. She felt like she had successfully solved one gigantic jigsaw puzzle. It felt like they were one happy family. Just then she heard Radha shouting "Priya! Its 8 in the morning and are you still asleep? .. and the rest fell on deaf ears. Just when I thought things were getting better, She smiled and got up to face the day ahead(or in short, Radha)! 

----------------------------------------------The end---------------------------------------------------

Lost in Reverie

Being in the 20s , the future looks scary,

Thoughts muddled up, heedless to the turmoil inside my head,

Running helter skelter to catch up with the routine without a pause,

Too nervous to gauge where the path leads and for what cause,

just go with it, says a part of me, 

resist,says another for all its worth, you get to live only once.

Yet I sit here, panic stricken,

frightened to go out and explore ,

trapped in my own little cocoon, 

fighting relentlessly to break out,

break out from the monotony,

for I know that sky's the limit .

Gifted are those who pursue their passion, I might say

If only I knew what their 20's used to be like. 

Life is not a bed of roses, I have heard,

Monetary success is momentary, I know,

Do what you love, I keep reminding myself,

for that is the key to eternal happiness.

This is a promise to myself,

To ignite the fire, to kindle that passion.

It is never too late!

I know that I can still start today and write a beautiful ending,

As I would never want to fail without trying.

It's a girl? Say WOW!

"It's a girl" , she announced.

Kill her, they said in unison.

In our so called democratic country, which has a very rich cultural heritage, this is such a shame. Women of our country are tortured in every possible way. Sometimes even before a baby girl is born, she is killed. And the sole reason being, she's a girl. 

What is even more shocking is the statistics. 200 million women are missing in the world today which apparently is more than the devastating deaths from world war 1 and 2 put together. And our country is yet again famous for a very wrong reason. 

Here is a video that gives us all a better insight into this problem.

In the above video, a lady talks about how she strangled her 8 baby girls and the worst part being, she doesn't even regret that. She's seen smiling which only makes me sad that a major part of our country's population are still completely ignorant.  We go about blaming others for this never really realizing that every individual is responsible for the injustice that's been happening. Its time to turn the mirror around and take a closer look. Gone are the days when women do not step out of the house. There are so many women who are a living example that there is nothing a women cannot do. 

This gendercide causes a major gender imbalance thus resulting in a chain of other social injustices such as child brides , girl trafficking and such. You take pride in being a man. Well that certainly is beyond me. Its high time everyone understands that a bunch of chromosomes has nothing to do with who is superior to whom.  This discrimination goes a long way back in history that eradicating this is definitely gonna take time. If where to begin is your question, mold your children. Teach them to respect women and that discrimination should never be tolerated. Teach them that everyone's equal.

To all the women out there. Never tolerate injustice and discrimination. You deserve every bit of what a man gets. Speak up and shout if that is what it takes to be heard. Never bog down and do whatever it takes to earn the rights your deserve . 

I know its late, but then don't they say, better late than never?

Pictures courtesy : Google

This entry is submitted for Indiblogger and Franklin Templeton Investments's initiative - Most inspiring ideas for a better tomorrow.

Franklin Templeton Investments  partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012.

Love Undefined - Chapter 8

Take me to the Index

Previous Chapter :Love Undefined Chapter 7 

And thus began her longest  journey....

Shrey was pretty much excited, as he was going to "Inda" in the "Aaropane" . He kept repeating that for the past few days ever since he was told so. What he didn't expect was the sit-in-one-place-and don't-you-dare-move looks that his mom and dad kept shooting at him. Naturally he became all cranky and was troubling his mom who was all the more troubled. With every passing minute, Priya was becoming all the more paranoid. She was not ready to face Radha just yet but she was not given an option. She started analyzing the situation. She knew she had to handle the situation very delicately as Tarun was very very sensitive when it comes to his mom. He isn't irrational . But then he isn't very supportive either when it comes to this, she thought. How could he be anyway. She realized it is indeed to much to ask from him. Both the women he loves the most couldn't tolerate being around each other. That is when she realized that Tarun was the one who was deeply hurt more than herself or Radha when it came to the crisis at hand. That is also the time she made up her mind to make peace with her MIL no matter what it takes. 

Tarun tried to shut off the voice inside his head which terrified him more than what he already was. He planned this trip to put an end to the constant misunderstanding between the women in his life or rather the women who are his life. He loved Priya as much as he loved his mom. Taking sides was completely ruled out as he knew it was no one's mistake in particular. He thought a confrontation was all that is needed to make things the way it used to be. He felt bad for treating Priya the way he did. He did nothing but to add to her miseries. He tormented his Priya who was already feeling guilty and he just couldn't live with that. His gut feeling told him that this was "THE" trip. It is all gonna be ok, he thought and then drifted to sleep. 

Radha's happiness knew no bounds. She kept telling her husband that Tarun is coming as if he would ever forget. But the real happiness was not that Tarun was coming. It was that Priya is coming. She was only angry when she left to India. She was so angry that she couldn't think straight. She kept telling her husband how bad a decision it was to let her son get married to someone as arrogant as Priya. Narayan kept ignoring his wife until one day when he could no longer tolerate the blind arrogant remarks his wife was making and he spoke to knock some sense into her. He spoke all about how she behaved the exact same way with his mom and how she has no right to blame Priya. Infact Priya is all more patient than you ever were, he said curtly. For some strange reason, this did not infuriate Radha. Rather it dawned on her that whatever her husband said was absolutely true. When she was of Priya's age, she made a mental note that she would be the mother in law every girl would ask for and she realized she wasn't doing justice to that. She felt so guilty that she did not speak with anyone for days. It changed when she got to know that they were gonna pay a visit in the next few days. She did not know how, but she was all set to make things right. I will be the MIL that Priya would be very proud of, she smiled. 

There is an extremely simple solution to all the problems in the world. And the first step would be to stop blaming others and take a long, hard look at yourself. :)

To be continued...  

Musings ... I guess?

My blog turned 4 and I didn't even pay my blog a visit, let alone write something nice about it. (oh by the way, that was a long time ago.) Couldn't come up with a good starting line. Lame huh? Alright , I give up. Who am I kidding anyway! Never ever been good at that, but hoping to be someday. :) Hey now what's wrong with hoping huh? For all we know, hope is a good thing,maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies(rhetorical I know) . Okay this is getting ridiculous. I so get carried away and I am not gonna let that happen now. Now coming to the point,( well I don't really have a point) . This is just me trying to get back in form. Its been ages(literally) since I blogged and I feel terrible about it. Few years ago I have been so obsessed with blogging that I check every once in a while to see if someone has dropped a comment. I check Indiblogger way too often than necessary,to see if someone has voted for my post and this has been my crazy routine for a couple of months no matter what. I so eagerly wait to see my ranking and one sweet comment used to make my day. 

Today I'm wondering where that part of me is. Has it just faded away or have I become way too busy to not find time for something I used to be crazy about. Well the answer is very simple and it pricks me as hard as ice. I lost interest. I wouldn't let myself believe that as well but that doesn't make that any less true. 

Every time someone asks me something about my blog, I brush it away saying, I just stopped. Somewhere in between, I lost interest and why is that, I have no idea. Now how many of you can relate to this? Not necessarily your blog, but just anything that you used to love doing but you no longer do. Can you think of a reason why you stopped doing it? 

This crazy life of ours has made our routine so monotonous that we stop doing things that made us who we are now. Never ever let that old self of you die. No matter how busy you are and how much you get carried away, take some time away  from this crazy routine and spend some time with yourself, for all its worth, we get to live only once and there is no promised tomorrow. I do not wish to make a promise or anything of that sort, but I will strive really hard to not let that part of me die. 

If this post, in anyway, got you thinking, nothing makes me more happy than that and if you thought reading this was a waste of time , ha who cares what you think, its my blog! :D :D 

SSN-A walk down the memory lane

For those who are wondering what SSN is, that is where I spent 4 wonderful years of my life. One that would never come back and the one that everyone calls it, the honeymoon period of one's life. Yes you guessed it right. 

SSN - A journey that cannot be quite summarized in a paragraph or two, but as I sit down to write, so many memories flashes in my mind. Can’t help but take a quick walk down the memory lane that changed me in ways I never thought was quite possible.

Change!  Now who would embrace change? The fear of not knowing what to anticipate doesn't sound very pleasant to many of us. Although the change terrified me, going to college was something I looked forward to. For some reason, breaking out of my cocoon sounded fascinating and challenging. The fear of an unknown future was over powered by the nerve to face the challenges with gusto.  

The best thing about college was that, it was not just about academics. Learning doesn't end there. I learnt the hard way that not everyone is alike and it took a lot of me patience to get in terms with that. On the plus side, I realized that this has strengthened my fortitude. Being an adult brings its own baggage. You ask for it or not, responsibilities will be thrust upon us. Call it a woe of being an adult or whatever, but the grass is always greener on the other side isn't it? The self-confidence and the courage to face the world that this instigates is something that I will treasure for the rest of my life. Had I been anywhere else other than SSN, I wonder if I would have been the way I am now. SSN is the place where I was given the freedom to make my own decisions. “Fail until you succeed.. Explore as much as you can.. Now is always the right time.” Is something that dawned upon me.

Nostalgia strikes. What is learning without fun?  My inhibition went off instantly when my seniors made me feel at home. No I don’t quite term it as ragging.  Someone needs to break the ice after all. Those endless bus journeys. Now let me tell you something. It will take about an hour for me to reach college. So that had been my time to write observations (God, that term sounds so alien to me right now ) ,study for the unit tests(now don't laugh ok? Those were taken into serious consideration. That fetches us our internal marks),talk ,talk and talk and when its finally time to get down, finish with an "I will continue that story tomorrow :D " The last minute preps for the semester exams! This list is just never ending.. Those were indeed the moments that will be etched in my memories forever.! Just when I felt exhausted and needed to break free from the monotony, Instincts was round the corner. (Instincts is my college cultural fest) Racked my brain for the department symposium. Not to mention the ODs that will be provided for all this.  Sneaked in and sneaked out as and when I felt like (:P). 

No one is gonna make you do things forcibly. You are what you want to be. That is how great the culture at SSN is! 

If at all I could go back, I would be so glad to. But life doesn't provide us with a rewind button. Those four years goes by in the blink of an eye. All that I have now is the memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life.