THE HINDU

Class 12th is keeping me on my toes. Because I am not being able to write new articles, I thought I should share my little article on suicides, which was published in The Hindu in 2012. 

STOP AWHILE AND THINK

Suicide — a small word, but with an impact so strong that it can devastate lives, not one but many. Life is a gift we get only once from the supreme power and respecting it by ‘living’ it should be our agenda. This journey of life might be a bumpy road with difficulties and failures at every step, but giving up our lives does not end it there. It gives birth to a whole new set of miseries and sorrows, not to you but to those who love you.

Your life is not just yours, it has strings attached to lives of your family and your loved ones. Can you even imagine the magnitude of sorrow that hits a mother when she gets to know that her son, whom she brought up, has killed himself because he failed in his exam or because his girlfriend broke up with him ?If you are not brave enough to face hardships of life, why should your parents go through so much pain? Why should they suffer? Who gives you the right to ruin someone else’s life?If, anytime in life, you think you should kill all the hardships of life by killing yourself, STOP. 

Stop and think about how life of your family would be after you are gone. Think about how your life has been and about those beautiful times in life when you were happy. And then you will realise no matter what the reason for you to commit suicide is, it is not worth the life you lived or the life you might live.The waves in the sea will settle down, the sun will rise and the spring will come but for that you will have to face the storm, live away the night and bear the winter.

Remember, you are special to many, there are people who love you, you can do wonders if you want to, all you need is a pinch of hope and courage. Challenge the God and surprise him by overcoming the obstacles and always remember if the winter has come, the spring won’t be far away.

To read the article on The Hindu's website follow the LINK

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THE PETTICOAT JOURNAL

READ MY ARTICLE ON SAFETY OF WOMEN FOR THE
             PETTICOAT JOURNAL HERE

ABOUT THE PETTICOAT JOURNAL-

We beg not to be confused for a soft, polite and submissive platform just like you want your women to be. We are not even suggesting rouges and mascaras for women. We are here with the after-story. The story after the woman is decked up and all set for life. Does the world stand by her? Does she have the courage to go it alone? Does she get derided on the way?

You say, "Huh! What world are you talking about? You may be living in a time warp. We've come far from those days when all these questions were relevant." Well, we would love to believe you. But even as we were gathering the mindset to believe you, we came across official reports about professional, educated women being subjected to atrocities, verbal and physical, by men in their families. Men would not necessarily be husbands. They happen to be fathers-in-law, brothers-in-law, brothers, fathers. As we turned the pages of the reports, we realised that after all the grassroots work by various well-meaning organisations, women in villages consider rape and violence a part of life which they have to tolerate no matter how painful.

A lot has changed over the years. Thanks to activists and social workers and the handful of men and women who believed in change. But there are a majority who consider such change disastrous...to their hegemony, to their egos and to their personalities. It's here that the change is stuck. It's this filter that suspends change.

It's no wonder then that we deep in our hearts we keep the lowest of low opinions about women and nurture lowest of low feelings about their characters. It's so fragile that we start doubting a woman's character without instigation. No? Consider this.

How does the world react to a decked up woman waiting for her family in the middle of a market place on their way to a family function? We know what's the very first thing that hits people's minds!What does the world think about the woman walking late evening along a lonely footpath on her way back home from office? SUVs and sedans slow down to ask her what she'll charge for a night. A submissive woman may just be pulled into the car without even the courtesy asking her charges. Then, the next morning, we read about her raped, bleeding, abandoned body found in a jungle.

What does the world think of a woman who mixes with men in offices or gyms or other places where she is a regular like any other man out there? That she is a nymphomaniac...that she's interested in men.
What does the world think of a woman who is the female version of a Casanova? Err there's no female version of Casanova!! We only know of sluts!
The world is changing. but the thinking isn't. Women are moving out and striving to make a mark and break free. But men and some other women are going regressive. They want to pull the charging women back. The Petticoat Journal is for them as much as the women who have begun the fight to raise their status from a doormat to a human being.
We bring you the Doormat Revolution! Join us!