Z- Zero

In a big town, lived a small family. The man, the wife, and two sons. Very simple, very down to earth people...especially, the man of the house. The family was never bothered about anyone in the world. Their network and resources were limited to their own self. No friend circle, no socializing, no close relatives or family members to lean on or let’s just say, they weren’t that close to anyone for that matter.

The man owned a small cosmetic business and made frugal money. As his sons grew old, their expenses started increasing. They weren’t given a fancy education and so the boys didn’t turn out to be that smart. Thus, they became the laughing stock at every place they went. All their cousins were rich and received good exposure in their careers, while these boys were pertained to the vicinity of their small town. They didn’t know how to deal with the world; they had no idea how to handle difficult situations and thus, ended up being bullied by distant cousins most of the times.

Their parents knew everything but couldn’t do anything about it. They thought that the boys will learn with age.

Unfortunately, they didn’t!

The family was always late to wherever they reached! Be it a wedding or a general get together, the family was never on time, because all four of them were dead slow, therefore again becoming a point for everyone to laugh at.

In the midst of meeting ends in life and not caring about anyone around or forgoing that competitive spirit, the man was left way behind. He was so simple and sweet that when people made fun of him, he never got the joke and just gave a passing smile to be a part of the conversation!

As his son came of age to get married, he bought a small flat for his family to live. And yet, when people came in, they never really appreciated the man because at this time his son had joined the small business without contributing much. He wanted to sit in the shop as a part time thing and while away the rest of the time with his friends.

Everyone thought that when the boys would join the business, they would expand and open a new line but here, they started fighting over who will sit for how much time in a day!

The family was soon labeled as a zero! Zero in everything... zero in working, zero at growing, zero at networking, zero at earning... it was only zero that everyone talked and nothing beyond that when the name of the family was mentioned.

Source

The boys always blamed their father for a life like this! They would find faults in him for not making enough money or not give them a luxurious life or accused him of his simplicity!

While the man, on the other hand, kept wondering what did he ever do wrong? Any place he went, everyone made fun of him, his parents boycotted him and left him on road to make a life of his own and he did... but couldn’t make it large... he couldn’t make it big. He was an honest man and never really found means of making more through unfair means. And today, when he is trying to put this value system in his sons, he is being lampooned for the same!

Sure we live in times, where honesty and simplicity are hardly given any value!

Cheers 

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Y- Yearning

Source

‘Isn’t she everyone’s favorite?’

‘Yah... especially, the kids! They just love her!’

‘Love her? They adore her! Kids are literally crazy for her! She can get along with almost every kid around. All the mothers get so annoyed because their kids want to stay with her and this woman is always joyful around them. Kids don’t have their meals properly, but with her, it feels like magic. Kids obey her or rather, worship her!’

‘I know! And she spends a good time with them. It is not just with one kid, but every child she meets, she makes them hers. They play with her; want to spend time with her. Kids learn things pretty fast from her!’

‘Exactly! I try to teach my kid so many things but he never learns anything, and with her, everything she will say, he will follow without being cranky!’

‘I don’t know how she is able to do this?’

‘Sometimes, my heart wrenches to see her like this. Such a vibrant girl, full of life, free- spirited and above all, every child’s favorite... yet doesn’t have a child of her own! I’m sure it must break her heart every time she sees a newborn!’

‘I too think the same! She gets along with them so well and see the irony... she doesn’t have her own baby! Sometimes, God plays such unfair games’

‘The way she looks after all of them and the joy she feels in doing so is so special. It is seen in her eyes, how much she yearns for a child of her own! She’s so young... I wonder what the issue is. Why can’t she have her own babies?’

‘It’s sad to see her like this sometimes’

‘But what can we do about it? All we can do is let our children spend time with her. That is all’

‘I guess’

The above excerpt is how people see women without children. Someone married for a long time and is without a kid gives an automated assumption to the society that the woman can’t have kids or there is some medical issue with her and that is why she is without a child. Nobody cares to think that it may be her choice to not have kids. It may be her decision to be like this forever. And we must respect this! Sometimes, I feel why can’t one see a woman complete without a child? I know children are important but not everyone wants a child in life. Playing with kids, spending time with them, getting along well with them doesn’t necessarily has to mean that the woman wants one and can’t have one! The above story is of a similar woman I know who is extremely happy with her life and yet everyone thinks, she isn’t because she has said ‘no’ to motherhood!

Cheers

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X- Xanthippe

Once there was a couple who had a daughter and a son. The man was a humble human being, jolly natured and full of life. While the woman, on the other hand, was a chatterbox (beyond the level of anyone’s control), ill-tempered and a cantankerous wife.

It was when their children were teenagers when the man of the house did something about which the woman couldn’t do anything until today. While returning from work one day, he saw a baby girl in a basket near all the garbage. He heard the baby cry and looked around for her parents, but found no one. The baby’s wailing was crushing the man’s soul. He couldn’t leave the baby there, could he? But then, he feared his wife. He knew she wouldn’t be happy with this but decided to follow his heart. After all, who could turn their face away from this little angel, he thought.

Source

When he took the baby home, he was kind of prepared for his wife’s reaction. And just the way he thought, she was furious! What in the world was he thinking?! Wasn’t he happy with the two kids he had? And even if he wanted another, he and his wife could have made one... why bring anyone from the streets... Oh! Not streets, but a pile of garbage!

The man wanted to give that baby a life he gave to his children. While the woman had some other plans.

When the girl grew up, the man wanted to send her school but the woman didn’t like the idea. She wanted her to stay home and dance on her tunes!

After all, it was their prerogative to see what to do or not! They gave her good clothes, good family, good house, good school, and good friends and so on. And in return, if she had to do a bit of household work then that was a very less price that she was paying for it.

Everything happened when the man left the house for work and the girl was home from school. At the age of 11, the girl did their laundry, washed their dishes, polished the floor and dusted every corner of the house.... everything after school. She wasn’t left with any time to study and thus her grades fell in the class.

Yet, she never complained and loved the family very much. No matter, how her aunt treated her, she loved them all unconditionally and did everything she asked her to. After all, they gave such a good life to someone they didn’t even know!

But there was one peculiar thing that annoyed the woman. No matter how much she yelled at the girl, she was never rude. Whenever she tried harming her (physically), the bad happened to her family instead! One fine afternoon, she tried getting the girl out of the house and in the evening, her daughter met an accident. Once she tried making the girl fall off the stairs and found her husband fall because of the slippery floor. She once locked the girl in a store room and found his son drowning in the swimming pool the other day. It came as a shock and an eye opener to her because her son was a state level champion in swimming.

It was slowly and gradually she connected all the dots and realized that the girl was different. No one could ever harm her. If she ever tried doing anything fishy with her, it automatically harmed her family!

Due to this fear, she stopped using her evil tricks on the girl. And kind of accepted her as a family member but she still continued making her do all the household chores.

The girl was happy as ever. For her, this was her family and she did everything she could to make her aunt happy!

Cheers

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Xanthippe was the name of Socrates’ wife, who, thanks to a number of Ancient Greek caricatures, had a reputation for henpecking, overbearing behavior. Consequently, her name can be used as a byword for any ill-tempered or cantankerous woman or wife—as used in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. ^Source

Welcome to my Blog! This A to Z Challenge, my theme is ‘Let’s see the other Side’. Through this theme, I'm trying to giving voice lot of things that go around us and yet I can't do much to bring about the change. I feel, sharing my thoughts in my space here will somewhere make someone think and bring about the change we all want to see!
where I’ll be sharing about the daily nuances that we’ve been seeing in the same way since 1990’s! (:P) But this time you’re going to ponder over it a bit differently.

Feel free to express your thoughts and I'd be all ears!

I hope you have a great time here!

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W- Witch

A 50-year-old woman to her friend:

‘I sometimes, feel like an outsider to my family’

‘That’s not true! What makes you say that?’

‘Nothing major. It’s just that there are a few things that happen in the house which make me feel small... may be careless or not responsible’

‘You are 55, woman! You have lived your whole life thinking about everyone in your family, you have sacrificed so much for them, you have given so much to them... you can’t feel small after doing all of this! Tell me what happened?’

‘I guess. But my family doesn’t feel that way. It was just in the morning today when my granddaughter was playing in our room on the floor (who is 14 months old) when suddenly my DIL (daughter-in-law) came in and snapped at me for not looking at her daughter properly’

‘What was wrong in that?’

‘I know! I still cannot fathom the reason behind such an attitude’

‘There is no reason! Your DIL is a witch! That is how girls are these days. They think only they know what is best as if we have done nothing in our lives. And this is when they have only one child. Imagine, in our times, we had 5-6 children along with the other children in the same house and everything turned out good for everyone’

Source

Another 28-year-old to her friend:

‘You know things are really different in this house’

‘Different? Why? What happened?’

‘Nothing ya. Everyone in this house is so carefree... or careless I must say that they don’t think about small things that can happen! I am not raised like this and I cannot handle how things work in this house’

‘But what happened, S... why are you so upset?’

‘You know what happened in the morning today? My daughter was playing in mummyji’s (addressed to mother-in-law) room on the floor, which is no problem. I know she keeps it clean. But she was sitting near the electric board and was trying to play with the plug by inserting her fingers in the switch! Can you beat that? And there was a charger connected to the other plug which was again in her hands! When I saw this, I completely lost it! I can’t take this ya! How can they not see that? And it is so dangerous! Anything could have happened! Gone are the days when there used be 5-children in the house. I have only one daughter and if anything happens to her, I don’t know what I will do!

Instances like this happen all the time in the house. And then they feel bad, that I become rude, at times! You tell what am I supposed to do?’

Cheers

Welcome to my Blog! This A to Z Challenge, my theme is ‘Let’s see the other Side’. Through this theme, I'm trying to giving voice lot of things that go around us and yet I can't do much to bring about the change. I feel, sharing my thoughts in my space here will somewhere make someone think and bring about the change we all want to see!
where I’ll be sharing about the daily nuances that we’ve been seeing in the same way since 1990’s! (:P) But this time you’re going to ponder over it a bit differently.

Feel free to express your thoughts and I'd be all ears!

I hope you have a great time here!

Read More

Of Half Love, Half Friendship

It was during the second year of my four year course when things started to change. Being a localite, I had the advantage of knowing the city better along with my personal vehicle to move around places. As I was a geek in college, all I cared for was marks... Yes, they mattered a lot to me. And I did everything I could to score well in my exams. 

Due to this, I got a little popular amongst the 400 students in the whole batch. It was when my technical skills got into the limelight, a lot of students started approaching me. In that lot, there was a guy named, Sachin who came here from another city and didn’t know anyone. He had a different background and thus wasn’t really strong in his subjects. He was the first guy who genuinely approached me for studies and according to him, I was the first girl who said yes to teaching him things and help him through.

We clicked in one instant became best friends in college. As he didn’t know anything in the city, I took him to a lot of places. Places that became our favorite spots for a hangout. Time flew and we got closer. But it was only a good friendship that we shared.

Source

One fine evening, we were invited to a friend’s birthday party which was organized in a club. We went there, had a few drinks, ate good food and danced! With each other... a lot! Our bodies were grooving just right on the music beats and we were completely in rhythm with each other. Everyone felt there was something going on between us then (but actually nothing was going on)! 

We only shared a good chemistry.

Both of us headed to a friend’s place for the sleepover, where everyone reached and slept (given the number of drinks everyone had). We too were drunk but were totally in our senses. We just lay on the bed where we found some space. There were other two friends who were lying on the same bed but we didn’t care and decided to doze off.

In reality, none of us sleep that night. Sure, we wanted to, but couldn’t. Call it the effect of the alcohol or whatever, but I was tipsy and he was calmer than usual. Just when I pushed myself into the sleeping mode, I felt something, underneath my dress! I instantly stopped it and later realized it was Sachin’s hand! I had goosebumps all over my body and he just wanted to take his hands inside more. I knew I had to put a stop to it and I tried... a lot! But couldn’t control him... or let’s just say, resist him!

His hand gave me that electric current that I had never felt in my life, ever! He knew I was liking it and so moved his hands more, first on my neck, then on my hands, moving to my stomach and then above it. He was trying to undo my bra but couldn’t! Obviously, he was a naive boy. The first thought that crossed my mind was, we’re just friends! We’re not even committed! How can we do this? But my body had no intentions listening to my mind. I just wanted to be in his arms. He touched me... and kissed my lips and it was magical. I knew it wasn't love and yet I didn’t want him to stop!

Source

We kissed and kissed some more! Our tongues were dancing with each other when we sealed our lips together. He wanted to do more... I wanted to do more but we had other people around us! The night passed touching each other at places unexplored!

The following day, it felt different to both of us. We knew it was the effect of last night. But with morning, came the reality. We weren’t committed and what we had last night wasn’t what friends do.

We discussed this and decided to keep ourselves in limits and maintain the friendship we had. But the fact was our friendship had been effectively ruined that night.

We couldn’t resist for even a week and decided to continue our incomplete affair. And we booked a hotel for the same. Getting in the hotel wasn’t a problem. I had friends in the city and it wasn’t a task. 

From that day on, our rendezvous became a regular affair. We went to the hotel every fortnight and gave our bodies that much-needed pleasure. Sure, I started having more affection for him and he became a bit possessive for me. We knew we liked each other a lot, but none of us wanted to put a label to what we were having. Maybe we were scared of losing it once we put it in a label. I didn’t want to risk that. Nor did he.

We knew we were more than friends but less than lovers. Maybe we were Friends With Benefits! At some points, when I flirted with other boys or simply hang out with them, he would get jealous. He never said a word, yet his eyes said it all. And I kind of liked this arrangement. There were no strings attached. And yet some invisible strings were tying us together.

With college, our affair ended as well. But during this while, neither did he nor did I found anyone else. After changing cities, we almost lost touch with each other.

And today, when I look back I feel just fine. Because there weren’t any strings attached, right?

Cheers

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 “I am sharing a Half relationship story at BlogAdda in association with #HalfGirlfriend”

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V- Voracious

There lived a poor man in a small town in the state of Gujarat. He worked as a laborer in various fields; dug wells did whatever menial job he could find. Doing this, he made 5000 a month but given the demands of his family, he always fell short of money. No, his family wasn’t greedy but he had four children out which three of them ate the food the amount of two families in a month, in just one week! It was only after when their fourth baby was born, and the increase in the abnormal weight within the first year made them realize that it is in the family. His first daughter is normal and isn’t overweight. But the second one, Yogita (age 5)weighs around 34 kg, next one, Anisha, (age 3) weighs 48kg and his son, Harsh, who is 18 months old weigh 15 kg.

Source

These children are addressed as ‘sumo babies’ by the neighbors. The man in the house makes every possible effort to make his family feed as much as he can. The children start making noises and cry as well if they feel hungry and aren’t fed at that time.

The mother stays in the kitchen all the time and gets frustrated as well sometimes, but then realizes how frustrating it is for her children to not being able to meet their hunger. The children are hungry all the time.

“Yogita and Anisha eat 18 flatbreads, 1.4kg of rice, two bowls of soup, six packets of crisps, five packs of biscuits, 12 bananas and a litre of milk daily. And their extreme hunger means their mother Pragna Ben, 30, spends most of her day making their meals. She said: "My day starts with making 30 chapatis and 1kg vegetable curry in the morning. After that, I am again in the kitchen preparing more food. Their hunger never stops. They demand food all the time and cry and scream if they’re not fed. I am always in the kitchen cooking for them.” Read more: https://www.naij.com/423311-parents-of-the-worlds-heaviest-children-tell-their-story.html

 The family did get a little help from the government and got the weight loss surgery done but it didn’t help much and now due to lack of funds, the father is now going to sell his kidney in order to make a fund for his morbidly obese three children’s treatment.

Initially, when their daughter was weak, they fed her more and more, due to which she got indulged in the habit of eating voraciously.

The man feels helpless. He can see how harmful it is going to get for his daughters in the future and yet the only option he is left with, is feeding them day and night.

When I discussed this with a couple of people, their response kind of shocked me. People suggested, that the family to give their children to an orphanage or ask anyone to adopt them or simply send them away rather than selling the kidney! Sometimes, I feel how can people simply suggest of abandoning the child when they are parents themselves! I fail to put myself in their shoes and understand their perspective. Parents do every possible thing that they can in the world, for their children. Sending them away would be the last thing to do! 

All I wish for the family is to get the right treatment for their children and find a solution to overcome this huge problem.

You can read more about it here and see the video below:

Cheers
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Welcome to my Blog! This A to Z Challenge, my theme is ‘Let’s see the other Side’. Through this theme, I'm trying to giving voice lot of things that go around us and yet I can't do much to bring about the change. I feel, sharing my thoughts in my space here will somewhere make someone think and bring about the change we all want to see!
where I’ll be sharing about the daily nuances that we’ve been seeing in the same way since 1990’s! (:P) But this time you’re going to ponder over it a bit differently.

Feel free to express your thoughts and I'd be all ears!

I hope you have a great time here!

Read More

U- Understand

One fine day, just when I was about to leave after my lecture from the center, a student came rushing to me. I could see her wary eyes and knew that she wanted to talk about something. As the exams were approaching, I thought it must be the stress of the syllabus. I allowed her to speak her mind and be all ears to her. What I learned next literally moved me, to the extent that I still think of her sometimes.

This girl, let’s call her Kavya, was 21 and lived with her parents. A confident, vibrant and an extremely hardworking girl she was in my class. She never understood anything at once but she never left the class without understanding her concepts. That is what I loved about her. But in spite of all the efforts, she was never able to score well in her tests and it was that day when I learned why!

First, she asked me about how to go about with her syllabus and the number of hours she needs to give in a day. I suggested her a few ways that she could follow in her routine like keeping away all the distractions while studying (phones, gadgets, etc), making a short doable timetable and following it religiously, keeping short breaks in between and let her mind get back with all the energy. But then I learned that she didn’t have a personal room to herself where she could sit and study peacefully. She stayed in a joint family and it always seemed like a party affair in the house 24*7. But what I couldn’t understand was that if there is a child or a student in the house, how could someone not let them study and give some peace?

Source

Talking to her further, I found out about her past. Kavya was a married girl. She married a guy she loved at the age of 18. Yes! She was only 18 when she eloped with the boy. The boy was a good guy who belonged to a good family and earned fairly well. The moment Kavya left her house; her family abandoned her and refused to keep any relations with her.

But destiny had some other plans for her! It was only after a month of her marriage, she lost her husband in a road accident! Devastated, as she was, bearing it all alone, just at the age of 18! Her in-laws blamed her stars for everything that happened with their son and asked her to leave the house. Her family wasn’t very happy with what happened and took her (because they were not left with any choice). And since then, all they have been doing to her is say cuss words, disrespect her in every way and treat her like a piece of garbage... they believed that the girl was good for nothing and couldn't do anything with her life. Kavya was any way guilty of everything that happened in her life, and that is why didn't say much to her family.

She wanted to study but no one supported her. She had no source of income and so she decided to take tuition classes for pre-primary students in order to have something in her hand. Her evenings went away teaching the little kids and later evenings went off making dinner for herself. No one in the house fed her. She made her own breakfast, lunch, and dinner and did other household stuff. Doing it all didn’t leave her much time to study. With the money she collected, she paid the coaching class fee and then later the book fees, all with her own money. Not a single soul in the family was either happy or supportive of anything. But she was determined to do something. She accepted her mistakes but it wasn’t her fault if her husband died!

Her family said that it was her karma because of which all of this happened in her life and that, it was meant to happen that way, that she can’t do anything fruitful with her life and is simply a waste in the house!

She always kept quiet and thought of giving an answer with her results. Sadly, she didn’t pass. And then she decided to give it another shot.

When I heard her, I was left speechless. I felt helpless! I gave her a hug! It was that day when I felt so strongly about anything in a long time. I agree, she shouldn’t have run away from the house. It was totally wrong on her part but her husband dying wasn’t her fault! She realized her mistake and was beyond sorry for that. Why was it so difficult for the parents to forgive her? Why is it so hard to understand their daughter, just for once! What’s done is done and no one can do anything about it. 

Source

What they can do is punish her if it gives them peace and move on! The girl feels miserable and just expects a little bit of understanding from her parents.

Today, she is working on other exams and is still struggling to earn that respect that she lost years ago! Do you think she deserves another chance?

Cheers

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Welcome to my Blog! This A to Z Challenge, my theme is ‘Let’s see the other Side’. Through this theme, I'm trying to giving voice lot of things that go around us and yet I can't do much to bring about the change. I feel, sharing my thoughts in my space here will somewhere make someone think and bring about the change we all want to see!
where I’ll be sharing about the daily nuances that we’ve been seeing in the same way since 1990’s! (:P) But this time you’re going to ponder over it a bit differently.

Feel free to express your thoughts and I'd be all ears!

I hope you have a great time here! 

Read More

T- Time

‘No, mumma...  I’m not hungry!’

‘Please eat a little bit, dear’

‘Nooo... I don’t want to... I want to sleep’

‘First, eat a little... then you will have a good sleep’

‘No...!’

‘Okay, watch your favorite cartoon and eat... is that okay?’

‘I guess...’

And that is how the routine becomes. The child wouldn’t eat without the gadget and would continue to cry endlessly, to the point that they start to lose their mind... and in the midst of all this, if they let their child spend a few minutes which turn into hours with the gadgets, so that they can get some time to themselves or a little alone time, which promises silence for a change, does sound like a win-win situation at that point!

Source

Sometimes, when mothers want some time to themselves, they end up making their children sit in front of the TV so that they can have some peace for a while! There are a lot of children who don’t want to eat at all... anything at all for that matter, in those cases I’ve seen them feeding their child only French fries or only ice-cream 24*7... Because like this, at least something is going inside their body! 

They do realize it’s not healthy but then not eating too isn’t. Yes, they’ve tried not serving anything at all for hours and yet it didn’t work!

I don’t know if it’s right or wrong... but I do know that they hear a lot from the family and peers about this!

What do you think about this? Is it wrong to let your child play with the gadget if you want some peace or if you want to make your child eat anything peacefully, just give them an electronic device and they will be all fine?

Cheers

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Welcome to my Blog! This A to Z Challenge, my theme is ‘Let’s see the other Side’. Through this theme, I'm trying to giving voice lot of things that go around us and yet I can't do much to bring about the change. I feel, sharing my thoughts in my space here will somewhere make someone think and bring about the change we all want to see!
where I’ll be sharing about the daily nuances that we’ve been seeing in the same way since 1990’s! (:P) But this time you’re going to ponder over it a bit differently.

Feel free to express your thoughts and I'd be all ears!

I hope you have a great time here!

Read More