The Truth of Our Times

We're 20 something and we have a lot to accomplish. Point taken. Marked, highlighted and double underlined. We want to exhaust ourselves but we don't want to miss out on anything, and with this juggling comes a bucket full of worries.

Every friend I have come across in the past few weeks either needs a date, a car, a job, a vacation or a truck full of alcohol.

Last week, a cousin of mine who's also my age came home. She was looking a little worn off so my brother asked her if it was the summer that had gotten to her nerves or was she just randomly tired, she said she was none but the moment she looked at him I knew what it was. It was her desire to leave the car keys on the table, change into something comfortable and just walk away, far away from these questions and others.

 Reading the expressions on her face, I answered for her and told my brother that we're at this stage of our life where smiling takes effort so he should just let things be. We all laughed a little but we all knew that it was the truth. The truth of our times.

Soon enough, we found ourselves sitting in the car waiting for my brother to get snacks for the evening and talking endlessly about this point in our lives where change seemed like a distant reality. She told me about the chair she sits on, the table she puts her books on and about the walls she stares at. On other occasions, I would have tried to help her but at this point, I knew I couldn't be of any help because the chair she sits on, the table she keeps her books on, the wall she stares at, seemed more familiar to me.

We were at different dimensions but we were living the same life, and it wasn't until recently when I realised that it might take more than courage to take control of your life but it doesn't take much to step aside from the rat race and do things for ourselves.

It was yet another summer night where I was watching movies back to back and I hadn't eaten much, everything was exactly like the night before and the one before it. But what happened next, gave me a little peep into a disastrous future, I could have.

I was stiff knees down, I couldn't feel my feet and I just couldn't stand up, my knees just wouldn't lock. All I could do was to call out my mom and try not to fall and all I could think was about my life minus the legs.

It was the most horrifying moments of my life. It altered me, this little moment.

I thought there was so much I could have done and now I am just going to regret wasting my life. I thought if we're not doing anything for the people around us, if we are not making a difference in the world, what are we even doing with ourselves?

 One day, we'd just get old and our legs won't work for real, our hands will shiver and our brain will give up. What then. Wouldn't we end up questioning our existence, wouldn't we curse ourselves for not finding the reasons and would the reasons even be enough?

And I thought, shouldn't we, already be pacing down, then?



                                                             

The uncivil society.

"I'll talk to her,

About that concert, 

She wanted to attend, 

About that job, 

she was planning to take, 

About her husband & about her children. 

Been a while, since she scolded me, 

Since she teased me, 

About my girlfriend, 

Been a while, 

Since she asked me, 

To cut, 

My hair."

Must be thinking, he, while he crossed the deadly road, to meet his sister.  

The deadly road, 

Of the evil city, 

Which engulfed him, in a fraction of a second. 

"I'll escape this,

this will be just another story, 

I'll tell her I had an accident, almost. 

I'll tell her I died, almost

She'd laugh and waive her hand off, 

I'll escape this,"

He must have thought. 

Death's lust for him, 

Claimed his life, 

Never ever back to his sister

he could return, Sidhdharth Sharma.

The victim of the hit and run case in Delhi's posh, Civil Lines. 

An Open Letter to the Makers of #NestleEverydayMilkAdvertisement

From B&W to Colour, the representation of women.

Could it be that the owners of Nestle are all women and this is the reason why they have so many women actresses in their advertisements? Oh but it was founded in 1905, a year when women writers like Virginia Woolf and Kathrine Mansfield were busy fighting aggressively, with their pen and their paper. 

Fighting against a certain section of the society which thought women have a smaller brain and are meant to make breakfast and lunch and dinner and clean the house and host parties and bear children and stitch and take long walks. 

Or could it be that Nestle has pledged to employ more and more women because they have realised that Virginia Woolf was after all right and that  'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction', where 'writing fiction' could mean doing whatever she desires to do. 

In my view, none of the above is remotely possible because if they would have read absolutely anything about the fate of women in a patriarchal society, their conscience wouldn't have allowed them to shoot an advertisement where there are two women, discussing what makes their tea, better and admirable to the only man in the advertisement.

Ridiculous is one small word to explain the advertisement.

Nestle, my dushman, you're reaching thousands of people, and the message you choose to give out to the women in the society is that however progressively they're dressed, all they'll do is make tea and try to impress the male in the family? Who is taking all these ad making decisions anyway? Insecure mainstream men of the 17th century?

And the newspaper! Women don't read newspaper? I read three, in one day. Just saying.

I do realise that it's not solely the social responsibility of the advertisers to make sure that they don't strengthen the stereotype, but in their quest of being able to 'relate' to the people I am afraid they are doing just the opposite. My mother doesn't make tea and so, she doesn't relate herself with the advertisement, I make tea but I don't expect myself to make tea for somebody everyday like it's my duty and so, instead of relating to the advertisement, I find it irritating. It's plain wrong.

Madhuri Dixit, one Indian talented actresses of all times, known for her dancing skills, known for taking up bold roles is doing what in a Nestle advertisement? Dancing and making food for the entire family, adults or children no bar.

My dad makes delicious food, he cooks for us. Take that, Nestle.

It's not just Nestle, there are other brands involved in this showing-off that -we are all in for the women's movement and we're doing our part in trying to change the society - take LG.



Sundrop advertisement, the woman's serving the food, and the man is the happiest alive.

As if the Nestle ad was not irritating enough, they thought oh-let's-show-the-women-what-they-are-supposed-to-do-and-let's-reinforce-it-by-showing-back-to-back-pseudo-progressive-advertisements.

LG washing machine advertisement where a bunch of women, wearing dresses and heels and makeup and whatnot are dancing their way to the clouds is your treat if you're an 18th century regressive husband.

But if you're not. I empathize with you.

Take CornAgraFood's Sundrop oil. Advertisements showing women in the kitchen, in the market, buying oil, making food, feeding their husbands, their children, their in-laws and whonot. It's unbelievable that the women in the advertising industry let it pass, or could it be that we have the same fate in the advertising industry as the Dalits in the news industry.

Who knows.

Where on one hand we have advertisements which are in true sense, the warriors in this battle of representation of women in the advertisement industry, say Mahindra scooty advertisement, Scooty pep advertisement or Lloyd washing machine advertisement, on the other hand we have advertisements showing women in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in the toilet, in the market, shopping for eatables, all because men are too busy reading the newspapers and running the country.



Here is an advertisement, doing all things right.

However superficial it may seem but if women decide to boycott products which shows them as domestic beings, ya'll are going down, fellas. I'm going to quote my aunt here and say something to you on behalf of all the women who spend their time not washing, serving, cooking or cleaning but, reading, writing, coding, making softwares, hardwares, making laws, making policies, advocating, and doing other things you guys don't show in the advertisements. These are the words of wisdom my aunt gave me the other day, I need them but you need them more, so...

'...mend your ways.'