Emoticon Magic (E on Day 5 of A to Z Challenge 2015).

To some it is a cute little gesture
To some it is gross exaggeration
To some it is perils of technology
To some it is a soothing touch on mobile screen
To some.......

You like them, hate them but you cannot ignore them. Because yes, they have the power of flashing a smile on your face when you are low, or make you go mad at a friend who purposely sent you one for making you go in rage with angst.

Allow me to reinvent the old adage - Emoticons speak louder than words.

People don't use words anymore. From Whatsapp, Viber, Skype to BBM the struggle for finding the best emoticon to fit into our emotional state is on.

Feeling feature on Facebook allows a user to add a feeling accompanying an emoticon. For feelings that are not auto-listed, a user can put them up as status and use a suitable emoticon to express one's feeling.

Here is one of those Facebook experiences:

Drop in the comment box your funny, serious, not-so-funny, naive, boring, ...... Emoticon Moment. 

Author's Note: While emoticons are creative way of expressing how one feels, sad faced emoticons get my blood boiling. Just the look of it, no matter who sends it.. Arghh!

P.S.: Emoticon Magic for E - April 6, 2015. My fifth post for the A to Z April Challenge.

Image Source: Google Image Search

Dairy, Oh My Dear Dairy (D on Day 4 of A to Z Challenge 2015).

Dairy, Oh my dear Dairy,

Source: Google Search

I am so very sorry.
For trails of emotive me.
Sometimes burdensome,
troublesome and glee-some.
Sometimes contemplative, narrative.

Few unfounded elation and useless cries.
My tears get soaked on you,
They create clump on paper sheets.
I share my smiles when I am happy,
And fill you with dry rose petals.

As I scribble on you,
You lay me a patient ear to me,
That no living being is capable of laying.
You patiently listen to my disappointments,
and my rants on the way world operates.

You know all my secrets and
No one knows where you reside.
Because you are so dear to me
that I have kept you hidden from
scorching eyes and spy headed world.

You are precious to me because,
whenever I visit you, you bring smiles to me.
And all it takes is scribbling a few words
For me to stay connected to you.

Author's Note: A secret dairy has always accompanied me. It carried tiny details of moments when I have been super happy or super sad.

Each time I visited it, it made me stronger. To know that I have been happy and to feel proud that I have overcome disasters in life.

P.S.: Dairy, Oh My Dear Dairy for D - April 4, 2015. My fourth post for the A to Z April Challenge.

Choice Debate Settled - #MyChoice (C on Day 3 of A to Z Challenge 2015)

I have always believed that fights over gender roles crush individuality.

As a society we end up creating segments in our minds man-woman, male-female and girl-boy. Thus #HerChoice and #HisChoice was created.

I am referring to "My Choice" Directed By Homi Adajania - Vogue Empower that features Deepika Padukone and 98 other women.

And a vast number of people have taken offensive exception to the line - sex outside marriage, my choice. The purpose to urge patriarchy to recognize that women have a choice too, has lost in fiery debates crying over. Men (and other societal forces) went bonkers with fear that their 'property' could sleep outside of marriage. It is sad that the society wants to take control of our choices. But there are many of us who refuse to make small, big, everyday life's decisions based on societal perception of right and wrong. We challenge ourselves out of a rut the society has created. We fight - our families, friends and silent onlookers.

A friend aptly puts the crux of this debate - The short film is simply a note that - stop manipulating a woman, they are equally capable of making their own choices and a man (society) strictly has no right to dominate her decisions. 

Caption:
Before being categorized under a gender, we are all individuals

We may get killed us if we show dissent and we see it in the name of 'Honour'. People (read Society) are scared that Deepika's followers might take her comments seriously and follow her and not use a mind of their own. This debate makes me wonder if you (read Society) as a parent doubt your (read Societal) upbringing. Because out of all the years you (read Society) have associated with your (read Societal) child, a less than three minute video can change?

If we grow up our kids to have a mind of their own, to distinguish between the right and wrong then it must not bother us.

If you are scared that youngsters will be trapped - then
A. Keep your upbringing strong
B. Allow them to make mistakes, they will be wiser.

Society, your flawed upbringing laced with morally righteous is hollow. You are being hypocrites, sexists, misogynists by shamming Deepika's acceptance to the concept of open marriages. Because if she does or anybody does, it is between those involved in the matrimonial setup.

A woman faintly hinting at open marriage is not acceptable and men (read Society) fear losing their dearly held 'property' (read Women) to someone. 

If it is a man - it is manly, and when it is a woman it is a whorish?

Society, it shakes our double standards - be it Deepika or a non celebrity we all have to have the liberty of opinion.

Let's settle the Choice debate with an individualistic message #MyChoice, applicable equally to all (Men, Women, Other).

Author's Note: When we ask for a just (gender neutral) society, we are tagged as Fem Nazis. Feminism is taken in wrong spirits by many. I am not blaming all men, so before someone comments here that all men are not the same, let's not forget that even all women are not the same. Allow us to be. Period.

Don't start the Indian Sanskriti Drama, you make it look ugly not just to me but to the world. 

P.S.: Choice Debate Settled - #MyChoice for C - April 3, 2015. My third post for the A to Z April Challenge.

Bans, Boycotts and Bharat (India) (B on Day 2 of A to Z Challenge 2015)

It was somewhere in the midst of Ban and Boycotts for Bharat (India) - A facade my country has started to don lately.

Here is a quick recap of bans on creativity and choices we make as individuals.
(This is not comprehensive list and in no order of preference):

1. India's Daughter was banned because it projects bad image of India. BBC was sent a notice by the Indian authorities and the documentary was taken down from the internet.

Un-ban our choices, Un-ban our freedom
Source - Google 

2. It was in the midst of a Beef Ban (cow slaughter ban) imposed in Maharashtra as Cow is worshiped by Hindus (majority religion in India) and Indian authorities are presumably stepping towards Hindu theocracy (overshadowing India's secular constitution). Cows will receive legal protection and mug shots with identity proofs are being created. The ban is likely to be extended across the country.

3. It was a ban that Un-freedom Movie was subjected to for focusing on homosexuality as it can promote unnatural passion.

4. Kalki Koechlin's 'Margarita With A Straw' cleared by Censor Board with only one cut - of a 12-second kissing scene. It is a film about a woman with cerebral palsy coming to terms with her queer sexuality.

5. The word Bombay beeped out of Mihir Joshi's songtrack 'Sorry' because it is 'offensive' to use primitive nomenclature (Bombay) for Mumbai. The track is a conversation between a father and his daughter and I wrote it after the Nirbhaya Gang rape case in December 2012.ay

Here are the lyrics of the song:

I am sorry sweetheart

This is the world I am giving you today. 

It is the same thing no matter what you read… 

From Delhi to Bombay. I wish it was different darling...

Wish you could feel nice and safe. 

But the world’s gone crazy, I don't know what to say’
6. Amendments to Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act was aimed at banning my liberty to speak my mind online. Thankfully the Supreme Court of India rendered it unconstitutional. And I am relieved as my Facebook updates will not invite an arrest order from the authorities on grounds of offensive, while I attempt to show my dissent.

7. Creators of All India Bakchod Roost were forced to take down the video from Youtube as it breached Indian values. Outcry over creative cinematic ventures like Haider, PK are not alien to Indians. And even the infamous movie 50 Shades of Grey made to banned items in India.

As I write this post, I am enraged. I have a question for those who support these bans and promote boycotts in the name of our nation. So as individuals, what are we (we refers to those who are impacted by these bans)?  

Are we heading adolescence?
Are we rash bunch of brats who are to be disciplined?
Are we incapable of making decisions?
Do we have to project a regressive face of development to the world today?
Do we really in need of writing a oligarchy for generations to come?
Are we a nation where people need to be fed on the right idea of entertainment, food, religion and music?
Do we have hold years old values paramount and fail to walk with the times?
Do we really have to be controlled for the choices we make as individuals?

THE ANSWER TO EACH OF THE QUESTION LISTED ABOVE IS A BIG LOUD SHOUT OF A 'Damn NO'.

My nation Bharat (India) is becoming all about Bans, Boycott, Bigotry. We do not need this? We are able enough to make the right choices as individuals. And we are liberated enough to make the wrong choices. Do not make decisions for me. My soul suffocates and curse you.

Ban mongers - If you do not like it, choose to avoid it. Please do not make decisions for me. I do not need your wisdom!

Author's Note: Impose a blanket Ban on Injustice, Hypocrisy, Corrupt, Bigots, Small Thinkers, Shallow Minds, Sexists, Rapists, Crime, Violence...

Ban the wrong. Ban it today - you need not ban anything else! I detest those mindless bans that take away my freedom of making choices, my freedom of deriving solace or getting a high to bring out my creativity.

P.S. Bans, Boycotts and Bharat (India) on B - April 2, 2015. My second post for the A to Z April Challenge.

Attracting Abundance (A on Day 1 of A to Z Challenge 2015)

Do you see abundance
Of things immaterial
Of feelings & tiny gestures
Abundance of times

Source: Google Image Search

That head for love
enthusiasm and vulnerabilities
Those moments that
Stretch your lips wide
And widen your eyelids
Abundance of Music
Than makes you dance
Or takes you to a dream land
Abundance of sound of waves
As you lay on the shores
Of running waters with closed eyes
Or gazing a deep blue sky
With glaring moonlight
Shooting star amidst twinkling ones
And abundance of gazing fireflies
Or listening to chirping of birds at dawn

Author's Note: We attract abundance of things that make us feel special. Those moments are right in our view, and it is for us to open up to them.

Let abundance of brief beautiful moments consume us!

P.S. A for Abundance on April 1, 2015. My first post for the A to Z April Challenge. 

A-to-Z Challenge [April 2015]

Last year A-to-Z Challenge [April 2014] happened and I came out of it a winner. Hang on, no trophy, just that I stuck through it till the end.

Here is a recap of last year>>
A-to-Z Challenge - Reflections

Treat this as a formal announcement of participation. My blog - Titled Speeding Light is listed on the

A TO Z CHALLENGE SIGN UP/LIST [2015]

Last year I followed a theme Emotions and Expressions, this year I will stick with Random topics.

Tomorrow it is! And it is Letter 'A'

India's Daughter Disowns You. #NirbhayaBraveheart

You teach everyone that it is okay to treat me secondary as
You served him four and mine were counted till two.
You stopped me from eating beyond three and
You said that girls look pretty only when slim and lean.
You got me only dolls when I wanted to play with all, that's when
You told me with conviction that I must choose not what I want.

You said that I need to be ready right when I was a kid
You insisted everyday that I only cook, garden, sow and clean.
You taught me to put up a smiling face when I am in pain and
You label me impure for those three day because I menstruate.
You told me to cover up as I grew towards teens, that's how
You told me that I need to conceal what I have.

You groomed me and it seemed to be getting ready for a war
You did not raise a soldier but a victim of that war.
You saved for not my big day but your big day when
You were to dissociate with me to garner ritualistic praises.
You did wrong and I unlearned all your teachings, so while
You said getting slapped get me out of trouble, I ended up beating blue them all.

29 December - National Shame Day (India)

I (India's Daughter) request you to disown me because I refuse to be your definition of a girl, woman, lady...
To such an India, Am I India's Daughter - I am no more, I disown you!

Source: Google Search

Author's Note: Nirbhaya is not ashamed, it is you who call me your daughter - you are ashamed! 

Stop dragging a brave-heart in your filthy conversations. No one, no statements and no act can bring disgrace to her. That act cannot be undone, and many such acts happen across India, when India quietly prepares its daughters for the war!

Background: There is an outcry following statement made in 'India's Daughter', a BBC Storyville documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin by Mukesh Singh, driver of the bus in which the rape took place. He said Decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy is. Boys and girls are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night or wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good. The rape and beatings were to teach the young woman and her friend a lesson that they should not have been out late at night.

INDIA's DAUGHTER is the story of the short life, and brutal gang rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012 of an exceptional and inspiring young woman. The rape of the 23 year old medical student by 6 men on a moving bus, and her death, sparked unprecedented protests and riots throughout India and led to the first glimmers of a change of mindset. Interwoven into the story line are the lives, values and mindsets of the rapists whom the film makers have had exclusive and unprecedented access to interview before they hang. The film examines the society and values which spawn such violent acts, and makes an optimistic and impassioned plea for change.

(Source: IMDB)