Is FirstCry advertisement campaign on fussy mom really giving right messages?

         From last few weeks, we are shown an advertisement campaign on Fussy Moms by First Cry. The motive of the advertisement is to spread awareness about how mothers can be so fussy when it comes to their child and how that fussiness makes them fantastic. Through the advertisement, the brand First Cry is also promoting their several products. But the question is whether the content shown in the advertisement is really giving good messages to the parents and future parents?

The advertisement:

        The above posted advertisements gives the examples of several mothers who call themselves fussy. But I found this so-called fussy behaviours as irritating bordering on psychotic behaviour. The advertisement starts with a mother scolding the poor watchman silently for ringing the bell which can wake up her child which was overreacting on her part. How is the watchman expected to know that her child is sleeping? Also what if he has something important to tell someone in the house then how can he tell without ringing the bell? The next two stories are the only ones I found acceptable and sensible. The next story shows a mother sternly signals her son to pick up the crumbled paper and put it in the dustbin not letting the maid to do it for him instead. This was a good message for the parents to teach their children to put the rubbish in the dustbin themselves instead of expecting others to do it for them. The next story shows a mother taking away her toddler from her mother-in-law's lap in the car and saying firmly that car seat will only be safer for the baby. Some had problems with this saying the woman was rude to the older woman and how this story is being promoted to break families but some agreed with this story saying car seat is really safe since babies tend to move a lot in the lap and also there were several accidents happened with the babies who were not in car seat. I too agree with this story since car seat is actually safer for babies and as for the woman's speaking tone to her mother-in-law it was necessary as many in-laws impose their ideas just because they are elders without understanding that many changes in the next generation to them is for the better. In this story, the woman was only making her point logically and it was the older woman who was being egoistic and disrespectful to her after she puts her toddler in the car seat. There were more ridiculous stories where a mother was shown putting too much padding guard and helmet on her kid before using his tricycle while another story shows a mother checking temperature as ran hot water for her kid in the bathtub being satisfied when its 37 degree C only while her father logically asked how will it make a difference if there is difference by a degree? If the kid is always protect in such extreme ways while cycling he won't be ever able to learn properly while the kid who is always bathed in 37 degree C water won't have enough immunity to defend even smallest of illness which will only make the kid weaker. Then a story shows a pregnant woman checking different brands to-be-mother health powders too much for some reason while her husband asks if she has to give exam that she is reading too much to which she replied preservatives while another story shows a mother making juice for her kid in a portable mixer while they were sitting in the restaurant even when some other customers called it public nuisance. Being too concerned about preservatives may make sense since some preservatives can be harmful but using a mixture in the restaurant creates noise pollution and disturbs other customers. Then there is one mother shown using mosquito racket to kill any mosquito charging towards her little daughter who is playing on a swing in the park. I found this story as the most ridiculous like which mother goes in the park with a mosquito racket and acts like this? Did she not hear about mosquito repellent creams or mosquito repellent patches? Then we are shown a mother cutting out tags from all T-shirts of her kid to avoid her kid feeling itchy on backside of her/his neck while another mother is shown putting some pipe like padding on a coffee table to avoid her kid getting hurt by pointed edges. With such over protection will the kids ever learn to be strong to be immune to any discomfort or learn to be alert while walking around pointed furnitures? We are shown several people witnessing the acts of these mothers calling them names like stubborn, rude, fussy and then we hear voiceover saying that we agree that we mothers are fussy but its that their fussiness that what makes their childrens' childhood as fantastic. Then the voiceover continues that if they want to do something amazing, perfect, fantastic in their lives then they should be like a fussy mom. While the voiceover goes on they show a message 'Fussy Is Fantastic' on the screen. At the end of the advertisement, they show another mother who was carrying her baby in baby carrier bag shouting at her husband who was clicking pictures that she has told him many times that flashes are not good for her eyes. This may be a justified concern but few pictures with proper precautions wont do any harm.

        What are they trying to teach parents and future parents with this advertisement? That its okay to make their feel suffocated and make them weaker with your over protectiveness by ridiculous acts? If the real life parents start acting like these so-called fussy moms to their kids then those kids won't be able to even face the smallest problems or stand against even a little sickness. Those kids will have a hard time getting strong while growing up. How will the mothers in this ad react when their kids on growing a little will want to have spicy or fast food? Or what will these mothers do when their kids after a couple years have to take part in fancy dress competitions in school dressing which won't be feeling comfortable like their daily clothes? Or how will they react if their kids frequently becomes sick after being exposed to even 5 minutes of heat or cold or having a little cold drink or ice-cream? Any wise parent especially a mother won't agree with most of the things shown in the advertisement. One more problem is that in a couple of advertisements the father of the kids are shown as clueless or irresponsible for questioning the mothers for their so-called fussy acts. Also here why only one set of parent that is mothers are focussed and glorified? What about the fathers roles in their kids lives? I wonder what the team were thinking before such a ridiculous and weird advertisement focussing on the relationships of the mothers and their kids. This advertisement is more problematic than informative.

Where our Team Blue went wrong?

        As we know, India had their shocking elimination from World Cup 2019 after getting defeated by New Zealand yesterday by 18 runs which stopped them from getting into the Finale Match. Our Indian Team which was a nightmare for every opponent team including the best team Australia and the only team that defeated India in Semi-Final qualifying match that England had their biggest defeat in this World Cup tournament. From the 1st position, India directly got out of World Cup becoming the 1st team to be eliminated from the Semi-Finals. Wonder where our Team Blue went wrong?

        Team India before the Semi Finals had the most wins in the Semi-Final qualifying matches winning 7 out of 9 matches out of which 1 with New Zealand was cancelled due to rain with them getting defeated only by England. Team Blue were impressively making their way to the top of the point table slowly and steadily with them finally coming on 1st position after Australia lost their 1st position after getting defeated by South Africa and India defeating Sri Lanka. But sadly, Team Blue came crashing down from the 1st position by getting defeated by New Zealand. What could have caused their shocking defeat? Was it the overconfidence of Team Blue for winning most matches and getting to the 1st position or their bad luck? Was it Team Blue underestimating Kiwis or them being under great pressure to win the match? Whatever the reason is Team Blue must be having a hard time dealing with their loss. On the other hand Kiwis are surely enjoying their biggest victory by defeating India.

                        

        On 9th July, Team Blue were doing great in bowling and fielding giving tough time to the Kiwis. Team Blue may have won the match if the rain did not interrupted causing it to continue on the next day. On 10th July, the Kiwis played better in the few overs of theirs that was left giving Team Blue the target of 240 runs though they lost 8 wickets. Team Blue in their turn of batting had such a bad start with best players like KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli getting out which became the downfall of Team Blue. After that Rishabh Pant and Hardika Pandya tried to improve the scores for their team but it was short lived as they too got out. Ravindra Jadega and MS Dhoni played the best and got the most respect but still they could not save their team from getting defeated. Soon Team Blue got all out not even with them being 3 balls away from completing their 50 overs. Team Blue still managed to make 221 runs making New Zealand defeat them by 18 runs. The way Team India got defeated in such an important after playing so well in their previous matches shows that they underestimated Team New Zealand taking too lightly while Team New Zealand had one entire day to make strategy and proper planning on how to play carefully and work on defeating a stronger team like India. The entire nation may still not come out of shock at such a shocking and heartbreaking defeat of their country. 

        Team Blue has surely learnt a lesson that never to underestimate any opponent no matter how low in their position as them being on 1st position on point table got defeated by New Zealand who were on the 4th position. I am sure that the other 2 Semi-Finalists Australia and England were expecting India to win this match and them already preparing on how to defeat them in the Finale Match but to their shock its New Zealand who won. These 2 teams too may have not expected New Zealand to defeat a stronger team like India who got on the 1st position before the Semi-Finals. Now Australia too may be careful in not to underestimate England and play carefully in their Semi-Finals today. This World Cup tournament is getting so unpredictable that its hard to think which country will win the World Cup 2019. I hope Team India analyses where they went wrong yesterday and work more hard for future matches. No matter our Team Blue lost this match but they surely played the best in this tournament and won respect from all over the India and the world.

10 Affordable Tinted Lip Balms

Who don't love lip balms with tint on them? Tinted lip balms are used by women when they don't want wear lipsticks but still want their lips to have a little colour on them as well as keeping them soft and moisturised. Below are 10 lip balms that are affordable and easy on your pockets. The prices keeps on changing. To know the latest prices, please click on the below links.

1. Maybelline Baby Lips

https://www.amazon.in/Maybelline-Baby-Lips-Berry-Crush/dp/B01CGELS7G/ref=sr_1_142?qid=1562701273&s=pantry&sr=1-142


2. Lakme Lip Love Chapstick

https://www.amazon.in/Lakme-Lip-Love-Chapstick-Cherry/dp/B07HB28NFV/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1562702061&refinements=p_89%3ALAKM%C3%89%7CLakme%7CLakm%C3%A9&rnid=3837712031&s=beauty&sr=1-1

3. Nivea Lip Balm

https://www.amazon.in/Nivea-Care-Fruity-Shine-Strawberry/dp/B007E9JFK6/ref=sr_1_186?qid=1562701397&s=beauty&smid=AT95IG9ONZD7S&sr=1-186


4. Himalaya Herbals Lip Care

https://www.amazon.in/Himalaya-Herbals-Strawberry-Shine-Care/dp/B00IF3TJME/ref=pd_sbs_194_4/257-6009214-9758748?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00IF3TJME&pd_rd_r=bb626742-a281-11e9-b657-f3bf75b56877&pd_rd_w=a6p5M&pd_rd_wg=nVVeE&pf_rd_p=87667aae-831c-4952-ab47-0ae2a4d747da&pf_rd_r=JCY8C0HGR6EYMQFV82DP&psc=1&refRID=JCY8C0HGR6EYMQFV82DP


5. VLCC Lovable Lips

https://www.amazon.in/VLCC-Lovable-Lips-Rose-4-5gm/dp/B017XELACC/ref=sr_1_76?qid=1562701214&s=beauty&sr=1-76


6. Vega Chic Lips Lip Balm

https://www.amazon.in/Vega-VLB-03-Chic-Lips-Berry/dp/B078HW6JX6/ref=sr_1_92?qid=1562701214&s=beauty&sr=1-92


7. Blue Heaven Naughty Colour Lip Balm

https://www.amazon.in/Blue-Heaven-Combo-Naughty-Bubble/dp/B018NZL2HS/ref=sr_1_4?crid=150LYVGSNKKTK&keywords=blue+heaven+lip+balm&qid=1562701852&s=beauty&sprefix=blue+heaven+lip%2Cbeauty%2C362&sr=1-4


8. Lotus Herbals Lip Therapy

https://www.amazon.in/Lotus-Herbals-Lip-Therapy-Cherry/dp/B01LX9OH5V/ref=sr_1_295?qid=1562701544&s=pantry&sr=1-295


9.  Avon Naturals Lip Balm

https://www.amazon.in/Avon-New-York-Naturals-Balm/dp/B079S8T3MF/ref=sr_1_6?crid=YTVW3TW10VD8&keywords=avon+lip+balm&qid=1562704220&s=beauty&sprefix=avon+l%2Cbeauty%2C338&sr=1-6


10. Eva Fresh Lips

https://www.amazon.in/Eva-Fresh-Coloured-Moisturising-Raspberry/dp/B00U18P8I0/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=eva+lip&qid=1562703018&s=beauty&sr=1-4

No proper face make ups for dark skin tone in India

        Its true that the real beauty of women is their natural beauty. But women use make up to enhance their beauty which is not a big deal. But what if many women have no access to proper make up? I am talking about Indian women with dark skin tone not getting face make ups like foundations, compacts, concealers in their skin tone. Yes this is the sad truth of cosmetics in India. From many years, the face make ups are available only for fair skin toned and at the most wheatish skin toned women but none for women with dark brown skin tones when in reality, more than half of the Indian women population are of the dark brown skin tones. Then why this injustice to the same majority women?

        From decades, Indians are obsessed with fair skin tones. Many women who have wheatish and dark skin tones are not comfortable with their own skin tones. So in an attempt to look fair they use fairness products as well as the face make ups that are of much lighter shades than their own skin tones. While some of these women want to look fair on their own while some or pressurised into doing so by their parents, siblings, friends, relatives, husbands, in-laws, etc. This is the major reason why the companies in India mostly sell make ups of only lighter shades. They do so because there is very less demand for dark make up shades as many women who are dark choose the make up that are shades lighter than their own skin. In many beauty salons too, the beauticians use lighter make ups on even dark skinned women instead of using make up of their own shades. Many people have misconception that make up means getting fair when in reality they don't understand that make up is only meant to enhance their already beautiful looks.

                                

        Western, European and even both the Korean countries have darker shades of make up to suit women for every skin tones as these countries are happy with whatever skin tones they have. Famous You Tubers like Shreya Jain and Jovita George have fought for this cause resulting in companies like Lakme and Nykaa bringing more shades of face make ups. But they are only limited to women with wheatish and medium brown skin tones not to the women with dark brown skin tones. Some companies like Loreal, Kryolan, Huda do have shades for dark brown skin tones but they are too expensive for women who are not rich or for women who don't want to invest in these expensive brands of make up.

        Its high time, the companies must come up with darker shades of face make ups as it will only promote racism and cause inferiority complex in dark skinned women. Also, women who are not fair but dark should be happy with their skin tones and buy make up of their own shades. Also, people related with women having dark skin should not encourage or pressurise them to use fairness skin products or make ups in an attempt to make them look fair. Then only the demand of dark skin shades of make up by women will increase.

Hoton Pe Aisi Baat used song in a fantasy show called 'Ek Mayavi Prem Gaatha- Chandrakanta'

            Inserting movie songs in a serial has been done from more than a decade. The suitable movie songs are included in a serial to make the scene more effective and presentable. Many times, the songs included are favourite of many people so they watch those scenes with more interest which in turn increases the TRP of the shows while making the viewers happy. But what if a movie song included in a show which was set centuries ago that is during medieval times? It sounds weird to even think of such a possibility to happen. But this is what actually happened in a fantasy show called Ek Mayavi Prem Gaatha- Chandrakanta which airs on Saturday and Sunday at 8pm on Colors channel. This show is based on the classic Indian novel Chandrakanta written by author Devkinandan Khatri. A famous Bollywood classic song ‘Hoton Pe Aisi Baat’ was shown in last week’s episode of Ek Mayavi Prem Gaatha- Chandrakanta.

                                         Poster of Ek Mayavi Prem Gaatha- Chandrakanta

            The scene where this song was used was about the new female lead Surya(Pooja Bannerjee) dancing on this song at a palace disguised as a dancer covering her face with a mask. The original female lead is Chandrakanta(Madhurima Tuli) who is presently killed in the show by the male lead Virendra(Vishal Aditya Singh) along with the 3 female villains Iravati(Urvashi Dholakia), Bhadra Maa(Mallika R Ghai) and Gehna(Renee Dhyani) and is said to be actually alive only to return later for revenge according to the future story twist. This shocking twist was brought in the show to improve the decreasing TRPs of the show. The character Surya dances on Hoton Pe Aisi Baat song as part of the celebration for Virendra and Gehna’s engagement that also on Chandrakanta’s death anniversary. This is the first time in the history of Indian Television when a Bollywood song is used in a fantasy show set in medieval or even ancient times. Last month, in this same show the music of another Bollywood song ‘Aankhon Ki Gusthakiyaan’ was used in the mehndi ceremony of 2 supporting characters.

                                         Pooja Banerjee as Surya in Ek Mayavi Prem Gaatha- Chandrakanta

            This serial don’t even shows 5% of the novel Chandrakanta let alone it being based on the novel. The story in the serial has been distorted from the novel from day 1 of the show. This serial based on Chandrakanta novel don’t even have the main villains from the book like Shiv Dutt and Kroor Singh though Shiv Dutt was only mentioned and not ever shown while Kroor Singh was hardly shown in few scenes but none of these 2 characters were hinted as villains. Instead, the show has villains which are not written in the novel. The male lead Virendra is given the characteristic like the villain Shiv Dutt who was the actual villain of the novel when Virendra was actually a kind and gentle person. Chandrakanta who was supposed to be always a princess was shown as a daasi(maid-servant) at a palace unaware that she is a princess herself who became an orphan after her parents were killed by the villain Iravati. In this show, Virendra and Chandrakanta are married in the 7th episode when in the novel they marry at the end. Instead of marrying out of love like the novel, Virendra marries her for some kind of revenge just like it is shown in many TV shows in India. When TRPs started decreasing, more distortion followed including ridiculous insertion of ‘Aankhon Ki Gusthakiyaan’ music and ‘Hoton Pe Aisi Baat’ song in a fantasy show set in medieval time which no other fantasy show ever did. May be this is not the last time the viewers will get to see Bollywood songs used in this show. 

5 Indian TV Serials That Should Be Banned For Showing Degradation Of Woman

                 The content of Indian Television is hitting all time low. All thanks to the regressive serials shown on television from almost a decade. Our parents and grandparents were lucky to have progressive shows like Hum Log, Shanti, Idhar Udhar, etc. which were ahead of their time. But the current TV serials shows content which takes us 50-100 years back. Below are the 5 current shows which should be banned for showing and promoting degradation of women.

1. Ishqbaaaz- In this how, one of the male leads forcibly marries the female lead by threatening to kill her 7-8 year old brother by car blast. Instead of being angry, the female lead starts loving the male lead. And after few months, she forgets everything as if nothing happened. Then after few more months, they happily remarry after confessing their love to each other. There are 2 more sets of lead couples. In this show, the heroes having multiple affairs are taken coolly and as fun including when one of the heroes were doubted to be father of a baby which from other woman. Recently, the 3 brothers are shown having fun with a girl while being drunk and under the influence of drug. But on the contrary, 2 of the female leads are insulted and abused very badly by their male leads even they thought that they had affair with other men let alone them doing the above things which heroes did. The situation is not at all cool and funny when it involves the female leads.

2. Jeet Gayi To Piya More- In this show, the male lead is not less than a criminal. He forcibly marries the female lead after threatening to kill her family including her 7-8 year old niece. The female lead who was a final year medical student changes drastically after marriage. Instead of finding a way to get out of this forced marriage, she starts her mission to change her animal husband into a human. Her husband and in-laws torture her everyday but still she wants to change her husband.

3. Tu Suraj Main Saanjh Piyaji- In this show, the male lead who is from a very conservative family forcibly marries a female lead from a modern family as he thinks that God has given him a signal to marry her. He is a very conservative man whose mentality is of the past century. He thinks that a wife should be submissive like a daasi(maid-servant) and entertainer like Rambha(a dancer in mythology) to her husband. After marriage, she is forced to follow many rules like not wearing western clothes like she wore earlier, not using cell-phones, drinking gomutra(cow urine) not drinking tea, waking up very early in the morning, not eating non-veg, not touching a woman on her periods and so on. When her brothers, one of whom is an ACP, comes to know the reality of her marriage, they file complaint against her husband and puts him in jail but instead of getting happy the female lead gets him out of jail as she starts falling in love with him even though her husband not at all regrets what all he did with her. She is only shown trying to please her husband and in-laws.

4. Kumkum Bhagya- In this show, the male lead marries the female lead as he thought that she snatched his sister's love which was not true. He sleeps with his girlfriend on the wedding with his wife thus cheating on her. He keeps his girlfriend and his wife in the same house from 3 years since their marriage. He is shown so dumb that he never understands how evil his sister and girlfriend are. This serial shows the repetitive things like the female's lead kidnapping, the plotting of male lead's sister and girlfriend against the female lead, the male lead acting dumb, the female lead not able to prove the 2 evil women wrong as they are too smart, the male lead stuck and confused between his wife and girlfriend, the accident of either female lead or male, memory loss of either male lead or female lead and so on. When the female lead was framed into having an affair with her ex-fiance, the male lead insults her very badly and tell her to prove her innocence in 24 hours or else leave the house but the same man shamelessly keeps his wife and girlfriend in the same house from 3 years.

5. Ek Mayavi Prem Gaatha- Chandrakanta- This show is based on the classic Indian novel Chandrakanta written by author Devkinandan Khatri.  This serial don’t even shows 5% of the novel Chandrakanta let alone it being based on the novel. The story in the serial has been distorted from the novel from day 1 of the show. This serial based on Chandrakanta novel don’t even have the main villains from the book like Shiv Dutt and Kroor Singh though Shiv Dutt was only mentioned and not ever shown while Kroor Singh was hardly shown in few scenes but none of these 2 characters were hinted as villains. Instead, the show has villains which are not written in the novel. The male lead Virendra is given the characteristic like the villain Shiv Dutt who was the actual villain of the novel when Virendra was actually a kind and gentle person. Chandrakanta who was supposed to be always a princess was shown as a daasi(maid-servant) at a palace unaware that she is a princess herself who became an orphan after her parents were killed by the villain Iravati. In this show, Virendra and Chandrakanta are married in the 7th episode when in the novel they marry at the end. Instead of marrying out of love like the novel, Virendra marries her for some kind of revenge just like it is shown in many TV shows in India. Recently, Virendra is shown killing Chandrakanta and then getting engaged to a female villain Gehna on the 1st death anniversary of Chandrakanta. He was revealed to be pretending to be in love with Chandrakanta from the start when in reality he was only working for his evil step-mother who wanted Chandrakanta killed after getting a magical dagger from her. The people who watch this show will have bad impression on them regarding the novel Chandrakanta with the way this show is ruining a classic novel of India.

                  The above shows should be banned for showing and promoting degradation and abuse of women. Shocking, these shows have high TRPs while the shows which actually show good and progressive contents gets low TRPs which forces the makers of those shows to show regressive contents in their to increase their TRPs. There are many good shows that end early due to low TRPs as people of today's generation especially teenage and youth girls are attracted to the shows where the male lead tortures and degrades the female leads and later those female leads change the male leads with their love. The shows where the heroines start as modern and bold women are soon changed into traditional and doormat to increase TRPs as people especially girls of today's generations can't accept women as modern and bold who is grey in character but they are ready to accept the male lead even if he has done many crimes. And the blames are given to women who in the age group of 30 to 70 when in reality these same women watched and accepted the progressive shows like Hum Log, Idhar Udhar, Udaan(old show of DD), Shanti, Saans, Rajni and many more such shows in 80s and 90s era which were ahead of its time and showed the women as modern and independent unlike the women in current TV shows. This shows that current generation are to be blamed for deteriorating contents in Indian Television in present time. The content in the present shows have spoiled the mind of today's generation girls which makes them unable to accept progressive content in TV serials of today.

Diwali- Expectations vs Reality

            Diwali has come to an end yesterday. Every person celebrated Diwali in different ways. Below are some common expectations and realities of Diwali.

Expectation 1: Waking up early at 5a.m. morning ubtan bath.

Reality 1: Ubtan bath? What is this? Waking up at 8a.m. or 9a.m. and bathing normally with soap or body wash.                    

Expectation 2: Early morning firing crackers.

Reality 2: Suddenly waking up at 6a.m. due to noise of bursting crackers and getting irritated before saying that you need 2 more hours of sleep.

Expectation 3: Wearing new clothes preferably Indian wear all day.

Reality 3: Who wears heavy Indian wear all day? Stick to normal daily wears.

Expectation 4: Wishing family, relatives, friends, colleagues personally by calling.

Reality 4: Wishing all the above ones by forwarding the same message on WhatsApp.

Expectation 5: Making sweets and namkeens at home.

Reality 5: Buying sweets and namkeens from shop.

Expectation 6: Making very big and complicated rangoli design by hand.

Reality 6: Making very simple rangoli design that also with the help of rangoli stencil.

Expectation 7: Celebrating crackers free Diwali.

Reality 7: There will be no pollution by bursting only few crackers.

Expectation 8: Eating lots of sweets.

Reality 8: Being health conscious and eating only 1-2 sweets.

Expectation 9: Buying lots of expensive clothes from shop.

Reality 9: Buying branded clothes with high discount online.

Expectation 10: Lighting earthen diyas after filling it with oil or ghee.

Reality 10: Lighting readymade wax or gel diyas.

So these were few expectations and realities of Diwali. It will be not a surprise if majority  of people agree with at least 4 points from the above 10 points of expectations and realities.

       

       

Delhi Ban On Crackers(Temporary Title)

            The Supreme Court has ordered a ban on sale of crackers on 9th October in Delhi NCR. This ban on sales of crackers will last till 31st October. This ban is brought into existence to stop people from bursting crackers this Diwali in order to not repeat the last year incident of drastic air pollution causing smog for days which caused breathing problems and asthma attacks in residents including children.

            The Supreme Court itself observed that “the air quality deteriorates abysmally and alarmingly and the city chokes thereby, leading to closure of schools in view of the health emergency situation.” Crackers are made of highly toxic heavy metals such as copper, cadmium, lead, manganese, zinc, sodium and potassium. These harmful metals, if present in the air, can cause an asthma attack, severe headache and respiratory problems, apart from chronic cough to people coming in contact with them.

            This ban is a good step to avoid air pollution and protect the environment. Due to large numbers of crackers being burst during Diwali, elderly people as well as people suffering from breathing related diseases like asthma and bronchitis gets affected very badly. Some people even suffers from hearing problems due to extreme noise pollution from crackers. Even animals gets disturbed due to noise and air pollution. Many animals are mistreated by people who puts or ties crackers on them for fun. Residents preparing for exams or important work of their offices gets disturbed to continuous noise. This ban is a blessing for many people who will get a huge relief from it. Diwali is a festival of lights, happiness and bonding. Diwali should be celebrated by visiting families and friends, buying sweets, shopping for new clothes and lighting diyas and hanging lanterns in our houses instead of bursting crackers and creating noise and air pollution.

            Even though the ban is executed but there is no guarantee that it will be as effective as expected because people who bought crackers before 9th October will burst crackers anyway. Bursting of crackers will only be reduced to some extent but can’t be stopped completely. So it would have been better if the apex court had banned the bursting of crackers instead of sales of crackers as many people buy crackers weeks before Diwali begins. Or the apex court would have banned the sales of crackers a couple of months before Diwali instead of banning it just a week before Diwali.

            On a different take, there should be ban on only sales of highly explosive crackers but sales of low explosive crackers should be allowed along with sales of basic crackers like sparklers, anar(flower pots or fountains) and chakras. People should be allowed to enjoy bursting of crackers but only basic and low explosive crackers. There should be time limit given to burst crackers to the people like a couple of hours instead of being allowed to burst crackers all night till dawn disturbing the residents and animals of the area. Diwali comes only once a year so people should be allowed to burst crackers as long as no disturbance is caused to the people as well as the health of people is not compromised. There should be attempts by the people to not cause noise and air pollution due to their celebration of Diwali by bursting crackers.

Mission Women Entering Sabarimala Temple

           After many fights by women rights group resulting in women being finally allowed to enter Shani Shignapur Temple in April 2016 followed by women being allowed to finally enter Haji Ali Dargah, the next mission is of women of menstruating age group of 10-50 years being allowed to enter Sabarimala Temple situated in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. At Sabarimala, the deity is worshiped as Ayyappan and as Dharmasasta. The shrine of Sabarimala is an ancient temple.  The Supreme Court on Friday referred to a five-judge Constitution bench regarding the ban on the entry of women at Kerala’s Sabarimala temple.

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court by the Indian Young Lawyers Association challenging the custom of the temple to prohibit entry of menstruating women in the 10-50 age group calling it as discriminatory and violation of women’s rights. The fate of women entering Sabarinala Temple will be decided by this five-judge Constitution bench.

It is a good initiative by the Indian Young Lawyers Association with several women rights group supporting the cause but there are already someone against this cause. Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president Prayar Gopalakrishnan created a controversy by saying that no “self-respecting” woman born in a “decent” family would enter the Sabarimala Temple even if the Supreme Court lifted the ban.  “We will not allow Sabarimala to become Thailand,” he said on Friday, hinting that if women are allowed to enter, Sabarimala will become a tourist centre. “Even if the court allows entry of women of menstruating age into Sabarimala, no self-respecting woman will go up to the hill shrine,” he added. The hill shrine in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district is managed by the TDB, which has restricted the entry of menstruating women of 10-50 years age group. Gopalakrishnan said that it that was a matter of security as well as tradition. “What will be the situation if women between the ages of 10 to 50 have to climb uphill under challenging weather conditions without any safety?” he asked. “If women are allowed to enter the shrine, women police will also have to be deputed for security. This will lead to a lot of issues, including immoral activities,” he added. How can he compare a temple to a tourist place of Thailand? How can he say that women being allowed in temple will cause immoral activities?

Kerala Minister for Devaswom and Tourism Kadakampally Surendran contradicted what the TDB chief by saying that he had insulted the women community and Ayyappa devotees with such a comparison. He wanted the TDB president to tender an apology for his remark. This comes as a relief that if someone is speaking against rights of women then someone else is speaking for the rights of women. The foot in the mouth statement by the TDB President adds to the list of other foot in the mouth statements by several political and religious leaders in the past. Don’t know what these people of public figure thinks before saying such statements?

Why menstruating women entering Sabarimala Temple is such a big issue? Why menstruation is termed as dirty and impure in this day and age? Menstruation is a natural process in woman which indicates her becoming of a woman. The world will end if menstruation in women would not exist. Then why this same reason is becoming the hurdle between women entering Sabarimala Temple? The patriarchy existing in India is one of the main reasons of women being banned to enter the temple due to menstruation which is seen as if it’s a big disease. It is such a shame to insult a natural process occurring in women. It is a sad reality that menstruation is still a taboo in India where women talk in whispers and code words regarding their menstrual cycle. They feel shame to talk about it in presence of men. Girls from their childhood as soon as they get their periods are conditioned by their mother, sister and other female relatives to not tell about their menstrual cycle to any boy and man. Women are shy to ask for sanitary pads in the shop if a man is present there. Why are women are shamed into not disclosing such an important fact about their own body? We can only wish that this mission is successful with women winning their right to enter Sabarimala Temple after winning their rights to enter Shani Shignapur Temple and Haji Ali Temple. If women are allowed to enter Sabarimala Temple then it will be third back to back victory after Shani Shignapur Temple and Haji Ali Dargah victories.

Novel Review Of One Indian Girl- Feminism or 1 Crore Wedding?

          Chetan Bhagat’s new novel One Indian Girl is written from a woman’s point of view for the first time unlike from a man’s point of view in his earlier books. The novel’s protagonist Radhika Mehta is an investment banker working at Goldman Sachs earning a very high salary. Her high salary of 8 figure may be a dream for other women around her but her own mother finds her 8 figure salary as a threat to her chance of getting a good match. According to her mother, a woman earning high salary has a difficulty in getting a good match as no man will accept a woman earning higher than him. Her mother is afraid of revealing her own daughter’s real salary to the people coming to see her instead of being proud of her achievements but if it was a son in place of her daughter then she would have flashed his salary as the first thing to attract good matches for him. Men are mostly blamed for inequality and gender discrimination but its also many women who are responsible for the same. Radhika finally agrees to marry through arrange marriage after two failed relationships. Her first relationship with Debashish ended because he was not happy with his girlfriend earning thrice his salary and he wanted her to quit her job and take care of the house. Her second relationship with her married boss Neel who is 20 years older to her ended because he thought that she could either be a working woman or be a mother but not both at the same time. Radhika talked a lot about feminism but she succumbed to an arranged marriage.

            The following lines are the description of the back page of the novel:

Hi, I'm Radhika Mehta and I'm getting married this week. I work at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. Thank you for reading my story. However, let me warn you.

You may not like me too much. One, I make a lot of money. Two, I have an opinion on everything. Three, I have had a boyfriend before. OK, maybe two.

Now if all this was the case with a guy, one might be cool with it. But since I am a girl these three things I mentioned don’t really make me too likeable, do they?

The above lines shows Radhika introducing herself to the readers. The tone in which Radhika is introducing herself is not sounding impressive. I don’t see any need for her to say people won’t like her for the above 3 points. She can say the 3 points anyway and let people decide if they like her or not instead of saying them as a warning. Just because she is a woman she don’t need to show off that she make a lot of money. After all, she is not the only woman in the world to make a lot of money.

            Radhika calls herself a feminist but hates the way her elder sister dresses up in a more feminine way and her choosing to be a homemaker instead of a working woman. There is no need for her to put down another woman that also her own sister to show herself as better. Feminism means respecting other women’s choices instead of putting them down. She calls herself a feminist but played a part in her married boss with 2 grown-up children who was 20 years older to her into cheating his wife by having an extra-marital affair with her. Okay, here the another woman can’t be entirely blamed than the man himself when he is the one cheating his wife in his marriage but she can’t call herself a feminist when she has no problem in playing part along with her boyfriend in breaking 3 hearts that is of her boyfriend’s wife and children.  She calls herself a feminist but gets waxing done to please her 1st boyfriend. Not only that but also she has the audacity to say that she will prefer getting lashed like women in Saudi Arabia over waxing. Does even know how much it pains to women getting whipped? She calls herself a feminist but she listens to everything her conservative mother forces her to do like hiding her real salary from the suitors or wearing Indian dress in the hotel area where no one else is dressing like her just because she is getting married in the same hotel after some days. She calls herself a feminist but during bachelorette party she thinks that girls act that they don’t like boy’s attention but in their mind they want their attention. Anyone remember Pink movie’s quote here that ‘NO means NO’?

            The most shocking part of the story is the girl who calls herself a feminist agrees not only to an arranged marriage to a stranger due to her family and relative’s pressure but also spending a huge amount of 1 crore rupees for her wedding with a Brijesh who works in Google. She agreed to marry a man whose name she mocked as she had a problem with it. She agreed to marry to please her family and relatives not being sure whether she wants the marriage or not. After spending 1 crore and almost all the wedding functions being over with a day left for the wedding, she calls off her marriage as she is not sure whether she wants to marry him or not which results in 1 crore rupees going waste. Its okay if she did not wanted to marry him but why she has to waste so much money on a wedding for which she is not sure? Just because she calls herself a feminist she thinks its okay to waste so much money to show off everyone that she earns so much salary that she can waste them without any problem. There are many more things shown in the book which will make us doubt what feminism actually means. The main blunder is that the book is named ‘One Indian Girl’ which means the story of 1 girl but Radhika generalizes every woman with same examples like ‘all women do this’, ‘all women love this’, ‘all women want this’ and so on. Where is the choice in all this?

            My final verdict is that if people are looking for a book on feminism then don’t go for this one and waste you money. This book only lures people with their feminism bait when actually there are hardly any feminism shown in this book. 

Will Marital Rape ever be criminalized in India?

            Rape is a crime and the person accused can be punished severely by the law if proven guilty. There are laws against the crime of rape which can be used to bring justice to the victims and punish the culprits. But what if this grave sin is committed on a woman with whom she is supposed to spend her entire life that is her husband? Its becomes a marital where the husband rapes his own wife within their marriage. If a rape by unknown person can be so traumatizing for the victim for a long time or even throughout her life then the trauma of rape of woman by her own husband is unimaginable because they have to face that person everyday. Unfortunately, marital rape is not criminalized in India because marriage is seen as sacred institution here. But how can a marriage be sacred when the man who you are bonded with this institution violates your right and consent of physical intimacy? How can a woman who is raped by her own husband can continue to live with him with the possibility of being raped again by him?

            Section 375, the provision of rape in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) considers- “Sexual intercourse by  man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape.” Section 376 of IPC provides punishment for rape. According to the section, the rapist should be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than 7 years but which may extend to life or for a term extending up to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine unless the woman raped is his own wife, and is not under 12 years of age, in which case, he shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 2 years with fine or with both. These laws prove that how Indian government is insensitive towards marital rape and don’t want to criminalize it just because the culprit is the victim’s husband. According to Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi, the marital rape cannot be criminalized in the Indian context. She says, "It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors e.g. level of education/illiteracy, poverty, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament." Her statement angered a lots of women rights group. How can a woman who is supposed to work for women and child development say such a regressive and gender-biased statement when there are more than 60% marital rape victims in India? It is said that women are raped more by people known to them than people unknown to them. What many people are not ready to accept that most of those known people are victim’s husbands themselves who are supposed to respect their dignity instead of violating their dignity?

            With the statistics showing as more than 60% of women as victims of marital rape in India, there is a high possibility that we see some victims as well as culprits of marital rape when we are outside our house and travelling. But we can't figure out who among the people we see everyday are victims and culprits of marital rape. When we see a married couple, we can have thoughts in our mind about the couple that whether they are happily married or unhappily married, whether they had love marriage or they had arranged marriage to the extent of whether the wife is satisfied and loves her sexual relation with her husband or she is raped regularly by her own husband. We are not wicked to have these kinds of thought process as its a normal human nature.

            Its high time there should be strict laws for marital rape. Marital rape needs to be criminalized as many women in India suffer greatly from it. The women who show courage to file complaint against their husbands are turned away by the police. With the lack of support for such a heinous crime will Marital Rape ever be criminalized in India?

Flipkart or Cheatkart?

          Flipkart is one of the leading online stores of India. It’s a trusted online store of millions of Indians. People using Flipkart have good, bad or mixed experiences now and then. I am a satisfied customer of Flipkart from 5 years. But sometimes, many trusted brands or online store takes its customer for granted. This is what happened to many customers. One of them is me who is writing this piece. Being a girl, I love make-ups. I ordered my make-up stuffs from Flipkart several and always got satisfied with the service but this time I am disappointed with the service. Well disappointed is a small word. I am in fact angry with the service. I ordered for a High Fly Gel Eyeliner which has 2 containers of gel eyeliner of black and brown colours. But I got wrong product of some different brand called Miss Rose in which there are 2 boxes of black eye shadows. I only realized of being cheated after opening the covering boxes because on text messages and receipts, the right product names were written but after opening the covers its wrong product I got. I immediately applied for return policy on their web site and I was assured the replacement of the wrong product with the right product. I even talked with customer care of Flipkart who apologized for the mistake and said that its not their fault that I got the wrong product as its not them who do the packaging work. I then told him that make sure that I don’t get the wrong product again which he assured me only to be proved wrong again. After some days, I got my replacement product. I told the shipping guy too to not make the same mistake and he said the same thing as what customer care said that its not their job of arranging the things for delivery. After some time, I opened the box and got relieved to find the write product name on the cardboard box. Then I checked the contents and was shocked to find 2 boxes of black eyeliners which was not at all gel eyeliners. Then I checked the cardboard box again and was shocked to find that this time they went 10 more steps ahead in cheating me. I found that I got the same wrong product like last time with the stickers of right products pasted cleverly on the cardboard box. I got the same Miss Rose product with the stickers of Music Flower pasted on them. I was very angry. My brother told me too call the customer care but I decided against as I will get the same apologies and same replies that its not their fault as they are not the ones doing the packaging. I simply applied for return policy again and this time there was only money back option and not replacement option. I decided to take my money back. They asked for account number as the money will be transferred to my account which I did. I am now just waiting for my money to be transferred in my account which I hope happens the soonest. What happened with me is not expected from a leading online shopping site like Flipkart. The customer care guy and the shipping guy easily said that its not their fault that I got wrong product as its not their job. Then who the hell is at fault? Even if customer care guy is not at fault can’t he just talk with the people responsible for packaging to make sure that they deliver right products without any mistake? I read the reviews of the product that I ordered and was horrified to read 2 person’s comments where they faced the same problem that I did. So its not just me who is being cheated but some others too. The first time they gave wrong product but the second time after replacement they had the audacity to paste stickers of the right product on the wrong product boxes. Isn’t it shameful that instead of realizing and rectifying their mistakes they are behaving worse than earlier? If this goes on then how can we trust to order for something again from Flipkart? Being a leading online shopping site, they have responsibility of satisfying their customers instead of angering them with their repeated blunders. 

            On the other side, its also possible that someone working in the company itself is trying to bring bad name to the company by purposely repeated the mistake going one step ahead by sticking brand name sticker on the real name of the wrong product. Who in the right mind will make such a mistake after one complaint from the customer? I got my money transferred back but don't know if I will be ever able to trust Flipkart in the same way like earlier. After what I experienced on reading some comments regarding that product, I can only as a question that whether this online shopping site is Flipkart or Cheatkart?

India-History Repeating With A Dark Future

            Many Indian people proudly say, “Jahaan daal daal par sone ki chidiya karti hai basera, vo Bharat desh hai mera…” but is this phrase or song from 1965 Sikander-e-Azam movie really true? The message in this song was very true in ancient India but what about today? Is this true any more???

            On one side, India praises a lot of brave personalities, leaders and martyrs who played an important role in freedom movement of India but what we have seen on the other side and still seeing is more than shocking and disappointing. If India is still termed as a developing country instead of developed country, it is mostly because of India people. Well, on the other side, what we are seeing from centuries are the evil, treacherous face of our very own people. These people are the reason why India is suffering from centuries and may suffer for centuries to come.

            I don’t know really from when the treacheries really started and who started it but India must have been a better place and would have a very wonderful history. In medieval times, there used to be war among the neighbouring kingdoms. It is said that India never conquered any country but was conquered innumerable times by many countries. The Mughals and British took advantage of the lack of unity in India and showed their true colours ruling India for centuries. Worse, there were many times traitors in India who caused the failure of many plans among the Indians and death of their own various people be it the leader, king, common mans, etc. It was because of these traitors that India continued to remain behind and took late to gain independence. Prithviraj Chauhan’s father-in-law Jaichand refused to help him in war against Muhammad Ghori and instead sided with Ghori causing in the war plan failure, loss of war, capturing and death of Prithviraj; capture, cruel torture and death of Sambhaji Raje by Aurangzeb happened due the betrayal of his own brother-in-law; Mir Jaffar’s great betrayal to Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula in the Battle of Plassey against the British; death of brave Indian revolutionaries like Chandrasekhar Azad, Surya Sen, etc. died due to the treachery and so on. So, it is evident that if no people would have been traitor and true to their motherland then I don’t think that anyone had guts enough to rule over India. When British ruled India, it followed the policy of Divide and Rule which even occurred before the British rule which included taking the advantage of fights within India. They also took advantage of greed in some Indian people. Its very disappointing that our own people caused us such defeats and bad times.

            Can we say that all this changed today? Absolutely no. If it would have then India would not have been termed as developing country. Today, the government is worse. They acted kind and merciful to terrorists like Afzal Guru and Kasab who took many lives in India instead of hanging them to death as early as possible. They took years in hanging them. Corruption is found everywhere whether it is in school, colleges, government offices, etc. The politicians commit a lot of corruptions. India is becoming land of scams such as CWG Scam, Adarsh Scam, 2G Spectrum Scam and so on. India has enormous amount of black money in Swiss mostly by the corrupt politicians. There are still poor people who don’t get food two-three times a day. Corruption is common in schools and colleges in the form of donations. Suspended Indian Diplomat Madhuri Gupta turned out to be a spy working for Pakistan informing them about many secret information about India. Many Indian people were brainwashed into joining ISIS. Out of them, several people went to help ISIS. This led the ATS team to become more alert and they caught several people going to help ISIS. This shows that we have many traitors in India who are working for our enemies even though they are themselves from India. Racism exists at many places in India. In 2008, Maharashtrians started attacking North Indians and people from other states. North-east people living in other states are attacked now and then by the people of their own country who don’t accept them as their own people because of their looks and features. This proves that India still has lack of unity. That is probably one of the reasons why India is getting attacked a lot by the terrorists. There have been even war between religions in modern India. Many suffered in riots due to Babri Masjid demolition, Godhra riots, 11/7 bomb blast, 26/11, German Bakery bomb blast, recent attacks on Indians by Pakistan several times and so on.

            So, the future of India can be in dark which is really sad. Earlier India was the richest country in the world but it lost a large of wealth due to many countries conquering, looting and even ruling India. India would have been surely termed as developed country if the problems like lack of unity, corruption, racism, etc. would not have existed.