Poor coverage of the Indian women’s hockey team’s recent victory at the Asian Champions Trophy event highlights the society’s misconstrued and callous attitude towards female athletes in the country.

This could become yet another article about athletes in India not getting their dues. Instead, let’s make this about women once more. It has been centuries since Jane Eyre declared, “I am no bird… I am a free human being with an independent will.” Meanwhile, not even a year has elapsed since the 2016 Rio Olympics and already, women athletes find themselves slipping onto the backburner once more. The recent Asian Champions Trophy victory by the Indian women’s hockey team largely went unnoticed. Perhaps the demonetisation fiasco will be blamed for poor media coverage this once. Or will hockey, as a sport, be blamed altogether for not comparing to cricket? No matter which way you look, there never has been a dearth of excuses to overshadow women’s achievements in sports.
The fundamental difference between ‘genders’ is something every child knows by the time they have crossed the gates of high school. CBSE ensures that the textbooks repeat these definitions every year. But when it comes to female athletes, it seems as if ‘gender’ takes the trophy every time. Dress codes and moralising sermons emerge as favourites. You could, of course, dismiss this as yet another feminist rant right here. That would hardly be surprising. Just days after Delhi Times ran an article about the ladder of difficulties a woman must climb before she becomes a Sania Mirza, the women’s hockey team actually scored a ground breaking victory. Unfortunately, it was not the Olympics and these women were not as popular as Mirza. There was hardly any noise made.
We wouldn’t need articles like these if it were not for those four-by-four ‘boxes’ of gender norms ensuring that low wages, sexual harassment at the workplace and lewd comments on the field end up becoming commonplace obstacles. To some extent, the nation’s obsessions with cricket may explain why other sports are sidelined. But it is not enough. Men have to overcome poverty, lack of supplements, training grounds or equipment and an impassive administration, all in order to reach the Olympics and prove a point. Women, on the other hand, must worry about the length of their shorts in addition to these problems. It all adds up because of our socialisation and a skewed sense of how the girl child must be brought up. For a large part of the nation, especially rural India where most of the athletes hail from, an ideal woman is still bound by patriarchal notions of chastity. She looks like the sari-clad, virginal goddess of Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings. How can we celebrate the victories of a figure meant to be worshipped, while she wears a hockey uniform and wields the stick on a field?
In a land which celebrates femininity as ‘something divine’, women can hardly break free. This is why Rio was a slap on our faces. It was the Olympics and of course, the media would have to devote its resources to covering an event where national pride was at stake. So it did. Only this time, all the winners turned out to be females. It gave athletes like P.V. Sindhu and Deepa Malik recognition for what they were worth—for being athletes and not merely for being women. This article wouldn’t even be written if it were not true that the women’s hockey team must wait for an Olympics-level victory, in order to be ‘seen’. But that remains a sad reality. They must hit back harder to be counted.

Image credits: www.ndtv.com

By Deepannita Misra
[email protected]

With a new year already on its way, the Syrian refugee crisis grows its roots further and enters into a new year too, though ignored by the international community.

Three years old Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body washing up on the seashore near a Turkish resort, as if it were a dead whale lying on the beach, has already become a relic of the past. As the numbers threaten to cross the 11 million mark this time, the Syrian refugee crisis has already gone out of hands. The international community is having a hard time evading the stark truth, since those nations now undertaking the rehabilitation have been, in part, responsible for propelling the crisis too.

With thousands flocking the borders, the U.S. and European Union now find themselves in a murky pool. Where sheer numbers have overwhelmed order and structure, it is a blot on humanitarian efforts to term these people ‘migrants’. The media and the international community use the term in tandem. But it just seems too polite, compared to the word refugees. As refugees, they stand outside the periphery because they do not have choices. Mass scale events like the recent Global Citizen concert in Mumbai, are all but an eyewash for the real victims. And as refugees, as the homeless, they can let their pathetic conditions be exposed—stark naked under the spotlight of a global media circus which ran their stories for a few months maximum, merely to increase its ratings.

As of today, the global scenario is one of extreme apathy. The refugee goes knocking from door to door, receiving no favourable replies. The Kurdis were themselves denied asylum by Canada’s Conservative Party in June, 2015. Also, let us not forget that these refugees are fleeing not only from the attacks of The Islamic State, as terror-inducing as that is on its own, but also from bombings of the U.S. in their region. The ones caught between the crossfire did not make it out alive. The others who were not so unlucky, now find the EU meting out a step-fatherly attitude. It goes without saying, of course, that the United Nations peace missions are grossly under-staffed and under-funded to deal with a large scale pandemonium such as this. The makeshift tents which try to hand over their childhood to them, can never be called ‘home’ by the children.

Keeping aside the question of whose mess it was, the most pertinent issue raised should be about ‘criminality’. The fact that the media tries to skillfully tiptoe over the line by only focusing on the terrible plight and living conditions of the refugees, should come as nothing short of an embarrassment. Though that is important news too, the media should do more than merely focus on poverty or it becomes a veil to evade the real issue—why are the Syrians, in particular, being regarded with suspicion. Moreover, does such an attitude not find itself embedded in graver discourses of racial and religious discrimination, given that it is aimed particularly at the Syrian community? If it is not just about regarding refugees in general with suspicion, then is it a larger re-playing of Islamophobia across the world? These are questions raised implicitly by the refugees themselves, perhaps a tad too bold but nevertheless significant, which the media seems to shy away from. And when it does, it only digs its own grave deeper by exposing a wealth of hypocrisy.

 Deepannita Misra

([email protected])

Image Credits: www.ibtimes.com and www.famousartistsgallery.com

Have you ever imagined what fearing success would be like? Well, here’s a factual tale about Achievemephobia– the fear of success.

At approximately 30,000 ft above ground, en route my home town with multiplied excitement, I was seated next to a lady in her late fifties. While I was engrossed in my book titled ‘The Magic’ by Rhonda Bryne, little all I could hear was the lady’s periodic sighs. And of a sudden she asked me the genre of the book. “It’s a self help book”, I replied with a smile and she asked me for the book. She went through the preface while I was in a dilemma about starting a conversation with her. Though she had already asked my where-abouts, I was not expecting much of a talk. Surprisingly enough, she asked me if I knew about ‘Achievemephobia’. I had the faintest idea of what this phobia is about, and so I gestured an obvious no. She wanted to know if reading this book could help her. I expressed confusion and she started, “It is known to all that, fear is a powerful emotion and if you are experiencing the extreme fear of success, then there is probably nothing holding you back more in life.” I guessed Achievemephobia has to be the fear of success, and it left me wondering how success can be scary. As she went on, “The fear of success is very much like the fear of failure: both prevent the sufferer from dreaming and achieving his goals.” I was still wondering how she can be sharing her weirdest fear to a complete stranger. How weird it seems to fear success; after all what can be more appealing in life than it?

“It might surprise you to note that many CEOs and presidents of banks have been known to have Achievemephobia” she added. “Success has mixed results: it can bring fame and money but it comes at a cost such as envy, jealousy, hurt, notoriety, limelight etc. This knowledge can cause deep fear in the minds of Achievemephobic. Fearing about getting what one wants and being unable to handle achieving this, the deep fear of success is usually deep rooted. A person may be exceptionally talented yet they may have a long list of underachievement. This becomes a vicious circle in a way that they refuse to set goals. Shy, introverted people or people who do not like limelight might suffer from Achievemephobia. Getting ahead of friends, colleagues, and close family members can be intimidating and threatening: one might fear breaking ties with these people. The fear of success often stems from guilt or self doubt. Success comes with responsibilities which can lead to fear.” “A child who has always listened to comments like “You will not succeed” might carry the belief well into adulthood, undermining everything they do.” As she finished, I had an ardent desire to know if that child was her. I aptly suggested the book to her. She gave me a faded smile, maybe for listening to her. Unknowingly how contagious fears are, she taught me how scary it is on the top. Later I learnt that she is an IPS officer, a gold medallist in Political Science and a doctorate holder.

Achievemephobia is an unconscious phobia: often an individual is unaware that he has it. People suffering from Achievemephobia are not able to handle success: they might go on a spate of self destructive behaviour: drinking, drugs, sex etc and end up losing all that they have achieved. Many refuse to set goals in the first place. The need to escape self awareness can lead the phobic to drug use or alcoholism or even drive one to suicide in extreme cases. There are ways of overcoming this phobia. Writing down one’s thoughts and changing negative into positive ones can be a great self-help technique while dealing with this phobia. Positive visualizations, meditation and deep breathing upon facing an anxiety attack related to thoughts associated with success are other self help remedies.

Radhika Boruah
[email protected]

Image Credits:www.hypnosisondemand.com

With the approaching semester exams, we’re all in a frenzy to find the best study material and best study spaces to make up for the lost semester. But with the availability of a sea of study resources on our phone/laptop screens, the culture of going out and studying in those quiet library halls is fading away.

The Library had been our favorite gossip and fun place in school. From dodging the teacher’s gaze to passing on tiny chits to convey messages, we’ve done it all during that library period. Now, as we’ve grown up to be college kids, studying in the library , leaving behind the cozy covers is an idea that would never cross the mind.

Studying in a library has been highly underrated; as underrated as the overrated group study. Group Study plans with friends; beginning with strict announcements like, “Iss baar sabhi padhenge!” always go down the drain adding memories for the heart; but not syllabus for the marksheet! Or the cozy comfort of the bed in the winter months that wouldn’t let us slip out of the room.

That is when we can ditch those group study plans or the luring comforter to save the semester; by heading to that corner of the college we’ve not entered more than twice during the year!
Going beyond the solemn silence, what adds to the motivation is the huge number of books around! With the availability of online resources at our personal devices, the online study plan ends up in opening too many tabs altogether and finally settling down at the YouTube or Facebook one checking out Kenny Sebastian’s new videos or our crush’s FB Profile! The Library then comes to our rescue; when we finally wish to run away from those little ‘online exploration breaks’, through the environment that prevents one from getting distracted.

Moreover, the people studying all fixedly, demanding deathlike silence when we try to make ourself comfortable, never fail to motivate us, the poor fun people, to study and sail through final exams.

Keeping aside the jokes, libraries indeed help one study and find the best references for a thorough study. Seemingly harmless, yet distracting little gossips with roommates often curb our productivity, but those silent library halls never fail to let us concentrate on the study notes in front!

So why not enter that distant building and try your luck for a more thorough study?

Priyal Mahtta
[email protected]

Image Credits: www.library.ucf.edu