Latest
DU Beat – Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper
Tag

opinion

Browsing
DUB Speak

The experience of being bisexual and blithe

By

I came out almost accidentally over a year ago, after at least six months of intense mental conversations with myself. I remember the exact moment I felt the words come out of my mouth for the first time, to a friend I’d recently reconnected with after years of no conversation. “I’m pretty sure I’m bisexual anyway”, I said. He nodded in acknowledgement, and we continued our chatter as if what I’d just revealed was a perfectly normal statement. The astonishing part in all of this is that it was, in fact, a perfectly normal statement.

I don’t have qualms about sexuality. Ever since I gained understanding of the concepts of equality, I’ve believed that everyone deserves to be loved. Being bisexual was difficult to figure out, but only because it involved an analysis of my actions and feelings since childhood, as well as a re-evaluation of what I’d established as my identity for so long. There were several stages – from ‘I only like men’ to ‘I like women only physically’ to finally, ‘I can see myself marrying a girl’. The discovery was groundbreaking, in the way scientific inventions are. It offered me a fitting definition and a new perspective. I came out to all my friends one by one, and I couldn’t have wished for better responses. The best thing is that it didn’t stop there. My friends are supportive, silently and unwaveringly but also vocally and emphatically. We joke about stereotypes but appreciate our identities. My boyfriend laughingly exclaims that he’s always up for threesomes, and in the same breath gushes with pride for my openness about my sexuality.
While I’ve yet to come out to my parents, the conversation I had with my brother within a month of labeling myself as bisexual is one of my most treasured memories. We’re not the closest siblings, and we’ve never talked about it since, but the knowledge that someone I immensely look up to knows who I am, is liberating.

Coming out can be hard and traumatic. Luckily for me, I have a support system that can’t be rivaled. The stigma attached to the LGBT community, especially in India, is still highly prevalent. However, not every queer’s life has to be full of distress. There are people who care. People in your family, people in your college, friends you’ve known for years, and a worldwide community. This is what most people do not have the opportunity to realise – that it is possible to be queer, accepted, and happy.

Image Credits: www.whatsuplife.in

Vineeta Rana

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Think Before You Stereotype: The Gorkha community and Flipkart fiasco

By

The entire Gorkha community has been stereotyped as security guards for ages. Recently flipkart has reiterated this generalisation. Stereotyping is the most basic form of racism, and the Gorkha community is enraged at their portrayal.

Although very common, stereotyping of others, by relegating certain characteristics to groups of people on the basis of common ethnicity, religion or language is wrong and reflects unawareness. Persistent stereotyping of certain communities by the mainstream media runs the risk of reducing the community in its entirety to a mere image that has been propagated of them. With the enormous impact that Bollywood has on us Indians, we seldom fail to look beyond its generalising tendencies and accept whatever image of a community that it provides.


A recurring stock character in Bollywood movies is that of a Gorkha security guard, always named “Bahadur” for some reason, as if all Gorkhas are called by that name. In August, the retail giant Flipkart picked up this mothballed stereotype in two of its advertisement commercials. In both of them, a child dressed as a security guard wears a gorkha topi with a ‘khukuri’ insignia, and speaks in a ridiculous accent attributed to the Gorkhas who apparently cannot speak Hindi. This commercial received massive flak from the Gorkha community for being racist and highly insensitive. The Gorkha Youth and Students Assocition of India (GYASA) filed a police complaint against Flipkart in which they have said, “Stereotyping a community is the most basic forms of racism and by promoting their business using racist stereotyping; Flipkart has shown how insensitive they are and at the same time exposed the hypocrisy of our great nation. While we cry for blood when an Indian is ‘stereotyped and racially abused’ in foreign shores, we tend to silently accept stereotyping as an accepted form of comedy when it is done to the minorities of our own nation.”


After pressure was applied through social media sites, Flipkart did address the issue and made changes to their commercials, by removing the ‘khukuri’ from the child’s ‘topi’ and changing the voice of the characters. In its statement the company maintains, “Our intent has never been to stereotype or typecast any community and hurt their sentiments in any manner. Rather, it has always been to celebrate the diversity and nuances that are unique to us as Indians,” and very cheekily urges “Gorkha friends” to “enjoy the innocent humour of the communication”. The company has asserted the important role that security guards play in our lives and also highlighted the valour and bravery that the Gorkha community are associated with.

However, the problem is not so much with the portrayal of Gorkhas as security guards, but the persistent and repetitive manner in which it is done. Why do the media fail to perceive that besides being security guards, multitudes of Gorkhas are involved in many other fields as well? The captain of the Indian football team is a Gorkha for that matter! The stereotype, through its common usage, has become so accepted that we have come to think nothing of it and Flipkart has only capitalised on its ‘taken-for-granted’ nature. 


Flipkart committed a highly racist act by feeding into this stereotype. The company should’ve considered the wide reach of its advertisement campaigns. It shouldn’t have negated the interest of a minority community, which is almost 10million strong.
The media’s regular portrayal of Gorkhas as security guards named ‘Bahadur’, or as Chinese surrogates or citizens from Nepal, and for that matter Anglo-Indians as English speaking old aunties, negates the multi-faceted nature of these communities and marginalises them as the ‘other’. We are all Indians, and it is our duty to be aware of our counterparts and not impose an image upon them with which we are most familiar and comfortable.

Image Credits : www.huffingtonpost.com

Swareena Gurung
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Syria and the Great Humanitarian Crisis of Our Time

By

My last article on Syria focused on the implications of the involvement of Western powers in this hostile region following the terror strikes in Paris in November 2015. Today, nine months later I realise that I, like most citizens of the ‘lesser-affected’ nations, missed the bigger picture when I wrote the aforementioned article simply because the possibility of a “third world war” emerging out of Syria affected me and not the horrifying cesspool of death and destruction that the crisis has turned into. This misguided notion that the horrors of the Syrian civil war will only affect us when ISIS starts burning our own cities to the ground is the reason why the world has let the situation in Syria escalate to where it has today. It has reached a stage where we no longer care about the millions dying on a regular basis until and unless a European city becomes a target of the Islamic State, a stage where we care more about making a trip to a refugee camp for publicity or the building up of our resume rather than actually helping people, a stage where a picture of a three year old boy lying dead on a beach or of a five year old covered in blood, dust and rubble is required to galvanise our leaders into action or evoke some sympathy out of us.

_90848482_mediaitem90848481
Image Credits: www.bbc.co.uk

Omar Daqneesh and his family may have survived the airstrike in Aleppo (if you call losing your home, sustaining severe injuries and probably being traumatized for the rest of your life surviving) but hundreds of thousands of people continue to be victims of the events occurring in Syria and the rest of us continue to sit by and do nothing. The United Nations have estimated that there are still around 18 million civilians living in Syria down from 25 million at the start of the war. The conditions that these people are forced to live in are unimaginable for those of us sitting in the comfort of our own homes and reading this on a laptop. With limited food production and food aid often being sold in black, thereby increasing its prices immensely, the number of people starving to death has increased drastically across the country. Healthcare facilities are repeatedly attacked and medical personnel killed reducing people’s access to basic health services. The most horrifying statistics however are those regarding the children of the country. With over fifteen thousand dead since the beginning of the war, the children growing up in this warzone are not only subjected to the horrors of war but are unable to access their basic fundamental rights as human beings on this planet, namely, food, water and education.

The sad reality is that the country has lost an entire generation of children as a result of just five years of civil war. Whereas Omar Daqneesh and his family are fighting for their lives within the country, there are thousands like Aylan Kurdi who in spite of somehow making it out of the country are still victims of all the aforementioned problems. The refugee crisis has not improved in any way whatsoever and the rise of conservatism and an anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe has only made the situation worse. Furthermore, with the Islamic State’s repeated attacks on European cities one has to wonder how long it is before every country in the continent shuts its doors to the Syrian refugees and how many more shell shocking pictures of young boys and girls have to disseminate before the international community takes action. It saddens me that I have to conclude this article in the same way I did nine months ago because not much has changed in Syria during this period (other than the death toll which rises each and every day) and it continues to be a problem without an immediate solution.

Featured Image Credits: www.independent.co.uk

Shraman Ghosh
[email protected] 

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

“I’m a gay teen and many of you may think we are different”

By

If you aren’t familiar with the term already, LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Described by many as a colonial baggage that has outlived its relevance in the present times, the infamous Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 is a silent reminder of the sheer failure of the system to be inclusive and progressive. We got in touch with one such teen who narrated his side of the story, as a student who is part of the sexual minority. Read along as he describes the concept of homophobia, his experience as a DU student and more..

“It’s the 21st century and the LGBT (Lesbian is excluded because of the legal recognition and rights given to them recently, although they still face rampant discrimination.) population in India is still almost non-existent; well that’s according to the government who turns a blind eye towards the LGBT community and the Supreme Court which said in its 2013 judgement that “the LGBT population constitutes only  a minuscule fraction of the country’s population” and reinstated section 377 in the statute books.

I’m a gay teen and many of you might think that You and I are very different. Well that’s not true because at the end of the day we are all humans except for the fact that you don’t have to live a dual life.

It wasn’t easy in the beginning, when I realised that I was gay. Being made fun of, the gender stereotypes and the countless myths and taboos are some of the things associated with being gay. I used to ask God “why me?” hoping that I would turn out to be “normal” and that this is just a phase.  This was, until I read about being gay on the internet which gave me an assurance that it’s normal. I’m lucky that I had access to the internet, which showed me a ray of hope. I clearly remember reading a quote which said, “being straight is not normal, it’s just common.” It made me realise that I was not alone and that there are millions of others just like me. I even read stories of gay people from all across the world and the LGBT rights movements across North America and Europe.  

I live a dual life and I’m good at it because I have never been bullied or called names, although I may have garnered a little bit of suspicion from some people. It’s basically living a lie; I have to pretend to like girls and hide my feelings towards a person of the same-sex. One instance I can recall in this regard is that I made a girlfriend just so I could show those ignorant homophobes that even I can get a girl. This act proved my “manliness” to my peers and put a stop to all those jokes and suspicions. They thought that I’m a late bloomer.

My experience at DU has been good so far. I haven’t encountered any discrimination/homophobia but also haven’t met many LGBT people. Maybe that is because they are in the closet just like I am. In my first year at DU, I came out to two of my close friends. They took it positively and hugged me together, twice. In fact, one of them only asked me to write this article. Coming out isn’t easy. That’s because you have to run a thousand simulations of how the person to whom you are coming out will take it. Then you have to predict how this person will take it or go with your gut feeling. After all this, find the right time to tell them. After telling them, see their first reaction and if its negative then say I’m kidding and it’s a joke or make up some lame excuse. So basically it’s a long process. After coming out, the person may ask questions, but that’s good because it shows their interest and that they care about you.

India is a free country, yet I’m not allowed to live openly and freely. There is always the fear of someone finding out. But now I have got used to it; it does not affect me as much as it used to. I have a long term goal which is to move out of this country and live freely, without any fear. It’s not like I’m unpatriotic, it’s just that I deserve better. Why should I suffer in this country when I can live a better and dignified life abroad. The reason I want to leave this country is simple- India is homophobic and ignorant. The country has no laws protecting the gay community; instead there are archaic laws like section 377 that still exist in the statute books.

However, there has been a change in the Indian society, people have started discussing the issue of LGBT equality. The media has played a significant role in highlighting the problems faced by the LGBT community. In the parliament a private member’s bill was proposed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to drop section 377 from the statute books. It was rejected for discussion, but at least it’s a start.

To be honest I don’t think India might adopt marriage equality and employment rights for the gay community anytime in the near future. Also, with the pace at which things are moving in this country, I feel its best if I move out of the country and live a better life.
The opinion expressed is a solely personal account of the writer, who wrote this with the promise of anonymity. LGBT rights is an important issue for discussion and such voices need to be heard. Does the mainstream even know about their existence? If not, we all should.

Featured image credits: : www.aljazeera.com 

Compiled by:

Riya Chhibber
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Much Ado About Nothing : The Tanmay Bhat saga

By

It has been all over the news. Everyone, starting from bollywood celebrities to political parties, is talking about it. On 26th May, Tanmay Bhat, the co-founder of AIB released a snapchat video of Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar battling it out on how good a batsman Virat Kohli is. Expletives-laden, the video sparked an outrage among all the top brass and the general community too. The video was later taken off Snapchat but the Facebook post went viral.

Now, I believe that the video was over hyped and it deserves a passing glance at most. But an issue so insignificant has been blown so out of proportion, that voicing out opinions seems to be the necessary thing to do.

Here’s what happened: After a nice online thrashing by the public came the bollywood stars. Anupam Kher, especially, along with Riteish Deshmukh and Celina Jaitley condemned the video as disgusting and demeaning. Then the parties. MNS wanted to file an FIR and remove it from the online platform. One of their top leaders wanted to catch and beat the accused (Bhat) on the streets. Finally, the NCP’s women’s wing protested on the streets and burnt his effigy, which was the cherry on top.

We take our celebs and icons too seriously. That is a fact. Call Rajnikant a flop and not a single bus conductor will give you a ticket. But do we see Rajnikant fretting about who is calling him what? No. Because he simply does not care. A few people’s opinions is not going to change anything for him. That is what we need to understand. Defending one’s favourite choice is good. Burning an effigy is ridiculous. In all these days, neither Sachin nor Lata ji has made one comment on the matter. Because it does not affect them.

As for all the self righteous people out there, please shift your focus to more important things. We are living in an age where a snapchat story becomes the talk of the nation and a poor girl gang raped by  20 or more men does not even make a headline. Where farmers are commit suicide everyday because something about the Green Revolution was just not right. We are still living that era where the graver problems of the city are ignored and biscuit talk about social media trends is all that is going around.

What Tanmay was doing was simply poking fun at two iconic celebrities. It might have been a spur of the moment with, granted, very bad jokes but that was it. It was just a joke. But we have once again proved that any attempt at fun making of celebrities is not cool. Yes, India is very tolerant except for a few topics, which are taboo. Surprisingly, the list of taboos is ever increasing. So yes, we are very tolerant. But make fun of us and we will twitter slam you.

Featured Image: NDTV

Arindam Goswami

[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Life after school : The nitty gritty of college life

By

After 14 yrs of schooling, every student hallucinates about a fanciful college life, full of fun and frolic! While the transition from being a school kid to a college goer is an indescribable experience, however, just like a mountain, this experience has its own peaks and valleys. Read along as we try to give words to this adventurous expedition by taking a timely peek-a-boo into the reality of college life.

The new found freedom

Before delving deep into the realities of the adult world, give yourself a pat on the back for surviving the laborious journey of schooling in a regressive system of education in India. Having aced this long yet memorable journey, you are now set to embark upon a completely unprecedented ride of college life. From fantasies of having a hike in pocket money, travelling alone, living in a new city to the far-fetched ideas of trying all sorts of whacky things and making lots of friends, college opens a pandora’s box for a student. The month of May becomes that time of the year where every 12thie realises that they were living without good clothes all this while and urgently need a wardrobe makeover. Hopes of finding the perfect match/true love for oneself too becomes a priority. The ‘college main sab chalta hai’ ideology keeps a student busy in his or her little bubble. But honestly, all play and no work is a mantra that sadly doesn’t work in college.

Within no time you’ll start cribbing about how the metro is so crowded and it has become your second home as you end up spending a crucial amount of time, each day, in commuting from home to college and vise-versa. The idea of going to new places every time also goes out of the window as you realise you don’t have money by the end of the month. The myth that college is an easy road is broken the moment you have to sign a bond for short attendance and also face the wrath of the teachers who give you nothing but sadistic looks.

Image credits: eljtheelf.deviantart.com
Image credits: eljtheelf.deviantart.com

The struggle and rise of the ‘Relatives’

If you think CBSE result is the last time you’ll see the rise of the relatives, you are mistaken my friend. After witnessing a gamut of emotions from elation to dejection during college admissions, relatives leave no stones unturned to unlock the next level of ‘intrusive behavior’ as their new jingle becomes ‘Iske baad age kya plan hai?’. We talked to a few students from some off-beat courses to know more.

Gairik Ghosh from Institute of Hotel Management, Ahmedabad, who is now specialising in Food Production told us, “I had frankly told my parents that I won’t be able to excel in any regular course and I won’t be able to do justice to any random course they choose for me. Cooking is what I like and I told them about the same. I had to make them understand that this field was promising enough. It was tough, but I ended up doing what I like best.”

Yamini Gupta, who is pursuing Music Honours from Miranda House College too has a similar story to share as she says, “I wanted to do something in music since the very beginning while my family wanted me to opt for a conventional course. It is sad when I have to explain to my friends and relatives that the course I am enrolled in is different and not an easy one and unlike them, during our exams and practicals, we can’t even cheat! Relatives have always been quick to question the scope of my course, what papers do I have and what benefits I’ll derive from such a degree after 3 yrs, but I am happy and content with what I have as this is what I wanted to pursue.”

 

Image credits: twitter.com
Image credits: twitter.com

College life : Level unlocked, you may resume play! 

After being through a regimented system of schooling, college life does end up making you look like a lost puppy in the initial days. Unaware of the nuances of college life, you’ll take weeks to figure out how to read your time table and end up chilling the entire semester until you realise that you have exams to give in the month of November! It won’t be long once you start liking memes on Facebook about how you love your sleep and hate getting up for morning lectures. Friendships too don’t last longer than any GoT character, unless you are lucky enough to find people who stick by you through thick and thin. There also comes a time when you realise how you’ve become a guinea pig to DU’s experiments and why the world is at Sharda University after all!

 

Image credits: www.pinterest.com
Image credits: www.pinterest.com

Somewhere between making plans to hang out with friends to sleep becoming your best friend, college life happens. It teaches you patience, perseverance and that you’ll be judged by anybody and everybody. It is a whole new experience that no other place can offer. So shed all the inhibitions, believe in yourself and remember, in the real world, toil never ends.

 

Feature image credits: forums.soompi.com  

Riya Chhibber

[email protected] 

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Delhi University – Proceed with caution

By

To be very honest, most people who’ve been posting how they are going to miss college post graduation are lying. The reasons might differ, but they’re lying alright. I agree there are a few people who are legit distressed about graduating (already?!) but a few of us are actually very glad that this is happening. I am just concerned that I don’t see more of people like that. Instead, all I have on my news feed are emotional messages about how transforming the past three years have been. Personally, they sucked. Somewhat yes. Maybe truly.

We all entered this phase of our lives with bright eyes and high hopes of getting a taste of what it’s like being in the ‘real world.’ Instead, regulations even worse than our school life greeted us. While the course curriculum remains as weak as ever (FYUP, give me that one year of my life back), placements are as ineffective as the administration even in some of the ‘better colleges,’ and extra-curriculars are restricted to dramatics and dancing.

I know everyone knows this already but what I don’t understand is how easily people are choosing to ignore that as we are graduating. This was not the ‘DU experience’ I was given hopes for, this will not be why I’ll ever put my younger sibling through all the Class 12 boards’ pressure. It’s simply not worth it.

While there are opportunities for you to build on your talents and creative genius in several extra-curricular activities, they are not the only parts of an amazing collegiate experience. Other factors like academics, infrastructure, volunteering opportunities, skill-training workshops, business seminars and conferences are all overshadowed and dwarfed each year. That is not acceptable.

I know leaving an institution is always a tricky affair because as you leave a certain place you also have to bid goodbye to a regular sense of comfort and certainty. Personally, I could not be more ready for it. By that, I don’t mean even slightly, I have my life plans all figured out. Thanks to DU and the FYUP debacle, some of us may take longer to get our plans right. What I mean instead is that being in as ‘floopy’ an environment as DU has opened my eyes to see beyond just the ‘stage moments’ of an institution.

As another batch of students enter Delhi University in the next semester, I want to caution them to proceed with the utmost care. Don’t just give into the media hype of being in Delhi or in DU. Decide your future course of action carefully and base it on your research. Look for the courses you’re applying to (hopefully you’ll get to do them all unlike the FYUP batch) and look for the academic faculty in colleges. These are important decisions, and an informed decision can only make the next three years of your life (consequently your next 5 years and 10 years and so on) better.

Just saying.

Signing off, your overly enthusiastic about graduating Senior,

Surbhi Arora

[email protected]

Featured Image: theodysseyonline.com

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Why The World Economy Is Quite Simply A Mess

By

Let’s face it; the world is a complete mess. Whereas 2015 may have brought some you individual joy and accomplishment it really wasn’t a good year for humanity in general. In addition to natural disasters, the rise of the Islamic State and the Syrian refugee crisis, (and then there’s Donald Trump of course) 2015 ended on a pretty horrid note for the global economy as well. One doesn’t necessarily need to be a student of economics to understand just how many factors across the world are playing a role in worsening economic conditions and financial markets. While many economists are talking of the “next financial crisis” some relatively more optimistic ones claim that the situation “could be worse”.

So what exactly happened? For starters after the 2008-09 financial crisis, economists expected emerging-market countries often called developing countries to start growing and uplift the global economy, which is what was happening until many of these economies started slowing down and suffering set backs. Whereas this isn’t true for all developing countries at the moment (India being an obvious exception), Brazil and Russia falling into recession, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey plagued with high levels of short term debt and China’s worst slowdown in decades as a result of its transition from manufacturing and investment to services and consumption (among other things) are factors that are cause for concern to say the least.

Simultaneously Europe continues to try and tackle the Syrian refugee crisis and fight its economic woes at the same time. Whereas the EU managed to avoid a meltdown over Greece last July, it continues to face the risk of debt crisis, turbulent political conditions, aging populations and slow productivity growth. The only seemingly saving grace for the continent at the moment is that oil prices continue to remain low and currencies weak keeping the economy on a positive (although not exactly strong) growth trajectory. The situation in the US may be better than what is was eight years ago but the US cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the events taking place around the globe. The weakening global economy may not have been as significant to them had the US economy been booming but till date it remains quite average with American citizens and firms still recovering in some ways from the financial crisis. However as the nation gradually emerges from recession and the Federal Reserve Bank plans on raising its rates of interest after nearly ten years emerging markets will take an additional hit as investment will start flowing away from them and towards the US once again.

Thus it is nearly impossible to give a concrete picture of the global economic situation at any one point in time because of its volatile and unpredictable nature. With commodity prices collapsing, political conditions changing, economies slowing and investment fluctuating the only thing that can be said with any certainty is that 2016 does not show any indications of being a quiet year .

Featured Image Credits: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk 

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Should Donald Trump be taken seriously or not?

By

As the year draws to an end people begin to reflect upon the numerous events that took place around the globe in 2015. The Nepal Earthquake in April, the legalization of same sex-marriage in the US, the rise of the Islamic State and the exacerbation of the Syrian Refugee crisis are just some of the many events that gave rise to liberal thinking and humanitarianism among individuals across the world, and then came along an individual named Donald Trump.

Most people remember Trump as the intimidating billionaire on the hit US reality show entitled “The Apprentice” but today he is a US presidential candidate running one of the most bizarre political campaigns of our time. Whereas nearly half the world regards Trump as a joke that is likely to fade out over the next couple of months, one should not be too quick to dismiss him because the sad truth is that there are indeed a section of Americans who believe in Trump and the ideology he sells.

Donald Trump represents a portion of Americans who are fed up with the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration. One of the most successful businessmen in the world, Trump knows his audience and exactly what they want and he is the only Republican candidate who has been able to tap into the populist anger at Washington and the widespread xenophobia prevalent among the American people. Add this to the fact that Trump believes in American exceptionalism, is committed towards education, has the business acumen to help the US overcome the trillions of dollars of debt that it finds itself in and has a strong (some would say twisted) standpoint on immigration, is exactly why he has had a substantial lead in the polls for the Republican nomination for the last five months.

It is probably still too early to say what exactly will happen in 2016 but even if somehow Trump manages to win the Republican nomination, the chances of him actually becoming President of the United States are slim. Polls have long shown Hillary Clinton edging out all the Republican nominees including Trump and moreover his latest eruption demanding that Muslims be banned from entering the United States was so horrifying that many Republicans now are openly contemplating a vote for Ms. Clinton stating that Trump scares or concerns them (as he rightly should).

Trump may be giving us a good laugh at the moment, sitting on the other side of the world, but it is important to keep an eye on just how the American elections progress, after all a mad billionaire ruling the most powerful country in the world will not be a particularly amusing scenario in the near future.

Featured Image Credits: www.bbc.co.uk

Shraman Ghosh
[email protected]

Keep Reading
By
DUB Speak

Redefining Raksha Bandhan

By

When asked what is Raksha Bhandhan, most would say that it is about tying rakhis and receiving gifts, some would go into the significance of it and say that it is about protecting sisters and gaining their goodwill and blessings. And then there are those who might find this very premise unsettling.

A strand of feminists has found the idea of Raksha Bandhan problematic because of its original meaning. The word raksha means ‘protection, and Raksha Bandhan refers to the sacred thread that begets protection from brothers. Clearly, this idea of women needing protection has not gone down with many.

But, in today’s post-modern and capitalist world, is Raksha Bandhan still a sensitive festival in terms of gender equations. No doubts it has those roots, and always will. But I send my brother a rakhi every monsoon, and I definitely don’t demand any protection in exchange. However, I do make it a point to get him the nicest rakhi and the nicest card from an Archies or a Hallmark. (Sadly, I cannot afford the more embellished ‘designer’ ones.)

So, what does that tell you about Raksha Bandhan? As for me, it is that one time of the year when I think about sending something nice to my brother. And I do so only because I think that it is a nice gesture to make when you live miles apart.

Yes, I know that the premise of Raksha Bandhan is a patriarchal one, but I do not celebrate it for that. I celebrate it like it were a ‘Siblings Day’ of sorts. For the critics of Raksha Bandhan, I completely understand the validity of your argument and also the logic behind it, i.e., to uproot patriarchy one has to uproot all social practices associated with it. To those who celebrate the festival, make it about indulgent celebrations and gifts if you must, make it about remembering your sibling on that special day; but don’t make it about the brother protecting the sister.

Let it be about the relationship that siblings share, it can be about that one time when your brother told on you when you sneaked out of the house or that time when you took his phone and got mischievous to take revenge. As human beings, as especially those that share such strong connections, it is only natural that we will stand by each other and protect each other in times of adversity.

This Raksha Bandhan, make it about celebrating that mutual connection.

 Image credits: webneel.com

Keep Reading
By