I play with love !!

 Hide and seek. Seek and hide. A game that me and love have been playing right from the time I met it.

Some people count in 'love' as a game in itself but for me it has always been a fellow player.

A tough, ardent and possessive player.

Like most games that start from fun, frolic and tend to get dirty and intense, the players too somehow shift from being friendly to malignant. What began as a healthy competition turns into a cut-throat revenge.

Ours too has its highs and lows.

I do accept that I have been mostly on the 'hiding' side, trying my best to find a cave or curtain solitary enough to let love not find me.

Atleast not so easily.

Atleast not so quickly.

But as I said, the game gets uglier and love deceives me with his ways to catch hold of me, clutching tightly.

After all, when everything is fair for love, rules don't make much of a difference to..do they?

I dutifully accept my defeat and begin my search of 'him', the fellow player.

He is smart and his ways are unpredictable I tell u.

He hides so deep and deeper within that I am unable to track down even the shadow of it.

Days and months pass. I am able to search him not.

Neither can I give up, for its a game of life now.

And then , after million tries I finally decided to let go, to accept my defeat. I surrender finally.

Sit and reflect on my stupidity.

Promising to never play with it again. Never ever.

And suddenly, it emerges again persuading me for a new game, a new battle, a new hope- that I might win this time. Just this first and final time.

I seek again. I lose again.

but I play again.....Cunning love. Chimeric me.

The disability distress !!

“Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for worst of them all – the APATHY of human beings".– Helen Keller.

While reading this quote, I wondered what would have made a truly phenomenal lady say something like that?

And then Scott Hamilton’s word came to my mind that ‘the only disability in life is a bad attitude'.

Meaning, we humans who categorize the like of us on the basis of their different abilities as ‘DIS-abled’ are actually themselves disabled.

The world however, doesn’t work according to my whims and fancies and so a disability according to WHO is defined as,

“any restriction or lack (resulting from any impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being”

Going by the cited definition, our country has around 60-70 million population disabled people. In other words, 6% of our population belongs to a category which has been in a way or the other been either completely neglected or left to the clutches of mockery and disdain.

The government introduced the integrated education for disabled children (IEDC) in 1974. And the right to education for all children between 6-14 years includes the children with special needs too.

But merely making policies and implementing them are two roads apart. Neither the government nor the schools have taken any measures to incorporate these children and entitle them a brighter future that they deserve.

The result– out of 60-70 million only 2% are educated.

'The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995' was passed by the Indian Parliament in December of 1995.

The law clearly states that at least 5% of the work force both in public and private sector should employ people with disability.

But, in spite of the fact that many disabled are capable of doing productive work the situation is rather grim.

• Percentage of disabled employees in the respondent companies: 0.40%
• Percentage of employees with disabilities in the Public Sector: 0.54%
• Percentage of employees with disabilities in the Private Sector: 0.28%
• Percentage of employees with disabilities in the Multinationals: 0.05%
• Out of the 70 respondent companies, 20 companies did not employ any disabled person at all
• Out of the 70 respondent companies, only 10 were found to have 1% or above disabled employees.

the result - out of the 60-70 million only 0.1% manage to get employed.

These and many more shocking figures make us believe that why are we dragging these people as well as our country to dungeons of poverty and backwardness?

Why can’t the country provide a respectable life, proper education, employment and equal opportunities to a population which comprises of 6-7% of its people?

Why do we see these people as an object of pity and worthy only of relying on our charity?

Many of them are equally or even more capable than us. With little support (not necessarily physical but moral) they can work to lessen our burden and contribute greatly to the economic growth of a developing country like ours.

What we need to understand:

1. The most basic need of the hour is to stop seeing them as someone who deserves our pity or money. They definitely are worth more.
2. A disability of any kind is a disease and no borne out to make us ‘repent for our past life sins’ etc.
3. Understand that disability is a very broad term – Mental, physical, other impairments are all poles apart each other and so the needs and opportunities for a person of mental disability have a stark contrast with those of a physically disabled.
4. Education is important for ALL.
5. A majority of them can live a normal life without any support and can work efficiently.
6. Regarding the employment, various studies have shown the persons with disabilities are more likely to be regular at work and perform better than persons without any visible disability can.

And most importantly, we need to cleanse ourselves of the ‘spiritual disability’ prior to making judgments and forming convictions.

(stats taken from the world wide web).

PS : There are many NGO's and individuals who work to provide employment to people with disability. 

INABILITY 2 ENABILITY is one of them. Kindly 'like' the FB page to join in and spread the word around. Your suggestions/inputs will be heartily welcomed :) Thank you.

uff ye shaadi ;(

In our country, as soon as a girl bids farewell to her teenage she inadvertently welcomes a huge trouble for herself. A problem that will change her life for the better, no bitter.OK! I am not very sure for what!

Yes, you prompted it correct in your mind ( so no prizes for guessing) - She has unwilling/unfortunately/unconsciously been transformed into a 'potential marriage material'.

From distant relatives to D-block wali Dadi (assuming you reside in say,Z-block) every one's prime concern seems to be your doli ka uthna or mandap ka sajna!

And its your own 'mother' who has been constructing the tallest dreams. Taller than Burj Khalifa in Dubai!

But the trouble arises when she starts realizing that her dreams so tall, are made of trump cards ready to not just be blown but put on fire by her very own 'aaj kal ke zamaane ki beti'.

She can apply nail polish with newton's accuracy at mechanics but breaking an egg gives her jitters.

Her mascara never dares to smudge off but her cupboard is a mess. The skirts shiver to touch her knees and cell-phone is her soul-mate. She has neither seen the face of the kitchen nor the morning sun!

But mom ain't any gullible creature so that's when she decides to grab her most tried and tested tool. NO! its not the chimta (tongs) or karchul( ladle) anymore. C'mon they are so passe ( I doubt if they even exist in kitchen now a days). Its the 'verbal bullets' humbly known as 'taane'.

"sasurral mein jaake mobile hi chalana"

"saas aag laga degi inn skirts ko"

'tumhari shakal dekh kar pati ka peit nahi bhar jaega"  

ye make-up thop lene se zindagi nahi kat ti"

 Now, excuse me for the lack of space (and what fun in repeating things which you yourself hear almost everyday ;) )

So what I wonder is how can our beloved mothers predict such a grievous future of ours?

And Since they have already forecasted it how do they expect us to become a perfect 'marriage material' after listening to such horrifying stories?

Had they narrated us the 'Cindrella and snow white' tales they did when we are kids we might as well have tried to co-operate in their scheme of plans. Don't they remember how eagerly we wanted to get married then?

But the situation seems more 'real' now. And I ought to be petrified!

So your Burj Dubai dreams need to be seriously tackled mom. Where is the matchbox I ask?!