The right to own 'ONESELF'

"You're not going out dressed like that", her husband shouted.

"Why are we restricted from wearing what we want?", she asked herself. When she was in school, her mother kept her covered because of the fear of men. When she got married, her husband had a problem with it. She wondered when she'll be able to wear what she want to, rather than what others want her to. Whether covered or not, men will look at her. No matter, what she wears, he is always mentally undressing her.

"Maybe I would be safer if I wear more modest clothes", she thought. 

"If you change the way you dress to avoid harassment, you’d be letting the part of society that oppresses women win", her inner self warned her. It made her feel like she is giving in. 

She made a promise in her mind to endow her little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit, and her mind are her domain. She'll allow her little one to cut hair and wear anything that makes her feel comfortable because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair or by the length of her top. She'll be given the right to own herself.

A walk down my memory lane.

My front yard always had tickling white sand all over. I used to touch it every morning while I went to school without shoes. In the evenings, I used to make sand dunes on them and watch cuckoos build nests nearby. My teachers never spoke in English and I didn't wonder why. Math in Malayalam was hard enough.

Cricket was the magic Sachin Tendulkar did in the neighbour’s television, till the tall boys played in whites on nearby grounds. My sister always got the chocolates dad bought, so I never knew how to spell Eclairs.7th grade came into life pretty soon, and I had to write with pens and not Nataraj pencils. I missed wearing skirts to school, but now I had just one pair of salwar instead of two short skirts.

Life always left me hanging in the air like that. I was a melting water droplet who froze right at the tip of the icicle so I never fell. Childhood passed like a whispering numb breeze and teenage was waiting with a surprise...

Close to being what they call 'GOD'.

Some friends are those you have today because you chose to forgive. Because you chose to forgive the times they bitched about you, stabbed your back or gloriously lied of your deeds. Those friends do you remember with a smile as you read this? Are you smiling because you are imagining how nice a person you are, to have forgiven them? If yes, you are close to being what they call God. Close.