The Morning Saga.....

Single, carefree and irresponsible; that's how my friend Ritu was pre-marriage. For every other thing she had dear Mummy, from giving her sumptuous hot lunches and dinners to getting her undergarments..Literally!!!

All she had to do was get up, beautify herself , work at office, come back and occupy the bed..thats it!

This world of luxury was the price she had to pay for her marital bliss because now she is "The Working Wife".

In early morning sweet sleep she has ten things going on in her mind, already. Its like sometime in the pre-morning she is hallucinating about her maid's presence and giving her directions for work. A mental debate going on in her mind on whether to cook a healthy, not-so-tasty meal herself or again rely on office canteen's tasty, not-so-healthy food and then coming up with side effects of eating such food at office. All this going on from 6am-7am time slot when her alarm actually rings at 7.15am. Like always, she finally decides to cook for dear Hubby. Oh yes, she, as a wife has a responsibility to take care of her  husband's health.  

So after all the morning nuisance, she gets ready for office . Now there is no time for beautification, all she does is look acceptable for office. 

The so called...Working Wife!!

My friend, Ritu was having a conversation with her to-be husband ( Wudbe) about their future plans. She asked her Wudbe whether he has any objection if she works post marriage. Also, she was well aware that solitary earnings of her Wudbe will not be enough for their sustenance and keep up her lavish, not-so-expensive lifestyle. Mr. Wudbe suggested that it is ok for her to work but her marital responsibilities should not be neglected. Additionally, choice of job will be his not her's.

In the flashback..

Ritu had graduated from B-school with a decent paying job in Hand. With the salary being offered, she could get all the ammunition for the aspired fireworks in her life. From fulfilling her own aspirations to shouldering responsibilities with her Dad...she could do it all now!!Things changed after she got engaged. Her so called job was not really appealing to her fiance & his folks, though she was aware that in absence of her earnings it would be difficult to run the house.

Now Ritu has two options, either to carry on with her high paying job which gives her freedom to do what she wants but lesser time and energy to do anything else or to do a lesser paying job wherein she can fulfill responsibilities of being a wife, daughter-in-law but cannot follow her dreams.

The above two options become null and void as she enters marital life. The reality is she has to do a decent paying job and fulfill her other responsibilities as well, the way that is expected out of her. So she gets into real estate much to the displeasure of her husband who gives her a virtual list of jobs she could or could not do.

The big question that arises here is, should it be a woman’s choice whether she wants to work or not post marriage? If yes, then she should be the one to decide the terms of the work she is into, not her husband. On the contrary, when some women want to stay home and raise children, it is expected out of them to bring something to the table.

The concept of working wife takes a back seat when the husbands who encourage or coerce their wives to work or have a career in the first place, turn back and complain when she starts enjoying what she does?

Come on Indian Media..You can do better!!

Ekta Kapoor has surely ruled the roost when it comes to generating TRPs and it seems Indian Media is taking immense cue from her. For a skyscrapping TRP recipe,  involve a celebrity as the main ingredient, the mango man as a side ingredient, bring everything to a boil and serve it with hashtags of nonsensical outraging one-liners. So here we have a-la- Sanjeev Kapoor recipe type news served along with snippets on social media.

Last week news of Hema Malini in a car accident was one such dish served to us. I have my heart going out to people who have lost their lives in the road accidents and the little girl in this particular one. Though about 400 people die in road accidents everyday in India with just a tickr of the mention at the bottom of our TV screen but this particular one was breaking news on every channel for the simple reason because it involved a celebrity. The high resolution pictures doing rounds on social media and TV of Hema Malini's ripped face, her blood soaked pallu aimed at stirring the moral souls of us viewers and a tiny thumbnail of the other car(Alto) hit in the accident, aimed at non-biasedness of this coverage. With basic facts being curtailed due to the TRP race, there was lot of hue and cry made about why the little girl was not taken to hospital. Had media delved more into facts, it would have shown that the girl died in her mother's lap in a while after the accident and it was sensible to take her to a nearby hospital instead. The worst is when media coerce the people to their brink by asking stupid questions about they feel after loosing their daughter? Who should the parents blame for their child's death?

Now with the accident fading off from the idiot box, both parties involved in  the accident have taken to media to pass the buck for blame amongst each other thereby grabbing headlines again. It is very clear from the media coverage of this accident that it was news because Hema Malini was involved in it, else this incident would have been hushed underneath the sheets long back. 

Last heard, the Rajdeep Sardesai s and Barkha Dutt s are tweeting that Vyapam Scam be covered more widely by media. Finally, they realize news has to be beyond TRPs!

People are sheep. Media is the shepherd.