SHREDDED FLOWERS,A MAN & A WOMAN's SHREDDED PRIDE

For watchers of Desi serials, has there ever been a peaceful, non-hate Bara first Suhaag Raat?

How many TIMES have we seen the groom bristling with anger or hurt or jealousy or wounded pride or the all time favourite REVENGE ? What does he do?

Drags the girl like a cow around the Agni,furiously tie red or black thread or if you are super lucky, a Mangalsutra round her neck and again drag her to his bedroom?

I have seen that in 3 straight Desi serials and mind you,this is out of the four I watched!

Why is it that every Channel and Production House creative thinks that this THRILLS their audience?? Do they themselves get turned on, when they see the groom tear the flower bedecked bed on which the Suhaag Ki Raat should take place? Do they really think,every viewer will be whistling at this masochistic display????

Show after show after show, the first marriage is always a display of male anger,temper, supposed feeling of hurt & jealousy or revenge. Why???

Is it not possible, that a couple be married in peace & then together face the challenges of life? Are these lame Repititive tracks sanctioned by a masochistic channel or the signs of lack of fresh ideas in every single writer of shows? Some of these writers are women, yet they write daily degradation of their own kind??

I await the day when women stop being treated as animals heading for the slaughter house, on their "golden nite" - for ideas that don't degrade women all the time - for no more shredded jasmine flowers & rose petals to be strewn on the floor by a hot tempered groom.

Heck,the feminist in me would LOVE to see the bride do the dragging,insulting and throwing a fit for a change!!

CAN DARK BE BEAUTIFUL? OR JUST A CURSE?

Rather stark and rude title some might say. But then I don't write my thoughts clad in kitten gloves.

What triggered it some might ask. What else than stereotypical Desi thinking?

I watch a serial #EkMutthiAasmaan in which, two women get mothered by a common person. One as a much neglected daughter and the other as a over pampered ,tantrummy charge.

The ladies in question are BLACK AND WHITE.

Oh,for god sake's I am not talking of that cheap whiskey!!

They are chalk and ebony. One dark,pretty,with gorgeous eyes that positively GLOW with joy-de-vivre and the other, fair, bit of a looker but drenched in brattiness & bimboness.

True to Indian prejudice on dark skin,the story shows the darky, Kalpana as unfortunate,long suffering and neglected. To please the obsession for fair skin,the show showers luck,good fortune and  attention on the bimbo,albeit not a Blondie here.

So would it surprise you that the fair girl gets the groom & the darkie is left crying?

Why is India so obsessed with white skin? For how many centuries? Why does Unilever proudly proclaim that 64% of Indian women use Fair & Lovely?

Are we not all same under the colour of our chamdi (skin)? Same blood,same muscle,same bones.....yet fair means better??? And when will such thinking stop???

Why do TV channels fear change so much that they just prefer to nod their heads and dare not do anything different?? They are the best tools to get through to people,yet money means much more than changing prejudices.

As for me,I know a "fair " amount of dark women,who are exquisitely sharp featured,accomplished and beauties ,inside out.

I much rather a dark friend with a lovely heart,than an arrogant fair person who thinks her fairness makes her a nice person.