Sisters!

She had three bags of clothes and books - two more with some accessories were on the way. Shifting to a new place can be tedious, especially if you have no idea who you would be living with.
She sat inside her room, looking around the tiny spaces allotted to each girl. There was nobody else as the ones living earlier had just left. Inspecting the tiny cupboards she found a small note in one of them. She opened it and reading the heading she had a feeling it was meant for her.

"Hi new girl" - it read

She was bored and thought it was no harm in reading a small note.

"So you must either be working or studying, in any case you do have friends."

She nodded her head, it was like someone was speaking to her in real.

"But let me tell you something straight, you won't be making friends out here."

She thought it was a prank and was about to throw the letter but then she read the next line.

"I was the drama queen of the previous group that reigned here. So making this as cheesy as possible, let me tell you something. Yes,you will not make friends here, cos you are going to make sisters here"

She smiled at the description and turned the page over.

"I was here when I had no idea about anything in my life. I did have friends in college, but as they say at one point you need to prioritize and I guess I was on the priority list of very few. When alone I came to this very room,where I met many others who were alone too, away from home.

We started off like any friendship would, we were a group of friends with different personalities. A drama queen that was me, a florence nightingale who cared for everyone, a Rapunzel with the longest hair, a cute silly girl who would kill us with her pj's, a silent wit - naughtiest yet looked innocent, selfie queen who did everything in life for a picture and a temporary replacement who came in for a few days. All from different places, we met here at this hostel.
We lived together for a long time, obviously I cannot write the whole of our era, do not want to pen down a book. But I just want you to know a little on the small group of girls who lived here before this, maybe you may carry forward the legacy and have a sisterhood of your own.

So once you share your wardrobe, check out guys together, sleep on the terrace gazing at the moon and discuss every silly and serious issue possible including how to kiss, what are the latest ISRO developments and where to find cheap clothes. You will have that one girl who you shall hate from the bottom of your heart, guess what your sister sorority does not approve her either.

Right from sneaking out for a party together, planning to place a prank on the landlord, go on suddenly planned get away trip, break the in time rules, get electrical cooking appliances without permissions, shout out happy bdays at 12am for the whole area to stay up, judge all the profiles on the matrimony sites where your roommates are registered, dance in joy when someone finds a 'bichara' for marriage, be the sexiest group of bridesmaid at her wedding and cry your heart out in their 'vidaai', so much so that the relatives need to be confused on why were you guys crying so much.

People say you cannot chose family, we did chose tho, a family of sisters. We were there for each other and we shall always be - cos the friendship turned into a bond, a bond that cannot be broken!

But as they say nothing is permanent in this world, we did separate. Some married, some moved ahead, in the end all of us took different roads. But we still remain connected, we know each other transform from the immature college pass out in search of a job to a new city into a little mature version, who probably has faced some of the bitter truth of life.
So after the best two years of my life when I am saying a final good bye to this place, I hope you find your sister hood too, have a bond that cannot be broken. I regret I had no hostel in college, but better late than never. Friendship is easily tampered with but love of the sister with a different blood will never get lost!"


She finished reading the note, wanting to know more on what the girls did and how they lived here. She was searching for some other note, when another girl entered the room.

"Hi, Radhika" said the new girl holding a purple coloured bag.

She stopped and stared at her.

"Hey, Sarah"

"I am your new roommate" said Radhika

Sarah looked at the note and then wondered what role was Radhika going to play in the new sorority. She smiled at her, listening to Radhika talk nonstop about her life. She wondered if she should show her the note, but decided  not to do it right away, probably wait for the right time.

Just saw Queen - inspired! !

A girl in her early 20's living in a town in India all set to marry her boyfriend, but hey you know what the boyfriend just found out that she was too lame to be with her since he has studied in United Kingdom now! So what would a normal girl do, cry, cry and maybe cry all day and all night.  But it is not necessary to be crying after a guy leaves you for his own selfish reasons, this is what Queen has taught y of so many girls out there.

Yes, Rani did cry but very soon she also realizability she had a better life out there, a life which she would live for herself and nobody else! I am not writing a review for Queen, it is something I don't feel like doing. This blog post is for all those Rani's who are out there confused and trapped in expectations from parents, peer pressure from relatives to get married and lousy boyfriends who would break up for any effing reason.

So, one fine day in my hostel every girl either was facing a relationship issue or a parental crisis. This is quite a common scene in most of the hostels with girls over 23. Our age group is so confused with what the society wants us to do that we almost forget that we have a life our own too

In one incident a girl was asked to wear a saree and meet the guy holding a tray of tea cups for his family. THEN the guy and girl were asked to go in to speak to each other in privacy - a typical Vivaah movie scenario. What was annoying was that the guy instead of speaking to her was busy on his cell phone and he though the girl was a small townie just because she was speaking to him marathi and not English. So while the girl was in a saree and preferred to speak in her mother tongue, it did not mean she never wore gowns and had no idea what English was.

Quite contrary to the last one, in this incident the guy and girl were in a relationship before marriage. After two years the girl joined a multi national company, went to social parties,  was outright and modern. The guy dumped her one fine day, reason, she was too ambitious to have a family with her. The guy did not even know the plans of this gi r like who wanted to quit job after marriage, have kids, decorate a garden and cook good food.

So the already confused woman is now stuck in between being ambitious and modern or traditional and family oriented! Cos surely even if she is capable of a balance, the men aren't capable to see that. It is not that all men are like that, there are a few dreamy fairy tale guys who exist, just that they take a lot of time to show up! So I love the part where Rani goes on her honey moon alone,  does everything that she dreamt with him alone and eventually she has more fun. Our lives are also good with the dreams with our guys, but have we ever thought of dreaming for ourselves alone?

Why do we always need a man to comfort us? Like Rani can't we just find our own selves? Why can't we get thin and diet for our health and not a guy who wants to see us set,  why not just cut your hair as you want and not stop cos your guy likes longer hair, why stop dreaming of traveling the world alone just cos he dreams of staying home? Each one of us needs to open up the gates. Just close your eyes and imagine your life without your dominating and make chauvinistic boyfriend or husband around, life might just get much more interesting. And yeah never forget the end of Queen - cos it's the one that gives hope to all those women who are either ditched for being too fair or too dark, too ambitious or too bland,  too beautiful or too ugly and too simple or too modern, never take a man back who is too egoistic to love you and too selfish to just to live himself and no one else... you are better off without these  judgmental freaks, wait for your hero he will come, even if a late entrant, he will be there soon!!

This blog post is not a gender equality or women empowerment
, it is simply for all the women who need to remain stronger and use the break ups and heart aches as a way to grow more in life..

A valentine's special post!

Her parents were not going to accept this relationship whatsoever, but today she was going to try her best to tell them the truth. She walked towards the kitchen where her mother was cooking breakfast for them all.

"Ma, I need to tell you something"

"Is it important? I have a lot of preparations to do for the evening"

"Yes it is regarding the same"

Her mother stared at her for sometime and replied, "I know you are nervous so I have called Diva to help you out"

She stood there silently while her mother continued serving the upma. She wanted to speak and this was the right time, but she knew she needed more than just strength to say what she wanted to.

All day passed by while she was thinking of what to do and how to avoid this situation. Around 4 in the afternoon her mother came in with a dress.

"Your father has asked you to wear this one if you like it, he says you look really pretty in blue"

"Yeah she definitely looks great in blue" said a voice from outside the door. It was Diva,  her childhood friend. They had spent almost all their life together and knew each other quite well. She did not respond to Divya comments and trying to avoid her presence she started changing into the dress her mother had got. Her father had invited a probable proposal to meet her today, she could not say no and had to meet the boy.

"Divya please get her ready, they will be here in an hour"

The two girls were quiet, she was trying her best not to make eye contact with Divya and Divya was trying her best to remain quite. They both knew that whatever was happening was not right and if the boy says yes there will be no scope for her to reject the proposal. Just when Divya was about to ask her something, there were some voices coming from the living room.

"I think they are here, I should go help aunt in the kitchen"

She had a tear rolling down her left cheek as Divya walked towards the kitchen. Wiping her face she got ready to go out.

She was waiting near the living room entrance when her mother called her out. It was the usual arrange marriage setup where the boy's family  was asking her questions and in some time the two were left alone to speak to each other. All the while she could not take it, she lived someone else and all this was not right at all. Soon after the meeting was over and she went in the bedroom, Divya was waiting for her there.

"How was he? Tell me more of the meeting, am really excited!"

"Why are you pretending this?"

"Pretending what?"

"You are making it worse for me, why did you even come?"

"To let you know that I am with you in whatever decision you make. I know what you are going through"

She started crying a lot, Divya hugged her tight and tried to console her.

"I know you love me and that is all that I need from you, I don't need a marriage with you to know that you love me too"

Sobbing, she finally hugged Divya, the love of her life , the love that nobody would ever understand or even try to understand. The two friends were together ever since they could remember. The same school, same college and lived in the same neighborhood. The two of them helped each other sneak out to meet their respective boyfriends and the two of them were there to cheer up each other during a break up. It was once when she was at Divya house when they were sitting next to each other talking of love that they accidentally kissed. It was natural and very spontaneous. They were in love with each other and not friends as the world perceived them to be. Now after being together for 2 years as lovers, they knew things would not go any further. They knew they lived in a society where even normal couples had to go through moral policing and honor killings if fallen in love, they definitely held no chance of being together with the acceptance of their families or the so called society who has set rules which can bend according to time and need.

# I do not know why but even though we say that we or our generation is open to everything, we still are narrow with our thinking. I felt ashamed of myself when I realised that even I was a part of people who would laugh or call someone gay just like that. Is it wrong being gay or lesbian?  Is it wrong loving someone? I don't think so, I mean I am straight but I still cannot figure out what love exactly is, then how can we say that their love is wrong? A small blog post to respect the ones who have found love irrespective of caste, age or gender...