My loving cousin

Had been to my native village last weekend. Wont forget this particular sojourn. Luckily, my cousin sis too had come to my mummy's native place. Its so strange that we hardly ever got any opportunity to have a close conversation with each other.

But thats how things go out in most of the indian remote places. Here, family members, themselves are never bothered about their daughter's lives. They beleive their only responsibility towards their daughter is to get her married off in some "good house" (read well-to-do family). Nobody gives a damn about her aspirations, her career interests, be it her own mom and dad.

And when some lunatic like me takes a stand, they will brand him/her as a western influence deteriorating their culture. Coming back to my conversation with my sis, we started chatting at around midnite and by the time we decided to wind up, it was 5 am in the morning. We kept discussing the general stuff like her and mine crushes n all. Then i started asking her interests in life and what does she want to do with her life.

Before, she answered my questions, she blurted out that no one ever has asked her about her aspirations. I could feel the pain in her soft voice. I mean can you imagine a well-to-do family not bothering about their own girl just coz this girl aint good at acads. Her younger sibling has been amongst the toppers in her school. And by default, she is the one who gets all the attention. But still, at least somebody ought to have taken effort to understand her. I am glad that I got this opportunity to chat up with her and got to know things which were hitherto unkown to me. She likes to draw, write stories and pen short poems.

We both always had this tacit understanding b/w each other but never really got chance to dwell into each other's lives. I am happy that at least now i got to do that. I advised her to take up some design course and start a career in that. She has promised me that she wont waste any more of her life and would follow her interests. I hope that she acheives it. For her, its more of a self-struggle. She would need lot of strength and character to face the situations which will come up when she reveals about herself to her family. Of course, i will be there to support her all the way. But finally, its her own struggle and i sincerely wish she comes out trumps. Go sis go, live your life to the fullest!

*************************************************************************************
I am sure, by this time, most of us will be aware of the devastating monsoons that lashed out mumbai. Here is one moving post by uma. Needless to say, mumbaikars are having a tough time. But as is the spirit of the city, it will bounce back to normalcy very soon. Thats something which sets out mumbai apart from any of the cities in the world.

*************************************************************************************

At the sports end, there isnt much for indian sports lovers to cheer about. Joshna lost in the finals of the world junior squash championship. Sania lost to venus williams. India lost to sri lanka in the tri-series opener. Though, its heartening to read that sania is on her way to qualify for another hard court tournament in US, the main draw of which she missed by just one spot. Hope she makes it.