A Jhadoo for the Mind

PM Narendra Modi's Swachcha Bharat Abhiyaan is commendable and thankfully, has met with a good response from many parts of the society. There is a lot to be done to clean up our country. And hopefully, we citizens will be able to unite and work in the direction with sincerety.

Though it is a mammoth task, it is not unachievable. United efforts of one billion plus Indians can do it. What seems unachievable, though, is cleaning up of the mentality and mental makeup of the Indian male. The Indian male really needs to spruce up himself. Right from irritating habits like peeing in the open and spitting just anywhere, to shameful acts like leering at every passing girl, to horrendous crimes like raping a two-year old, the Indian male is doing it all, uanbashedly. And there seems to be no solution for this.

Every average Indian male is the most protective father, brother, cousin,boyfriend, husband and son for his daughter, sister, cousin, girlfriend, wife and mother. But the rising number of sexual abuse and sexaul crimes contradicts the image and perecption- after all these offenders are also fathers, brothers, husbands and sons.

Some mindless people point out that women should dress and behave in a certain manner so that men are not provocated to make sexual advances towards them. But how provocative can a little two year and five year old girl be? Are these men provocated or are they sick?

Is there a jhadoo that can clean up the mind of the Indian male? So that he minds his own business instead of policing women about what they should wear, how they should behave and what time they should go out?

Is there a jhadoo that can clean the minds of these psychopaths who scar the chidlhood of a toddler who doesn't even understand what is being done to her? Is there a jhadoo that can clean the fear off the minds of mothers like me who worry and pray for their children's safety everyday? I wish there was....

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Sarita Devi and Mary Kom - Hail Woman Power!

The recent developments at the Asian Games have been quite remarkable. On one hand, there is Mary Kom, who bagged the gold medal, her first in Asian Games and a first one for our country also, and on the other hand is Sarita Devi, who gave up her bronze medal in protest against the unfair judgement meted out to her.

Mary Kom has had a tumultuous journey from a rebellious teenager to a boxing champion, commanding respect for her achievements. Boxing is a manly sport  and for a woman to survive and triumph in this sport is truly amazing, especially in a country like India, where women have to deal with too many odds in order to get their due. In fact, had it not been for the glamorous Ms Priyanka Chopra, most of us would have been blissfully unaware of her even now!

And what makes her victory more joyous is that Kom's gold medal has come during the Navratri festival, when the Goddess Durga is worshipped all over India. This festival is marked by worshipping the female form as the supreme being. Durga is 'shakti', the power of a woman. And Mary Kom has only added to it- kudos to her!

However, it is Sarita Devi whom I want to applaud. She is another talented boxer from Manipur. She was handed an unfair judgement and even lost her appeal against the decision. During the award ceremony, she was crying bitterly as she looked at the bronze medal, but finally, and very courageously, she handed it to her opponent who got the silver medal. On being returned the medal by her opponent, she stunned officials by leaving the medal on the podium and walking away.

It is very unfortunate that Indian officials have not done anything worth mention to help the lady. Though Sarita Devi faces disciplinary charges for her conduct, what she did was very brave. She later said that if she would have not done so, she would have never been able to focus on her career anymore. She is also ready to face the consequences for what she did.The right judgement would have given her a chance to fight for Gold, and here she was, left with a bronze medal, due to a biased judgement.

Both Mary Kom and Sarita Devi are true winners. Both have boxed and punched their way to success. And medal or no medal, there is no difference between the two- both are women, both are mothers, both are boxers and both are winners- only, one of them had to return a medal to prove herself. 

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Ghost Uncle????

I lived in Kolkata for a few years after I passed 12th from my home town Haldia. I pursued my graduation and post graduation courses in Kolkata while staying as a Paying Guest with a bunch of other girls.

We were about 7 of us, and shared a huge flat with an old aunty. Her husband had passed away some years ago and she was happy to have some noise at home and took good care of us.There was a cook and two maids also. So we basically did not do much except attend college/ tuitions and then chat and giggle rest of the time. But we were in for some crazy experiences soon!

One of the rooms had a double bed and a single bed placed a little far. It so happened that once we ended up chatting up till quite late into the night and the girls from other room were also with us. So instead of them going back and making noise and waking up aunty, we thought we would join the beds and all of us would manage to sleep there only. And we did just that.

After an hour or so, we heard some thumping noise, as if someone was at first stuck and then was walking on the bed- the free space was blocked by the bed, after all. And we were all so scared, we did not sleep for the rest of the night! However, in the morning, we decided to forget about it.

But after that, small incidents kept occurring every now and then- like I felt someone breathing heavily while I was sitting quietly and studying one afternoon. Another time, one of the girls opened the wardrobe to take some clothes and fell back suddenly- she said she felt someone push her. Two of us also felt our arms removed from our faces when we covered our faces with our arms while sleeping.

We could not take this anymore. We asked Aunty's old maid about these scary incidents and she told us that Aunty loved Uncle a lot....maybe he came to visit her, but in some 'other form'. 'But why does he come to our room?' we asked. 'It was his room' she said. And that scared the lights out of us!

Some of us moved to other places soon after the incident while some girls continued staying there only. We met quite often and they told us about new happenings at that place very often. However, I am glad I didn't stay there for long!

This is my experience for Indispire topic - Have you seen a ghost? I am sure you also have an experience to share!

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To shout, or not to shout!

A very intelligent neighbor of mine once asked me ‘Do you know the secret behind Lata Mangeshkar’s melodious voice even at this age?’ I was still thinking of some answer which that intelligent lady would approve of, and she had me splitting with laughter with her answer- ‘she has no kids!”

Great joke, but how true it is! Women, after becoming mothers, just transform so much! There are days in every woman’s life when she is the perfect, demure lover/wife whose voice drips honey as she speaks! And a few years later, when you see the same woman with a kid or two in tow, she is a totally different woman! Not just physically, but in every possible way! The angel-faced kids moms love so much have the ability to transform the most soft-spoken woman into a hollering mad woman in no time!

At least with me and a lot of women I know, this is really true! Hollering and running after the tots, I look and sound very different than what I was a few years ago! My kids keep me on my toes all the time, and I must thank them for that- they have helped me stay slim and fit! (Even if it sounds like I am boasting that I am slim, it is true!) And yes, I do shout sometimes, though I hate it and hate myself when I do that.

I am like any other mom. And whenever I ask my kids to do something, I always do it with a smile and a sweet tone at first. The second time, more sweetly, with a please. The third time, sweetly again. Fourth time, a little sternly. Then a pause, just to give them some time to do what they have been asked to do. Then the fifth time a little more sternly. And the sixth time and seventh, more sternly. And finally, I have to shout to be heard by my kids! Sometimes I feel as if they listen to me only when I shout!

And there are times when shouting just doesn’t help. Like when I want my three year old daughter to get dressed fast as she might miss her school van, and I raise my voice a bit, but you know what happens? She starts bawling, and spreads herself on the floor. Result? She misses the van and I have to either drop her at her school myself or let her be at home.

Kids.....it is as if they know just the right buttons to press to my patience! And they can match me, shout for shout, look for look and even stomp when I try to make them understand exactly why they should do what they are being asked to do.And most of the times, I do give in, even after a good round of shouting. What's more, I feel guilty about shouting at them. And the battles continue...

Though I have an unwritten rule that I never hit my kids (a thwack once in six months or so doesn’t count as hitting!), I am yet to stop shouting at them. But this joke about the not-so-sweet voice of moms has made me think about it. I guess I need to stop shouting at them, too. Not just to save my voice, but also for them.

After all, I don’t like being shouted at. And I didn’t like it when I was young and any of my parents shouted at me. Why would my kids like it? I cannot behave like I own them, they are also individuals like me. I have to understand that they are just children, and need a lot of time and space to grow up and be responsible. Inculcating discipline in children from a young age is fine, but that doesn’t require any shouting….or does it? I am still wondering…..

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The Poor Thing

After packing her children off to school with hasty goodbyes and rushed hugs and kisses, Asha came back from the school-bus pick-up point and realised that her maid had not turned up today also. Grinding her teeth and muttering irrelevant things to vent her ire, she started scouring the dishes. She was almost done with the dishes when Saraswati, the maid, stepped into the kitchen, noiselessly, startling Asha.

"Where have you been for the past two days?" Asha questioned Saraswati with visible irritation. Saraswati did not say a word, just plopped on the floor and began crying inconsolably. Asha's anger changed to concern in no time and she sat down beside the weeping woman. "What happened Saraswati? Why are you crying? Is your daughter alright?"

She knew that Saraswati lived on her own and had a little daughter to take care of.Her husband had left her for another woman two years ago, but Saraswati had put up a brave face. And, taking her husband's atrocity in stride, had increased her work hours to be able to take care of her daughter by herself. Recently, she had even started sending her to a small school nearby.

Asha always thought "Poor thing, she earns, runs her house, sends the child to school, puts up with her husband's beatings and now that rascal has left her for another woman." Though she admired Sarsawati's courage about taking the responsibility of her child single-handedly, she always thought of her as 'poor thing', who could not go back to her family because she had left her family to elope with this man some years back.

Meanwhile Saraswati had regained her composure and was narrating how her husband had come and taken the child away. She said "I don't want my daughter to live with her father, didi. He will not send her to school or take care of her in any manner. My daughter will grow up to become a maid like me only." And Asha could not help but say the same thing in her mind- poor thing.....

The same evening, when she was telling her daughter how beautiful her illegible scribblings were, her husband called up to say that he would be late that evening also, as something important had come up at office. She heard him and said 'ok'. But did she hear a muffled female laughter in the background? "It could be one of his colleagues", she reasoned with herself.

However, she could not stop herself from recalling things that she had been noticing in the past few days- faint smells of women's perfume on her husband's clothes, inflated credit card bills and frequent extra work at office. Alarmed, she called him up and asked him, "Ashok, are you really at office? What is going on?" And her husband replied "What do you mean Asha? Come here and see for yourself." Without saying another word, she hung up the phone but could not bring herself to believe him. She tried to brush it off, but the feeling of betrayal and shock kept coming back. Angry, hurt and disappointed, she stayed up till he returned home.

He came at 1 am and was visibly happy - she heard him humming as he was near the door. Though he was shocked to see her awake and waiting for him, he masked it soon and asked her "What's with you? Why are you up at this time? And look at your face dear...what's the matter?" And she could not help but shout "What's the matter? Where did this smell on your clothes come from? What is keeping you in the office for so long so often?"

She was not prepared for what she heard. Though she had been seething with anger, she also had just a little bit of hope that her assumptions could be wrong and everything was fine. But here he was, her husband, telling her that he was, indeed, in love with another woman, a colleague at office. And she dare not open her mouth about it, or else he would not think twice before separating from her.And she could also take the kids with her if she wanted.

She spent the night in a daze.....after sending the kids to school, she called up her brother and told him everything. And she was not prepared for what she heard this time, too. Her brother was telling her to forget about it and go on as if nothing ever happened. She had to think about her kids, after all. They went to expensive schools and lived a decent life. Would she be able to support it on her own? He, her own brother, was pained at her predicament but could not do much about it as he had his own problems in life. And she, who had never worked in her life in spite of being well-educated, could not probably now find a means to take care of her children by herself. So doing what her husband wanted was the wisest thing to do, he advised her.

She hung up the phone, dejected- she knew she could not go back to her family, though she had married a man of their choice and followed all the unwritten rules of being a good daughter, sister, wife and mother. She was still lost in thought as Saraswati came in through the door. Seeing her, Asha could not help but smile sadly and say to herself....."who is the poor thing?"

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Nostalgia and hope

Let me first tell you that I am no fan of daily soaps on the television. But while helping my little daughter with her lunch, which takes really long, I feel the need to watch something and keep myself occupied to that I don't get impatient with my tiny little girl.

And watching Mahabharata at that time (1.30 to 2 in the afternoon) was really good. I remember having seen another version of Mahabharata on TV many years back, but I liked this one because it somehow seems more relevant in the present times, as there was a lot of stress on women-related issues, or maybe I just understood it better, thanks to my age!

However, Mahabharata came to an end and now there is another daily soap in the same time slot, called "Nisha aur Uske Cousins". It tells the story of a Jain family in Jaipur, and how these modern, boisterous bunch of seven cousins carry out their mischiefs and escapades in a joint family of three generations.

The show quite reminds me of my childhood. I have a huge group of cousins and have enjoyed some of the best times of my life with them. My father, the oldest son in his family,  had eight younger brother and sisters  and he made it a point that he stayed attached to his roots and his family. That is what brought us close to our cousins and extended family members.

Though I was not essentially in a joint family, we did experience the joint family life to a large extent. That is because we travelled to our native town in U.P. every year in summer holidays and our maternal house in Madhya Pradesh every Durga Puja vacation, even if it meant travelling in second class coaches of Indian Railways, which had dirty toilets and fans which did not function.

It took a good four to five hours to reach Howrah from our town Haldia via road or local trains. We even covered some distance on 'launches', motor-driven passenger boats, which we could get on only after walking on dangerously thin planks of wood, which had just enough space to keep one foot at a time!

From Howrah, we would get into trains and reach our destination after spending more than a day and night in the train.How we enjoyed those journeys- buying all tidbits from vendors who passed by, drinking tea from kulhars, having that 'pepsi' once in a while! And we read books and played ludo or just slept, climbing to the upper berths in the train.

We were always given a huge welcome- some of the family members would invariably be at the station and when we reached home in rickshaws, we received the warmest of hugs, though we would be stinking like hell!

During vacations, our huge gang enjoyed playing together, eating together, we quarrelled and we made up, we hit each other and cried, we hugged each other and cried, we laughed and we joked, we cycled and we ran- it was one huge party. When the vacations would get over, we would return to Haldia with a heavy heart. During the rest of the year, we wrote letters and sent cards to our cousins, keeping them posted about our lives.

Those visits became less frequent as we grew up and then most of us got married. (There are many to go, yet! Remember, I told you what a huge family it is!) Now we get to meet only during family functions like weddings. Whenever I tell my son about my cousins, he is amazed at the number of mamas and masis he has, and always tells me....'you are so lucky ma!'

Amidst all this nostalgia, I am forced to think that ok, I don't get to meet my cousins that often because we are all busy with our lives....but what about my children? Why don't they get to meet their cousins? In fact, my son knows more about his friends than his cousins.

Isn't it my responsibility to stay attached to my roots and ensure that my children also enjoy that camaraderie and warmth that I enjoyed as a child? Now when we can afford to travel in a much better way than those filthy trains, what is it that keeps us away from our family? Why have I got so lost in my daily grind?

And I am unable to find any believable answer. Though I did not have any expensive gadgets as a child, I had a rich life, enriched with love, care and warmth of my huge family. But in my quest of giving my children a life that is 'better than mine' am I really able to do that? Is their life really better than mine?

Whatever the answer to that may be, I know what I need to do. And I hope I shall be able to do it soon. I hope I shall be able to take my kids to their grandparents' house frequently so that when they grow up, they will have funny incidents of their own to narrate to their kids!

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Bangalore Diaries

‘Twenty rupees for a kilo, aunty’ said the vegetable vendor and I almost snapped at him ‘WHAT?’ To which he replied ‘tomatoes are expensive these days aunty’. An elderly neighbor who was buying vegetables from the same vendor told me that his vegetables were good and he charged reasonable prices, too. I told her that it was not the price of tomatoes but his AUNTY that made me react like this!

There I was, a newly married 26 years-old, and he, clearly in his forties, calling me Aunty! She explained that in Bangalore, that’s the way it is! And soon I learnt that calling all married women Aunty is not the only peculiar thing about Bangalore. There are many other things which are unique to Bangalore and its people.

For example, when you meet a local person, no matter what time of the day it is, the usual greeting is ‘Oota aaitha?’ which means, ‘did you have your meal?’ Even the housekeeping staffs who clean the corridors of our building ask me ‘Madam, kapi (coffee) aitha?’ if they happen to meet me early in the morning!

People here are really too concerned about your well-being, you might wonder. But the reality is far from that. I mean people here are very polite and decent, but don’t expect them to make small talk whenever you meet. Coming from the ‘adda culture’ of West Bengal, I met with not-so-enthusiastic responses when I tried to mingle with my neighbors, and found it somewhat disheartening. However, now I know that this is just the way people over here are- they are not cold or rude, they just keep to themselves!

And the English people speak here- I am yet to come across an Indian town or city which has so many people who speak WRONG English and that too with such conviction! Some examples are – ‘I was pick-upping the phone’ (which means I was picking up the phone), ‘She will always be calling my name’ (which means she calls my name all the time), ‘let me make it hot/cold’ (which means let me heat it/cool it). And I want to know what does ‘co-sister’ and ‘co-brother’ mean? I had never heard these words before I came to this city!

And yes, the famous Bangalore weather! I am sure you have heard people talking about the ‘Europe-like’ weather of Bangalore. It was June when I came to settle in Bangalore. And I saw all bikers wearing jackets, and found it really surprising, considering I come from Haldia, a small coastal town in West Bengal, where summers are hot and punishingly humid. And I thought that these people with jackets were really crazy!

But a few years down the line, I was dressing up my son also in hoodies IN JUNE because you can catch a cold even in June in Bangalore! Early mornings are cold, days are warm and sunny and the nights are cold- It is not just cold, it also rains a lot and is very windy most of the time. Whenever it rains, the winds become stronger and you find trees on the road sides falling – on cars, on people, on adjacent houses- have you ever seen trees fall so frequently in any other city? At least I haven’t!

I have now been in this city for more than a decade and have got pretty used to life here. With impertinent auto-drivers, bad roads, choc-a-bloc traffic, rising pollution on one side and  women with beautiful flowers in their hair, intricate kolams drawn in front of most houses, darshinis serving piping hot kapi and lots of greenery to soothe the eyes on the other side, Bangalore is every bit a charming city with its own quirks and delights. 

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What's There In A Name.....

My name on my Google profile is Anisha Kanchan Kashwani. My childhood friends, classmates and teachers know me as Kanchan Rawlani.

I often have people asking me “what’s with two names?” Some of my old friends ask me “Have you changed your name” or even “why did you change your name?” In fact, a lot of my old friends did not accept my friend request on facebook as my facebook profile name was Anisha Kashwani (which I changed to Anisha Kanchan Kashwani recently).

There is always so much explaining to do when asked such questions. I was named Kanchan Lata Rawlani by my parents. And all my family called me Kanchan or even Kanchu, Kanchi (whatever would make sense as a short form of Kanchan, basically!) and I was constantly teased at school about having two names. However, while growing up, I decided to do away with the ‘Lata’ bit and always introduced myself as Kanchan Rawlani. Lata was just mentioned on all official documents.

When I got married, my name was changed to Anisha. You might ask why? Well, it is a Sindhi custom that the bride’s name is changed at the time of the wedding. It is in fact, one of the rituals and the pandit who carries out all the wedding rituals is also entrusted with the responsibility of suggesting a suitable letter of the alphabet (yes, just a letter, not the name!) with the which the bride’s new name should begin.

The name change is considered an important part of wedding - so much so, that there is always an eagerness among people attending the wedding to know the new name of the bride! There are people who spend a lot of time, thinking of names beginning with all possible letters of the alphabet, well in advance!

This name change custom actually makes no sense and was not even prevalent until some decades ago, when it suddenly turned fashionable to change the bride’s name. Maybe at that time people might not have thought about the complications you might have to face when you need to get a passport and your application for the same carries your new name while the documents you produce as proof of age carry the old name! A change in surname is understandable (though there are some who oppose even that- and I have nothing against them!), but why the change in name?

A reason that we have been given for the mindless custom is that when a girl gets married, it is a new life for her and a new name is just the appropriate beginning to a new life! But does beginning a new life mean doing away with even the name you had till now? After all that is how you have been known and that is how you have known yourself all these years! I actually had a hard time getting adjusted to being called Anisha and it took me quite some time to begin responding to Anisha!

There are some lucky girls, who don’t need a name-change as the letter picked by the pandit is the same as the one which their maiden name starts with. And believe me, the first letter of the name is carefully selected by the pandit after astrological calculations, so that the bride’s name brings good luck and prosperity to her new family and there is also harmony between the couple (at least that is what I was told). Does that mean that the onus of prosperity and harmony is on the bride only? And if the responsibility of having a successful married life is on both, then the groom’s name should also be changed!

However, I have been in some confusing, embarrassing as well as irritating situations because of this name change. Some people who know me as Anisha are genuinely surprised when they find someone else calling me Kanchan and some old acquaintances are perplexed about what name they should address me with! Some of my old friends have had to deal with my domestic help hanging up the phone saying ‘there’s no Kanchan here’!

I hope someday this custom will be done away with and Sindhi girls will not have to live with two names- one for her family and one for her husband’s family. And not because the pandit will choose the same letter as her maiden name, but because the groom’s family would not be interested in such a thing in the first place!

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Am I Doing It Right?

A mother is never sure if she is doing the right thing- whatever she does, she always has a nagging doubt at the back of her mind- I know because I am a mother of two cute, adorable and bright children and this creepy thought manages to cross my mind a zillion number of times every day.

Right from the time a child is born, a mother is also born- she also learns new things and makes new changes as the baby grows. She learns to wake up from deep slumber if the baby lets out the tiniest cry. She learns to cradle the baby to sleep, to massage the baby, to burp the baby, she learns to be half-awake all night and yet carry on her with her chores through the day.

Then she learns to prop the baby with pillows, she learns to cook semi-solid foods for the baby and she learns interesting tricks to make the baby eat all that! She learns to keep the floor spotlessly clean and get sharp objects out of the way when the baby crawls and walks. She learns to understand the needs of her child- when the toddler is hungry, needs to go for poo-poo or wants to play with mamma. She learns to read or narrate her child’s favourite story everyday without getting bored.

As the toddler starts pre-school, she learns to finish all her chores within those few hours and then give undivided attention to her child. With regular school, she learns how to help her child with school projects. And the process carries on as the child keeps growing- every new stage in the child’s life brings new lessons for the mother, too.

I am also on the path to learning new things and teaching some to my children as well. I often wonder, ‘Am I doing it right- staying at home and taking care of the needs of the children instead of going to work in some office and get a fat pay-check and buy them all the games and toys they ask for? (They do see some kids their age with all that expensive stuff, after all- that is why they ask for it.)

Am I doing it right- asking them not to compare with others but be happy with what they have? Am I doing it right- teaching my children to be honest and simple instead of mean and ready to pull anybody down to go up?

When I see my son coming home dejected because someone hurled abuses at him and he can never retaliate, I ask myself ‘should I have taught him to hit back?’ When my daughter comes home from plays-school with bruised knees because someone deliberately pushed her, I ask myself ‘should I have taught her to push the ones who push her?’

But when I recently went to my son’s school for a Parent-Teacher Interaction and his teacher told me ‘what a well-brought up child- so intelligent, so well-mannered and humble’ I found the answer to my question – ‘yes, I might not be the best mom in the world, but I maybe am doing it right!’ I know this feeling is not going to last long- I will be asking myself soon- AM I DOING IT RIGHT?

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My First Blah!!!

“You must write Didi” said my brother Shashank. He was at my place a few days back, visiting from Pune, on the occasion of Rakshabandhan. “But I am so busy bhai” I told him. He was here for just a day but kept repeating the same words. “I will try for sure”- I had to say when he was leaving. And a week later, I find myself hitting the keyboard in frenzy!

With two kids, a businessman husband who has no fixed working hours and a home to take care of, and a bit of content writing as well, my hands are really full. And yes, my kids are the sunshine of my life, yet I still feel need to have a niche for myself – where I can say things that come to my mind without the fear of setting the wrong example or of being judged or ridiculed. So today the 16^th of August, a day after our Independence Day, I am trying to find some independence for myself!

A tiny slot of time for myself, doing something I love- playing with words, pondering over events and ideas, weaving some dreams, putting thoughts into words and coming up with ways to accomplish my dreams- all of this has brought me here- to the huge world of blogosphere. I hope I will be able to connect with like-minded people, proceed a few steps towards my dream, find suggestions and help on the way and make some friends, too!

And it is not as if I don’t write - a content writer, I have written for many travel firms, healthcare organizations, food and fashion related stuff and a lot more. Sadly, all of it has been ghost writing. Though I get paid for writing all that stuff, none of it is credited to me. The craving to see my name somewhere, to have a teeny-weeny sense of accomplishment even if there isn’t much money in it, and also my brother’s encouragement has led me to write my first blog post today.

The one thing that haunted me was- what should I write about? I am not the perfect housekeeper or the best cook or the geek or the fashionista or the been-there-done-that traveler, but I do have a lot to share. I regularly read a lot of blogs and some were particularly inspiring- I will mention them soon! What they made me realize is that blogging is a great way to connect, share and learn; to become a better person and a more successful individual, too. So I gathered some courage and took the plunge!

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Not Just A Pretty Face!

We all remember how we laughed till it hurt when Alia Bhatt said that Prithviraj Chauhan was the President of India some time ago on Koffee with Karan. Although Varun Dhawan, her co-star from Student of the Year, also gave a wrong answer to the same question, he was forgiven (whatever the reasons!). Since then, Alia Bhatt has been the butt of countless jokes and memes making fun of her intellectual prowess, or the lack of it.

But the pretty young lady has not only taken it all her stride, but also gone ahead and paid us back in our own coin! You should know; if you have seen the video called Genius of the Year- it is the latest video to go viral. It shows Alia Bhatt training at (very aptly named) ‘Dumb Belle Mental Gym’ and transforming into a genius, after which she appears on the show again and answers the most complex questions easily. In fact, she knows a lot more that the host Karan Johar himself and has some advice for him as well!

Now all the Alia haters can give their Alia-is-so-dumb jokes a decent burial and acknowledge that this young woman is not just a pretty face; she has brains and even the courage to take all the unkind stuff written and posted about her on social networking sites sportingly. In fact, this video is ample proof of her coolness quotient.

And of course, Karan Johar, Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor also deserve a round of applause for their part in the video.

P.S.

However, Alia is not the first one to do a spoof on herself- Alok Nath, whose ‘sanskari babuji’ image earned him a lot of jokes, was also part of such a video. It showed him wearing some real cool hip-hop style clothes and crooning ‘yo baby yo honey do you know who’s the bauji?’, which was really hilarious!

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The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge -- Is It Really Serving The Purpose?

The Ice Bucket Challenge that has gone viral for the past few days needs no introduction – with actors, musicians, TV celebs, sportsmen, politicians and businessmen as well as common folks posting videos of them getting doused in ice cold water, we all probably know about it now.

But do we all really know what it is about? Very few of the people going under bucketfuls of chilled water have mentioned that all of it is for a cause and for charity. They just seem to be having fun and challenging their friends to do the same. And common people waste no time in aping them.

And some of us those who know that the ice bucket ritual is for ALS, do we really know what ALS is? It is a neurodegenerative disease which affects a person’s nerve cells situated in the brain as well as spinal cord. This disease impairs the motor neurons’ ability to send impulses to muscles, which in turn leads to the muscles becoming immobile. Finally, it causes loss of movement, speech, swallowing and sometimes even breathing, and the affected person dies of it.

As of now, there is no cure or even treatment which can reverse or halt ALS. There are people who have been living with for years while some have had a quicker degeneration and have died. There are many clinical trials under progress to help people suffering from ALS and the Ice Bucket Challenge began with the aim of raising awareness about the disease and encouraging people to donate money to organizations helping ALS patients and carrying out research for treatment of ALS.

However, people posting videos on social networking sites seem to be having a lot of fun with the Ice Bucket Challenge, which has also been slammed as wastage of water by many critics. And they are not wrong, either- In a country like ours, where clean drinking water is not available to many people, it is definitely a waste. Maybe people can just go ahead and donate money to some organization working for ALS patients instead. 

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