RebelRabee

As posted by  Maktoob Media   Here we are celebrating the 101th International Women’s Day with every wall , every tweet , every jingle stating the importance of women in our lives be it as a mother, daughter , sister or wife. To prove our point, we invite on stage the sexy Miss xxxx for a sizzling “Item” number. Enjoying the paradox?

'Do I see darkness in my eyes? Do you see in yours? Darkness hasn't woven our lives together. Dreams. Its only Dreams that can make anyone's eyes clearer, giving the ability to see'  The above excerpt is taken from 'Music in Light' was part of many other essays, short stories, poems, interviews and memoirs that created history on 20th January 2015. An eye-opening anthology was released by the Centre for Advanced Studies and Research in English Language and Literature, Farook College, Kozhikode which is the start to the end of the many blind stereotypes we have about the visually impaired. Dance along with the rhythm of these poems, ponder on the theories and academic essays that sparks a new light, smile at how Sudheer explains how 'being blind can be fun too', relax in the short stories and play and question yourself along with the interviews. All in all, 'I vs Eye, an anthology of the visually impaired' will make you see like never before i...

Why can’t a woman visit the husband-to-be’s house just like he does? Is even stating such a wish considered to be so evil , a joke, that makes her look like a cheap selfish egoist? I received many answers for this query, but the funniest was “um. I guess because, no one does that”. The most romantic one involved, “ooh , it will feel so special to enter that magical house for the first time in your wedding dress”. The more realistic answer was how that movement from the girl’s side will not get her any respect in the family she is going to. Then let me ask again- why does a woman who visits the husband-to be’s house with her family, gain no respect from the groom’s side? Wait, continue reading. Because here I finally ask a bunch of questions that has been eating me alive for the last couple of years, about the many uncanny, tacky, unwritten “customs” to be followed pre wedding, at the wedding and post wedding.

The day the light dawned on me... I day I changed my ways and followed a new path...was not when I Became a palliative volunteer. It was many months after effortless homecares , nursecares , long determined rallys, daily meetings and tiring camps, and those fund collections that made sweat a regular visitor that I had an epiphany of what a huge hypocrite I am.

The phrase "Unity in Diversity" is often used with much pride by almost every Indian in every speech ever made since school days. Its been in the text books, in tourist guides, in the media everywhere. But somehow "India is the most racially discriminating country" as the documentary "Unity Yet Diversity" (UYD) puts it. And when you come to think of it , it is. We discriminate each other not only bu the color, religion and caste of a person but also by their language and region. How many movies have we watched that made fun of  "dosa-eating dark Madrasis", the Bombay goons from the slum, the  alcoholic Punjabi spendthrifts? We may be the top in the world for making fun or discriminating our own countrymen in this world. But there are a set of people from the place we proudly call "the seven sisters" in our geography book that undergo the worst stereotypes and discrimination- The people from the North East. These Indians are not eve...

From the land of the misogynists,  From a world that considers a Hijab clad women to be a nobody,  There arose a Hijabi, who traveled all over India by the Jagrtiti Yathra. A Hijabi, not afraid to stand for what she believes in.                                                          a Hijabi who Dreamed and achieved,  Rifa Sanbaq, a journalist student in MBL, Calicut became the only Hijabi to be part of this year's Jagriti Yathra, an initiative to make the promising youth to know the inner India. She shares her experience as a Hijabi who under the social stigma is considered not "appropriate" to be a part of such movement. Get ready to get inspired   

"But whoso does good works, whether male or female, and is a believer, such shall enter Heaven and shall not be wronged even as much as the little hollow in the back of a date-stone (Al Quran 4:125)"  Time and again, we claim in words how the mighty religion shows no bias against the genders and all are equal in the eyes of God and yet time and again we prove to act otherwise. I saw such a hypocritical imbibed social negligence today that made my blood boil over. Running around the Markaz Complex in Calicut looking for sponsors for a social event, I found that one of the highlighted Masjids of Calicut town, didn't have a single room for women to enter. Looking around for a place to pray, I found one, a tiny little room hidden away in the darkest corner where no one can see and anyone who does see mistakes it for a toilet! Such is the importance given to women who believe in God and likes to keep their prayers intact.