Though i never ever expected anything from anyone, i have started to feel that it totally makes sense to catch up with good old buddies, be in touch and somewhere, someday they will all surprise us .
School was very different from the rest of other academics.
Trivandrum is the administrative capital of Kerala with a high literacy rate. I have always...always found the city to have a mix of people who celebrated all festivals irrespective of religion.
A star is put up during the month of December prior to Christmas by all the homes irrespective of religion.
Onam is celebrated with much pomp and show.
Every family member loves to binge on the ramzam biriyani , again irrespective of religion. I so loved this fact about this beautiful city.
As a school girl i was never discriminatory hence did not appreciate this unity.
But i did not have to go far to realize this.
When i went to college at the age of 18 ,not too far but a small town 4 hrs away from Trivandrum to a college run by nuns i faced the harsh reality.
To begin with the super conservative outlook. The moment i stepped into the campus i felt as if i walked in with the aid of a time machine to a land two centuries older.
We were to wear a salwar kameez with the kameez slits stitched up, dupattas covering the torso and all this in a women's college.
Once u step in to the campus your are not allowed to keep mobile phones or laptops or make calls or use the internet.
We can step out of the campus only after a good 14 days.They turned off the fans at 5 am. They turned off lights at 10 pm. Frustration levels rose.
These things were not so difficult to deal with but what was difficult to deal with where the indirect dose of religious discrimination all in the name of God which was injected into these young minds.
Being a conservative catholic institution they propagated their ideologies .
I had classmates who preached that catholics were the only christians and others were not.
When you have a streak of color on your hair they categorized you as reckless .
If you were unlike them they were never proud to consider you as part of them.
It didn't matter if you were the topper or made your college name flash in areas they could never afford to be in; it didn't matter, you were stamped "unlike them".
I don't know ,i did drift from what my intention was to tell you all.
There were many super proud parents , and students who were the apple of the eyes of many of these nuns.
Today i happened to hear what lives two of my college mates lead.
These God's children , don't talk to their families , live with their husbands who are from other religions, have babies as the conservative family planning measures taught in college failed miserably and do not work or have the ambition to pursue a career.
I stand by their decision to live with their loved ones but how did the logic change over night.
Or logics are subjective to change according to benefit ?
Do they realize today that mocking my ideologies ( which i stand by even today)was not a good idea?
When i prayed to the only God in different forms i was mocked,
When i spoke logic and practicality i was mocked.
When i sat down and convinced people i was mocked.
Was all this worth being away from families ( some stubborn family members who wouldn't budge)
or being with the second guy who came their way ( or if he ever cared was forced to convert to their religion to be their lawfully wedded husband).
Well well that is a lot of venting that i did today but i also broke the first rule i had set while i started blogging
Stay away from Religion ,sex and politics as topics to write about.
And having grown a year older i believe i have a lot to talk about all of the above.
and i continue talking .... :-)
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