The Rebelle blog

Wow, going by the hate barrage I'm subjected to and almost being deemed as a fanatic on facebook for voicing my dissent against capital punishment, I would say- We have such a long journey to make towards being a civil society. Two things I've understood clearly. One, that we hate minorities from the core of our heart, and two, we cannot tolerate being held inferior to other religions apart from our own. There are a lot of other issues too that I've started understanding better now. It's really tragic but also welcoming to finally see the true face of people concealing themselves with a 'progressive broadminded citizen' mask after all. When they talk of such hate spewed words for a religious minority group in India, they are really violating their Fundamental Duties accorded to them by the Constitution. But, of course, who really cares about fundamental duties as long as we have all the rights and the 'righteous' leaders seeking to right the wrong done

So I read a very interesting article today that showed a cerebrum divided into two parts- the left and right. The article was decoding women's skills based on their brain parts. Accordingly, a woman's left brain functions include number & math/scientific skills, written & spoken language, analytical & logical reasoning, objectivity and right side of body control, whereas, her right brain functions include music/art awareness, intuition, creativity & imagination, Face recognition, emotions, subjectivity and left side of body control. It almost made me laugh because it seemed absurd to imagine one side of my brain trying to work difficult math problems and failing at it while scaling through a foreign language smoothly without any difficulties. Having studied anatomy in school, I was always even then very curious as to why the brain shows different usage in men & women. Is it because men rule the roost and really put in a good use of their brains while wom

It pains me to see my friends betraying my trust. Of course, meditation and all the other worldly techniques don't help while expressing the endless reasons as to why they did this! They say Friends are Forever... I don't think so. I read an interesting quote yesterday that goes, "People love your work until they have to pay for it." I think it's the same with friends too. They are by your side, in your homes and hearts until they are also getting benefitted in a way or two. Benefit of your good company, your extended friends circle or any other such reasons. I have to learn how to cope up with this- getting betrayed by people I trust and especially if they happen to be friends. People shouldn't and just can't walk all over us because we are nice. They have no right to do so. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These w

Hello everybody! TEAM RAAHGEER will be exploring the good ol' charming Girgaon and Khotachiwadi on Sunday, 26 July 2015. Girgaon is the 'village situated at the foothill of mountains.'  COME! Discover its history, growth and transformation through the British Raj and the modern times with us. Also, included in the walk is the Grade III- Heritage precinct of Khotachiwadi, an old east-indian community right in the heart of Mumbai. Meeting Point : Opposite Hotel Golden Star Thali, Charni Road Station. Walk down the foot-over-bridge adjoining Saifee hospital at the intersection of roads below. Timing : 7:00 am - 10: 00 am. Rs. 300 per head. Wear comfortable clothing and footwear. Please carry water bottles and essential rain gear.(Umbrellas et al) Please note : We can only accomodate 15 people max. Only way to join this walk is to get yourselves registered by dropping an email on raahgeer2015@gmail.com or  call/whatsapp on 0-9967-835-094 . Confirmation

It's difficult to get off a book from my head once I decide I like it too much. Case in point, my latest read from Gayle Forman. Yes, Young Adult literature. I might have mentioned this somewhere else, perhaps to a friend, but I missed out reading YA fiction during my teens. I was big on classics and all the serious reading. My companion was Daddy, of course. He and me scouted for books, read them, discussed them, impassioned with love for literature. Aah! There goes my train into the past again. So, I have an exam on coming sunday, in two days. I should be studying. But I keep going back to Shakespeare, Lulu, Willem and the beautiful Paris streets and cafe houses. Does it ever happen that we read about a place extensively and hence visit it, get familiar with it even without actually being there? I think it does with me. Especially happens with Dickens' London, and the Paris French quarters. It doesn't help much that owing to understanding urban planning and architec

SORRY, Dad. I really am very Sorry. For disappointing you. I owe you many apologies for all the grief I have caused you over the years, for all the times I've failed you. I can't tell you how ashamed I am to have underperformed and failed. I have not been a good daughter. I should have made you proud. Somehow my choices after academics have been a gamble and it has not paid off well at all. I still remember the internship you insisted I complete, but I didn't because I was an idiot back then. Later, I wallowed in my misery for months. I know it was painful for you to see me like that, but more painful was the fact that I was a disobedient kid. I really am truly sorry for not listening to you, for not taking your advice, for not consulting you. Somewhere down the line, I was thinking of myself as a grown up who could take my own decisions which went horribly wrong. I promise I won't let you down. We are not open in expressing our emotions freely, hence th

2006- second year of Architecture school. I am tempted to go back to those days and write about them. Rang De Basanti was released and what euphoria it created! I remember youngsters beaming with pride and a renewed sense of patriotism, speaking up in college projects about their nation as it belonged to them. I don't know how they viewed their country prior to the movie's release. What I remember is students debating in excited tones about nationalism and inequality. That was rare. The songs were played at all public functions and it was suddenly cool to be a rebel. BE A REBEL was the cry. The Right to Information Act was passed in 2005 and it ushered a new wave of keeping tab on government affairs. So many things changed. Social media was introduced. Students got hooked to websites like orkut. Every other student in my school would be in the computer lab after school hours to connect via orkut. The concept of online friends and friendship seemed cool and the 'in thi

Only in time is time remembered. - T.S. Eliot. How right Eliot was! Exactly eight years ago (WOW! That long already) I wrote my first blog post on Indian social system which I deleted after a few months. I have no inkling why I did that. It was about the Hindustan Times sponsored Advertisement 'Tum chalo toh hindustan chale,' roughly translated as 'Walk and India walks with you.' I distinctly remember writing it after getting worked up during a humanities class in school about social inequality in India. Strange that after eight odd years, I am studying Indian Polity. If I could see future, I would be proud for my stand in those humanities classes. T.I.M.E- valued greatly and generally misused by all of us. I love journals and diaries that document our day to day lives. I am a big believer in writing as a therapy. Yes, it works far better than breaking objects. As a kid when I made mistakes, Dad would always reprimand me by asking me to remember the date and t

Everything that's a first carry precious memories with them. I've had a lot of good firsts and many bad firsts too. Or, they weren't bad- I just couldn't acclimatise myself to those firsts. First day in a new high school was sombre. I was unsure of everything. uncertain too. Of course, the adulation that came my way because of my excellent academic record made everything seem fine. Over time, things went well. When we are younger, somehow adjustment doesn't seem to be a problem. First day in an Architecture school was also very uncertain. There was a crowd and everyone looked so hefty and tall and just so big that for a moment I felt like a school kid starting afresh. Five years down the line, every year of school then felt like an extension from the last term. Nothing changed. First day in a new city at a competitive services training center didn't bring out any emotions, except that I had a feeling of calm over it. As routine set in, the atmosphe