My Piece for the day

Nothing introduces you to patriarchy like marriage. Even if it is too late, once you see it, you just can't unsee it again. When it comes to biology, the only thing that is unrevervisble is a man and a woman's reproductive system, the ability to bring a child into the world and the ability to feed him/her.  The rest of it... I don't get it anymore. Don't you think it is strange, women are worshipped for fertility yet discriminated for the blood that bears its symbol . The worst of the marriage victims find themselves in ashes, with bruises or at times a penetrating uterus, so I guess an identity conflict is far too trivial to comprehend.  Photo courtesy: ChatGPT  Any time a woman raises an eyebrow, it is not necessarily a sign of troubled family or failed marriage. Maybe it is just a student, a story-teller or a wallflower observing from the hinges. While my own conflicts seem too first-world, I don't yet have the creative licence to share many of the st...

I know it’s cliché, yet deeply sad—and almost absurd—how easily we forget to value what we already have. Sometimes when you look at the world, all you can see are your own deficits. In the middle of that pain and chaos, you forget the most important thing you’re holding onto: love. I think I did that too. I took you for granted, almost like a given. I forgot how incredibly lucky I was to find love on the very first try. No confusion. No baggage. No heartbreaks. No comparisons, no choosing between people. I don’t think we realise how rare one-man-one-woman love stories are—no frogs to kiss before you find your prince. Two cartoons who together are a force to reckon with. Image courtesy - ChatGPT  Don’t get me wrong, but you are not my knight in shining armour. You’d probably send me to sword lessons myself. You’re something better. An equal. Accommodating. Loving. Understanding. My life partner. My best friend. Nothing has given me more purpose than falling in love with ...

(An excerpt from Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales) It is amazing how you can go about a complete year not being able to explain your struggles and then some random work comes your way and gives you the right words. In the past one year, nothing has been more crushing than the invalidation of my own lived experience. While everyone saw a new bride, there were days all I saw was a young girl betrayed by her own at the altar...my pain for the loss of friendships doesn't take away my love for my husband yet it was an almost silent expectation to simply show up with a smile. You are not supposed to be sad in front of others or on happy occasions. But the truth remains that I didn't even know the name of the woman whose death costed me my dream wedding.  This is not a sob story, it was long due that the empath in me took a back seat or I would have wasted more of my years showing up for people when they broke up, lost their parents or best friends even when they didn'...