Shailaza's Blog

Category: sons and daughters

  • We love devoted husbands and doting fathers but isn’t that how most men usually should be?

    Matthew McConaughey with his family

    I recently read an article about the actor Matthew McConaughey and what a devoted father and husband he is.

    I, for one cannot understand something. Why do we celebrate or praise men for their devotion and ga ga over them? Or is it that we are always suprised when we see a celebrity being devoted to his relationships instead of being self obsessed?

    Why do men marry or have kids if they don’t want to be committed or devoted to their family?

    On the other hand, a devoted woman seems to be a default piece in the universe! We don’t praise women for their ability to handle everything with ease. We take it for granted that they will do everything without making a big deal about it. If they fail to do it, we raise eyebrows.

    I remember having a discussion with a newly married friend. He said, ‘If I start listening to my wife all the time, my friends and my mother will call me ‘joru ka gulam’. I cannot show that I love my wife and children and really care for them.’

    I don’t know about the other countries but in India, this is a prevalent thought. Men will do anything for their girlfriends, they will be utterly devoted lovers but the moment the girlfriends become wives, their entire stance will change- so much so that they will not even help their wives in any chore or anything lest some one ridicules them for being so devoted.

    I couldn’t help but devote some lines to this phenomenon-

    शादी से पहले
    डार्लिंग,
    मैं तुम्हारे लिए कुछ भी कर जाऊँगा,
    पहाड़ पे चढ़ जाऊँगा,
    तुम मेरी हो जाओ, वर्ना मर जाऊँगा.
    तुम्हारा हर दर्द मेरी ज़िम्मेदारी है,
    तेरे बगैर बेकार ये दुनिया सारी है.
    आशिक़ हूँ तुम्हारा , मैं किसी से नहीं डरता हूँ,
    इससे बड़ा सच नहीं की मैं तुमसे बहुत प्यार करता हूँ.

    शादी के बाद
    डार्लिंग,
    मैं तुमसे प्यार करता हूँ
    पर मेरी माँ से डरता हूँ.
    तुम मुझे दर्द में भी बुलाओगी तो भी मैं नहीं आऊँगा ,
    नहीं तो मैं जोरू का गुलाम कहलाऊँगा.
    तुम समझो न, मैं पति हूँ तुम्हारा ,
    तुम्हारे लिए दौड़ आऊं, ऐसा हूँ नहीं कोई आशिक़ आवारा

    – शैलजा सिंह

  • The Almighty Child!

    The Almighty Child

    The Man held his new born Child in his arms and looked at his wife lying on the bed. ‘My Child is my life and I shall do everything to keep him happy. You shall want for nothing my Child,’ he said as he handed his Child to his wife. The wife held her Child and heaved a sigh. She knew she had accomplished her purpose of life. She now had a Child who would raise her status in the world. She would be the envy of all women who were trying hard to get a child but had failed.

    Suddenly, the Child started crying. The Man was startled and slapped his wife hard. ‘I never want to hear my Child cry! Do you hear? If I hear him crying, I will punish you!’

    The wife looked at him and sobbed quietly. She fed him and put him to sleep. With time, the Child grew into an adult. His parents dotted on him and he could do no wrong. They could not see that he had grown up. In their mind’s eye, he was still a Child. Before he could experience the chill of the winter, they got him the warmest clothes in the country. When summer came, he had the coolest room in the house while his his other siblings sweated in the heat.

    The Child did not like the usual food. He liked to bite out small pieces of flesh from his both parents’ belly. Every time, he felt hungry, he would start crying and his mother would come running. She bared her heart and belly to him and he used to take big bites. The mother bled profusely but did not utter a single word of protest. The other siblings watched helplessly. The father had already grown weak because the Child kept taking huge bites out of him. The siblings weren’t also spared. The parents begged the siblings to let the Child take his fill from them so that they could be spared. The Man and wife remembered all the children they had killed to get this Child.

    Soon, there was no flesh left on the family because the Child kept inviting his friends to feast on them. The sisters soon realized that the Child did not care about anyone except his own survival. He cried when he needed to feast. They were helpless when he cried and offered him every bit of their flesh. Yet the Child shouted at them because now his hunger could no longer be appeased with mere flesh. He threatened the family that he would die if he did not get what he wanted and the family had no choice but to relent to the Child! He constantly tormented them with words that would cut their hearts to pieces.

    Have you met such a Child? Whose fault is it that some children eat up their own family to satisfy their never-ending hunger? Do comment and let me know your thoughts.

    This is a work of fiction. It has no resemblance to any person living or dead. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead or actual events is purely coincidental!