Monthly Archives: March 2014

SAM – The Notorious Trio

Personal

The class lies unusually still as everyone silently goes about doing their daily work, the incessant noise of pen nibs scratching the dry surface of the notebooks hangs in the air. Studious discussions develop as students engage in informative talks and in a while, menace in the form of three completely defected pieces walks in.

“May God bless these earnest kids as they prepare themselves for a life full of hard work” says one of the three, shaking his head with pity, as they get seated in their regular spot.

The sincere students comprising of five out of a total of eight, occupy the front seats, and in two desks in the far corner near the windows sits The Notorious Trio. Their eyes sparkle with an intense determination to make something happen, the unnatural tranquillity in class greatly bothers them. Their restless souls are desperate to get into trouble; their hands long to create havoc and their throats run dry with the words they curb within themselves. The class teacher walks in, and seating himself on the teacher’s chair, he begins doing his work. The slightest disturbance catches his attention and he attempts giving a stern look. The entire class succumbs under his watchful sight, but not SAM. Nah! They’re way too involved in their mischievous plans to even realise that a teacher is present. The ringing of the bell resounds throughout the school indicating the commencement of the first period.

“It’s time. De Todos. Para Todos.” the Trio whispers.

It’s just a matter of a few seconds and their ingenious plot begins to unfold, the beauty of which everyone apart from SAM fails to notice. Impatience flows in their blood and their unpredictable nature adds on to the intensity of nuisance caused by them. Their impulsive conduct sets off a series of hysterical moments, as their laughter echoes in the earlier hushed class. Each comment passed by them triggers another one, and this chaotic chain of events continues. The teacher looks up at the Trio, opens his mouth to scold them, but then upon realising that there’s no stopping them, he returns to his work, trying desperately hard to ignore the three hyperactive characters which seemed to rule over that corner of the class. Their shameless acts gain popularity day by day and the Trio diligently maintains its reputation amongst all teachers.

Finally the bell rings and the period ends. The class teacher gets up at once to leave the class, with an agonised look on his face, he scowls at the Trio. “Learn to appreciate silence” he says and marches out, visibly annoyed at the immensely satisfied look that spreads across SAM’s face.

Misrepresentation of Women

Social

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when asked to describe a beautiful woman? Most people would have an answer
similar to this – ‘A beautiful woman is curvaceous yet thin, fair, with flawless glowing skin and silky smooth hair’. If there are a few
people who agree with the above description, the situation isn’t that bad, but in today’s world, majority of the people are going by
that description and it is time to step back and take a look at what is going on. The strongest influencing power is in the hands of
the media, if used correctly it can do wonders, but if misused, the condition can become awful. The representation of women in
media is anything but diverse and equitable. When it comes to depicting women, there are limited and stereotypical roles given to
them. A woman is rarely the main character of a show or movie, and if she is, there is always an added sex appeal to her, whether
or not the character requires it is not considered. To find a character of a woman that real women can relate to is very rare.

‘Beauty’ is something that cannot be defined. One can find beauty in the simplest of things; it doesn’t have to be extravagant to be
beautiful. But society today has a rigid mindset about a beautiful or rather perfect woman, and no doubt this mindset has been
formed due to what media shows them. If a woman is like the actresses on TV, who have an unrealistic and naturally unattainable
look, then and only then is she fit to be called beautiful. And any woman, who does not equate with this ridiculous opinion of a
‘perfect woman’ created by society, is looked down upon, which is nothing but a form of inhuman treatment. Just like men,
women too are humans and deserve to be treated likewise. Beauty pageants contribute in making life worse for the ‘real’ women
who are far off from society’s opinion on beauty. The winners of those pageants are looked at as role models by girls and even
women across the world. They strive harder each day by starving and going through cosmetic surgeries, just to look ‘beautiful’ like
them. And of course this harms their health and self-esteem. How many of them realise that technology has played a role in
making the models what they are on TV? Before being broadcasted, a series of various editing processes are gone through to get
the so-called ‘perfect’ look.

Shows, movies or books that target the easily influencable teenagers have the most severe adverse effects. What is shown is taken
to be the ideal, and this leads to the teenagers losing their individuality just to be what they see. Take for example the novel
‘Twilight’ by Stephenie Meyer, one of the main characters Bella Swan is shown to be completely dependent on her vampire
boyfriend Edward Cullen and werewolf friend Jacob Black. She is shown to be meek and delicate. This kind of an image when
absorbed by young girls, manipulate their mind in such a way that they feel like being exactly what they see. The stereotypes used
to represent women are absurd to a level that can’t be explained. If a woman is driven, independent and career-oriented, she has to
be insensitive and unapproachable, like the character of Dr. Christina Yang in the TV show Grey’s Anatomy. And if a woman is
motherly and warm, she has no line of business in life. If a woman cries, she is emotional and weak, and if she is strong and shrewd,
she is put into a completely different category. A woman has to be on either extreme end when portrayed by the media, she simply
can’t be shown to be a balanced person. And these stereotypes, consciously or unconsciously get drilled into people’s minds,
leading them to forget who a woman really is.

The way women are used in advertisements is nothing less than degrading. Women are not products, they aren’t meant to be
marketed and advertised. They are displayed as objects of desire, objects that are meant for a fixed range of purposes and the
stereotypes used to showcase them support the same. The product being advertised will have no connection to the partially-
dressed woman displayed; the only motives of placing the woman there would be to evoke interest and make the product
appealing by taking advantage of feminine features. In commercials such as those of ‘Axe’ deodorant, women are shown to go out
of their way just to be with the man. The core message that comes along with these ads is that women only desire certain things.
And due to this misleading portrayal, some men end up making dim-witted assumptions that all women are desperate sex-seeking
creatures, and get into heaps of trouble by approaching the wrong women with the wrong intentions. These ads also affect
women by making them feel that it is their duty to serve men and satisfy their outrageous fantasies. In Fifty Shades of Grey,
Anastasia Steele is shown to find pleasure in violent sexual acts and being dominated by her boyfriend Christian Grey. And that is
the reason why this novel was so successful; people still find amusement in female domination.

To be available in the marriage market, a woman has to be a perfect fit in society’s view of a perfect woman and has to fulfill all
the ludicrous matrimonial demands. One of the main concerns is the woman’s skin tone. Fair is beautiful and dark is ugly. This
socially constructed ideal is something a girl encounters during various stages in her life in a range of different forms. As a child
she plays with Barbies who in fact have an unattainable body image, she watches Disney princesses, each of them being light-
toned with sexually-appealing features, and they become her role model, she attempts to be like them one day. Instead of letting
the child grow and have her own ideals, she is presented with these.

The harm caused by the misrepresentation of women is irreversible in most cases, it is permanent and severe. By raising awareness
about this issue and joining hands with those few who are fighting hard each day for an appropriate depiction of women, the
world can recover. It is time to help make a change for all women.

Into The Wilderness

Fiction

It was after me.

I had no idea about who or what it was, but it was chasing me. And from its frequent snarling, I narrowed down my guesses to it being an extremely hungry animal. I tried speeding but ended up tripping over a fallen branch and went rolling down. I made a hard landing at the foot of the hill, brushed up the mud and looked up to discover the mystery of my predator. There it was, standing under an old Oak tree at the cliff. Its roots clutched onto the hill like a fist with its fingers sunk deep into the soil. There under the wise ancient Oak stood my predator with its head held high before the beautiful golden setting sun. Initially I could see a blurry outline, and as it moved forward right up to the edge, a clear image formed. Never had I seen such a ferocious looking animal before. A loud piercing howl echoed through the vast emptiness that lay ahead of me. A slight shudder ran down my spine and my legs went numb.

It was a huge intimidating wolf with shabby gray fur and sharp blood covered canines which were highlighted by the magnificent rays of the sun. His strong thick tail added to the fearsome appearance, and his evil green eyes shook me to the core. He leaped down and charged towards me with great force. I had no intention of ending up on his dinner plate and so I ran. Gathering all the energy that surprisingly remained in me, I ran from him as fast as I could, occasionally looking back to see if he was still after me. From the tremendously determined look in his eyes, I could tell that he wasn’t giving up on this chase soon.

I ran for what seemed like hours, and then I just couldn’t take it anymore. I could hardly feel my hind limbs and my hands were badly bruised with deep cuts from the thorny bushes that I encountered on the way. I collapsed on to the soft grass in the meadow. I looked behind me, ready to face death, and I was confused to find the wolf coming to a sudden stop. He crouched down with a strange frightened look on his face. I got up, very proud that he was scared of me and had finally given up. I turned around to take a look, and apparently it wasn’t me that he was scared of. There right behind me stood a lion. Judging by his huge mane and conceited posture it must have been an Alpha male. It pounced on the wolf and before my brain could register much of what was taking place, it ran away dragging the yelping wolf along with it.

I was safe, at least for the time being. I sighed in relief as I got up to find where exactly I was. There was no one around. Not a single human or house was in sight of my exhausted watery eyes. I walked on without a clue about where I was headed for. I walked on and on until I found myself face to face with a dark forest. The thought of having to spend my night there didn’t exactly comfort me, as God knows how many dangerous creatures there were lurching in that immense density of trees. But the chances of finding a nice comfortable bed here were quite low and so I settled for the moist forest floor.

The sun’s morning rays hit my tightly shut eyelids and woke me up from my deep sleep. After a few lazy minutes passed and I had woken up completely, I looked around to get a better view of my temporary shelter. All that I could see were trees, and I was definitely not going to go in there to explore further. After a few hours of tireless wandering for breakfast, I gave up and settled for some juicy red mango-like fruit which seemed to grow on creepers everywhere. I was still healthy and alive after 3 hours which meant that it didn’t kill, and it also meant that I had found my lunch and dinner for the meanwhile too.

After a week or so, I was assured that the place was uninhabited. Luckily I found my way back to the open meadows. Unluckily when I reached there, a pride of lions was resting close to 10 feet away from me and judging from their salivating mouths and desperate focused eyes, I must have looked like a delicious chunk of meat roaming around and teasing their senses. The male lion got up, smacked his lips and stretched his limbs as I clenched my fists in defense and took gradual steps back as silently as anyone possibly could. His eyes met mine as he took position for pouncing on his target – me.

That was when suddenly 2 people caught me and pulled me back as another person tackled the starving cat by distracting it with pieces of meat. The others dragged me into their jeep and we escaped. Once we were at a safe distance from the lions, they explained to me who they were and how they found me. I had completely forgotten about the tracking device which was in my bag which I probably lost during the wolf hunt. They had searched the nearby area and fortunately they found me at the right time. My partner, Colin Hunt, had sent them to look for me when he didn’t receive any signals from me for quite some time. Colin and I were working on a wildlife project in this area and just like always curiosity had got the better of me and I ended up in big trouble by getting lost.

After a short journey of an hour, I was back at the camp in one complete piece. Glad to be sleeping on a bed rather than the itchy forest floor, I cuddled up in a warm blanket and dozed off to sleep at once, preparing myself for another day of adventure.