Happiness in fifty Paise

As the ‘Guwahati Express’ chugs on at 7:30 AM tomorrow, I am destined to witness facets of inequalities the world has got to offer. The need of guts to travel in the train, especially, if you are one in the Sleeper Class is disturbingly not an exaggeration, at least to me.

We get to see so many disheartening things going on around the world. Do you think begging is oldest profession on earth? Most of us would be affirmatively toned. All kinds of beggars whose period of begging spans from five minutes to years can be seen within the bogies of the train. One can’t help wondering if they are beggar by choice. The answer seems too mysterious to comprehend.

Blind men playing melodious flute through his nose, the elderly, the disabled, the Lepers and Destitute having graduated to this profession, Lamed traversing the compartments on his shrunken butt who always wishes for the limbs, Amputees heart-renderingly appealing to the passengers with is innocent eyes, Juvenile as young as five mopping the floors to whom parenting seem too alien, eunuchs who rule the train setting the minimum from each Rs. 10 which leave travelers disgruntled enough to complain ‘that is quite a loot’, etc, etc, etc.

While, for some, begging seems the only option, some are admittedly suspicious and deceptive though. They are everywhere- on trains, at traffic signals, peering into taxi windows, bedraggled, haggard and breaking into a sudden smile when a few coins are dropped into their palms. A fifty paise contribution on our part makes the unfortunates smile revealing their never ever brushed ‘once in a while got edible particles tainted’ on their teeth. This is their happiness in fifty paise.

The journeys ensue leaving so much of helplessness firmly rooted in its depth within me. Nothing much can be done than accepting, lamenting, and realizing the harsh realties dovetailed in the form of inequalities. I have already hoarded the coins and I will contribute bit of it to each of them. Hundreds of them, before I wrap up my destination, are for sure to come by. Come what may, I can’t afford to turn them away.

 In between, I am too fragile that every such journey leaves me wounded somehow sometime, finding myself shackled by the memories of the miseries those unfortunates I encountered are writhing through.

Domestic Violence: The Menace of the Gendered World

No matter what ‘family’ flashes our mind every now and then. Family is one place where we seek love, safety, security and shelter. But for some unfortunates, it is also a place that imperils lives, and breeds some of the most drastic forms of violence against our sisters.

It is traumatically disheartening to find that our mothers and sisters are often in great danger in the place where they should be safest: within their families. For many of them, ‘home’ is where they face a regime of terror and violence at the hands somebody close to them-somebody they should be able to trust. They are rendered incompetent to rationalize their own decisions, voice their own opinions or protect themselves and their children for fear of something bad-further repercussions. This in a way grossly violates their human rights and their lives are stolen from them by the ever-present threat of violence.

Domestic violence is the global epidemic happening within the domestic spheres, which kills, tortures, and maims physically, sexually, psychologically and economically. Violence against women is present everywhere cutting across boundaries of culture, class, education, income, ethnicity and age.

Bhutan has hence not been exempted even though the country boasts the absence of it. It has been a growing cause of worry in Bhutan. However, the stereotypical trend we witness is the internalization of domestic violence. Most of them go unreporting and this is truly wrong. This internalization happens mainly because our women are not aware of the rights they have. Nonetheless, the issue has been cautiously pursued by women as they become aware of the associated rights, NCWC, National Women’s Association of Bhutan, REWA, and Rehabilitation Centres. But one area where we can critique is that such redressal mechanisms hardly rich the rural women who face the peak brunt of violence accrued from their illiteracy.

I just keep fingerscrossed I could do something when I become simple lawyer. This is my dream. I will cherish it and get to you all, my sisters! I keep praying your rights under CEDAW are materialized, your rights enshrined under our Constitution are duly protected, and your entitlements under various legislations be realised

The achievement of such would go a long way in revamping the societal equality and  the attitude of humanity. The intrinsic and instrumental part you could play is enforcing your rights judiciously and taking due cognizance of your various rights which are found in abundance in our laws.

My wishes are with you all. I am always and ever with you all and stand united to eradicate the domestic menace-Domestic Menace. Let’s done away with it, Angels!

Marrying to Divorce

Are we living in a disposable society; once we are bored of something or no longer “need” it, we throw it away and get a new one? Someway marriage has been personified as a sacred rite; the union of two souls traveling the pathway of life as one. This union is (suppose to be) one that should not be broken and the dissolution of such union are often frowned upon. The utterance, “until death do us part,” becomes an unbreachable contract!

Of all the changes in family life during the 20th century, perhaps the most dramatic- and the most far-reaching in its implications was increase in the rate of divorce. It was during my internship in Bench III, Thimphu District Court, Royal Court of Justice, I knew, one of the most litigated cases in Bhutan is matrimonial cases within which divorce case has been found rampant. It is an unfortunate reality of Bhutanese society today that divorce has become a completely commonplace thing. The piece I am writing, though may not be engaging, is intended to share some of the truths related to dissolution of marriage. Indeed, the accumulated thoughts on it suggest that marital dissolution has the potential to create considerable turmoil in people’s lives.

Not to say there shouldn’t be divorce, people like me however found it tough to witness tears in the eyes of ‘would-be left out’ spouses, ‘inconsolable’ cute-little children on mothers’ back playing and crying when he/she doesn’t know what is happening-Divorce-a matrimonial thunder that splits family! The sense of utter sadness, loneliness, hurt, bitterness, anger, disappointment, betrayal, fear, on innocent spouse to be ‘left-out’ are unbearably seen. What on earth will be worse than one gets betrayed by the person who you married taking absolutely positive that he/she was the one for you but found people are not always what you think and hope for them to be?
  What more Court can do when one spouse doesn’t agree to reconcile matrimonial breakdown than to pass down Divorce Decree? People wonder not able to understand how in the world things work in the court systems sometimes. They find it really sickening. But justice has to be delivered within the confines of law in black and white laid down by the law makers of the Nation.

This tragic-ridden social phenomenon that is seen growing menacingly in our society left me wondering, ‘Do people marry only to get divorced without considering how traumatic and devastating it will be to children from their wedlock, when they grow competent enough to understand that there is such social institution as ‘family’ webbed by the presence of ‘Apa’ and ‘Ama’, only to find one of them has inhumanely abandoned them long time ago?’

I can’t help lamenting and I almost wailed loudly to have noticed by someone near me!!!