When gender is not just pink or blue.
Let me preface this story by saying, I am in support of all gender identities. It’s wrong to dehumanize or discriminate anyone on the basis of their gender identity.
That being said, the term non-binary is honestly confusing to me. Recently, celebrities such as Elliot Page and Demi Lovato identified as non-binary and revealed new pronouns — they/them.
What does it mean to be non-binary?
Turns out, it is not exactly pink or blue. Non-binary is an umbrella term that encompasses many points on the gender spectrum between pink and blue. First it is important to understand the concept of gender.
When we are born, the doctor…
ISRAEL, CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Children always end up being collateral damage in war.
Five-month-old, Omar was pulled from the arms of his dead mother early Saturday morning. On Friday, Omar’s mother had taken him and his brothers to celebrate the Eid Ul-Fitr holiday at her brother’s house.
They fatefully decided to spend the night there. In the middle of the night, Israeli airstrikes hit their 3 story building and decimated it.
Baby Omar’s mother, Maha Abu Hattab, 36, and her 4 children — Suhayb, 13, Yahya, 11, Abderrahman, 8, and Osama, 6 all perished in the bombing. Her sister-in-law and four of her children were also among the dead.
Omar’s father, Mohammed Al…
It cannot be prayed away
In Nov 2019, Federal agents raided former ’19 Kids and Counting’ star Joshua Duggar’s car dealership. He was arrested and booked on child pornography charges on April 29th, 2021.
Special Agent Gerald Faulkner testified that Josh had more than 200 images of child pornography on his computer, ranking in the top 5 of the worst he had ever seen. Josh downloaded the images between May 14 and May 16, 2019. The footage included images of children as young as 18 months being sexually abused.
If Josh is convicted, he faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and fines up to…
Motherhood is not a single day.
I have never been a fan of any of the ‘Hallmark Holidays’, the ‘Buy our products to make your loved ones feel appreciated’ holidays, mainly because it makes people feel obliged to participate.
Shops prey on people’s emotions and guilt-trip them to spend their money. If you don’t get on the bandwagon, buy the jewelry, card, cake, or flowers, it means you are a lousy, heartless soul who doesn’t care.
This Mother’s Day show Mom how much you appreciate her with this sparkling pendant, only $399.
President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed May 9, 1914, the first Mother’s Day. The floral and…
SELF, PSYCHOLOGY
For starters, when will you stop talking?
“Why are you so quiet?”
If I had a penny for every time I heard this as a child, I would be a millionaire by now. I was often dying to retort back, “Why are you so thoughtless?”
As a child, I was made to feel that introversion was the deep flaw I had to overcome. I grew up believing that something was inherently wrong deep within the squiggles of my DNA.
Years later as an adult I realized that introversion was not a character flaw I had to be ashamed of. It was the way I related to the…
Zoom etiquette, does it matter?
It’s been more than a year since organizations across the world have gone virtual. Pajamas and yoga pants have turned into formal office attire. Bedrooms and garages have been modified into office rooms. Our new coworkers(kids) are much too loud and hungry 24/7.
Tools such as Zoom have become indispensable in this new age, however, online meetings can be more tiring than face-to-face meetings.
First, I got to get rid of the laundry pile in the background, change my curry stained shirt, comb my hair, find out which is my good side for the camera(apparently I don’t have one!), …
PRINCE PHILIP, FUNERAL
There is big comfort in small funerals.
On April 9th Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the longest-serving royal consort in British history, died at the age of 99.
Being such a prominent figure for more than 70 years, I expected his funeral to be one of grandeur and spectacle. But I was taken aback by the simplicity of the ceremony.
There were no world leaders or other royalty in attendance. Coronavirus meant the originally estimated 800 guests had to be whittled down to 30. …
RELIGION, SELF
Now I’m wondering if I should go back.
Covid restrictions are easing up where I live. Case numbers have significantly come down since the crazy holiday surge. This is good news but it also means that I am having quite a case of quarantine withdrawal.
I am not ready to give up my pajama work attire. It’s anxiety-inducing when I think of once again packing those school lunches at the crack of dawn and getting the kids out of the door on time.
Above all that I wonder, do I really want to see people again? To be honest, I didn’t miss anyone that much.
I did have…
SOCIETY, DOWRY, CULTURE
Greed always destroys.
On February 25th 2021, the simple dreams of 23-year-old Ayesha Bano Makrani tragically dissolved into the murky waters of the Sabarmati river in Gujarat, India. She ending her life believing it was the only way she would be free from her misery.
Ayesha, an employee of ICICI Bank married Aarif Khan, a mining supervisor, in 2018. After the marriage, she was continuously harassed and physically assaulted by her husband and in-laws over dowry. Ayesha’s father paid Rs 1.5 Lakhs ($2200 )in dowry but her in-laws kept demanding more.
Her husband sent her back to her parent’s house each time his…
UNFINISHED, BOOK REVIEW
Is it worth the hype?
Last week my YouTube feed was flooded with zoom interviews of Priyanka Chopra Jonas sitting in front of her crackling fireplace and basking in perfect lighting. All the hosts were fawning over her new book ‘Unfinished’ and gushing about how inspirational it was.
This book was featured in the best-seller list of The New York Times in less than a week from its release. It made me wonder how celebrities become best-selling authors with their first book while talented authors face rejection after rejection. Surely their fame contributes to those sales numbers and not the writing as much.
Being a…
Tina Viju
Cancer geek I Lover of words & fried rice I Memory Keeper
