No Uterus, No Opinion

Posted on by Prie

I was fuming with anger when I came to know about the abortion bill that Alabama passed from a post on Reddit. At first, I thought it was a joke when I read the reasons this bill was passed and the consequences doctors and women can face but as I dived deeper into the story, I was so distraught that I had to talk about this.

First things first, I am not from a first world country like the US. I mostly refrain from badmouthing the policies of foreign nations because I believe you have to fix your shit before  you pass a judgement on others. But I have to comment on this because even with all the stigma around sex and abortions in India, we have detailed abortion bill laid out since 1971 where a woman can receive an abortion up to 20 weeks of pregnancy for a broad spectrum of reasons. Even after 20 weeks, an exception can be made in the rarest of cases. Point 1, we know how to separate Church and State. No matter what your religion is, you have to uphold the basic rights of a human.

Stop calling it a ‘Heartbeat Bill’ making it sound cute. It is only human when it has formed a brain. You cannot even donate organs to save people whose brain waves have died. How do you even justify that this fetus is a person with rights? Fun fact : It is not called a baby until it has left the mother’s womb. For 9 months, it is called a fetus, not a baby. It’s Biology 101.

Imagine that your daughter has been brutally beaten and raped by a psychopath and now you have to explain to her that she has to carry his fetus for 9 months because that psychopath penetrated her and your State might send her to prison for a longer time than her rapist if she tried to abort her pregnancy. Can you even imagine the trauma that the girl has to face? And after the rapist gets out of jail, he is legally entitled to see his baby and your daughter can’t do anything to keep him away. Even good ol’ doctors can face up to 99 years in prison if they try to save this poor girl from a life of suffering. I can’t even…

Imagine your wife is pregnant and for a random reason she falls into the category of 20% women who have had a miscarriage. As you are in mourning, the State tries to investigate your wife if her miscarriage was intentional or not. If found guilty, she could face up to 10 years in prison. This is as ridiculous as it sounds.

25 men voted for this bill that curbs women’s rights and sets Alabama back 50 years. It’s a real life Handmaid’s Tale. But what if one of their mistresses get pregnant? You guessed it right. They will find a way to get her aborted. Rules don’t apply to them. They only apply to the common folk.

Another provision is the 6 week mark for getting an abortion, that is, 2 weeks after your missed period. Do they understand that a period is not like a paycheck that arrives right on time? It is very irregular. Sometimes my period just skips a month. You cannot know that you’re pregnant this fast based on your periods. Also, the people who argue that you should just use a condom or the pill if you don’t want a baby. It is because they aren’t a 100% effective. No method is fully effective. Fun fact : Alabama even wants to ban birth control pills. 

For the sake of the argument, let’s assume that they genuinely want to help the children. Then why is Alabama ranked 50th in education? The number of teen pregnancies is very high owing to this. Banning abortions just ensures every woman has a child in her arms before turning into an adult. If they really cared about children, they should try providing better maternal care and financial aid after a child is born. Or just pay attention to the live children that are being killed owing to gun violence. But no, when the tables are turned, they just want to send their ‘thoughts and prayers’.

Abortions should be made safe and legal. Making it illegal would only make way for unsafe procedures that would only increase maternal mortality rates. Women should be given a choice what they want to do with their bodies and at least a 20 week time period to decide their future. I request you, Alabama, don’t go back to the dark ages.

The American Sitcoms I Grew Up With : Review

Posted on by Prie

Seinfeld, F.R.I.E.N.D.S and The Big Bang Theory are massively popular in India owing to the reruns and have a huge cult following.

The Big Bang Theory started out as a great show with Revenge Of The Nerds type vibes but after a few seasons I outgrew them as it relied too much on the dumb blonde and virgin nerd jokes (Read : bad writing). And don’t even get me started on the laugh tracks. I hate laugh tracks with all of my heart whose job is to pressure you into laughing even if you don’t get the joke or think it’s just unfunny. No matter how shallow or unoriginal the joke was, The Big Bang Theory inserted a laugh track with audience laughing like there was no tomorrow. The thing that irritated me the most is if you remove those laugh tracks, the conversations between the characters just seem unnatural. No normal person takes such long pauses between lines and frankly, it just is an excuse for bad acting skills. I don’t know how the show is still airing when 4-5 seasons were more than enough. The same goes for another famous sitcom, Two And A Half Men. Great concept but repetitive after a certain time.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S had initially started re-running on Romedy Now when Comedy Central India picked it up and they have never looked back, attracting young viewers year after year. I even read somewhere that the main cast receives over a million dollars every year without even doing anything owing to these reruns. After watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S for the 10th or 15th time, I had memorized each and every punchline. The stories didn’t seem funny anymore and the laugh track annoying. Now that I’ve actually seen a large amount of sitcoms, with both comical and edgy characters, I get why F.R.I.E.N.D.S has such a huge cult following in India. The characters are good-looking, moral and righteous, with everything sorted out in their lives (Monica got skinny, Rachel succeeded in life, Ross found Rachel, Chandler got Monica, Joey became famous and Phoebe found Mike). Even Chandler who was usually the butt of ‘being ugly jokes’ is really hot (or is it just me?). These characters were living the audience’s wildest dreams, far from reality and appealing. But when you take away the good looks and the laugh track, the jokes don’t particularly stand out, some do but not all, especially not enough for such a huge cult following.

I hit gold when AXN started showing reruns of Seinfeld. This show was so different from what I’ve seen before. Right from the format of including a small stand-up scene by Jerry. Within the first 30 seconds they introduced to two concepts alien to me – good comedy and a great comedian. Also, average looking people. People who didn’t look like they fell from heaven but flawed both in their personalities and bodies. I like to say that there’s a little George Costanza in all of us, the epitome of imperfections. He is petty, selfish and insecure, portraying that part of us that we won’t dare to admit. The rest of the characters are likeable in their own way but George, who was written to be unappealing turned out to be one of the greatest characters in American sitcoms.

It’s been six years since I saw the pilot episode of Seinfeld. And I don’t think I’m going to outgrow this show anytime soon.

Monday Motivation

Posted on by Prie

I know a woman with kids around her ankles and a baby on her lap.
She said one day her husband went to get a paper and the motherfucker never came back.
Mortgage to pay and four kids to raise, but keeping the wolf from the door.
She said the wolf’s just a puppy and the door’s double locked so why you gotta worry me for.

Cause he left a hole in my heart, a hole in a promise, a hole on the side of my bed.
Oh now that he’s gone well life carries on and I miss him like a hole in the head.

Holes, Passenger

This song is really close to my heart and reminds me everytime that people have had it worse than me but still managed to come out the other side, chasing nothing but hope and a silver lining.

Passenger is one of those bands that has immense expertise in storytelling. Though people might remember it as a band that had that one famous song (Read : Let Her Go) but it offers so much more, if only one takes the time to explore. They were one of the earliest bands that I listened to and although their videos barely hit a million, they keep on making music on the most random things that’ll keep you smiling throughout the day.

If you guys want to check out the entire song, here’s the YouTube link.

Summer Love

Posted on by Prie

May 2019
White shirt, rolled up sleeves and the blue sky complementing his blue eyes, Sam is all dressed up for his first day at the new job.

April 2019
We bought a new house. It was tough as Sam hasn’t landed a job yet but I’m sure his hard work will pay off soon.

10th January, 2019
We moved about 1000 miles away from our hometown, halfway across the country, in my dream city for my dream job.

22:04, 25th December, 2018
“I guess I never found someone whose fingers fit perfectly between the spaces of my hand,” Sam admitted shyly. These word were an elixir for my aching heart. In an instance I closed the four year old distance between us. With fire in my veins, regret in my heart, yearning for his love, I didn’t hold back. Neither did he. We were sixteen again, foolishly in love.

22:01, 25th December, 2018
After Christmas dinner and exchanging courtesies with my parents, we were out on the front porch, beneath the starless sky, desperately trying to find a conversation starter when I finally broke the silence, “So did you find a girlfriend yet?” I clenched my fist hard, preparing for the worst.

20th December, 2018
When I visited Orson, my hometown, for the last time before permanently moving for my dream job, I never thought I’d run into Sam. I ran across the street and gave him a big hug, almost knocking him down. He embraced me with open arms. After four fuckall years of college, I was so delighted to see him. I wish we had never broken up. ‘Cause now I think I might have lost him forever.
P.S. Mom invited him to dinner to make matters more uncomfortable.

August, 2017
Watching my boyfriend’s tongue throat-deep in another woman, I was absolutely done. I cried myself to sleep that night and a couple of nights following that. I longed for Sam’s hand in mine. I wondered if I called him out of the blue, will he remember me. I convinced myself that he wouldn’t be moping around for someone like me. If I did call him, all I would do is make him carry a burden that isn’t his in the first place.

January, 2015
We both cried when we decided to mutually break up for neither of us wanted to hold the other back. “No one survives a long distance relationship, let alone 4 years and 500 miles,” they advised us. We were young and stupid. All we knew was to love and even that was taken from us today. When we parted ways, I let out a silent prayer to help Sam find someone better than me. I hate to see him cry.

October, 2014
When I was stressing out over my college acceptance letters, Sam carried me out of my room, into his car, bought a sundae and drove down to Sunset Point. As we sat on the hood of his car, eating the melted ice cream, as if there was no tomorrow, I wondered how I would ever manage without him ’cause we completed each other without even realizing it.
Also, I love how his eyes sparkle when he tries to look, without squinting, beyond the horizon.

March, 2014
Sam and I were revising The Circulatory System at the library when I asked him, “Where does your heart lie?” “With you,” was his immediate reply. When I said he doesn’t even mean that, he slowly sang, “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away.”
Could I be any more in love?

September, 2013
We had an English class together and I caught him looking at me. I teasingly said, “You’re staring.” He smiled softly, looked down then looked away. The next minute, he’s looking at me like that again and everytime it makes me melt.

30th June, 2012
Summer was almost over when mom asked me if I still had feelings for Sam. 
“He makes me laugh. I think I’m going to marry him someday,” I said confidently.
“You make me laugh,” mom replied sarcastically.

3rd June, 2012
Sam pulled me close and kissed me for the first time. Just like that. His hands slowly moved from my waist and into my hair as if he wanted every part of me in that moment but couldn’t get enough. Dazed after the heated exchange, he slowly took my hand and placed it on my chest, whispering in my ear, “Hey, slow down. Your heart is going to beat out of your chest.”

24th May, 2012
We just lied on the cool grass of the front porch today. I drew stories on the clouds as Sam read a romantic story voicing both the knight in shining armour and the damsel in distress that left me laughing all day.

18:02, 12th May, 2012
I looked out of my window and saw Sam patiently waiting in his car. He had cleaned up quite nicely for our first date.
Could he be the one?

18:05, 12th May, 2012
I rushed out of my house, amidst smoke, after hearing a loud crash. I fell down as I held Sam’s half burned, half bleeding body, unable to move. Dad quickly reacted and lay him on his car seat to drive him to the hospital as mom called the police station to report a case of hit and run.

19:30, 12th May, 2012
Sitting outside the operating room, covered in Sam’s blood and my tears, I prayed to all the Gods I knew, begging for a do-over, pleading for his right to live. I wondered if I could wind back the clock, how differently everything could turn out to be.

19:30, 12th May, 2012
Beep…beep…..beep……beeeeeeeeeeep.
The doctors stopped operating on the dead body. Blue eyes and blue skies faded into the dark.