WOMEN’S DAY

“I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across the river to create many ripples” –Mother Teresa.

She was right. One cannot alone change the world but can set a series of events in motion that are tested by time but protected by the wisdom of the past we see in future generations.

It is the efforts of many such women that echo through time and cultivated into what we celebrate as women’s day on 8th of March.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Choose To Challenge”. The day celebrated to recognise the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

On women’s day it is important to remember the efforts of various women who contributed to making the dream of equality a reality.

Alice Paul felt that suffrage was just a first step for women. In 1920 she declared, “It is incredible to me that any woman should consider the fight for full equality won. It has just begun.” Convinced that women needed an equal rights amendment, Paul organized her National Woman’s Party to focus on getting one passed. In 1923, the amendment that Paul had drafted — called the Lucretia Mott amendment — was first introduced in Congress.

Another great activist was Maud Wood Park who not only aided female voters as the first president of the League of Women Voters, but she also helped form and chaired the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee, which lobbied Congress to enact legislation favoured by women’s groups. One law that Park and the committee pushed for was the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Bill (1921).

For African American women, getting the vote often didn’t mean being able to cast a ballot but, Mary McLeod Bethunea well-known activist and educator, was determined that she and other women would exercise their rights. Bethune raised money to pay the poll tax in Daytona, Florida, and also taught women how to pass their literacy tests. Bethune’s activities didn’t stop there: she founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 to advocate for Black women. And during the presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt, she accepted a position as director for the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s work for women began long before her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency. After joining the Women’s Trade Union League in 1922, she introduced Franklin to friends like Rose Schneiderman, which helped him to understand the needs of female workers. When Franklin won the White House, Eleanor used her new position to support women’s interests; even the press conferences she held for female reporters helped them in their jobs.

As we remember women who turned the course of history, one name that can never fade away from our memories is Malala Yousafzai. In 2012 at the age of 15, Malala Yousafzai, was shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan. The assassination attempt was a response to her stand for the right of girls to gain an education after the Taliban had banned them from attending school. She is now one of the world’s most iconic female change agents and in 2014 became the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Yousafzai leads pioneering change in attitudes towards women, children, inequality and education in Asian countries.

The work of many such women is a reminder to what has been achieved in the field of equality and what is yet to be achieved. It is their work which is immortal and is still celebrated in the form of Women’s day.

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

The nothingness is how it started. The loneliness inside you is what the universe once felt. It was after it crumbled into pieces that the loneliness was transmitted into creatures known as humans who called it ‘the Big Bang.’ We might have named how it started but how are we going to name how it ended?

The question is will we witness the end?

We might be the victims and the killer but will we be the witness too?

Ironically, this marks the only time when humans will share the fate as animals have for years. The hunters become the hunted, hunted by the same time that goes ‘tick tock’ on their bedside. They will be vigilant just like their fellow earthlings have been for years, wide awake staring into the infinite darkness at night hoping for a glimmer of light, helpless as they predict what is to come just as they predict a snow storm or a sunny day. 

But these predictions known as theories carry a strain among themselves that might be a theory of the end in itself- disagreement. 

One theory contradicts the other while carrying the same potential to bring the end as the other.

A scorched earth is what one might predict but what it truly signifies is hate because hate amongst us leads to a belief that the earth meant for all can only be home to one which leads to war and that is what eventually burns the earth and transforms a blue planet into a red planet. 

Some might even call the penguins the future king of the jungle or to say earth as an ice age is what might await. But will it be cold? As cold as humanity today and will it carry out it’s revenge- melting our dreams as we vanish rather than us melting the icy dreamland we have today?

Will it be an apocalypse? It had a close call in 2020 but will our ambitions give birth to something so unique that it will bring us to near extinction? Well, it would teach us at the end the difference between God and men- One’s hands created us and the other’s ended us.   

But the future is not yet the past. Today we stand at crossroads- one is a bit rugged but leads to a future and other leads to a future which will soon be veiled beneath the undergrowth of history. 

“A light is what I see in this estranged universe,

Is it our dreams we set out to build or the sun setting it’s burning curse.” 

2020: EXPOSING THE TRUTH

“The Year of realisation” is how 2020 is going to be jotted in the history books. After you read this, a wave of Realisation is going to hit you that will change the stereotypical perceptions you have.

2020 is a year when death reigned and hell was packed to the brim. A year which claimed countless lives. But why is it being recognised as the worst threat the Earth has ever faced?

Well, for staters, Fire came breathing down the houses of those who share the earth with us so definitely the worst year for Them.

Then the bells of war were almost rung and this time, it might have been the last time they were ever heard because no wars without the warring species.

A stream of hatred was discovered within us in the west towards those who were disgracefully referred to as “a different species” which is nothing but discrimination because the sun shone a bit brighter on a side of the earth. 

And not to mention the pandemic that deserted the streets and twisted our human nature in the worst way possible- an anti-social animal. 

Ever stopped to wonder why we are going through what we are going through? Why is 2020 going to be the highlight of the century? Well, there are a lot of theories by none other than God’s crowning species. 

“It’s god’s work”

 “It’s natural”

“The earth was bound to come to an end at some point.”

Some are even blaming the victim 2020, “Why are you making us suffer 2020?”

Ever consider the truth?
of course you didn’t. It’s not your fault too- after all, it might be the darkest discovery of the millennium. Deep down we all know the truth, we are just afraid to address it.

So what is the truth?

Is it that humans have fallen? They are more far along than we can expect? 

The path of redemption is no longer a path. It is now veiled under the undergrowth of our passion. It has been centuries since human feet stepped on that path. The undergrowth gets dense every day further concealing the path. But who can travel through this undergrowth and is on a path to redeem them today? It’s our unlikely earth mate – Animals. 

The line “move forward in life, not backwards” has indeed proven its effect. We never looked back, did we? Was it because we forgot to or because we were afraid to look back at every creature we stepped on, every hope we destroyed of returning back to what we were supposed to be -divine creatures. 

The path of redemption was indeed the one not taken by many but now it will the path taken by none. 

But what happened to us? When did we turn?

Is it because someone decided to write “All’s fair in love and war”? Because what it truly signifies is,” All’s fair in love that leads to war.”  

Did love- the most divine thing known to human turn into hate? How is that possible?
Well, love is supernatural and incomprehensible to the human mind so if we dabble with it without rules, it can lead to what has absolutely no rules- hate.

Or did we turn because we thought- “the ends justify the means.” It’s makes sense- why not care about the end result? 

But at the same time- what about the process? What if theses minute processes we like to undercut initiate a grand process that puts an end to us we never desired? 

Or did all this collectively cause one human to turn and that lead to what we now call,” One bad fish can spoil the whole pond?” Just in this case, the pond was our home, our earth!

Well, whatever it was, all that matters now is the truth and now the truth has been exposed-  Our faults, desires and vices synthesised into their visual form- 2020.  

“The world was our canvas, our nature was the shade,

Today as the masterpiece concluded, a stroke of black portrayed.”

-Aarit Gupta

Check out some of my poems about Life and Nature.

THE END OF DAYS

The End Of Days is a Documentary on The Worst Pandemics in History.

Created and Narrated by:- Aarit Gupta

The Rustic Typewriter

Pandemics Have been a constant Threat to the Human Race. Here is a Documentary on the Major Pandemics in the last 400 Years. Share and spread Awareness.

Also read our Poems and quotes about life and Love.

THE SILENT SPY

In the year 2009, I set foot in the Horsemen training center known as Knights academy in New York to be a secret operative. The Horsemen is a secret spy organization that solved all the eccentric and arduous cases around the globe. It has ties with many nations but has to work covertly in nations which restrict the entry of a spy. Having completed my training in 2012, I was conferred with the title of a horseman.

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