{"id":40,"date":"2010-02-11T08:02:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T08:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/an-open-letter-to\/"},"modified":"2010-02-17T09:42:20","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T09:42:20","slug":"an-open-letter-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/an-open-letter-to\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Best of my bonding with abu-rabad<\/a> happens when we are watching TV together and while doing homework. Let\u2019s forget the existence of homework for the time being. Done? Good.<\/font><\/p>\n

So, abu and i are watching either cricket or a music reality show he likes, <\/font>Music Ka Maha Muqqabla<\/font><\/em><\/a>, and a sanitary napkin ad comes and goes. And of course –<\/font><\/p>\n

abu \u2013 what\u2019s that ad for?<\/font><\/p>\n

me (super-composed and surprisingly ready) \u2013 all women need to wear a diaper-like thing once a month. this is an ad for that.<\/font><\/p>\n

abu \u2013 oh<\/font><\/p>\n

Next ad. Since I couldn\u2019t find the video on the net, i\u2019m going to try my best to describe it. No people, it wasn\u2019t a condom ad.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Blank, black screen.<\/font><\/p>\n

A semi-thick white straight line runs down vertically.<\/font><\/p>\n

The line takes the shape of a belly towards the bottom, Now the line looks like the outline of a pregnant woman\u2019s belly.<\/font><\/p>\n

The word \u201cMiss\u201d appears on the left of the line.<\/font><\/p>\n

The word \u201cManisha\u201d appears on the right side of the line.<\/font><\/p>\n

The word \u201cManisha\u201d is now deleted backwards, letter by letter.<\/font><\/p>\n

The belly goes flat.<\/font><\/p>\n

The word \u201cMiss\u201d now is changed to \u201cMissing\u201d.
<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a public service message for the \u2018Save the girl child\u2019 program.<\/font><\/p>\n

abu \u2013 mamma, what that for now?<\/font><\/p>\n

me (taking a deep breath) \u2013 There are many people who want the baby to be a boy when it\u2019s in the mamma\u2019s stomach. So, when they find out it\u2019s a girl, they do something to stop the girl baby from growing and don\u2019t let her be born at all.<\/font><\/p>\n

abu \u2013 oh… (not a man of many words, my boy), then?<\/font><\/p>\n

me \u2013 This is not a good thing, right?<\/font><\/p>\n

abu \u2013 right.<\/font><\/p>\n

me \u2013 so this ad is saying don\u2019t kill the baby Manisha when it\u2019s in the mamma\u2019s tummy. Don\u2019t let her become missing.<\/font><\/p>\n

abu \u2013 oh<\/font><\/p>\n

i\u2019m wondering whether he understood the concept, and –<\/font><\/p>\n

abu \u2013 why do people like to have only boys?<\/font><\/p>\n

me \u2013 …<\/font><\/p>\n

don\u2019t really know baby, because i don\u2019t think that way, but maybe because a girl get\u2019s married and has to change her surname. See A mama\u2019s (my brother, abu\u2019s maternal uncle) has the same last name as nana (my dad, abu\u2019s maternal grandfather) but i don\u2019t. And I live far away and am not expected to take care of him, where as A mama is expected to…<\/font><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know baby, i really don\u2019t<\/font><\/p>\n

* * *<\/font><\/p>\n

Use of a sanitary napkin is something that helps us deal with something nature gave us. <\/font><\/p>\n

Who do I blame for making the \u2018Save the girl child\u2019 message a product? <\/font><\/p>\n

Why did we create such a situation for ourselves that I have to explain this to my 8-year old child?<\/font><\/p>\n

* * *<\/font><\/p>\n

ps. A story from last month. <\/font><\/p>\n

we get a call, \u201ccongratulations you are uncle and aunt to a handsome baby boy!\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

we – \u201cthank you, but what? who? when?\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

them \u2013 \u201cso and so delivered a baby yesterday\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

i called the new mommy, \u201chey, congrats!\u201d Among other pleasantries exchanged asked how here two older daughters were doing. Then –<\/font><\/p>\n

me \u2013 we met just 4 months ago, how come you didn\u2019t mention you were pregnant\u2026Goodness! you didn\u2019t even look pregnant\u2026<\/font><\/p>\n

she \u2013 you know how it is. we don\u2019t know what our decision is going to be, so might as well let you know after everything goes fine. <\/font><\/p>\n

The intention of this post is not to get anyone in trouble, but this is a first hand story. And i\u2019m so not proud of even knowing this.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Best of my bonding with abu-rabad happens when we are watching TV together and while doing homework. Let\u2019s forget the existence of homework for the time being. Done? Good. So, abu and i are watching either cricket or a music reality show he likes, Music Ka Maha Muqqabla, and a sanitary napkin ad comes and…<\/p>\n

Read More “An open letter to …”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,15,13,3],"tags":[22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/meetu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}