Ritika Ruminates

Image source- Manubhai Jewellers Recently, I came across a Instagram story by  Saadhana KM  about toe rings, and when I went through her profile, I found various posts and stories explaining how sexist the culture and expectations are. And I couldn't agree enough to how sexist and controlling the practice of expecting women to wear several accessories and sacred threads all her life is.  This was the story- Image source- Saadhana KM In Hindu rituals, a woman has to wear five signs of marital status – the Mangalsutra, toe rings, Kumkum, bangles and a nose ring. Of these five, Mangalsutra is the most important. In India, Hindu married women wear it as an auspicious thread of goodwill and love. The  Hindu culture also believes that a woman wearing a Mangalsutra, should never part with it until her husband’s death. And if the thread of the Mangalsutra breaks for some reason, it is considered to be a bad omen. Worn as a symbol of marital status, it...

Image source- floweraura.com After  Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed petition by runaway couple for protection stating live-in is morally and socially unacceptable , the question comes up - even though live-in relationships is legal in India, why is it looked down upon morally and socially in society?  With new era, comes new trends. How romantic relationships works, also changes. Earlier it was male dominance in the relationship, but now there is gender equality in  modern-day relationships . The institution of marriage which was very much patriarchal earlier is now slowly changing into feminist among open-minded modern couples. Live-in is a growing relationship choice among modern couples. Looked at as trial for marriage to test the compatibility under the same roof or just wanting to stay together in serious relationship. Most couples do wish to get married after live-in relationship and look at live-in as compatibility test, because living together lets you kno...

Image source- Wikipedia I do not write reviews on my blog about books or films, but this movie has intrigued me to. The Great Indian Kitchen is a Malayalam movie on Amazon Prime Video which very well depicts the patriarchy in Indian households.  Though the movie is in Malayalam language, subtitles are available in English for people who cannot understand Malayalam language. Set in a South Indian town or rural area, it shows the male privilege prevelant in the the small towns and villages in India (also in metropolitan cities). The female lead character, an educated woman and dancer, raised in Bahrain, is married to a guy in a regressive family. The movie shows her struggle of fitting in to a family where she doesn't belong in the first place. The instances in movie like expecting the girl to hand the toothbrush to her father-in-law, make rice in firewood, having to manually clean one person's clothes seperately, etc She is also expected to clean up the mess at the...

Image source- time.com Some days ago, I came across the question on Quora - 'What is legal but feels illegal in India?'. The thing that came to my mind as an answer was- abortion. If you have had a traumatic history of abortion or simply against the idea of it because of your blind beliefs irrespective of facts, you can simply stop reading here only. Abortion is considered as a sin in India and across many religions and countries. Where  parenthood  is considered as the main task to tick off in life's to-do list, on the other hand, abortion is not considered as a option and a choice. But why is abortion considered in a bad light? I now wonder, in my first year of  college, that though we had been taught about reproduction in biology in our school, why were we never taught anything related to abortion? Not everyone wants to have a child, or a pregnancy can be result of sexual abuse as well. If they can mention reproduction, so why not abortion? I will write dow...