Jhumki sighed as her mother read out these details of a prospective husband from a matrimonial advertisement. Ever since she had finished her graduation or rather even before that, her entire extended family had only one thing on their mind. A groom for Jhumki!

It was only her parents to start with then bit by bit her grandparents joined in followed by her uncles and aunts, then came the neighbours and now it seemed the whole of India was actively looking for a prospective groom!!

In her mind she could see a vivid picture of the news channels, billboards and radio broadcasting that “Jhumki was eligible for marriage”

Her reverie was broken with her mum asking her what she thought of the aforementioned boy. She replied “uh-huh” and went off to the garden to have sometime to herself. Sitting in the garden she blamed the British for all her current problems. She wished she was born in an India of pre-British era. Thinking of this she dozed off in the garden chair.

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Birds silhouetted against a setting sun, and two lovers underneath the peepal tree!! On a closer look it is Jhumki!! She looks quite different dressed seductively in a saree.

Jhumki, ” My dear let’s get married soon. I can’t bear to spend much time away from you”

Boy,“I wish, but, my parents won’t accept you. My parents are up-righteous and wouldn’t accept a girl from out of our caste.”

Jhumki, “but but…we still can, of course not the prajapati vivah (marriage) but the gandharva vivah (a live-in relationship not requiring consent of parents and considered legally the same as marriage). we can do the gandharva vivah!”

A loud boom woke her up from her day-dreams. A cat had jumped on a flower pot upsetting it and shattering her dreams.

“Yeah! blame the Brits!! they had to come n conquer us, put restrictions on our dressing, our cultures and then go back to their nation. yeah you got your live-in relationships and you leave us stuck here with not even a love marriage but arranged marriages!! Sheesh!”

Then and there Jhumki made a promise to herself I will have a love marriage and to a guy I want to marry not a arranged marriage. “And Oh!! If I find a Brit, I shall give him a piece of my mind”

This is a guest post by Shailee.

Tanya
9:00 AM Wakes up.
9:45 AM Breakfast of eggs on toast and coffee. Reads the Business Standard and Times of India.
10:00 AM- 11:00 AM At work, discusses plans for the day with staff, follow-ups, calls & emails.
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM Meeting with clients to discuss Ad campaigns and to negotiate payments.
4:00-4:15 PM Break for yoga exercises.
4:15-7:15 PM Working with the team on Ad campaigns, brainstorming, photo shoots, planning.
7:15 PM Networking with clients, drinks & snacks at a bar/Lounge.
10:20 PM Night out socializing with friends at a disco.
01:00 AM At home, online networking, emails, work planning.
3:00 AM Goes to bed.
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Tanya is a 29 year old single woman who runs her own advertising agency. She broke up last year with her boyfriend of 7 years due to his increasingly over possessive nature. She now lives in a flat by herself.

Dream: to find her purpose in life and to start a family with a man she loves & who loves her.
——–

Phooli
04:00 AM Wakes up.
4:30 AM Feeds the animals, milks the cows.
5:30 AM Wakes up husband and kids, makes tea for husband.
5:45 AM Prepares breakfast for husband, kids and in-laws and then gets kids ready for school.
6:45 AM Drops kids at school.
7:00 AM Sweeps and mops the house, washes clothes, cleans the animal sheds, chops firewood.
12:00 PM Works on embroidery and stitching jobs due that week.
1:00 PM Cooks lunch.
2:00 PM Picks up kids from school.
2:15 PM Feeds the kids, takes lunch for husband.
3:00 PM Makes sure kids do their homework and studies, looks after animals, works on embroidery & stitching jobs once more.
5:00 PM Presses the feet of in-laws, reads out the verses from Ramayana to mother-in-law (saasu ma).
6:00 PM Husband back from work. Makes tea & snacks for everyone. Presses the husband’s feet, head massage.
7:00 PM Cooks dinner, feeds animals, milks the cows.
8:30 PM Serves dinner, puts kids to sleep, irons all clothes, arranges clothes & kid’s bags for the next day.
9:00 PM Attends to husband’s needs.
10:00 PM Does the dishes, cleans the kitchen.
12:00 PM Goes to bed.
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Phooli is a 25 year old woman. She was married at the age of 12 and has two daughters aged 10 and 8 respectively. She was made to drop out of school, although she was a brilliant student, as she could not be more educated than her groom. Her husband loves her dearly and they have mutually decided to educate their daughters and to send them to a good college. As of now they study in English medium schools and do their parents proud. She is also trying to talk her husband into sending her back to school to complete her education.

Dream: To pursue her Masters in Physics. To see her daughters better than the sons of her neighbours!

This is a guest post by Shailee.

After the operation “Defensive Wall”, first attempts were made to use the Israeli and international court systems to indict IDF officers in “war crimes”. One of the widest known cases is the dodged arrest by General (reserve) Doron Almog, the former Commander of IDF’s Southern Command, responsible – among others – for Gaza Strip area. London police had allowed Almog to leave back for Israel without leaving the aircraft, fearing shoot-out between Almog and armed El Al guards.

One setback is nothing for European Arabs and “human rights groups” – and they keep on pressing forward. Latest decision by a Madrid court to grand motion by Palestinian Center for Human Rights (apparently – only
Palestinians’ human rights) is probably the first among many upcoming others such motions against Israeli officials and IDF officers. The PCHR wishes Madrid’s legal system to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity during the assassination of a Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh. Shehadeh – to remind you – was responsible, among others, for planning and executing the attack against IDF’s “Africa” outpost, resulting in murder of four IDF soldiers, and an attack on high-school students in Atzmona settlement, resulting in murder of another five students. By all standards, Shehadeh was no angel.

Not so for Europeans, however, and politically correct media. The Reuters news agency, for example, doesn’t even use the word “terrorist”, explaining that Reuters does not “use emotive words when labelling someone”, according to David A. Schlesinger, Reuters’ global managing editor. The Associated Press, for example, labels Al Qaeda as a “terror network”, while Hamas is a mere “militant group”. While the IDF is being labelled as committing crimes against humanity by most in the media and in Europe, Hamas’ tactics and attack are being mostly disregarded. Yes, that’s right: according to the UN, 25% of those killed in Gaza were civilians – which makes it fine to criticize Israel for crimes against humanity and breach of international law. Hamas, however, whose casualties – according to statistics for years 2001 to 2003 – were specifically targeting civilian population – are just fine and are simply a “militant group”. Yes, fighting for freedom. Yes, killing civilians. Yes, their own too.

We are soon to see if the European court system would allow itself to be used by terrorists and their supporters to create yet another battlefield against Israel. Yet, after you pour over USD 7 bln. into the Palestinian cause, it probably won’t be easy to halt the support.

This is a guest post by Jonathan Boyko.