Where I Try To Explain Why #BLOGGINGISMYCALLING

'You are fat'. 

'You are black'. 

'You will never get married'.

'You need to learn how to cook'. 

'Your life is doomed'. 

'You don’t have a brother?' 

'You have to keep this fast, every Indian girl keeps this.'

'You must behave like a cultured girl'. 

'You have to start wearing Sarees now.' 

'You must find a guy to settle down now.' 

'You have Skin Cancer? You must be so scared.'

You have to..You must..You should…

Over and Over and Over..

A 1000 different faces, the same message again and again. The pontification, the cruel twisted words in the name of ‘caring attitude’, the smirk. Yes, I am a girl, Yes, I am chubby, Yes, I am dusky, and Yes, I am not in any relationship right now and haven’t been for a long time.

And last year, I was diagnosed with Skin Cancer and Yes, I was scared.

I am a person. I am not merely flesh and bones. There is a soul inside me. I have feelings and emotions too. 

I am a divine creature like all living beings. 

I have hobbies. 

I love books and music. I dance on my own like nobody is watching-well, most of the time nobody is! 

I travel. 

I do not take out ‘muhurats’ to do anything. I do whatever I want to do whenever I want! 

I wear whatever I am comfortable in. 

I cry while watching ‘Titanic’, even for the 300^th time. 

I don’t cry over split milk and idiotic ex-boyfriends. 

I daydream-a lot! 

I ask questions-sometimes, too many and too uncomfortable. 

I don’t understand many of the rules and regulations of our social system. 

I am mildly autistic and borderline manic-depressive. 

I hate crackers. I love Diwali. 

I follow my own trends. 

I love to eat. 

I love the idea of getting high on toxic paint fumes (never done in reality though!). 

I continued living my life as if nothing happened even when I got Cancer and today, I am Officially Cancer Free!

I work 2 jobs, partly by choice and partly due to family financial circumstances, but I love both my jobs much more than Bappi Lahiri loves his Jewels. 

I love waking up at 5 AM everyday and watch Life wake up around me. 

I watch Grey’s Anatomy and Supernatural everyday, sometimes the same episode 5 days in a row. 

I like discipline and structure. 

I was a Gold Medalist in College and will go back for further studies soon.

I am All This and Much more. My identity is not holed up in my skin color or accumulation of adipose tissues on my petite 5’3” frame. 

I Live and I Breathe. And you know what, I Will Never Give Up. And I don’t want any pontification directed towards me or my lifestyle.

This is why I Blog (or at least, have recently started to!). Because this is Me. This is My Space. And Nobody can take this away.

-Yours Joyfully :)

Richa Shailendra

(This Blog Post is written as an entry for Miss Malini's Mega Haul Contest No. 1 -#BLOGGINGISMYCALLING )