I dont know what i was trying to convey when i wrote this !!

Disclaimer: This post is only for people who don't mind reading a long post having no educational content.

I am back with yet another frivolous write up. I try never to stir a hornet's nest by only flirting with safe topics like maids. It is very unlikely that my maid will ever read any contemptuous remarks I make online, in spite of the times we live in,when we have no left hand available to take chutney because it is busy with clicking and swiping movements.

We choose to forget our mom in law's rule of washing hand after serving each food item which according to us is quite flawed because it doesn't allow you to touch sambar after taking rice. Since my mom in law is also on Facebook and reads all my posts (and always gives positive comments) I better shift to safer territories.

I remember our childhood times when we were totally impressed by topics like 'how independent are we?' which was a sure shot formula of winning the audience. People convinced us that we are not free of illiteracy, poverty, gender bias, corruption etc.

Taking a cue, I am asking myself the same question as our 70th Independence Day is approaching. I am going to destroy the myth that people discussing such questions are intellectuals.

My day starts with alarm clock that rings at 4 am. I give it a small peck and silence it. But like a good baby it cries again at 4.30. I can really give it a good whack just like I give my children, but I don't, because it doesn't serve the purpose. If I don't want my heart beat wild like Bollywood song blaring on our Pooja processions (and if I don't want to dance like mad, like people in those processions) I need to get up. Can I make upma for breakfast because it is easy? No. My children expect me to cook gourmet cuisine and I must make the cut by at least cooking some decent stuff. What will happen if my son is interviewed in future and asked for his earliest food memories? It will be a preplanned suicide of my reputation. Moreover my son should have something to say to my daughter in law about his 'maa ke haath Ka Khana'. See, I am not free of jealousy! No! India is not free!

And coming to my favourite topic, my maid! Can she come before 5.30 or after 6.30 in the morning so that I can cook the breakfast freely? No, I look for a place for cutting vegetables, roll the chapattis in some corner while she washes utensils like India after 1947. She has many more households where people have a fixed routine. They get up when she rings their door bell.

Can I stay peacefully at home reading books and eating?My clinic assistant calls me to inform me that I need to go there. I am surely not free on any given day with children's homeworks, birthday parties, washing clothes, cooking and ever bothersome problems in clinic. (with GST and all which flies just above my cranium)

Am I free with my online activity? The moment I look for a black colour sheer top in Amazon, my Facebook is flooded with ads promoting off shoulder tops, cold shoulder tops in all colours and if I clicked there I would know what people bought along with those. And if I click on them too I am given options in various flimsy clothes and what will my patients think if they got a glimpse of my fb page while i surf in between seeing them?

Can I write something on controversial topics like gender equality and for that matter the gender itself, religion, race, language or North and South divide?

Except on gender equality (men have turned very intelligent of late. They never ever say anything remotely misogynistic, which is a big development in itself) other topics could break your carefully crafted image. Just a 'like' on topics like 'I am proud to be a Brahmin' can get you trolled by millions. If you wish happy Eid to your friends, you will be branded a congressman which might be quite an abusive word now. If you appreciate Modiji for demonetization you will be a bhakt that translates roughly to Hindu terrorist. If you condemn terror attack you are an Islamophobic. Don't even mention cow slaughter and lynching !!!

Even a small topic like nepotism in Bollywood caught the imagination of entire 'Bharat' like Baba Ramdev's Swadeshi cosmetics range.

So are we free? If you want freedom better write only about maids.