Monday, February 27, 2012

New Feather in the Cap: Laws related to Women!

Flavia Agnes of Majlis - a Women Rights Activist Group -- their efforts led to a change that is an amendment to the law for women. This is termed to be a "progressive new addition to the law for women". Now women in India can, legally continue to use their maiden name and surname, if they so wish, even after marriage and for all the official purposes.

Now it is totally legal for a woman to retain her maiden name after marriage. The High Court of Bombay amended a vital rule recently, under the Family Courts Act that would now prevent a woman from being coerced to file marriage-related suits only by using her husband's name/surname. This would thus give relief to all the women who are/would be seeking divorce. And legal experts have commented that it will help a married woman file proceedings in other courts too using her maiden name.

This Rule says: "a wife, who has not changed her name after marriage, by publishing in the official gazette, may continue to use her maiden name". Clear it is, as it appears, a woman now, is not obliged to use her husband's name, even after marriage. This would thus make a lot of things easier for many women, in many ways.

Now, after this amendment, a woman can file suits or carry on any legal proceedings, in her maiden name or any other name that she might have adopted, the only catch is that the name should be officially registered in the Gazette. She very well can, retain her maiden name and no court can force her to write her name as her first name followed by her husband's name and his surname while filing any marriage related petitions.

As a lawyer at the Bombay High Court quotes: "A woman cannot be compelled while seeking divorce to adopt her married surname if she hadn't been using it, just as she cannot be compelled to drop her married name and revert to maiden surname after divorce, if she had been"

It now is a trend, at least by the urban women to retain her maiden name and surname even after marriage, to protect their long earned fame or for just having their identity. So for such women, this new amendment is a boon. As a Mumbai Based Family lawyer says: "These women, when they approach the family court to initiate a divorce dispute or a plea for protection from domestic violence few years later or after decades of living with their maiden name, the insistence by court staff to adopt their husband's name comes as a shock and sends their litigation-induced stress levels soaring"




THE LAW ON NAMES (NOW):

After Marriage

* A wife may continue to use her maiden name if she has not changed it officially after marriage

* A wife can file for divorce in her maiden surname; married surname; any other name she may have adopted and officially in the gazette

After Divorce

* A woman can continue using her former married surname, except if her intention is to defraud the ex-husband!


TIME FOR WOMEN TO REJOICE!!!!


Saturday, February 25, 2012

WRECKED!!!!!


Is being alone the only way out?
Sometimes a loud “yes”
Is what my heart and mind has to shout!

Knowing not what tomorrow holds,
Fear wrecks my world,
Making it go haywire in manifolds!

I take a sneak-peak in the past horrors,
It gives chills down my spine,
Making me averse to all the forthcoming unknown terrors!

So I decide to be all by myself,
Not putting anything at risk,
I decide to be my own imp – my own elf!

The beauty of love is a long lost theory,
Today’s reality holds nothing pleasing,
In love’s name – it’s all a mockery!

The music now is just a mere haunting sound,
The melodies have all faded away,
Happy – nice – lovely things have rotated 360 degrees around!

The rain no more gives a feeling so soothing,
Raindrops now instead burns my skin,
Nothing of the magnanimous nature to me is now smoothing!

It all falls hard on me,
It all chases me and hunts me down,
It all burns me to ashes,
It all crushes my very being,
It takes away from me – all that I have ever cherished; all that I have ever nurtured; all that I have ever known to be mine!

I stand here,
Alone
Shattered
Aimless
With the last wish,
To become one;
With the almighty,
Who is the Supreme Being – the divine formless!

                       

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Friendless Phase of life!!!

i have always been someone who has believed that nothing can ever be more divine than friendship and no one ever can be more important than friends, apart from parents of course... i am always up for anything when it is about a friend... i don't mind taking a few steps behind in life, if that does any good to a dear friend... i love walking those extra miles for them... its not a burden... i love doing that coz i truly do believe that i am nothing, really, without these people called "friends"!!! they make me who i am today --- they are the people with who i am crazy all the time being myself and yet being sure i am not being judged, but instead loved, just the same or more...!!!

but may be, i think now, that i am wrong!!! while i was being crazy and i was being myself, i was closely judged! i was not being loved but was being watched and observed and analyzed! and consequently things were calculated! this world is all about Profit and Loss these days!!! only me and some rare species like me live still in a primitive era where somethings are beyond Profit and Loss / Winning and Losing / Possessing and Abandoning!

Even with a broken heart, i have given strength to a friend who felt weak!
Even with frozen tears in my eyes, i have made sure that a friend has that smile glowing!
Even with never ending miseries in my life, i have tried to share a friend's pain!
Even with shaking feet - trying to be firm on the ground, i have held a friend's hand making sure s/he doesn't face a fall!
Even with a broken back bone, i have watched a friend's back so that s/he doesn't refrain from being out there and trying!

And i was proud of myself ...for being a friend to someone in its true spirit...

But today, on a lonely evening, while tears were streaming down my face and i had no one to talk to .... no one to hold ... no one who could understand my pain... who could see how helpless i am feeling while being in immense despair.... no one who could give me a new hope -- a word of encouragement to hold on -- or may be just hold my hand and smile,
I realized i was such a fool!!!!
I realized i was living in a wrong era!!!!
i realized my fantasy world doesn't exist where friendship is above everything and friends mean more than anyone else...

This world is way too beyond my idea or idealistic friendship where being there for a friend, when they need you is the basic foundation for friendship!!!

In this age, friends are for hanging out, going shopping together, watch movies, eat out or may be exchange a few things --- its so not about sharing life, caring for the other more than oneself, loving unconditionally, giving away without wanting to take....

And the worst part is, i have been there all the while for a few friends in the worst of their times....and they disappear outta my life, as soon as the bad times end and the good ones begun...!!!!

This Valentine's Day, made me to realize a lot of things and many truths unveiled themselves....



However long my FB friend list is or my mobile contact feed is, my heart has barely any names on its list of "genuine friends"!!!!

I dont wanna boast about how good a friend i am...but i know one thing for sure, i dont deserve this loneliness --- i dont deserve this Friendless Phase of Life!!!!


I HATE IT --- & I HATE MYSELF for being such a DUMB FOOL!!!!


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

JustICE

a lawyer saying this, should mean something....wrote this one in the early days of my litigation (sometime last year) on a dull sluggish day at the court, while minutely observing things and people around me:

Finely decorated,
With lights and cool air in abundance,
This is a room where sits the king,
The king of justice in modern times,
And his abode called "court room"!

A place where;
People from all over flock together,
To get what they direly need,
Justice - as we know it,
Coz ethically, it’s that one thing,
Which money can’t buy!

Poor fellas!
They know not the harsh reality,
Unaware,
They sit with hopes as high as eagle's flight,
Worn out, tiered, in a miserable plight,
Awaiting the moment when things would change,
And change for better...

But that moment takes ages,
And ages they wait,
Sometimes with patience;
Sometimes in frustration,
But they wait,
As justice is their only bait...

Lights in those rooms go on and off,
The air’s sometimes cool - sometimes just fine,
The chairs rust to dust,
And new sparkling ones adorn the room,
Faces of kings change too,
But one thing never changes,
And that is their wait....

With hope in their hearts,
And aspirations in their eyes,
They still believe in the system,
They still worship the king - Godlike,
They still bow down to this court - room,
Knowing that someday truth will triumph!

"Satyameva jayate" - truth alone triumphs...
And it does!
But a little error here is,
That truth in today's date,
Is different and a farce,
It’s a lie in disguise;
A superficial mask,
That will worn out one day,
Showing the ugly side of it...

And till then,
They will have to wait.
With faith alive and hope intact,
If justice is their only bait,
And justice they shall get...





Tuesday, February 7, 2012

IrONieS


The more things change – the more they are the same,
The crazier it gets – the more you get sane,
The more you think you have no clue – more are the chances that you would win the game,
The more you think your desires are wild – more likely they are to get tame!

Ironies are nowhere – but underneath everything they are there,
However cold a heart may grow – silently it does care,
May be concealed in a million masks – in reality the soul’s forever bare,
No matter how strong the craving for isolation is – we all seek for some place to share!

A bundle of contradictions – that’s what we all are,
We may or may not agree – we all believe that wishes come true when made to a falling star,
Nearer we get to material success – equally from peace we get far,
Massive battles we may win – we can never do away even with a single scar!

This all is a mystery – that will never be solved,
Though it’s been there – ever since mankind evolved,
Around some myths and truths – our lives have always revolved,
So it’s better to let it just be this way – sometimes abused; sometimes adorned with rewards!