7.30 am: It’s a cloudy Sunday morning and having made myself a hot cup of Darjeeling tea, I sat in the balcony soaking some monsoon sun. Within minutes, my phone started vibrating intermittently that pretty much distracted the entire process of absorbing some warmth and the flavor of the Darjeeling tea. Half-heartedly, I looked at my phone only to find multitude of Whatsapp forward messages wishing Happy Raksha Bandhan from everyone – my in-laws, relatives, college friends, gym trainer, tiffin wala, everyone; except my sister.
Wondering, what sort of Raksha I would be able to offer them, I simple replied with a text, “Happy Raksha Bandhan! Stay well, Stay happy, followed by a smiling emoji.”
Having finished my tea, I called up my sister to check her status as she was travelling. Meanwhile, I simultaneously planned my tasks for the day – clean clothes, change bed-sheet, clean scooter, so on and so forth.
10.30 am: The man of the house, who has been away for a week due to official purposes, calls me to wish Happy Raksha Bandhan and informs that the he was out of weapons and couldn’t find one that resulted him getting killed twice in his newest addiction, a strategy game called PUBG. Now, he needs a team to save his back while he kills enemies and asks me to register in the game about which I have no absolute clue.
To this absurd demand, I laughed and retorted, “The offer of providing you e-raksha on Raksha Bandhan Day is valid for two hours only and comes with certain terms and conditions”.
I think he understood that I was least interested to deplete 2 GB from my non-expandable phone memory to download this gory game and spend even a minute to play it. He hung up hopelessly.
Sometime later, my phone beeps again, only this time to display photos of hands of my brothers, bhabis, and their kids having the rakhis that I sent tied on their wrists. Thanks to technology, ample e-commerce websites, and speedy delivery boys, my rakhis managed to secure a place on their wrists and the desi-ghee laddoos secure a corner of their stomachs on time.
Lunch: Having accomplished my part on this annual festival, I started brushing through the headlines to read how million Indians across the globe celebrated Rakhi and flaunted their shiny threads of protection and promises. One headline caught my attention that stated our Honorable PM Narendra Modi followed 55 women from multiple arenas including sports, media, acting, etc. on Twitter to mark Raksha Bandhan.
I instantly remembered the people who followed me on social media sites. Quickly looking at my profile, I discovered a long list of unread messages from strangers, some of which read, “Hi babe?”, “Hi, can we talk?”, “Hello, I want to meet you!”, and many more. Without a shadow of doubt, I blocked them and realized that the count of the blocked members on my social media accounts is larger than the total number of Rakhis I have ever tied to my brothers, or even ‘muh-bola-bhais’ since childhood.
Well, the ‘Raksha’ of women are at stake not only on roads and public places, but also on social media sites that promises the security our accounts by high security measures.
On the contrary, the gender that seeks protection from her brothers on this day are making headlines for a brighter reason. Vinesh Phogat is winning gold medals parallel to wrestler Bajrang Punia; Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh are flying high as female fighter pilots in Indian Air Force; Tessy Thomas has been promoted to the Director-General, Aeronautical Systems (DG-Aero) of the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO); Nirmala Sitharaman is the second woman after Indira Gandhi to hold the position of India’s Defence Minister; Sushma Swaraj is the key to Indians in trouble from across the world; and our very own ‘Tendulkar of Indian women’s cricket’, Mithali Dorai Raj is leading the Indian cricket team. These and many more women have scripted history and provided ‘Raksha’ to the name our country that is otherwise tagged in headlines for not being able to protect its women.
Well, as for me, this year, I celebrated Raksha Bandhan digitally by sending Rakhis online to my siblings and received my gifts in terms of Paytm payments. Also, considering the long distance between me and my saviors who dwell miles away in other states of this country, I decided to tie a Rakhi to myself.
Following a quote by former US President and actor Ronald Wilson Reagan says, ‘self-protection or self-defense is not only our right; it is our duty’, I hope that this self-tied Rakhi gives me the power to scare the evils away, much like the Holy cross that scared away white ghosts in old Hindi movies!
Happy Raksha Bandhan!
