THE TALK

Last Saturday, the family sat together for the dinner and we were watching 2 States on the television. Suddenly, the movie had a kissing scene and my father rushed for the remote and we all were left in an awkward silence.

As far as I think, the scenario goes with most of the Indian families. Some words are never to be used like sex, periods , intimate talks etc. It depends on the choice of an individual but give a moment to yourself and think. Where do you belong? Where do you live? Who gave you birth?Who supports you? What is your root? It is family, a group of people living under a roof related with blood.

Most of the girls can not share about their periods with their dad or with any of the male members of the family . It has been treated as a private thing and due to this factor, some females panick when they just start menstruating.

This is not only the case of girls, boys too face many of the things which are never shared with the parents. Isn’t this sad?? This is scary too, as a parent you missed so many experiences , thoughts, fears and confusions of your child just because you were never ready for THE TALK.

Distance is important but it should not be too rigid. Most of us, when hit puberty, had so many thoughts rushing in our minds. We felt attraction with the opposite gender, with the same gender and then there are people who never felt it at all. We had confusions and excitations which we discussed with our friends and cousins but who shared about them with their parents? Why do we feel uncomfortable?

This is because we never had the talk, we never had that space of freedom to ask questions, to keep our views . The talk does not mean to ask your children about their grades, or their needs. The talk means to have an open conversation about everything, every feeling and every fear.

Parents are mature enough to guide us, to tell us the difference between right and wrong , then why do we choose everyone else to talk but not them? We never tried to build that space with them or sometimes, they were too rigid to understand.

The Nirbhaya Rape Case had a juvenile criminal, he was declared 17 years and 6 months old by the Juvenile Justice Board. For him, she was an object to torture. The case might have been different if his parents would have guided him to respect every gender and to be a man ,not an animal to attack a woman.

In the case of BOIS LOCKER ROOM: It was a girl who had created a fake profile on Snapchat and messaged a fellow classmate, talking about her own sexual assault. She was a minor too and it is sad that being a girl she did this. It has shattered us into pieces.

The point of mentioning these cases is that ,a person who build us can adore us into a good human being, can save us and can teach us to respect everyone including ourselves.

The requirement of today’s generation is guidance, not in the form of strict rules and fear. But to create a comfortable environment to talk. It needs initiative from both the sides to overcome the generation gap. Afterall, it is your family where you belong .