2.I TOO HAVE AN OPINION AND IT MATTERS!

"I could not take my eyes off myself when I wore the red kurti for trial; I was taken aback by my own beauty. And moreover every self help books, motivational and spiritual videos now a days chants the same mantra LOVE YOURSELF. I just followed my heart. I don't think there is anything wrong in this."

After giving this short lecture on her new avatar Mishti pondered over her speech for sometime. How fluently and fearlessly she voiced out what she felt. The recipient of the speech Neha, her best friend gaped at her.

"What? Did I say anything wrong? I know this is the problem of the people in this world. They are all idealists when it comes to speeches...We should do this, do that and blah blah blah.... but if someone follows up their lectures and do it actually they tag them as nuisance. What kind of society are we living in? We have as well at the same time we do not have the freedom to speech and expression. What good is education doing to us? Just a job and loads of bank balance? We don't think rationally and when we try do that we are termed as anti-socials. I cannot think of any better word than Hypocrite to name the society in which we are living."

Neha was astounded. Is this the same Mishti she knew yesterday ? What a transformation overnight...

"I agree to whatever you say but just that did not expect you to speak these words out someday." Neha said with a low voice expecting Mishti to give a reply back poking the burning coal inside her which was born overnight. Mishti was about to say something when suddenly Prof. Dasgupta entered the class.

"Good morning Sir!" sang the class in unison.

"Good morning all of you, take your seats". Prof. Dasgupta had a profound knowledge in his subject. He wanted to do a lot in his life, he wanted to be among the top ten or twenty well known teachers across globe but situations did not favor him. He also became a victim of the stereotypes in the society...Studying, getting a job, marrying and then children. The students did not like one thing about him. He was too judgmental and did not use to think twice before he speaking.

"So today we are going to begin with the epic poem PARADISE LOST BY MILTON.I want Janvi to read the first few lines. Janvi , where are you?"

Janvi was the favorite student of Prof. Dasgupta. She was beautiful and she used to recite poems beautifully. Her pronunciation was just like the British people and sir favored her too much to give the other students of the class an opportunity to explore their own talents.

"Sir, she is absent today" came the sad reply from one of the students. "Can i read sir?" the same student asked. Prof. Dasgupta raised his eyebrows and gave a smirk. "Well other than Janvi I think I am the only person who will be able to do justice to the poem by reading it out".

Everyone looked down and the one girl who showed courage to express her willingness to read was almost in tears. Mishti did not like this. She did not use to like it any other day also but that day was really special for some unknown reason.

"Because of your partiality we do not get chance to express ourselves and know what we are good in" said Mishti with a bold and steady voice. "Teachers like you demotivate us to believe in ourselves and do what we want to. For you, Janvi is the best student of this class. Have you ever tried to speak or listen to the other students? Have you tried to know what we are good in or given a chance to show our caliber? The truth is that we do not respect you, we do not like to listen to your nonsense and disrespectful words; so we keep quiet and you are such a fool that you take our silence as a form of respect to you. When you cannot give respect to others how can you expect the same from us?"

Prof. Dasgupta had a strange expression on his face. He looked disturbed. The whole class looked at Mishti and they just could not take their eyes off her. Not only because she was looking beautiful, but there was a new Mishti there standing and speaking aloud the thoughts of each and every mind in the class.

"Is this the way to talk to your teacher? You used to be a quiet student of the class. Did someone give you a dare to do what you just did?" Prof. Dasgupta asked in his suspicious tone.

"I just spoke out the truth sir, which you should have known long back but we were tamed not to speak out the bitter truth in front of the public or else we will be given punishments by hypocrites like you. I know after this day you will give me less marks in the assessments to come up and also can influence the other teachers of our department to do the same because you are powerful and the dynamics of power works now a days mostly at places when one's ego is hurt."

Prof. Dasgupta blurted out something which was not audible. He closed his book, took the register and walked out off the class. And there stood Mishti with a smile on her face and a satisfaction which was brought to her by herself today. The entire class could not but stand up and clap for this girl for such a daring and honest discourse. Mishti became the star of the day.

"Thank God, your father did not see you going to the college in these clothes, wearing such make ups and paints on your lips." Mishti 's mother heaved a sigh of relief when she came back from college. "You know boys are attracted to girls who do not show off much, wear decent clothes and prepare good food for them. You should learn cooking now, at least you can start with the basics." Mishti 's mother thought her lecture will motivate Mishti to run to the kitchen and prepare something for the evening. But instead of that Mishti spoke-

" Maa, I want to go to out of my state to pursue my further studies. I want to explore the world, meet new people, try out new things. Is that not exciting!"

"Are you out of your mind? You are not doing anything great that you have to go out and study. You can continue with your studies here only. You can get a job also from here itself, why do you want to trouble yourself by going such far away places?"

Mishti expected similar kind of reply from her mother. She went on" Maa, I do not want to be a frog inside the well. to the frog the well is the world but the world is so vast. It will enhance my job opportunities and believe me it will help me to become a better human being."

" I too also want you to become that dear! But look at me, I am also a working woman. I did not go to other states to seek my fortune, I know you will say that it was your time and now the time and situation both are different; what you popularly term as GENERATION GAP; but trust me if you have the potential you can do wonders."

"You wanted to go Maa but just because grandpa will feel bad you did not even place the proposal to him. After your marriage you wanted to start your own business. You wanted to go to Delhi to do your MBA and learn some foreign languages. Why am I putting past tense in my words. I think you still want to do them. You have pushed them down somewhere in your subconscious mind and you do not want to take them out because you are too afraid too speak about your opinions as you fear that it will offend others. I do not want to be like you. I have my opinions and it matters to me. If I am not going to take care of my thoughts someone else will take charge of them and manipulate them like it happened for you. Tag your ideas as Copyright Reserved."

Maa was not surprised as to what Mishti said or to see the change in her like the other people that day. Somewhere down her mind and heart she always wanted Mishti to be like that, outspoken. She knew that one day Mishti will speak out and that day will be the best day in her life, the most awaited day. She took a sip from her cup of tea, smiled and said "Well, I did not expect this day will come so soon!".

Mishti and her mother both smiled at each other as if they understood what their minds were trying to speak out. Both of them knew, sometimes silence is the best speaker and that is what they were following in that conversation.