Saturday 17 January 2015

This Ariel Disagrees...


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My First Win At BlogAdda.

Overwhelming. :)

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Top post on IndiBlogger.in, the community of Indian Bloggers

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Ariel 'n' Ariel Productions, in association with Disney Motion Pictures...

Proudly present...

'This Ariel  Disagrees...'

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A feature film, bound to break a prevalent stereotype in the mindset of the present generation's quintessential Indian.

The classic from Disneyland is now coming to a theater near you, with an Indian time-stamp!

How?


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That's the Little Mermaid, for you, with her comrades, Flounder and Sebastian.

We've moved on a little...

To this...

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His Majesty, King Eric...

Her Majesty, Queen Ariel...

And, the prettiest...

Princess Melody...

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We begin our story, from this point itself.

Our Little Mermaid Ariel, has now taken up the human form and embraced parenthood.

Moreover, she and Eric had now taken up the responsibility of a Kingdom.

They were now Queen and King! :)

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As is a ritual in His Majesty's rule, both the King and Queen step among the common - folk for a day, once a month.

But, their common - folk are not the ones under the King's rule.

Their common - folk are the  Queen's marine citizens.

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For that one day, the royalty trade their limbs for fins, in order to dive into the serene waters of Atlantica, to pay a visit to King Triton, who is the Sea King, and Queen Ariel's father.

Eagerly waiting for their arrival, are Flounder and Sebastian, too.

Every month, it is a routine, in Atlantica too, when all the subjects gather to celebrate that one day with their dear Ariel.

On the other hand, Princess Melody spends her day, in royal play.

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The present day, for a change, was bound to be different!

King Triton rose up to land to see his daughter and son-in-law this time!

He traded his two finned feet for human limbs, instead, for a day...

However, Melody is unknown to her grandfather, till date, to protect her from evil eye.

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He had a reason, a very important reason, to facilitate his visit.

Incidentally, King Eric's people were inhabiting the land, bordering the waters of the Sea City of Atlantica.

Since these waters bordered His Majesty's kingdom, they were the people's lifeline.

And more often than not, a lifeline has to bear the brunt of life's ill-mannered ways.

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For, King Triton had to intervene and inform the royalty of what crime was being unknowingly committed, by the womenfolk of their kingdom.

The waters of the Underwater Kingdom, of the Sea King, were being polluted by their activities. These women preferred to do their laundry at the sea-shore!

Hence, sending down all the dirt from their dirty laundry to the clean, serene waters of Atlantica!

Sebastian had been vocal enough in informing King Triton, who had further been irked to inform Eric and Ariel.

Flounder too, had seen his 'school-mates' navigate through falling pieces of dirt.

Of course, pieces, as it seemed huge to Flounder and all his mates, when heading out as a school of fish.

Other marine creatures too, had complained of other rock - like obstructions in their paths.

King Triton, thus urged the royalty to probe into the episode...

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Queen Ariel took the lead and planned ahead, to proceed to their town, disguised as common-folk.

Both King Eric and Queen Ariel behaved as if they were a new fisher-folk couple in town, the next day.


And, fisher-folk settle near the seashore, don't they?

Ariel went around familiarizing herself with the women, and Eric interacted with the men.

To their surprise, the men were busy with their nets and navigation, while women were busy with the washing and cleaning of laundry!

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When Ariel interacted with the ladies, they were all frustrated of their male counterparts.

They felt the scales were unbalanced...

With their side weighing heavy on them...

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Clearly the men of King Eric's kingdom felt that...

Laundry Was A Woman's Job!

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The women of the kingdom had to take on the responsibility of selling the fish from their nets, at the market each day and retiring to look after their house by the night.

Thus they were juggling the finances and the well-being of the house too, doubling their effort!

And doing laundry was an important household chore, besides cleaning and cooking.

The men on the other hand, went to the waters to fish, the entire day, thus retiring tired and taking the excuse of relaxation by the night.

Even on days when the waters were rough, the men didn't volunteer to extend any helping hand!

They either slept through the day, or idled around, wasting themselves.

When Eric tried to inquire with the men, they dismissed it by putting it all on to their wives' shoulders.

Washing and cleaning is a woman's job after all, ain't it?

They have to do it, not us!

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More than two - thirds  of Indian women feel there exists inequality at home, between men and women.

76% of Indian men feel laundry is a woman's job.

85% of working Indian working women feel they have two jobs - one at work and another at home.

77% of Indian men depend on women for doing the laundry.

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Queen Ariel felt disgusted by her subjects' mindsets.

She heralded change by bringing in a new dictation.

First, a new system of effective laundry-waste disposal was set to be implemented over the coming months.

Queen Ariel sent for her engineers to devise such a system to be laid out across the town, in order to save Atlantica's waters from pollution, too.

A greater hazard was the rotting ideology of their people though.

It must not be the division of labor according to femininity or masculinity, but division of labor by ability, both King and Queen opined.

Volunteering towards tasks of feminine domain do not make men less masculine, or even vice-versa.

Both Ariel and Eric had never known of the pitiable state of inequality in this aspect, in their kingdom.

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To rule out the concept of labels, division and prerogatives, Ariel laid down a new concept.

A concept Eric too, was in favor of. 

She as queen, rolled out a dictum stating 'Occupational Swap'...

For a good two weeks, the women would go fishing, while the men would go to the market and care for the laundry and other chores.

This would acquaint both the sides of the scale to their equality and a balance which needed to be kept, and not an unbalanced work-load.

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Apparently, their kingdom modeled a nation named India...

And, Ariel and Eric aimed to break a stereotype.

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Queen Ariel,  King Eric and 'Ariel 'n' Ariel Productions'...

In collaboration with Disney India! :D

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Because, she disagreed...

#IsLaundryOnlyAWomansJob?

This...

Abiding around for those seven days, for two weeks...
Reasoning with that varied ability, swapping around...
Imitating what the spouse does, in alternation, seeks...
Echoing to us that nuances of the other's work, bound...
Looking to both sides of a fair coin, which surely speaks...

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I am writing for #IsLaundryOnlyAWomansJob Activity at BlogAdda.com in association with Ariel.


5 comments:

  1. You've nicely crafted the story...enjoyed it... :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for reading through and appreciating the story, Mani.
      Keep Visiting. :)

      Delete
  2. I love Ariel even more now! Amazingly wriiten

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the appreciation, Rishi.
      Keep Visiting. :)

      Delete

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