Captured Write ups

I am always chasing your ghost, always. The bright phone settings while the rest of us liked it all dark.  The bao that I vowed to never order on my own. The salted caramel ice cream that quite didn’t make sense to my taste buds. The early morning cup of green tea. The earrings I plan on styling with my blue kurta. But some choices are too painful to pursue, so I leave them untouched. The songs we listened to in the cabs we shared. The movies that felt like a window to your world. The videos online where you view the world through your lens. The pictures of our laughter that made everything easier. The soft toy that was once our child. I didn’t know how or when, you became a major part of my life’s mosaic. Unrequited friendship is probably the closest that words will ever come to explain what we had.

It’s one in the afternoon,  as bright as a day can get, people all around me, I get into an auto to go home  in a city I’ve lived all my life, I still open maps just in case, then we take a wrong turn, the man says there’s an obstruction,  this road will take us the same time,  says something that I  cannot really trust,  I call dad just in case,  the man jumps to defend himself,  says men of certain communities are unsafe,  you need to be cautious around them,  it’s not all men,  dad calls again just in case,  and maybe the realisation hits him whilst he eats his afternoon lunch,  that he has daughters-  not children but daughters in particular,  and that he needs to always stay watchful,   just in case. 

For all the times;   every dumb dance over late night calls,  every bite of blueberry cheesecake to eat “just because," the time you stood out the door after travelling an hour just to make sure I ate,  every message telling me how proud you were of me,   talking about the same lore a million times but always making it sound exciting,  all the times you reminded me how to breathe while I was struggling to find some,  sending me little lucky charms and sachets of tea,  making me giggle like a silly little girl and showing me by example that life isn’t always so hard,   answering every single one of my hypothetical questions,   making me food whenever you can and sending me some whenever you can’t,  buying me things just because they reminded you of me,  making me count my blessings and being my girl always, thank you. 

  Abstract Democracy has been the most sought-after way of life for most states from the start of the renaissance. Whether it was the French revolution, the American independence movement or India’s struggle for freedom; all of them were aimed at transitioning their states into democracies. The modus operandi to achieve the same takes various shapes and forms- it can range from peaceful protests demanding for a democracy to violent clashes leading to war and bloodshed. Thus, the end result and its consequences on the state formation also equally vary. Not every movement seeking for a democracy ends up with one. It can sometimes lead to successful democracies that set an example for other nations trying to achieve the same. On the other hand, it can end up in draconian, extremist autocratic governments and civil wars which can last for decades. The author of this paper is trying to prove the same by narrowing down the movements for democracy centred around the Arab nations in recent...