It's time you stop doing it, don't you?

I have often heard people say, "what's in a name!". Well, do we ever realise that people associate their sense of identity with their names. Say for example, whenever you call a Puspinder as 'paji', you deny his rights to his name. Don't you?

People easily pull jokes out of names, they associate all sort of odd sounding words which in a silly way rhyme with the original name. For every Muslim friend you have a common name 'bhaijan', for every Sikh, 'paji'.  You don't see them cringe under their smile, your joke digs their flesh. It's time you stop doing it, don't you?

There are yet other names which never seem to run out of fashion , 'slut', 'whore' being the most commonly heard. If she be a slut, well who made her one. Ever thought of that! Every time the news fetches inhuman deeds of molestation or rape, they cook stories about the victim, but do we ever realise, we need to put a check on the victimiser not the victimised .The length of dress, for heaven's sake hardly matters. Rather than teaching girls to be docile, we need to teach boys that girls are not their play things. Its time you stop doing it, don't you?

Each time you buy a cracker, you contribute towards suffocating someone's lungs who came home this diwali from hospital to be with her family. It killed her father each time he refilled her  oxygen cylinder. The stray dog which keeps vigilance, seems alarmed at the sound of crackers. Little does he know, it's his master who chose to play the demon. It's time you stop doing it, don't you?

Before anything you think of doing or whatever you might have been doing, isn't it time you stop and reflect. It's time you stop doing it, don't you?