The Bride

As she draped her sari along her head,

Covering her face, her identity,

The ring with his name replaced her boxing gloves,

The boxer in her choked, and there the new bride silently wept.

                                      -Amrita S Venu

The LIMBitless Queen, Jessica Emily Quinn

You might have come across many inspirational stories, but have you heard of Jessica Emily Quinn of New Zealand? She is none other than a dignified, stunning, and resolute woman on a mission. The 23-year-old Kiwi is absolutely a perfect pageant of womanhood. Quinn is into running, fitness, and adventures. She is the archetypical idealist who has gone through a lot to become what she is today.

Jessica broke her leg when she was nine years old. Though the injury seemed to be natural and very normal, it had an ominous surprise lying beneath it. She was found to be suffering from Osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, that would change her fate. She had to sacrifice her right leg in the long and strenuous battle with cancer. She now wears a prosthetic in place of her right leg that was amputated at the knee.

Though the incident had all that it needed to break her, she fought against all the odds with a captivating blend of perseverance and positivity. She always had a can-do attitude and was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who loved and supported her through all thick and thins. She felt invincible as she overcame the obstacles that came her way. She believes that there is no greater form of beauty than confidence.

Quinn had learned the harsh lesson of bestriding life and death at a very young age but this incredible young lady snubbed to let the untimely loss of a limb slow her pace. She successfully turned her tragedy into triumph. She is not only a model but also the brand ambassador of Nike as well as the Young and Brave Foundation. She is now changing the outlook of a model from just being fashionable to being proud and bold as well. She urges you to be you, to be LIMBitless.

Let Jessica's inner strength, optimistic attitude, and elegance oblige as a reminder to all of us that beauty is never a principle that can be replicated instead it should arise within us from being exposed to the worst, while still being able to see and be nothing but the best. To all the people out there who give up even without trying, who give up unable to face the tiniest of obstacle- do you still think of quitting?

An Empty Stomach

For days, weeks and years,

A young little boy,

With an empty stomach,

Fed those street dogs.

For, it took a void stomach,

To understand the agony of another.

-Amrita S Venu

Demystifying Menstrual Taboo

Don't go into the kitchen or don't touch the Prasad are some of those phrases that menstruating women often get to hear from their elders. Some girls aren't even allowed to enter other houses throughout their menstruation period! Menstruation has an umpteen number of taboos and stigmas committed to it in India. Clean sanitation is a dream for many women out there.

It is a matter of utter disappointment that so many girls give up their education as soon as they hit puberty because they meet menarche. Some girls still use rags and papers during their period to meet their needs. There are also those who have access to sanitary napkins but aren't able to afford them as they are way too expensive. The foremost issue through periods is hygiene, something that has always been completely sidelined since ages. Talking about your period to men is considered offensive even in this 21st century. It corresponds to certain filthy hush-hush. We should ensure to keep in mind that this process is as natural as breathing. Men should, in fact, take the lead in this conversation and be a helping hand for their female counterpart.

So, come let's gather up and stop feeding the wolf of menstrual taboos. Let us embrace this essential change to sustain the human race. Be #HappyToBleed.

Sean Swarner- The One Lunged Warrior

What would you do if you were told to be dying of one of the most feared diseases in the world, Cancer? Here is Sean Swarner, who was told not once but twice that he was dying from cancer but, unlike many, he refused to back down. The story of this two times cancer survivor from USA is not only inspiring but has also gained him the Don't Ever Give Up Award.

The man who dreaded to crawl 8 feet from the hospital bed to the bathroom has now redefined impossible by climbing 7 summits to reach the top of the Mt. Everest. You might be wondering if this was something great, but what if I said that he accomplished this with only one functioning lung. Yes, you heard it right, he has become the first cancer survivor to complete the Explorers Grand Slam, climbing the seven summits and traversing the last degree to both of the poles, all with one lung alone. And that is not all of it; he has also efficaciously completed Ironman Hawaii.

He was diagnosed twice with totally unrelated forms of cancer, at the age of thirteen with Hodgkin's disease and the other was with Askin's sarcoma when he was sixteen years of age. The whole medical community considered it as a miracle when Sean survived both the brutal disease. It was astonishing to see him walk away from his deathbed. But his encounter with fierce cancer twice strengthened him and also made him realize that from then on, no challenge could ever be too great and no peak too high, for him.

The Cancer Climber Association is his own establishment which upholds cancer attentiveness and also helps to raise money for performing researches on cancer. Keep climbing is the book, authored by Sean, which recounts his journey from the rock bottom of his near-death experience to his conquering the peaks and reaching atop of the world. He always believed that if we want to do something and we have a goal, do it and don't wait, because our channel might change sometime soon, that too quite unexpectedly. His life inspires us to rise like a phoenix from ashes and triumph over the world.

Death

Come weep at my grave,

And let it be forgotten.

When memories are immortal,

How would I be rotten?

For being lived has no meaning,

When my death kills so many.

Broken hearts heal so slow,

I'm no one to break any.

Trust me, love death,

For you won't be living dead again.

Death is a boon to heal all wound,

And it is such a gain.

Be no scared of grave

Nor curse the death.

For me and you, will all be dead.

Not with kin and kith.

The day you sleep forever,

Is the day your pain ends forever.

So life and death are so beautiful,

And that is still forgetful.

No matter how we are,

We all end up the same.

For death has no you and me,

As we are just playing a game.

Failure A Full-stop?

A bit of splendor within the failure.

Here my life is thus a precious saga of an unbiased maiden

hemmed in by a ghastly exquisiteness?

Hence is not always a tragedy

In black and white, my sins

On the paper stained with blood red

That I've been practicing since ages.

Or is the magnificence bound in

Erudition from you catastrophes?

Because then all these lessons

Have thus been lost on me.

Gauri Lankesh- An Honest Voice Lost

Bullets thrust into your body for speaking your mind. Yes, Gauri Lankesh was a journalist and an activist with sturdy dogmatic outlooks. But is murder the latest norm for dealing with anyone with resilient views? For dealing with anyone you demur against? And is it the new norm to make merry of the murder on Social Media? Rather than showing the outrage towards her death, some narrow-minded people have been just spit-spatting in abusive language against the brave lady. Gauri Lankesh did write watchwords, shout slogans and speak out. But she never fired a bullet at anyone for disagreeing with her. She was just using her Freedom of Expression which no longer is a freedom here. She neither threw ink at someone nor a shoe. But she got her ultimate riposte in bullets.

 So are bullets the new custom? Team up every journalist, every activist you have a problem with, call in a firing squad and get rid of all of them at once? This is neither a transitory hiatus of motive from the part of killers nor a rapid gridlock sort of ferocious fit. This was just as thought-out as it could be. They knew where she lived, that she was at home and would be alone. They came equipped with loaded guns. They were aware that as soon as they ring the doorbell, the lady would unsuspectingly open the door and thus paving way for them to easily shoot her dead. They were also certain that the Social Media would rejoice this callous murder.

 A durable sense of feebleness has ascended in numerous journalists and writers right now. A doubt if our pens are really mightier than the sword? Are they mightier than the bullets? But despite all these venomous activities, we still place our faith in pens and words. We still keep faith in democracy. The faith that no one can question. The faith that no one can ever murder

Hide & Seek

There was this tiny, bubbly girl. Livid and cute, she had everything she needed and much more. It was her fourth birthday and she was super excited about the gifts to get. She was at the gate, waiting for her friends when an uncle came and invited her for a game of Hide and Seek.

The End

Let them play and not scream,
There won't be she, for yet another dream.