To understand what I have written, I request all the readers to watch the short film attached to this chapter.

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It was one of the study breaks that led me to watch Juice, a short film directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. It is a bold outlook of how patriarchy is quite normal in Indian households. This is what I have been observing in many houses I have visited or as a matter of fact in my house too. This is the thing which I loathe the most.

The film starts with how conveniently men occupy the living room, discussing about the current world affairs, cracking sexist jokes, once in while calling their wives in kitchen to serve dinner. The women squish themselves in the small kitchen, talking about how they lost their financial independence, taking care of children and having no say in taking decisions of their life. The children are assigned a room to play. Obviously the girl gets less time to play, she has to serve the dinner to her brothers and it's absolutely okay.

The scenario in my case is almost similar. The men limit themselves to living room, flipping channels from sports to Telugu, Kannada, Tamil news channels- talking how players can increase their stamina or what the government should do or which actor has married twice. 

The women working in small kitchen, that has exhaust fan though, cooking dishes after dishes, talking about how they manage their households, exchange recipes and how difficult our exams were. 

When we were kids, would play carrom game, draw and end up tearing each other's drawing sheets or would play in the ground adjacent to house. But as we grew up, I would help in kitchen which could be as small as making balls of dough for making rotis; but my presence is important so that my parent's upbringing is not questioned. About my male cousins, they would either join the above discussion, go out to roam on their bikes or would watch a movie on laptop. 

There's a limit to everything and when the limit breaks there can be outrageous outburst or defening silence. The last scene where Shefali Shah, the lead actress, sits down in living room, next to the cooler with a burnt fingers, breathing heavily, glaring at her husband, sipping a glass of juice is the most beautiful yet powerful scene. 

What disturbs me the most is that these things are so normal and how deep rooted patriarchy is. This film adds to one of the best short films I have ever watched.