I usually shit on anyone who posts pictures and videos of the pehli baarish in Mumbai coz we can all look out of our windows buddy.
But not this year, no!
This year we are all desperately waiting for the first rain!
#MumbaiRains
37 year old man running easy 2s in this sweltering heat after fielding for 20 overs expects us to believe he retired from test cricket coz he saw some grey strands in his beard
#ViratKohli
Asha Bhosle sung around 12,000+ songs in 20 or so languages.
Whitney Houston sung around 100 songs primarily in English.
It’s not like Whitney passing away.
It’s Asha Bhosle passing away.
“The Mumbai Metropolitan Region will resemble a desert in the next seven years. An irreversible loss of ecology, habitat, and the lives of local communities is on the cards.”
The judge told her she had two choices: go to prison for six months, or submit to her husband. She was 22 years old, and she had never even met the man. She chose prison.
Then she wrote a letter that would change Indian law forever.
Bombay, 1885.
Rukhmabai sat in a courtroom, listening as a man claimed legal rights over her life. His name was Dadaji Bhikaji. According to the law, he was her husband—married to her when she was just 11 years old in a ceremony arranged without her consent.
After the marriage, she had returned to her mother’s home, as child brides often did. But her life took a different path when her stepfather, a progressive doctor, encouraged her to study instead of sending her away. For the first time, she experienced education—reading, writing, thinking for herself.
By the time she was 22, she was educated, articulate, and certain of one thing: she would not accept a marriage forced on her as a child.
Dadaji disagreed.
In 1884, he filed a case demanding his “conjugal rights,” asking the court to force her to live with him. His argument was simple—law and tradition were on his side. Rukhmabai’s response was unheard of. She refused. She said she had never consented, that the marriage meant nothing to her.
The case shocked society.
At a time when child marriage was deeply rooted in custom, her refusal was seen as rebellion. Newspapers across India and Britain began covering the case. Public opinion split—some condemned her, others supported her courage.
Rukhmabai didn’t stay silent. She began writing letters under a pseudonym, exposing the realities of child marriage and questioning the system that justified it. Her words were clear, direct, and impossible to ignore.
But the law did not favor her.
In 1887, the court ruled against her. She was ordered to either go live with her husband or face six months in prison.
She chose prison.
That decision changed everything.
The idea of imprisoning a woman for refusing to live with a man she did not choose created public outrage. Reformers rallied behind her. Debates intensified, and pressure began building on the colonial government.
Eventually, the case was settled outside court, and she was freed. But the impact of her stand did not end there.
In 1891, the Age of Consent Act was passed, raising the legal age for marriage consummation. It was a small step, but a significant one, and her case had played a crucial role in forcing that change.
Rukhmabai moved forward with her life. She chose to study medicine, traveling to London to train as a doctor at a time when very few women did. She returned to India as one of its first practicing female physicians, dedicating her life to treating women and children.
She never returned to the life that had been decided for her.
Rukhmabai lived into her nineties, witnessing a changing world shaped in part by the stand she took decades earlier. For years, her story faded into the background, overshadowed by others.
But what she did remains clear.
She refused a life chosen for her.
And by doing so, she changed what was possible for others.