Category Archives: Life
Frolic Friday – Curious Case of King Henry’s Wives : Wife # 1 – Catherine
King Henry VIII, was the second Monarch of Tudor dynasty. He was King of England from 21 April, 1509 until his death by 28 January 1547. King Henry was famous for two main reasons – one for separating Church of England from Roman Catholic Church; and second reason, he was most notoriously famous for, was his Six Wives and their fate bestowed by King Henry. These posts are dedicated to Six Wives of King Henry VIII. It’s not a historical fact or document, rather a conversational satirical viewpoint of ill-fated Queens.
Wife # 1 – I am Catherine of Aragon, First wife of King Henry VIII
William Shakespeare called me “the Queen of earthly Queens”, now when I am in earth, I think of only that moment when I became The Queen of England.
I was just three-year old, when my parents finalized my marriage. Yes, just three, only a child, and my fate was sealed, as the future Queen of England, and to be wife of Prince Arthur Tudor.
Commoner may think, how lucky we Queens are, but just think of it, I was not even asked about my opinion for marriage. Infact, even if they would have asked me, what would a three-year old child, will say about her marriage. 😕
I was happy. Too happy. I was going to be future Queen of England. I danced, learnt all possible languages I can, history, religion, civil, philosophy… there was nothing I had not read about. I was very lucky in that sense, as many of my contemporaries were not allowed to read at that time. Some even said, that I was educated more than my Husband King Henry. 🙄
You must be thinking, how come I was contracted to marry Prince Arthur, and married Henry instead? Well, I did married Prince Arthur, but that pale looking fellow, died in just five months of marriage. We didn’t even consummated our marriage. Urggh…
I should have returned to my home, but how could I have returned to my homeland as a widow, and just a princess, not a Queen. All I was raised-up to be, was to be a Queen. This was the only thing that I knew of – to be a Queen.
I married Henry, younger brother of Arthur, and six years younger to me.
Actually, he married me. 😉 I didn’t had any say, remember. Henry and his father didn’t wanted to return my dowry (I have bought with me 200,000 crowns as dowry, along with African servants, which I was the first to do so), and to top it all, I was beautiful, way beautiful. 😀
I had fair skin and red-golden flowing hair, short height but beauty like that even Thomas Moore said that “There is nothing wanting in her that the most beautiful girl should have.” Told Ya 😆
But I was not just an eye candy, I have also fought a war for my King Henry, and won.
Henry was the love of my life. I have only loved my God, other than Henry. Even Henry could not deny my love to him. Only thing that was denied, was a male heir to England’s throne.
I had six pregnancies, but only one, Mary, my daughter survived. None of my son lived. With them, Henry’s love for me, died too. 😥
Why it’s so important to have sons? Why can’t a girl is enough, to carry on your family genes and be your rightful heir? I could never have accepted this undignified ideology towards my daughter Mary. She was the rightful heir, and I told my wishes to Henry also, quite clearly.
Guess what? It was not the question of heir, which was keeping Henry away from me. It was that b#$@h, Anne Boleyn. She was my lady-in-waiting, at my court; and she bewitched my dear husband, to fall in love with her. 👿
Not that Henry was innocent, he had 3-4 mistresses before, but this time it was different. He asked me for divorce, and for me to go to nunnery. What??? After 18 years of marriage and one beautiful child, how could he? He even forgot that divorce was not allowed in Catholicism? I will be his wife, till death do us apart.
He was not my sweet Henry anymore. I didn’t even recognized this new Henry, which he had turned into. One who rose against the Roman Catholic Church, and declared himself above the church itself. He was out of control. Killed everyone who believed in Catholic Church and Jesus, burnt them, executed them, hanged them. For what? To marry Anne Boleyn, or to have a male heir, or just to get rid of me? 😐
He divorced me. Got the marriage annulled, saying it was invalid, as I was his brother’s wife, first.
Punished me, by not allowing me to see my only child, Mary. He kept me in his castles, closed, with nearly no help and money. But, I was always a Queen and never signed to his will of declaring my child a bastard. I didn’t, and will not say, ever, that my marriage was invalid. I was born to be a Queen, and I died, on January 7, 1536, as a Queen.
I just said this to my Dear Husband, as my last words – “Lastly, I makes this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.”
I don’t know if I am “The Queen of Earthly Queens”, as Shakespeare had put it, but I was certainly Queen of England, and will always be remembered as Queen.
Related articles
Share to show your love:
Wednesday Words – Rape is a Sinful Crime.
I read about the Rape of a 6-year-old girl, in her school by a Teacher. It was not the first time, that I have read about such gruesome thing. Last year, a 3-year-old girl from Delhi, was in news for the same reasons. We forgot about that three old girl. We will forget about this six-year-old too.
What is the point of remembering something, which you don’t want to talk about?
Everyone of you (I hope everyone), must have felt disgusted reading about it, or watching it running as a story on news channels. But, how many of you, have talked about it? Not on Facebook, or twitter, or just making a conversation in your office or college canteens? But, at your home, with your parents with your sons or daughters, with your husband or wife, with your brothers or sisters?
We didn’t talk about Rapes, not in our homes. It’s a bad thing. It’s a shameful thing to talk about Rapes. We can talk about murders, we can talk about thieving, we can talk about corruption, we can talk about Politics, Movies, cricket; but we will not talk about Rapes. It’s a very unspeakable thing to talk about Rapes. We are living in a society where we don’t talk about Rapes.
Rape is not a Crime. Not talking about Rape, is a Crime. Not taking action about Rape, is a Crime. Asking them to keep quiet is a Crime.
Once we are in a society where it is not bad to talk about a Rape, then maybe we can say, that Rape is a crime.
We as a society are the ones, who promote Rapes. We would expect from our married sons, to have dominance over their wives. We are the ones, who give precedence to our sons than to our daughters. We are the ones, who teach our girls to be soft-spoken and polite; and our boys to be aggressive and strong built. We do not want our daughters to make friend with a rape victim/survivor. We don’t even want to see them daily around us, in our neighborhood. So, we give them looks – like you do not belong here; Or, you have done a crime because you reported Rape, or crime that you got raped. We may go and protest with you, all with scented candles and fiery slogans, but deep down, we want to forget about you, as soon as possible. Afterall, it’s your daughter who got raped, not mine.
Isn’t this a reality? I truly hope, that none of you think that way, but we do behave in this way. If you want to help, then talk about it, among your friends, your family. We can not always be with our kids to protect them, but atleast we can tell them from what they need protection from.
Rape is not bound to a specific place or country, or a city, or to a particular age group. They are happening everywhere, to every class or age of girl, as you can imagine. Only thing that makes the difference is the way people come out to support the rape survivors. We can not hang a Rapist, it’s the role of justice department and police to take the rapist to his destination; but we can certainly help the survivor. We can help, in making our schools, our neighborhood, our home, safe for women. We can help in making our kids respectful towards woman.
I was watching a documentary movie on Brave Miss World – Linor Abargil, who was Raped six weeks before she was crowned Miss World in 1998. She spoke about it and helped not only herself, but thousands of such women by helping them to speak about their ordeal. Linor survived, but it was the support of her family, her friends, and the society that supported her in every way, that contributed to her success story.
I would wish on it that no woman or man would ever get raped; but I would act on it to make my kids honorable and stronger. This is what I can contribute, and what I’ll do.
Related articles
Share to show your love:
Wednesday Words – Bindi – More than Just A Red Dot
If you ask someone to draw a sketch of an Indian Girl, most probably they will draw any girly face and then draw a Bindi (sort of a red dot), on her forehead. 😀 In reality, if you go to any Indian city, you will be disappointed to see, that not every girl, wears this red dot on her forehead. 🙂
I couldn’t find out, who started this tradition of wearing Bindi? But, I do found out why it started, and what is it’s actual significance?
Now a days, mostly north Indians women wear Bindi as a symbol of their marital status. A Red Bindi is mostly worn by married women on their forehead. Widowed and unmarried women don’t wear Bindi. Even if they do, they wear a Black Bindi or Sandalwood Bindi. But, these customs are not followed religiously everywhere, and I think it’s for the best, because Bindi is not supposed to show your marital status or your fashion statement, but rather your spiritual self.
Before we go about exploring Bindi, lets first see the importance of place where we apply it. Bindi is applied at the center of the forehead just between the eyebrows. Why this place is important?
The position directly behind the center of forehead is of Ajna Chakra, the Sixth Chakra. This is also known as the position for the Third eye. Sixth Chakra is the highest chakra in our physical body. If you remember my several posts on Chakras, the highest Chakra, Seventh Chakra is rather placed in our outer body, also called as our spiritual body, just above our head. Thus our Sixth Chakra, Ajna Chakra, is the highest center of Spirituality in our physical body.
Sixth Chakra is for command, intuition, intelligence, as it represents mind, knowledge, and also connection between our physical self to spiritual self. Sometimes it is also referred as the gateway to attaining spiritual energy and Moksha.
In earlier times, when people used to pray, they used to awaken this Ajna Chakra, through their Kundalini Shakti. In a very simple term, during praying or more specifically Meditation, this place being the gateway for energy, becomes active, and as Kundalini passes through it, it becomes hot. Focusing on your Sixth Chakra also create headaches for some time. To calm this effect, and cool it, people started putting Kumkum and Sandalwood on their forehead, in the form of a Bindi or Tilak. Both of these have a cooling effect.
Now a days, it would be very rare if anyone has this capability to awaken their Kundalini Shakti to such a level as to took it to Ajna Chakra. But this practice of putting Kumkum and sandalwood Bindi, just before praying started based on this basic notion. Also, to show importance of this super dynamic place filled with heightened spirituality, we place a mark of respect and devotion. It is also a representation for the Third eye.
So more than Bindi, it’s the place where we apply Bindi, is of utmost importance. More power to our Ajna Chakra.
Keep watching this space because soon we will talk about significance of color in Bindi. Till then Happy Reading, Happy Learning. 🙂
Related articles
Share to show your love:
Frolic Friday – Sachin Tendulkar Knows You, Maria Sharapova
- Who Is Sachin Tendulkar?
Oh Maria!!! Poor Maria!!!
What have you done Maria???
You never would have guessed that all hell will break loose on you, the moment you said that you don’t know about Indian God of Cricket – The Sachin Tendulkar. Poor you. I pity you.
It so happened, that a journalist asked little doveSharapova, ‘Sachin Tendulkar was the other person who came in at the same time as David. Do you know who Sachin is?’
And our little dove replied by saying, “I don’t”.
- Sachin and Beckham
However, she does know, who Beckham is? 🙂
This simple ignorance or should I say lack of general knowledge of hers, has created a mayhem in the Indian Cricket fans groups. Result being, Maria’s Facebook posts and photos are littered with abusive and derogating comments. Not only this, several of her memes are going viral on internet showing fury of Cricket fans. Most fascinating is the trending of “#Who is Maria Sharapova” on twitter.
A question to Indian cricket fans here (which includes me too), why does it bother you so much, if a player of another country have no knowledge of a player (goddamn player), of your country.
Specifically, because first –
- She belongs to Russia, a country who does not play Cricket. India does not play Rugby, and I bet many of you would not be able to tell the names of two or three top rugby players. Leave Rugby, how many swimmers, or athletes or basketball players you know of.
- There are only a few countries where Cricket is played. Mostly commonwealth countries and few more. Many nations are there, where cricket is not even known to the people. I have yet to see an American playing cricket in my local grounds, however Indians do play there.
- Do you know the name of Indian Tennis Players? Except Sania?? If yes, how many of them you know of?
- If Alia Bhatt (Oh I so wanted to point her out in this case. Resemblance is uncanny 😛 ), so if Alia Bhatt, does not know who the Prime Minister Of India is? Then is this her lack of general knowledge or does that mean that she has insulted The Prime Minister of India.
Alia is smarter then Maria - Did she anyhow said something derogatory about Sachin? No. Right? She just doesn’t know him. Accept it.
- Sachin is God. I agree with that. But is it necessary that our God should be others God too. She is allowed to have a God of her own, and not know anything about other Gods.
- So, just forgive her. Even you knows, that Sachin The God, also would prefer that. After all, Sachin Knows Maria. 😛
However, I am too tempted to post some of the funniest memes which are making rounds on poor Maria. So Enjoy!!! But don’t forget to forgive. 😀
My Journey So Far.... 