u/Yuunoia

I sometimes wonder when I became incapable of being alone with my own mind. I used to read research papers, I could spend hours immersed in difficult ideas quite happily with nothing demanding my attention except the page or the ideas. A few months back, even a few minutes without my phone used to feel strangely unbearable. I guess this is what dopamine loading does to a person. We feed ourselves small pleasures until ordinary life becomes insipid and begins to feel like suffering. For months I have been trying to reclaim it ( as my profession demands focus especially as a newbie )

Now I force myself to read reports, research papers, complicated documents. Sometimes I read the same paragraph over and over almost feeling how stupid I am and wondering how much my attention span has deteriorated. And when I remember the person I used to be and find it difficult not to feel disgusted by what I have become. Anyways looking at the positive side strangely ....I am improving. Half an hour without my phone once seemed impossible but now I can stay away for hours (again, maybe I have no choice now).

But I still have to fight myself not only for attention and deep focus but sometimes like when out of habit I use AI to check whether my articles, documents, and research papers are grammatically sound , even though I know it is absolutely error free. The only thing I'm glad about is that my vocabulary is still better than its AI-curated alternatives.

Anyways, In this ongoing process I have realised that freedom begins in the small and humiliating act of trying to become yourself again.I am sharing this because perhaps someone else is quietly losing themselves too. If you are I truly understand, please keep trying.

Ironically I once wrote an article on "The Great Algorithm Hoax - why we should not use our phone mindlessly"

And now here I'm confessing my addiction...I mean this is funny.

(Edit: Men feel free to stay away from the post. It's not a ragebait. All I want to do is create awareness for my fellow other Indian women in the sub. Stop getting triggered. And its not about Husband and his family should not get a share in wife's assets. Its more about how unfair it is for women to know that her parents have legal rights over her assets after her husband's entire heirs lineage including mama, mami, chacha and all. The post is created to create educational awareness to know their rights and make a choice or decision to decide who should get their wealth / assets in case of their death.)

I just found out something that honestly made my blood boil.

If you're a Hindu married woman and you die without a Will, the Hindu Succession Act decides who gets your self-earned assets and streedhan.

The order is:

✅ Husband & children

⬇️ Then...

✅ Your husband's heirs (depending on who is alive, this can include his parents, siblings, nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts, chacha, chachi, mama, mami, bhua, fufa, cousins and other relatives who are legally recognized as his heirs under the Hindu Succession Act).

⬇️ Only AFTER THAT... (This too happens in a rarerest of rare case)

❌ Your own mother and father.

Read that again.

Your husband's legal heirs come before the parents who raised you.

So if you spent your entire life earning, investing, buying jewellery, building wealth, and you assume, "If something happens to me, at least my parents will get some part of it," that's not what the law says.

And here's the part that feels deeply unfair:

Your parents do not become heirs to your husband's property just because they're your parents. But your husband's legal heirs are placed ahead of your parents for your property.

Why?

Why should the family you were born into rank below your marital family when it comes to the assets you earned?

A Will fixes this.

If you want your parents to inherit some part of your hard-earned assets, don't rely on default succession law. Make a Will.

Most women have never been told this. They should be.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

This isn't just a theoretical law. It has actually happened.

In Omprakash v. Radhacharan (2009), a woman named Narayani Devi became a widow just 3 months after her marriage.

She was driven out of her matrimonial home by her in-laws.

She went back to live with her parents, who educated her, supported her, and helped her rebuild her life.

She got a job, earned her own money, built her own savings, accumulated bank deposits, and PF. These were her self-earned assets, not property inherited from anyone.

She never remarried.

Then she died without making a Will and had no children.

Her mother claimed the assets.

Her in-laws also claimed them.

The case reached the Supreme Court.

The Court held that under Section 15(1) of the Hindu Succession Act, her self-acquired property would not go to the parents who raised and supported her after she was widowed.

It would go to the heirs of her deceased husband because, under the statutory order of succession, the husband's heirs rank before the woman's own parents.

Whether you agree with that law or not is a separate debate.

But every independent Hindu woman should know it.

If you don't want the law making that decision for you, make a Will.