On Sunday 18th November, actress Neha Dhupia and her model/actor husband Angad Bedi announced birth of their daughter whom they have named Mehr Dhupia Bedi. Celebrities, fellow-actors went on to social media to congratulate the couple on their new bundle of joy and the media houses got a new “celeb-story” to hook on, maybe a new celebrity kid on-the-block which will soon start providing the content fodder for tabloids in the form of her “cute baby pictures.”

Since Neha and Angad’s wedding had been announced, we came across number of tabloids and celebrity blogs that  had headlines or titles like these –

“Pregnancy Confirmed: Neha Dhupia Married Angad Bedi Secretly As She Was Expecting”

“Is Neha Dhupia’s pregnancy why she suddenly married Angad Bedi? Here’s the truth”

“Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi become parents after 6 months of their marriage, welcome their little one”

“Angad Bedi Opens About Neha Dhupia’s Pregnancy Before Marriage”

You know where we are going with this!

Albeit, all these articles and headlines seem elated, excited for the happy couple – there is one important thing that they point. And yes, that is Neha Dhupia got pregnancy before she got married. (HAAWW???!!) But why!?

Because most of us consume celebrity gossip as if it is part of our daily diet, the important thing to ask ourselves is, when do we leave people alone and where do we draw the line at being judgmental.

Pregnancy and motherhood is sacrosanct for Indian society but when it comes to premarital pregnancy – which means you had premarital sex – HAAAAWWWSSSS AGAIN for this one; is still frowned upon and be prepared to get some eyebrows raised even while discussing this. The headlines on these tabloids is just a reflection on that mentality.

We love freedom and power to make a choice – but it often comes with a responsibility to respect choices of others. You don’t need to agree with someone’s practices all the time or compromise with your own belief system. What matters is to be comfortable with the diversity around you – diversity in preferences, lifestyle and different beliefs.

Sex itself is a taboo topic, sex outside marriage is definitely much difficult to digest, but you know what! Premarital sex happens more often in our country than you are led to believe. The morality of an individual that we tie up with sex is an instrument to control desires and put them under the yardsticks of conventional social construct.

Love Free. Love Responsibly. Make No Harm.

And yes, congratulations to the happy couple – here, there and everywhere! 🙂