STRIDING FOR CHANGE: WOMANHOOD

    “Soni, don’t stop for anything on the way. There are ten thousand chores to be done back home before your father and brother come back. Dishes to wash, clothes to be dried  and food to be cooked”.

      “Lucky, you look so tired playing in the sun since morning. Wait, I’ll ask your sister to get a glass of cold water for you. Do you want me to get something to eat as well? “ 

       This is what you get to hear on your visit to a typical Indian household. Neighbors, friends or relatives, we’re all so used to it.  We call it culture, tradition and more importantly, the family values where females are expected to be the perfect caretakers of the house and their male counterparts, to go out and earn the living for the family.

       Yes, it’s an unsaid law and a moral belief for the man and woman to complement one another. But then, who assigns the roles? Choice, chance or autocracy. Going by the Govt., both possess equal rights in terms of  the society. Well, what if one castes a doubt? Aren’t there enough incidents in and around us justifying a perception otherwise?   

      Yes ,we do have varying perceptions on this. But isn’t it a fact that  one’s perception is the child of his own experiences. I’m no philosopher. Just a little cynical as a person, if that justifies my concerns. It is said that women are the weaker sex, physically, if at all. But then, aren’t there things that lack in the other gender too that they happen to complement?

      We Indians, tend to detest the middle-east practices. Although this is duly substantiated, a question that always has been hovering around this somewhat feministic mind is whether or not we’re any better. Every other day, we get to hear or read about one or the other girl molested, abused and exploited in so many other ways. Be it Bandra or Borivali, Raipur or Rashbehari , there’s always an anxiousness within a girl’s mind while going out late at night. To the extent that that they end up looking around for one or the other guy to accompany. If nothing else, just to feel secured. Why so, especially with all the security around?

     As a child, it was a little surprising to see friends at the countryside lead a life that was way different to mine. They seemed to be so used to it. No complaints, no demands. Is it only that they were happy enough or there was an unwanted mental acceptance of the fact that nothing would change, ever. It was, it is and it will be the same for everyone born there, with a feminine genital, of course.

   “A woman's destiny, they say, is not fulfilled until she holds in her arms, her own little book.”                                

 
  

   Yes, it always has to be told, if not claimed.  

   It has to be asked for, if not demanded. 

  And then, to be written by our own hands, if not stated .

 And all, by the Woman of Today and the harbingers of a ‘Different Tomorrow’.