My sincere apologies to all Venusians but I can't really grasp the ballyhoo around 8th of March. It's international woman's day, a day dedicated to women around the world. I agree that it's a privilege, one that our beloved Martians don't enjoy but that's where it ends for me.
******
The good old stone age is a witness to how wonderfully we transformed caves of stone into homes, full of love. Evolution had its way and women came to be the official nurturers and caretakers. We perform our task very dutifully even today. The catch though lies in how we have managed not only to excel at our job but to also pull off activities that come under the Martian domain. They were meant to be providers and protectors and verily they are. But there isn't the slightest doubt about how well women have worn both hats and worn them well. A daring Barkha Dutt, a strategic Indra Nooyi, an intelligent Chanda Kocchar, an ambitious Saina Nehwal et al are classic examples to amply prove the above hypothesis.
We multi task, juggling pots and knives,
We're responsible mothers and caring wives;
We neglect ourselves for we're busy nurturing you,
The more you deny it the more you know it's true.
******
We live in a patriarchal society. Many daughters wish they could change this hard fact. Especially those tiny ones who weren't, aren't and won't be lucky enough to vocally express just how much they wished things would be different. Female foeticide is a crime not just against women but humanity as a whole. Alarming sex ratios indicate a scope for imbalance thus rendering females a prospective endangered specie. We're throwing balls at nature, play with her alright, but we need to remind ourselves that it is not balls that we're volleying but a boomerang that will sooner than we expect hit us and hit us hard.
Talking of the right balance, many organizations today aim at maintaining organizational diversity with respect to gender. But how many of them actually take the required steps to ensure the retention of female employees. Organizations in India offer women who work for them a paid maternity leave of only 12 weeks as opposed to the whooping 47 weeks offered to their Swedish counterparts. Owing to this most women are forced to make a choice between the personal and the professional, in the bargain giving up on their careers. Working women are active contributors to our GDP (that stay at home mom's also are is a story for another day). An understanding towards their predicament and a provision of alternatives is thus essential in order to encourage them to continue working.
******
All of us dream. But it's different when I say, girls dream. It's different because little girls grow up very fast and as they grow up they dream of the perfect husband, the perfect house, the perfect parents in law, the perfect wedding and the perfect everything. Most women realize that there is no such thing as perfect only when they find themselves being burned down to ash. Dowry related deaths are common not just among the uneducated but also the literate. In a lot of cases women themselves are involved in driving another woman onto the pyre. Is it morally and logically correct that some self described superiors of society get to decide if a few pieces of green paper are more valuable than someone's life is?
******
Indian's greet one another with the word Namaste which means 'I salute the divinity in you'. Christians regard the human body to be the temple of God. Is this body, the sanctum sanctorum of the Almighty, viewed respectfully by all. The answer is a resounding 'No'.
Womens' bodies are irreverently portrayed, thanks to commercialization. This is common place in the media industry. A few barbarians in society take this irreverence a step further with rape and other sexual crimes. A woman is a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, a friend and much more. Every time he rapes a woman he rapes his mother, his sister, his daughter, his wife, his friend and the sacredness of womanhood itself.
******
To every homemaker, to every bread winner, to every innocent unborn life, to every burned bride, to every woman stripped off her dignity;
Here's wishing you A very Happy Woman's Day!
Then the man said,
"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken."
No comments:
Post a Comment