Monday, March 14, 2005

A Day for Women...!!!

Warning: This post might contain some so called "Sexist" opinions. Women who feel strong about it may refrain from reading.

yatra nAryasthu pUjyanthe ramanthe thatra dEvatAh |


yatrEtAsthu na pUjyanthe tatrasarvAsafala kriyAh ||

An Approximate translation would be :

"Gods bless that place where Women are respected and wherever women are not treated peoperly, obstacles will come in all the way."

This is the verse I was taught when I was a kid. I could never forget this verse because I always asked why that elevated place for women? Why cant we say that Men and Women both are same. Ofcourse, a mother always scores over a father, a sister always scores over a brother etc.
Women were given this elevated status becuse they are the only beings who can create life other than God himself. Women were considered as divinity and sanctity personified.

Every year on 8th March I get this queer feeling that all of us are cheating Women. Men, Media, countries and the so called progressive people...all are cheating women.

On 8th March 2005 I took one of my office shuttles to home. I got a seat and was lost in reading a book on "Aghora". I was disturbed by a lovely voice asking me something.

She: why cant you give some consideration to a gal , at least on International Womens' day??
Me: Yes Ma'am, what can do for you?
she: You can see that I am standing, why dont you give your seat to me??
Me: Ohh...sorry, I am one of those people who believe in gender equality. I dont want to insult you by offering a seat. That will prove that you are weak and cant even stand for some 10-15 minutes.
she: You are sad!! ( this is most common in Bangalore)
Me: I knew !!

One of those Radio City anchors was yelling on top of his voice " it is International Womens' day and many wishes to all the women in Bangalore". I cursed his loudness and lost in my book again.

I really dont understanding these celebrations of Womens' day. I think we are caught up with western consumerism and forgot to respect our women in true sense. Almost all the Women in my office assembled on that day for 3 hrs and one of our VPs( a lady) addressed them.

I asked one of my female collegues about the it.

My Colleague: some boring stuff yar. They juss gave us some stuff to eat and drink. Then that lady spoke for more than 40 min.
Me: What did she say?
MC : Some shit yaar. She was telling us "what is to be a woman and working?". Then about dressing. ( I suddenly got interested...)
Me: What did she tell you about dressing??
MC: samthing. We are not ramp models, we are professional who come to work here. We should look decent and professional. Dress tells so many things about you and all that stuff.
Me: So, she told you people not wear those lowrises and tank tops at office??
MC: Yeah, something similar to it.

It was really funny looking at my colleague then. She was completely cursing the lady who asked her to wear decent clothes.

What botehrs me is people give in too much to the hype and forget the real purpose. Why shouold we celebrate a Womens' day at all? We are never heard of any Mens' day. When both the genders are equal why should we have special days for one of the genders?

Ofcourse there are many atrocities that are being perpetrated on Womne all over the world. But how does these days help in reducing those atrocities?? Do these days help those women who are actually marginalied in all aspects of life?

How many of these bigmouthed people who shout all over the media about Women empowerment actually do something about it?? Is wearing skimpy clothes and getting drunk on par with men a sign of empowerment??

So, who is the most empowered woman in India?? Mallika Sherawath or Bipasha Basu??





5 comments:

Vani Viswanathan said...

hmm..
well, even i cannot quite understand this funda of allotting a seperate day for women. it was not creating any kind of flurry here in singapore, i actually forgot about it until a friend wished me.
it is sad that we pay attention(!) to women on one such day and talk about their achievements, responsibilities, blah blah. why not realize all this throughout the year instead of on one day?i think this is demeaning the very idea of having a women's day and promoting their equality - do we women need a day to celebrate womenhood and realize our achievements?
it is high time the world stops wasting time in allocating a special day for men, women, mothers, fathers and so on, and accept their work and be grateful and open about their contribution all through the year, instead of on one such day.
all you men out there, tell the women around you how much they mean to you everyday! and women, let us let the world know about us everyday, don't tell it just on march 8 every year!!!
psst...i know some of you might think, omg, i can't stand women's day once a year, this girl wants it throughout??? ;)

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Have gone thru the article.a nice one to stir up ideas and confusions :))
so what do u think y are we adopting such days in our country??
may b we r not giving tht much concern to people in our daily life and accumulating all the feelings for this one day and showing them off :-O
tht is a very bad idea.agreed. but what would have happened if these days were not present in our life?
may b we wud have completely ignored the fact tht we shud give respect to women...it shud start right from home..but the tragedy is,it ends at home..this is a very pity condition in which we r living..
what can b a remedy for this situation?? we r not ready to appreciate the life around us and so r these reminders to remind u...
more in next posting..need to think more abt this b4 making any comments..

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anu said...

All this shouting around is sheer madness...I don't have a problem with women's day. It is good to have a day for celebrating something but that doesn't mean you forget what you advocate on that day, for the rest of the year and then think of it only the next year! thats really stupid..

And surya, I can see ur josh increasing and increasing and reach a height at the end of the article!! ;))

Kirthi said...

Hmm, Good one Surya.
The very fact that the women who truly require to be liberated are still in wretched conditions, obviates the need to celebrate such days.
True, a lot of men and women have skewed ideas about gender equality.
Women's day is just about as irrelevant as Valentine's day. So superficial and shallow!! Only a means for Archies and cosmetic industry to promote their goodies.