So says Priyanka Chopra .May be it is the scooter that makes all the difference. I started my bicycle lessons only when I was continuously pestered by my friend.Our attire was the biggest problem.It was never comfortable to ride a bicycle with a long skirt, rather it was embarassing. Only late in the evenings I was given a training, my friend running along with me gasping, holding my shaky handle with her strong hands. With all my training extending upto four weeks I could never learn how to stop my bicycle once it is set free.. Three people should stand in my way like barricades , frantically waving their hands , running helter skelter when I bump on them heavily, I was then rescued by my determined friend, who had her knees more bruised than this rider herself. I cursed all residents in the town for not locking themselves behind their doors when I was riding my bicycle. Bycle riding for girls was not so usual in small places. Not even swimming, where the boys were encouraged to learn swimming in an irrigation canal or a tank, girls were strict no, no. Only in summers when the canal was locked up, with the water shirinking to ponds, girls have to flutter their hands and legs like small fish in a pond, with floating pots beneath their chest , that too without the knowledge of their parents. Boys can always find a "goda" or "vyayamasal" for their physical fitness in case they want , girls have to conceal their extra pounds in their long "lehangas" or sarees with no option to shed them. You can never find a girl in a theatre when an English movie was on, as they get to watch liberal dose of lip locking and huggings. Hanging to the mirror for a long time was often rediculed and condoned. Full sized mirror was a rare phenomena, and girls will not have an idea of how they look like until they put up enormous weight, with no figure corrections and lipo suctions around. Girls when teased by boys are not supposed to give them back, it is advisable to bow their heads or at the most a stern look will do. Rarely a brave heart will ask "Dont' you have mother and sisters?' only to get a reply "we have every body except a wife. Will you become one?". During "Atlataddi" day when all the children get up as early as 3.P.M. in the morning to eat their bowl of rice with "Gongura" chutney and play till dawn, most times their peace is disturbed by boy thugs who will somehow slip into the girl crowd at a flash and pull somebody's plait or chunni. At times parents were scared to send girls for play suspecting some foul play by the boys. Only upto 5th standard schools will have coeducation, there after girls are sent to girls high schools. Very rarely few girls are found in boys school, but never a boy in girls school. Teachers have been given an additional duty of protecting the girls from the boys and shield them from lewd remarks when on the outings. Whenver a group of girls are found alone some thing wrong was sure to happen.
This is the progress women has achieved even after 10000 years of our civilization. The change which is evidenced in a short span of 15 years in retrospect, is really astonishing, and more than compensating. All around we see girls sporting around even in late nights. Word "dating" which was alien for decades or even for centuries is spreading it's tentacles into every strata, and every nuke and corner. Girls are bold enough to fight against "dowry". It is cool to part ways when you feel aukward with a tricky marital knot and more so for a silly reason. Odd jobs like drivers, bartenders, are handled by them with ease . Women body gauards are not a rare phenomenon. Girls hardly hesitate to wear a plus, plus sized jeans than to wear a saree, which is to be preserved only for special occassions. Gold chains are replaced with synthetic wires hanging from head,ear, mouth or neck with emerging need to chat round the clock. It is a matter of pride to be labelled as "sexy", the four scornful letters ,which were treated unholy few years ago. Beauty can be negotiated with plenty of nose jobs, implants, chemical peelings, botax on avail . Looks are given the utmost importance than the ritual itself even on a wedding day. Ramps being conducted at every single occassion. Going in gaga with a booze in a pub, a tizziy hip hop , a cigarette, a liberal cleavage show up, nothing is a bane . Cooking which was once presumed like a genetical predisposition of a women is now fraught with doubt with too many to play novice. Child rearing is shared with demand . No more service requests, no more condemnation, no more bad mouthing, no more moral science lessons. Nothing can be demanded from them. One should feel happy if something is bestowed upon by them with benevolence. What a cool place for women to live in !
2 comments:
Without an iota of doubt,the way men perceive women have taken drastic strides for the good.women are competing with their male counterparts in all walks of life.
This however is the new generation woman.I wonder why my mom or other ladies of their age cant change themselves and get in sync with the newer lot.Why does it happen so often that, if my mom and dad argue over an issue and invariably it is my mom who has to compromise and calm down.She says women are more patient than men. I see no reason here. Maybe it is the upbringing that she(read-women of her age group)had over the years.The way I understand it,those days women were probably brought up in such a way that they have to take all the suffering.As if they are born to suffer.How I prayed, it all changed.
I am glad to have a boy reader like this who has a heart for the sufferings of the other half of the human race. I think child bearing worked as a boon as well as a bane for women. Her inability to go for hunting for certain time during her child bearing period, her confinement to the younger ones for a long period till they grow up, her continueed productive cycles, have thrown her to the mercy of her provider if you look at in the historical perspective. Evolution of a social unit called a family, and it's inherit requirements, and it's felt need for it's continued existence restricted women to her abode and her role down played as the breadwinner alone was held high in a primitive society where gathering or cultivating food was the sole and prime occupation. This down play lead to the utter degradation of women during the successive ages.We are happy that situation has improved a lot, still much left to be desired.
Getting in sync with the newer lot is difficult for a woman of your mother's generation. May be she has not seen much difference between her mother and her grand mother. But perceiving a total new image could come as arude shocker. However I wish you should continue with your broad perspective. Good things need no review.
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