This Women’s Day

I opened my facebook to realize that it was March 7^th and hence the wall was covered with pictures of smiling girls with gifts in hand, being pampered by husbands and other significant men in their lives. The men’s statuses read “Gifting her a spa coupon..” or “She is my queen..”. It felt good to see so much love in the horizon although in a virtual world. So today was our day, as mentioned on the social networking sites.

I called my mother in India late at night (my time in USA) only to find the bell ringing without an answer. After an hour, she called me back detailing that how occupied she was with the maid not coming to work because she had suffered some burn injuries while cooking. It did not take me a moment to understand what these accidental injuries were and what perhaps would have caused them. The ironic nature of our conversation was that I and my mother were discussing a recently released Bollywood movie ‘Queen’ wherein the protagonist finds her true self after undertaking a journey in a foreign land. The movie was wonderful with flawless acting and nuanced direction. However, the girl in the movie was only able to find her confidence after being dejected by a boy. Thinking about it, I realized that this is what happens to most of us, isn’t it? We start taking our careers more serious, taking our health more seriously and working towards building a stronger self-confidence after an eye opening experience where the main lead is undoubtedly a male. 

By this article, I do not mean to condemn the male society (let’s just call it that for fun ;)) in any ways.  My aim is to foster the feeling that women are important for a society and not merely objects of affections on women’s and mother’s day OR objects of sympathy for a failure encountered in their lives. And no one else, can build this idea of self-sustainability other than we ourselves. So my dear beautiful mates - Why not celebrate the next women’s day by taking a fellow women to shopping or spend some time a girlfriend over coffee or all the more better help some girl in need – like donate some clothes to the next door women rehabilitation society. 

“It’s equality that matters to us and not reservation”