My mother is what you would call, "do not interfere with how I run my show" kind of woman. She handed down to me, rather non-lovingly, with complete no fuss, some real lessons about life, which, unfortunately, stand true. "Irrespective of whether one is a beggar, middle-class, or a millionaire, if there are two or more brothers in the scenario, there has to be a fight for the property." She is well-read in Mahabharata and has a family full of business-men brothers, which helps her to back up her conclusion with great logical reasoning from surrounding evidences and grand mythical examples. from her readings. Somehow, the nature of how the reasoning unfolds has become way more palpable now, than how it used to be earlier. It is undeniably alarming.
For reasons which include guarding my sensibility, I will not mention more of her fine observations (could not resist -- "be satisfied with shit if you aren't willing to move your ass").
Moving away from my more illustrious mother, I am what one would call, "I welcome your views (vocally) for my show but will finally run it (silently) my way" kind of woman. I avoid confrontation and find it extremely tiring and energy-consuming. Thus said, I hardly have any conclusions about life, always believing that everything is capable of a change. Even so, one belief has fatally found its step in my ideology, again, quite unfortunately. "Whether one is a maid, or a millionaire, these days, marriages fail." I believe I am a creator of fiction, so I would not rely one an author's expression for validation, but all around me, the number of women who are being subjected to a bad relationship feels like being audience to a deck of cards, rapidly sliding. The institution is evaporating, especially with women's rights and all. All that love and promise seem so superficial in the rage of routine monthly living.
So, what is it with the men and their handling of property and women? Was it not Mahabharata which became an epic over the possession of Hastinapur and the mishandling of Draupadi? Is it not your mother who succumbs to TV serials while she folds the dried clothes, trying to make sense or escape from her own crumbling world? Is it not your teacher who is charming and powerful, in whom you must have noticed the wrinkles of an abused past, or a silent, suffering present? Does your maid not show you proud marks of her husband's punch on her? And, well, most definitely, how many "educated" women around you are bearing the cross in the name of love, or living in a bubble of newness? It is sad how everything reduces to a rubble -- the honeymoon period, the everyday sameness, the framed photographs of happy holidays and the legality of togetherness.
My family has a history of "bad luck for girls" -- another one from my mother's conclusions. While it surely does, and there is no denying it, I am so happy that yesterday's bad, failed women are holding the hands of today's smarter fools and have a fresh way to show them. I am glad that I can counter my mother's phrase with "self-made new luck" for the girls. We have accepted that acting like Sita and getting swallowed is boring.
In fact, it is time we shun the Goddesses, and start living our human potential, our woman potential. I think, in this process I have somewhere written it all over that in spite of my best efforts to refuse it, I am, after all, a fiercely fucking feminist and it is time that you too, like the woolen clothes that need a reverse sunbath, bring out that humane self. Slay the devils -- it does not take a trishul, all it takes is one step, a decidedly determined step, to respect yourself.
PS: This is not my attempt to raise a slogan against men. One of the few people dearest to my soul, is a son of the family, and is more a feminist than I am.
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