They say "behind every story of success there is a woman" . There is more truth to that than we can fathom, cause behind every life there is a woman.
I had been waiting for my favourite entertainer's show for a while now, waiting anxiously what winds its going to bring about with it. While there was bated anxiety and expectation, my heart sank tonight when I saw the show. It really did! And not because I was disappointed but because of the extent to which i was stirred.
A majority of our population must have seen the show, and at the end of it, a lot of people around the world, a lot of men around the world, must be wondering how to face their women, how to face themselves.
Here I was, safe to say living in my own world, living in my own bubble, positive of a shining India ! A India, which i believed was fast on the track of becoming a country of equal opportunities, equal regardless of gender. And my beliefs are not based on whim! But based on what i see.
Everyday i come across so many women who hold their heads high and live thier lives with such grace, honour, composure and affection. Be it the vegetable vendor who proudly boasts the greatest accomplishment of her life, providing english-medium based education for her daughter, my mother's doctor who never gets tired of spreading the joy with her radiant smile, my colleagues in office or be it my little niece, who with her toothless smile takes away the stress of the day. And yet, i will have to live with the fact that over the course of last few decades, 3 crore, women were murdered in their mother's wombs, before they could see the light of the day, before the cruelty of mankind would let them make our lives better.
How could we ? Isnt it ? Sounds mind numbing but stir your hearts a little more, search for the answer a little more and you will find that despite all the education or lack of it, its the animal in us that makes it possible.Because there are hoards of silly little retards amongst us in the society , some call themselves as MEN, who think through their genitalia and believe in the miracle of its existence so much, that they end up making the mistake of believing in thier superiority.
I have always found myselves at cross-roads with the saying " Ladies first! ". Because I dont believe there is an chivalry in just mouthing that and not treating them equally. Or putting on that fake cloak of 'gentlemen' and going home and yelling and beating our women. Its not that i was living in ignorance and believed that domestic violence on women was a stigma of the past, and that female foeticide was a tale of the myth. However, i would have to admit Dr. Khurana's story shook me up the most. We keep claiming that education is vital to our beliefs, to what we are and what we become, yet a professor father in law and a ex -principal of a school mother-in law, was torturing so! Shame on you !!
In a culture, where we bow our heads down to Maa Durga, does our hand not shake when we raise them on an avatar amongst us ? Does our mind not stop to ponder when we murderthe unborn girl child ? Do we not look around the room and see those little steps of Lakshmi at our doorsteps, does our heart not weep when we realise men are there because of women!!
Since the day we are born, there is some women or the other who has made sacrifices for us, and continues to do so ! Be it our mothers, our sisters, our wives! We count on them, we depend on them, and yet we cant respect them enough! Shame on all of us !
I dont have to look too far to be grateful, the three women in my life, my mother and my sisters, have touched so many lives around them, they cant even begin to imagine. My every bit of respect is reserved for you all, cause some trundle through life, you decided to triumph in it, and above all, teach me everyday, how to be a better being, and a better man.
( A special note about a woman who will remain ever so special for being with me during those hard times; there are none like you! )
To all the men out there, strive to become a better man, by treating the women in your lives with respect. The more you give, the more you earn. Your manhood is not in your strength, but in the way you treat your women, your dignity is in your women's dignity, your pride swells in the eyes of your women!
So grow a pair, stand up to the wrongs, treat them right and then call yourselves MEN!!
