Give me more !

   [ image borrowed from www.sadashivan.com]

You might think that this is the picture of a small girl child you encounter on the streets doing what you detest most while commuting or elsewhere- BEGGING. At the outset it may seem so but to me she seems to be saying-"Give me more,bananas aren't enough for me".

Mother, Manager, Caregiver, Career builder, Today's woman ,You Wow us !... And now this passing of this
33% reservation for women in Parliament. This along with the other cliched phrase for the women of today is really getting on my nerves. i fail to congratulate myself and others belonging to the same gender because i don't see how this alleviates my kind and causes emancipation of the sort it claims.

Not when i know that the she is still considered as the paraya dhan ( wealth belonging to others ) . As this being the mindset of the educated class too who talk about equal rights but when it comes to real execution of plans they fail and fail miserably.
Not when i know that between the battle of the sexes it is their own kind that is the real reason for their sufferings. i didn't agree back then when my father had pointed this out to me but  through my own experiences and others i know now that he was so true and not chauvinistic.

Personally i feel all this emancipation is only happening to those already emancipated and is not doing much to where it is most needed. This came as a shocking truth to me way back when television had made it's foray into our homes and in this black and white promotional and enlightening documentary  before the black and white Phool  Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan ( name of a tv programme with Tabassum as the anchor which showed clippings of popular hindi movies with experts comments by the anchor later ).That documentary brought out the stark naked truth loud and clear. i was very young then but not too young to feel hurt and pained at the discrimination happening with me and others just because we were not boys.What was shocking was the fact that i was on the same footing as the poor village belle shown on TV whose mother has offered her hard baasi roti with pyaaz ( left over night bread with raw onion ) after she has returned home tired and hungry from the hard labour whereas the son who was happily playing marbles all the while is given a plate which looks quite like a well balanced meal. Not many know this but so far as nutritional food is concerned the woman was not even considered by her own kind because the boys/male definitely needed the best and more.

Povery, Government policy failure, lack of schools for study, overpopulated family, weak laws to protect and protest...the list goes on and we keep discussing issues how to bring about that desired revolution. i feel nothing will do the wonders more than opening the closed doors of our minds and giving our lady that status she deserves of that of being another human being.This entails asking a lot of questions and then finding answers and then moving to the desired GOAL.
There seems to be some rays emerging with all this.But i don't want to make any promises not yet because to me these seem transitory. "  Roshini tab bhi thi
                                          Roshini ab bhi hai
                                          Farq sirf itna hai
                                          oos roshini ko kashti nahi thi
                                         aur iss roshini ke paas saahil nahin hai"
                                        ( There was light then
                                           and there is light now
                                           the difference only being
                                           that light did not have a carrier
                                           and this light has no destination )


i have to ask myself why i was afraid of having a girl child when i was in confinement.
And if i had a girl child would i have given her the same amount of understanding to her needs and aspirations as i would've to my boy ?
Maybe i would've doted upon her and given her all but would i too ask her to make compromises and adjust because she was a girl and a second citizen ?

Well i would congratulate myself the day that happens when on being questioned i would myself give an affirmative answer with conviction. The kind who feels this equality from within me...that  apart from being a XX in my DNA configuration i am human and thus should remain only humane and nothing less or nothing more.The kind who is more like this mentor and friend to the main character Aditi in the film Astitva .When i am able to be that Revathi or Meghana who enable Aditi to find her true identity i shall truly feel elated and that will be the day i join in the celebrations. Amen .