Freedom of Spirit

Last year I wrote a blog about how the Indian culture was changing. Maybe because of the grey hairs that have appeared on my head since or the fourth decade of my life bringing added maturity I have been thinking a lot about an individual’s freedom to be the way he or she wants to be. Today morning, I was in my favorite place, the Dhakuria lake, when I saw a young teenage girl belonging to a rowing club jogging in shorts and a T-shirt. To me, she looked like the picture of good health and fitness, very attractive in fact. A little distance behind her, a lady in her sixties wearing a saree and sneakers (a ridiculous combination, if you ask me) was staring at this girl with arched eyebrows and a very evident look of disapproval. I surmised the shorts were what had earned the girl “the look”. 

I am ashamed to say that many a time I have caught myself staring at a girl who smokes or does something that does not fit into my idea of how a woman should be.  Nowadays, I have the good grace to scold myself mentally whenever I get such a thought. But when I look around I realize that in spite of all the talk about “women empowerment” and “international women’s day”, a woman’s place in society is still under question.

I was not brought up to be a feminist and I abhor the term. In many ways I am extremely conventional and traditional in my thinking. The height of my ambition when I was young, was to grow up, meet a boy, get married, have kids and have a decent job, not necessarily in that order. Fate of course threw that little plan to the winds. I dislike talking about my struggles so I will not elaborate on that. 

What I observe around me is that the son-in-law is still special and deserves special treatment. Rules for daughters and daughters-in-law are still subtly different, though of course people would go blue in the face denying it. At work, women do certain kinds of jobs well and fail at others – this is the general impression. Women are still judged by the way they cook and clean, no matter how hard they work as a professional, and yes, women themselves are the harshest judges when it comes to judging other women. If that is the case, we cannot really blame men who think a woman’s place is in the kitchen. What women need to do is to respect themselves first in all the various shapes and sizes they come in. And that my friends, is the thought I want to leave you with this Saturday morning.