(WOMEN-II)
BEING A WOMAN…!
Being a woman is no doubt one of the most eternal and divine feeling for any living soul. Many of you might ask why I started this article with such a partial line, just be patient and go through the entire article, I am sure you too would agree with me. When this topic came in my mind, there was a state of confusion in my mind about the topic, and I am just about to explore that confusion.
Coming back to the point of being a woman, is a kind of painful gift to any soul that they accept with some questions in their mind always. They have been framed the most respected and powerful entity of this physical as well as virtual eternal world but at the same time they are the one who always remained at the receiving end of any kind of consequences (Again similar to my earlier articles I am going to take Hinduism as the basis of any reference used in this article). Let it be the start of the world when shraddha became the victim of Manu’s lust for era as well as his anger to ancient stories of Hindu culture where even goddess Sati has to sacrifice her life after failing to get whom she loved to just because of some rivalry between his father and Her love lord Shiva. In addition, we all know the history is full of examples where they remained the sufferer. Moreover, these examples are there even when it is the word ‘Mother’ that takes the highest order in the archive and not ‘Father’ and this shows the importance of being a woman and anybody should have hardly any doubt that this is never partial as they have characters such as kindness to the maximum. Even if we look at Hindu culture, we would, find that there is large number of female god than the male gods and they have a very important place out there better to say an edge over the male gods. Even we call them in pair and we call female name first let it be Radhe-Krishna, Sita-Ram etc. these are just some points to add value to the topic. Very interestingly, few days before I was going through a face book update saying we admire and give them respect only because we fear from their destructive power. I wonder till what extent that is true as in our list of goddesses we got every form of them starting from angry n destructive goddesses like Durga and Kali to very kind and loving goddesses such as Parvathi, Lakshmi, Saraswati and to most extent Hindu culture never pictured their destructive part as their main representation rather framing a kind and loving part has always been a priority apart from sometimes showing that they also got that character with themselves that can take revenge for anything. In addition, this is happening in every period whether we look at stories of gods to stories of different arena. In Treta, Sita has to suffer because of rivalry between Ram and Ravana, where as Urmila; unfortunately whom most of us never gave any importance or point to talk about and surprisingly that is what even great writers did, apart from Shri Hajari Prasad Dwedi writting an article on her!, gave sacrifice of her newly married life just because her husband wanted that. Later we would find Ahilya who had to suffer just because his husband Saint Gautam had some doubt or misunderstanding. Moreover, this lasted with one of the worst decision by a god like entity Ram to his wife Sita to go through a fire-exam to prove her holy. In Dwaper we have Devki who had to sacrifice her seven Childs only because god was going to born at number eight. Then there is Draupadi who went on to marry five brothers all together just because their mother; unknowingly, ordered them to distribute whatever they have brought. These are just some examples when women power was almost at its peak and they have a lot of interference in the ruling and society. And this is modern period also known as Kaliyuga, that saw some of the worst ever made customs or forced rules one could face including sati-pratha, in which girl had to burn along with her dead husband( girl’s wish didn’t matter at that time), what a terrible, horrible custom but this era also saw some of the great changes in position of women in society giving them far more chances to participate in different processes whether it’s political, personal, professional. It also produced some of the greatest women warriors and politicians of all time and that consist of names like Mother of shiva ji, maa Jeejabai, Lakshmibai and many more. However, the basic factor remained the same even after such considerable amount of growth in their participation and influence in society, the general perception about their role remained same keeping their presence limited to few names and never let it become a bigger cloud to take over the sky filled with manned stars.
Today if we look around us, we would find time has changed a lot and women are in much more better situation than ever. Their role has gone beyond the border of line divided by their male counterparts to a new global space. Now they are ruler, they are celebrity, they are educated, and they are in every field, what remained even dream places to be for their male counterparts. Today they are independent, they are confident; they are what they want to be, not afraid of anyone and their image can be summarized as focused, confident, and smart. They seem to be very clear about what they want and what they need to do to fulfill that and it sounds really true (great too!) but is it the real picture? Have they really come over the so old established image of a woman? Have they taken over the image of ‘made to be ruled by male’? Most of you would say Yes! Moreover, why not, looking at the current situation of them it seems well right. However, the point of concern as well as confusion is whether this so-called gradual change and picture perfect situation is truly perfect or it is just an illusion over the reality. If we try to look closely, we would find that today even women seem to be in a state of confusion about the same at various places. At one side, a woman is considered as a smart and confident and praised for making their presence in society but at the same time, they start losing the support and faith of their family in them. They are supposed to do well outside as that would raise the prestige of family in the society and relatives as well as at the same time they are expected to do all the work of home whether it’s cooking, washing or whatever. Does not it sound too much? I know many of you would disagree with this but if exceptions are left this is the real picture. Those confident and smart independent women start getting an image of too modern that cannot stay in a family and the kind of patience they require to overcome the biased and lusty intentions they face at their workplaces makes it even worse. And not only lusty intention that makes it worse for them at workplace but kinds of double talk that they always has to listen, offers of giving preferences over others if they would agree to show positive sign to their bosses and much more. They start getting an image that they are available for everyone out there to have fun and sex, what a tragic confusing and down time situation for a woman! Looking at the rise in the stat of sexual abuse and cases of harassments, it becomes even clearer. Today women are not safe even they are living in most advanced cities of the country let it be smaller towns. Moreover, what is worst that surprisingly they are not even safe in their home sighting a rising number of incidents against themby their relatives only. Even if a woman tries to balance her professional life with their family lives, they go through to face many hurdles all the way irrespective of their effort to make it better. In addition, this becomes even worst if she start getting success more than her male counterpart getting that same ego of being a male and to rule women; this has remained a challenge for males to accept that a woman married to her can be better than he can. Moreover, this is situation for a long time better to say from the start of civilization itself; or start of humanization. And coming back to confusion point, what is worst that one side even if they are praised for being confident and success in their profession another side they are the one who are supposed to maintain a family starting from taking care of need of every family member to kids and most importantly her male counterpart. Moreover the peak of this reaches to a point when she can’t even escape to sleep without fulfilling her husband’s expectation of making love, does not matter she do it willingly or forcibly. What a tragic and upsetting moment for a woman.
Well, this is just some example of problems and confusions faced by a woman in society today and can only be explained better by a woman who has gone through all this. It is just a try to summaries some of the facts that I have experienced and learnt through some of very brave women and I really admire them a lot for all their effort to overcome all these hurdles to reach deserved place. Hope this confusing situation in this so open, modern and advanced society would not stop them to get all the success a woman deserve and will let them reach to the peak of their capability.
To be continue…
BY: - PRAVEEN PARASAR
DATE: - 31/03/2011
