I was reading a short story called "Khata" by Rabindranath Tagore.A little girl called Uma gets married in an orthodox household where she is told to abandon her desires to read and write.Uma loved to write,she wanted to become a highly accomplished writer like her brother,but her dreams lost their meaning when she got married,and her diary was taken away by her husband who believed women only belong in the kitchen,their world only resides around their family.
Women's desires die with marriage,I often used to read in old stories.
But with the decadence of patriarchal civilization,women learned to forge their existence,although,a man is still considered the primary decision maker in the family.Everytime,I want to go out,my mother tells me to ask for permission from my father.I find it extremely vacuous.My mother is as much responsible for my welfare as my dad,then why is her opinion less valued?
If you are a Bengali,the you must have heard this-"meyeder buddhi hatute hoy"
(girl's intelligence lies in her toes)
A lot of people including our very own Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (who wrote the National song of India,Vande Mataram) felt this.They used to feel thet reigns of the household should never belong to a woman,because she will only bring disgrace.But there were people,who went ahead of their times and made pioneers out of women,the oppressed becomes the beacon of hope and she represents the goddess in it's truest meaning.
Let me share with you the perspective of one such man from the 20th century.
In January of 1926, a reporter named John B. Kennedy interviewed Nikola Tesla about these very ideas. The piece was published in Colliers magazine under the title “When Woman Is Boss” and is discussed in Margaret Cheney’s excellent Tesla: Man Out of Time , which remains the most insightful and dimensional perspective on the great inventor’s mind and spirit.
After reflecting on the future uses of wireless technology and practically predicting the iPhone, Tesla points to the empowerment of women as one of the most significant effects of technology on the world of tomorrow:
"It is clear to any trained observer, and even to the sociologically untrained, that a new attitude toward sex discrimination has come over the world through the centuries, receiving an abrupt stimulus just before and after the World War.
This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior. The modern woman, who anticipates in merely superficial phenomena the advancement of her sex, is but a surface symptom of something deeper and more potent fermenting in the bosom of the race.
It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority, but in the awakening of the intellect of women."
Tesla predicted the rise of women with the advent of technology and all his predictions have actually come true.Women conquer in the field of science,now they are encouraged to pursue their careers in the core engineering streams which were once considered Herculean tasks,tasks that only men can do;women are breaking records by climbing the highest mountains and crossing the English Channel.
But think about the small yet extremely noticeable discriminations that we face even today and that is inside our own home.
Do you go out without your husband's permission?Do you hang out with your friends more often when you are in a relationship?Do you enjoy the moonlight drive like your fellow male friends?Don't you feel intimidated by the presence of another pretty women at your partner's proximity?
Women have always been driven by the thought of being accepted and validated by the society she lives in;when it's her own home,she needs to follow her father;when she gets married,her husband becomes her world.
A celibate women faces the wrath of the society,she is often viewed as being characterless or infertile.
I have a sister-in-law who lost her husband a few days after her marriage.She has a daughter who never saw her father and she never had the opportunity to feel a father's affection because of her conservative in-laws who restricted her life inside their own family.Instead of encouraging her to get married again,they made her a figure of sympathy.She looks old and worn out.Her life would have been better without a husband too,but she doesn't enjoy the freedom of being a single woman either.
Sometimes I feel women are always stalked;the entire society observes her every move and if anything seems out of place,she is banished from some kingdom of perfect women.
And I am not just speaking of elderly people,but the young generation too who held utmost pride when it comes to defame a woman based on her choices.
I was a victim of that.I was humiliated by my own friends for leaving a guy who made my life miserable.
Women are advancing,but I think she is still considered very weak,fragile,I don't like the comparison with flowers because no,not every woman is born a flower,some are born like thorns too.They are born to challenge others and burn down the system;like the Joker,they are meant to expose the corruption inside our hearts.
I feel sorry for those women who apply fairness creams on their faces to find a perfect groom,those who apply make up to gain unnecessary attention,those who walk gracefully to present themselves as relationship materials,those who
diet to decrease their waist size from 28 to 26;and those who try to lose IQ points to have a wise boyfriend.
Freedom comes from within,when you know that you don't need to be someone else to keep others in your lives,when you live with a burning dream and when you stop comparing yourself to others.
Freedom is very important,and once,you are free,you start viewing the world as your own oyster.
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