I love train journeys. Last week end on my way to Pune, I chanced upon a very interesting conversation between three girls,in their early twenties. I gatheredthat some friend of their's had got recently married and so the right age for marriage was the topic for discussion. Each of them had her own view but what came across was the fierce will to be independant. Nothing wrong in that at all but I found confusion in understanding independance. One said she believed in Tit for Tat,so everything between her and her spouse would be equal. One said that she would make it very clear that she will never live with her in laws,etc.etc.
The conversation set me thinking. These sweet girls had so much in their minds .What had led to such a state where one had to lay down so many conditions? Had life really become so monitered?Were emotions being thrown out of one's life?
I visualised the olden days where women were exploited. The exploitation reached such levels that the women revolted and pointed at Lack Of Education to be the root cause for the pathetic plight of women. So educating women started. So far she was only a house wife and a mother ,who was probably so for she had no other options. She was financially dependant on her man so she could not dare to look out for options too. With education the woman got her financial independance and with that the revolutionary change that happened with her was the Power Of Choice that she lay her hands on. In an attempt to prove her an equal to man, she went out and out and won laurels in almost all fields. Woman was equal and in many places even superior to man now. She had made her mark in a man's world.
With this equal status ,gone with the winds is the age old concept of the Division Of Labour. Now there is nothing that is a gender specific job. Any one is supposed to do anything and everything and this empowering is leading to the extinction of the basic simple way of life.Now the changes that I see are-
House keeping is not meant to be done by selves...it is sort of looked down upon.
House keeping includes- cooking, washing ,cleaning etc etc all that a woman would always take pride in,are of begotten days.
Visiting people in their houses is a down trend ,if at all we meet ,we meet at public places.
Houses are only luxurious apartments to provide for a bed to sleep.
The list could be endless but the crux of the matter isthat, woman in trying to empower herself against the wrongs being done to them, has become almost a man,except for the biological difference of course.So the jobs which were the forte of woman earlier complementing their biology,have taken a beating.
God had made man and woman to complement each other in every way . To fight the wrong done by man in earlier days ,woman has ,in competition, switched over to the man's side leaving a big void in her own sphere. Man is trying to interchange roles too ,to keep pace with the marching woman but he needs God to help him in this .Biologically the thoughts and hence the actions of a woman cannot be acquired by a man ,much as he is trying and I am sure God is seriously pondering over this issue to rethink about reshaping Adam and Eve.
My heart goes out to these girls who are burning themselves off in the name of independance. Any form of extreme is never desirable. Moderation and thoughtful ness always pay good dividends in life. We get Life once. What ever we choose to do should give us a holistic happiness. Anything else should be meaningless.
