A Gentle Laugh and a Sad Smile
Today I was filling up my forms for all the “dreaded exams” in
India, which ensure your career and interestingly found that in most of them,
the application fees was either exempted or reduced. Not only that, I found
that people were divided into two categories- the male and the female and the
males were further subdivided into SC, ST, OBC, and of course the “General”,
but women, oops, I mean the girls, they were not subdivided. They stood united.
The saying women will always be women came to my eyes in a different light, in
a subdued murmur I heard myself say, “the weaklings of world”, that’s what the
world seems to think of us.
I was confused whether to laugh or cry, to be happy or sad. At one
front, I felt happy that women were not divided on the basis of caste, creed or
class or colour and the further likes of it, they constituted the undivided
single class.
On the other hand I was forced to think: were we so weak, so
unwanted, that the government had to feign to promote us, in books, in ads, in
propagandas in the return of votes???
Thoughts kept brewing up my espresso-were we, the women, the class best
known for its resilience, moral and inner strength, so unwanted that we had to
be promoted by the various governmental agencies like NAEP???
I kept wondering with the coffee brewing under my nose. I know
those exemptions and reduction in fees meant less hassles for me, yet the
thought kept brewing, instead of coffee.
Confused yet again,
Iridium
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