Rights or Privileges , choose one !! ============= Was thinking to write this piece for long but was apprehensive of two reasons, one , writing against women or their long list of legal rights is considered politically incorrect in India, you will be accused of being male chauvinist , biased , pervert and so on. Issues such as blackmail in Dowry cases , fake rape cases , alleged domestic violence in livin relationships , alimony demands or for that matter woman reservation in parliament etc came and went by but none among us dared to write against it. This I consider a revolutionary mindset change among educated middle class. But one day I had to write about it and so am doing today, starting with an incident which happened with me during the start of my career at Hyderabad. Office commute via heavily crowded public transport was a daily affair for me and being new to Hyderabad didnt know that first 4 rows each side of bus are reserved for ladies. One fine day I boarded the bus while returning home, and luckily the bus was completely vacant so I chose the front row for obvious reasons as these buses have front doors for exit and rear ones for entering the bus. Immediately after two stops whopping crowd entered the bus , people jumped at seats where ever they could find one , since I did not know of this reservation of seats, one young lady informed me with a visibly unpleasant attitude that I should get up , I was shocked to know this and immediately vacated the seat and went backwards. Since the bus was heavily crowded, I kept standing for another 30 minutes or so and as soon as I saw a vacant seat I jumped and grabbed it. The crowd continued to pour in, the space between the two rows of seats was filled completely and in such a way that even seated people were not too comfortable. I was so tired of the hectic day that I closed my eyes and tried to have a little nap. All of a sudden, I heard a lady probably in her mid thirties , pointing at me and shouting something in telugu (the local language) , when my gestures confirmed that I did not understand what she is saying, she started blabbering in crude Hindi, and the only thing which she kept repeating and I understood clearly was this kaisa aadmi hai , aurat khadi hai aur ye baitha hai , sharm nahi aati (what kind of man is this , while ladies are standing he is enjoying being seated, isnt he ashamed of himself ). I felt so bad and embarrassed , that I immediately vacated the seat for her. The incident kept spinning in my head for next so many weeks as what kind of society we are becoming , on one hand, woman enjoy their special legal rights ushered upon them by our constitution because they are woman , on the other hand they want themselves be called equal to man in all aspects, I feel they lost the battle much before it began , because special rights are for weaker section of society not equals. On one hand ,they keep enjoying the selective best privileges which our society and culture have ushered upon them while at the same time keep accusing and abusing it of being male dominated , woman persecutor society ? Take the example of Livein relationships, it has become a trend that after few months of livein , girls would either complaint of rape or domestic violence. Strange isnt it ? You chose your own way of life and society gave you liberty of doing so , now what has domestic violence got to do with it ? And it feels even horrible when we know that these rights and these privileges never reach the class for which they are actually meant for. Much like caste reservation , where the actual beneficiaries are highly educated urban people, the creamy layer. I know I would have created a lot of enemies after this article among my female friends , but I just want to tell them that they cant and they shouldnt be enjoying the two liberties together , choose one, either right or a privilege. And trust me ladies , only a man who truly and literally considers you equal in all sense would have the courage to write this article.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 18:08:09 +0000
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