WOMEN AND FREEDOM

The status of women in the Indian society has changed from time to time ; the position of women in a society is considered as an index to the standard of the social organization .We can divide the past [history] in to three phases to analyse the status of women. They are: ancient India , Medieval India and Modern India.
In ancient India, women enjoyed equal status with man in all fields of life; she was imparted the same education like man. Many Hindu religious books like Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata have mentioned the names of several women who were great scholars, poets, philosophers of the time. The wife was 'Ardhangini' which means she is half of her husband. An unmarried man was considered to be an incomplete man. All religious ceremonies were to be performed by the husband along with his wife. This shows the importance given to the women in ancient period.
But in the Medieval period, the status of women went down considerably. She was considered to be inferior to man. Many historians have called this age as the 'dark age'. Her position became very miserable. Decline in the status of women in Indian society began with the Moghul era in India: customs of purdah , sati, child marriage & restrictions on widow marriage were prevalent.
The position of women in modern India has changed considerably. Her position in modern Indian society is equal to that of men, socially, economically, educationally, politically & legally. Her sufferings from Sati, Child marriage, Institution of Temple prostitution are slowly becoming extinct.
Now, she has the right to receive education, inherit & own property, participate in public life & political life of the nation. She has become economically independent. She can seek employment anywhere and does not remain a domestic slave anymore. So, she is certainly enjoying equal status with man in all respect.
In spite of all this, I read and see people still talking about the liberation of women. what is freedom? who has to give women freedom? we talked about freedom for India only when we were under the control of British.Freedom has always been there, but many a time women tend to be rivals to other women. Let us take the case of the dowry evil. Now with education and awareness, a girl can always say that she wont marry a person who demands dowry. Here again mostly it’s the females who are behind the demand.Even assuming a man demands ,if all women join together it can never happen.If everyone stands up against dowry there wont be any harassment for dowry in our society.Then comes the female infanticide.If the ladies are strong enough and are bold to defend there wont be any such infanticide. My father used to say 'girls are Lakshmis but one should be blessed with a boy to do the last rites for the parents' and my contention was the same always.After one dies he is not going to be aware of anything that happens in the world. Then,why should someone be concerned about the rites to be perfomed after his death. Its only the good deeds one does will be of any help rather than the gender of his heirs. Then comes the craze for jewellery! I was really pained to see that jewels or sarees are the centre piecec of conversation even among elite women. I have never seen them discussing any general topics(most of the women folk) .I am really astonished by the way these women fall in love with the jewels.They just keep piling up jewels. Its only a heart of gold that’s needed to run a happy, loving and peaceful home which seems to be lacking these days. Nowadays people think that adjusting and making compromises is wrong because that is considered an act of slavery. By no means intolerance is a symbol of freedom. Of course there are cases where girls are denied education or not allowed to express their views…but personally I feel that we can change the mentality of those people if the educated ones act with responsibility. My cousin in Hyderabad thinks that attending or being a member of a Lady's club is something to do with her status. When I asked her what she does there, she said that they discuss the problems in the society in genral. But what is the use of simply discussing the problems without addressing any. If as a team you are able to educate or inculcate awareness in people who don’t have them then its an achievement. I am ofthe opinion that they merely go to exhibit their new sarees and diamond studs…as Huxley puts it" painted harridans with artificial smiles.". My opinion ... its only in the hands of women to use the freedom we already have instead of waiting for reservations . We have to bring up our children to be independent but loving ,caring and responsible individuals. It is in the hands of women a house is made which in turn is going to build a good nation. As Tamil poet Subramaniya Bharathi sings


உலக வாழ்க்கையின் நுட்பங்கள் தேரவும்,
ஓது பற்பல நூல்வகை கற்கவும்,
இலகு சீருடை நாற்றிசை நாடுகள்
யாவுஞ் சென்று புதுமை கொணர்ந்திங்கே
திலக வாணுத லார்நங்கள் பாரத
தேசமோங்க உழைத்திடல் வெண்டுமாம்;
விலகி வீட்டிலோர் பொந்தில் வளர்வதை
வீரப் பெண்கள் விரைவில் ஒழிப்பாராம்.

சாத்தி ரங்கள் பலபல கற்பாராம்;
சவுரி யங்கள் பலபல செய்வராம்;
மூத்த பொய்ம்மைகள் யாவும் அழிப்பராம்;
மூடக் கட்டுக்கள் யாவுந் தகர்ப்பராம்;
காத்து மானிடர் செய்கை யனைத்தையும்
கடவு ளர்க்கினி தாகச் சமைப்பராம்;
ஏத்தி ஆண்மக்கள் போற்றிட வாழ்வராம்;
இளைய நங்கையின் எண்ணங்கள் கேட்டீரோ!

WOMEN AND DIRECTIONS

I was a reading an article on women and directions. It went on to say that women were very poor in finding directions and they easily get lost unlike men. Men always have a mental map. When asked directions they always reply ….go straight 25 mts and turn right, whereas women tend to say go straight…there will be a bakery, then shoe store and turn you can see a hotel etc.It reminded me of an incidence that took place some years ago. I was very poor in finding places and even if I had visited the place many times I was always puzzled whenever I was asked to take a bus as I always ended up taking the bus that traveled away from the place I had to reach and it was my husband who always had a nice entertainment and who would always comment that he was very surprised by my inability to find the direction. Actually I really started wondering if something was wrong with my reasoning, logics and my IQ (which I know very well is very less).I was really relieved when we visited my husbands cousin in Mumbai .When she was asked about some place she was baffled (she had been living there right from her birth) and her husband commented that she was very poor in finding places and always went the opposite direction. So I was very happy that I was not alone. Later I came to know many ladies had this problem (men have problem in identifying colors so…) when we were in Germany I always knew from the map which station came next and got down if it wasn’t and got the other side train. I always ended up that way. It was only once or twice that I had traveled in the right direction.
My husband had to go on an official trip to Kiel in Germany and we went with him. There was a beach nearby and we planned to take my daughter there .After our breakfast we started and we heard from his friend that it was only half an hour walk .So we started to walk .I just followed him with my daughter carrying a lot of things to make castle in the sand. We walked, walked and wallllllllked ………but not a trace of water. Another 40 mins nothing. I told my husband that I was very tired and I really doubted if we were moving in the right direction. He just stared at me ….”Of all people u talking about directions kind of look “and told me that he had checked the map. Next thing that was surprising was only few people were walking. Then at last we came to the dead end…I mean dead end truly…it was a graveyard .so after an hour walk we reached this graveyard. I was really wild on thinking that we had to walk another hour to go back .but I was very happy that even my husband got lost getting wrong direction. So whenever he commented I was ready…..” Even you got it wrong. You took us to a graveyard! Nice place to take us”.Eventhough we laughed after reaching home the whole stretch back home was full of arguments. Now when I went to Singapore I found that my daughter was also bad in directions. She always boarded the wrong train and switched direction in the next station….The article finally went to say that women were slower and lack the sense of direction. So at least now I am happy it wasn’t my fault that I always got places wrong.