The sad story of our Saraswatis and Laxamis

She was beaming. It could occur to one that It was her sense of accomplishment and pride for self-fulfilment that spoke through her smile. Interestingly she once was what is called in India in lauding tone a “bright student”. She was married now, with a kid, seemingly happy if one is bereft of depth in insight.

With sindoor drew from the middle of the forehead extending up to close to the centre of her head, she astonished me. As an incorrigible smile decoder, I always resort to see behind what is on the face. Social media is not the most appropriate place for that experiment as deceiving as it is, but I threw myself into it at the moment.

My plunge found me millions of “the brights” in her visage who lay pyres of their dreams and a life the world owes them for the reason of their gender, accepting what is thrust upon them on the excuse of circumstances and tradition. They even adapt to the lifelong tragedy with comfort and coyness. why should they rebel if a modicum of liberty is more than what some of the gender peers of her age can afford? Happiness is a relative concept, after all. And confrontation is a self-defeating idea in a society mired in an entrenched gendered structure. On the one hand, the societal misogyny would outcast you; adding to it, your government will cry impotence in providing you with a dignified job. Which means you have been systematically left on the mercy of the predatory men.

It is exasperating to conceive the horrific mayhem this combination of socialism(read inefficiency) and patriarchy have wreaked on a large section of women. People often gravely underestimate the damage inflicted upon society as a whole. But more infuriating is the level of abidance the system garners on the part of women, even from the women who otherwise could have been on the vanguard of the emancipatory movement. If anything history teaches us, it is that people equipped with education lead the way in the fight against exploitation. That our education system has failed us in this regard is unquestionable. what we have been producing, for the most part, is a mind that is blind to all facets of life save jobs, which to the surprise of the most are also reflective of a social situation. it's no coincidence that countries with high gender parity tend to score high on development score.

A society with substantial economic opportunities is also the one placed at the top of social indicators. Never does a country climb the ladder of progress, and at the same time, women are forced to be child producing housewives. It may have been the 19th-century route to development, not of now.

I should have held my reading of the profile pic, and like the rest customarily tapped the “like” button; if only that were an easy job .one should never be acclimatized to the status quo lest they will lose traditions out of the present. There isn’t a justification for the ruination of lives turned into an object of suppression and a victim of male egomania surviving on female subjugation for meaning and hubris. This must change if we have to evade this collective shame and claim our place in the world.

Women not only have the right to education; that implicitly includes jobs too. Men’s need is no different. But poor national economic performance pushes women on edge. At the same time, men somehow stand the ground on account of the system favouring them. Men and women both share economic misery. women however are disenfranchised of self-dignity and respect as dependency does not let them count on themselves. Patriarchy has been kept on life support by the economic deprivation that marks the majority of the Indian population.

Truth by its nature is conflicting, conflicting with our perception of reality. The world that surrounds me and many like me is not the same as one in the head. It has not changed; if it has, it’s by a margin. we are growing at a snail’s pace. Too slow for the change to be called a change.