V Day woes....

Valentine's day's here again.....
Time once again..
For soppy cards...
And stuffed toys..
Red roses...
Weddings on the beach..

It's celebration time...
The world over...
Except in India......that is Bharath..

Here..
It heralds....
Face-off time...
Between the country's Moral Brigade..
Self-appointed preservers of our Ancient Culture...
Whose ranks seem to keep swelling...
And the rest of us...women...
And hopefully..
Some men too!!!

This year...
The goon brigade got a head start......
With a few resounding slaps on the face of young things....
At a Mangalore pub...

What next???
Honour killing???
A return to Sati???
Widows in sackcloth and ashes???

What is culture??
Surely..
Respect for the freedom..to choose...a way of life...
Regardless of colour, race or sex...
Is at its core..
Or should be!!

It is not about one sex controlling the other......
It is all about giving and getting space...
In our relationships with the other sex...and
In our interactions with them..
Within the walls of our home..
And outside it..

Its basic article of faith is..
Live and let live...or...
To each her own....
Obviously all our Senas....
Ram Sena or Shiv Sena...or whatever...
Just do not get this!

And naturally...women all over the country are peeved...
Especially since..
Betterment for women has not come easy...

Every woman who has tested the boundary...and
Stretched it a wee bit more....
Has played a part...
In raising the status of women...

In my own family...
I can think of
My Grandmother...
Who insisted that ALL her daughters were educated...as well as her sons...
Her daughter...my aunt...
Who insisted on a career...in medicine...at a time when girls were stopped from attending school when they reached puberty....
My mother...who got her driver's license in the early 1950s...
And zipped around town...
Leaving the men open-mouthed....
And zillions more like them...
Stepped forward....
Made our path a little easier...

We do it too...
When we stand up against dowry demands...
Fight and throw away repressive customs...
Do not tolerate..
Bad behaviour...
Fight at attempts to hem us in...
To curtail our freedom to choose...our own way...

Against..
Wife beating...
Abuse...
Cruelty....
We have taken a stand....
When others did not...
Or could not...

So many unsung heroes...
Have furthered the cause..

I remember my own first best friend....
A Chettiar girl...
An only child....
Her parents married her off at age 14!!!!
And by the time we had graduated...
She had become the mother of several children....
So many doors closed in on her...
I can almost hear them slamming shut...one after the other...
She had no choice...
And did not...
Or maybe could not...
Protest..

We have...
Insisted on the freedom of choice...
And we sure have come a long way baby....as the ad goes...
We cannot...should not...cave in..
To the lumpen masses...of ignorant chauvinists...
That make up these Senas..

So, let's just celebrate....
And raise a toast to our kind...

And as for the Moral Police..
I hope they drown in an Ocean of dirty, pink chaddis!!!!
The dirtier..the better!!!!...

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!