Lest we Forget!

I speak less

 I observe more

 I seldom come forward

 But I can match your every step in life 

My silence is not my weakness 

But  a resilience, to maintain calm

 I wish you knew 

I wish you realized

Whatever advancement the human race is doing today, the fault lines of inequality still exist. It is so in every sphere of life, whether at home or the work front. There are just degrees of variation, but we cannot deny its existence.

 Sadly our race today is today engineered to believe the virtues of male machoism. All the more so in developing or underdeveloped countries. We talk of equality today but is there equality? One of the most recent examples amongst many, was the casteist taunts on members of the Indian Women’s Hockey team at the Tokyo Olympics. What was the action taken against such an incident? Since this was a high profile case, it came out in the media. The world over, innumerable cases happen that go unreported. No law can cleanse this malice. We need to clear our mindsets first.

 From a very early age, a girl is subject to comparisons. She is the weak link, a liability of sorts. She gets tuned to subjugation, not by choice but by circumstances.

 But if we look back, it is this daughter who took care of her sick brother. It is this daughter who stopped her studies so that her brother could study. Over the years, the roles changed and the actors too. The daughter became a wife. The husband was the new actor here. Circumstances again force her to take the back seat. Today she again tends the family and watches her husband take the glory. She tends to his every need and states her mind when allowed. Sometimes she stays silent. Why? Because in our minds, a woman cannot outdo a man.

 How unjust can this be? Whether at home or even at work, for the lucky few. When will this evil end in our minds? When will we treat them as equals in letter and spirit? 

When I got to see this painting, done by an ardent follower of my blog, these were the thoughts that crossed my mind. The demure face, the closed yet thoughtful eyes, is not her weakness. But an indomitable strength, which the men could not identify.

 Lest we forget, YOU ACHIEVED WHAT YOU SET OUT TO….BECAUSE SHE STEPPED ASIDE FOR YOU.