To me is much ado about nothing.
This sex option becomes privileged the moment it is conceived, and a celebration the very time it’s delivered. A ticket to be always used to its advantage. World over a man is a man. Talking in terms of my country it’s a boon, and a shame/challenge if not.
Many a times, barring a few educated people (how few, it will be difficult to put in format or data), termination of pregnancy through sex determination (banned as illegal) is still considered. I know so called educated people (education is now measured in terms of what they do after they graduate!) who think twice whether it’s worth having a second child if it’s not this sex.
I saw in my yester years coming from a so called high class (I don’t care!) brahmin family, celebrations on the day a man is born and further more celebrations every year to remind him he’s a man in making. I address a man is born because it’s evident that the family is assured of obtaining an accepted guardian. A celebration of yet another man. What disgrace parenting brings when funds no matter how less are enough for such days.
Siblings to this man are no entity and are never entitled to such treatments. Mind you this is the order of the senior citizens of the house. I watched this and could never understand, hence never thought of feeling it with intensity and took it like any other pooja or festival as part of normal growing up in India. Definitely wondering though, why my birthday was confined to my room and my dolls and a make-shift homemade cake as opposed to a massive arrangement with arrays of dishes, flower decorations, guests and gifts.
To my dismay it was etched in my memory but was lost until I climbed up the ladder of life in my journey to be more experienced as an independent (so called) modern person who never believed or believes in this disparity. It dawned upon me that this shameful discrepancy, injustice and denial of right to equality to a human should be eliminated for us to be called a modern society.
Laws to give equal rights and status to women do exist but are seldom exercised to bring about a substantial change. News reports of the privileged or so called celebrities are often disclosed after years of exploitation, not to mention the umpteen cases in medium and lower strata that are never reported. I smile when I see a prime minister’ or a president’s mother on TV to commemorate Woman’s Day or to show respect towards a woman in the form of a mother during elections; not a wife or daughter.
Nothing much has been achieved irrespective of endless activists working towards equality to bring some light to such a disgraceful mental attitude in a country where Saraswati, Kali, Durga and their forms are worshipped as goddesses.
Born from a woman, takes its first breath from a woman, yet is ashamed to treat her as equal, to me, is much ado about nothing.
