A North-east girl’s plea

If ever God gives me another chance to be born again, I would, without a doubt choose to be born amidst the lush green hills of North-east India as a typical girl with small brown eyes, may be pale skin, short stature and long straight black hair just the way I am. I am neither a patriot nor a feminist but I feel lucky to be associated with this neglected part of the country and more proud to be of the fairer sex.

I love being a woman!!

In a country like ours where woman is being worshipped as well as sacrificed and abused, every woman or every girl-next-door have a similar story to tell. Her daily struggles, fulfilling her responsibilities of a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a girlfriend – the roles are many. I do not consider myself a woman as yet but rather a woman in the making. With just 25 years of experience of novice feminism, I have not much of a story to tell. It has been 8 years since I left home to pursue my studies and career. I, like many who chose the same path as mine, chose to sacrifice the comforts of home, adjusted ourselves with limited monthly allowances, adapted with either different foods or culture in a completely different environment with little or no friends. As I pursue my dream of being this woman who will boldly and gracefully  rub shoulders with my male counterparts whilst putting forth my own inputs, I have many times wondered what it would be like to be in an egalitarian society but then for now it is just a futile dream.

I bet every girl has had experiences of eve-teasing – sometimes hilarious, sometimes provoking and many times serious. But for us, they have an added advantage because we belong to North east and of course have different features which are alien to our friends in the rest of the country. In smaller cities, we are asked if we are from China or Nepal….No bro! we are from Manipur. Oh Manipur!! Which country? That is the moment when I felt like answering “So u guys from Pakistan?” When they pass us, they say “Jackie Chan”. Should we reply "Santa Banta" to them? And to realise that these are educated chunks passing such comments. I guess if we all start calling each other names like “Chow mein” and “Momos” etc then there will be a good number of “Parathas”, “Lassis”, “Idlis”, Sambhar” or “Dhoklas”. What will we be then - "a name-calling nation"? Is this the sign of a developing society? It’s heartbreaking to realise that such embarrassing comments are passed by the educated youth even in the campus. 

May be this is another reason for the never ending debate of women empowerment, gender mainstreaming, equality of sexes, blah, blah and blah because somewhere deep down, the male species can’t help ogling their female counterparts and thus the struggle continues.