In my teens I used to think being a single woman was a statement-of strength and independence and of style. The single creative woman and her pack of cigarettes. The single rich and famous woman..the one we get to see in Bombay Times. The social butterfly with the come into my parlor approach towards suave men . These are the single women. I used to believe of the single woman passionate about some art form, too intellectual to take the conventional route .
I used to think then that I is a stand-alone thing. It has to be that way to feel your full strength. One needs to be superior in some respect to want to be alone. ..I used to think. That image in my head of a single woman, that of a woman wearing silver and stones. The woman an activist, that woman the owner of some plush boutique.
I was a teenager some years back. And I patronized the single woman ..the one in my head.
She has been with my family for more than a decade. She doesn't know how one reads time from a clock. Her family doesn't like her much. She is pretty daft, we all say and know. Her siblings don't like her visiting them. Her husband used to beat her up just after they got married. He was already married to another woman. The couple needed a full-time maid and they thought she was a cheaper option.
Other day as I read through another Bombay Times story of some rich single woman who got ditched by her rich fiance... I remembered her. The single woman I have known all these years. She is an uneducated yet employed and empowered woman.
Absolutely alone. She will never be the cover page for any women's magazine. Some of us never outgrow our teens.
She is our housemaid.
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3 comments:
Hey Sweetheart...u have surely outgrown ur teen..the post is absolutely great...the contrast has a great flow, that actually captures attention...very gud awesome...I surely sympathise with both the women :-)
A brief yet compact description of a social phenomenon that despite being neither much contributory nor crushingly detrimental to social progression, particularly in Indian context, has enough impact on individual experiences.
The image of singularity widely remains as smudged as the image of camaraderie upon social perspective while we attempt to recognize an unfamiliar portrait out of colours sprinkled from rough brush-strokes of some inept artists!
I loved its poignant portrayal revealing a distinct image of reality before us.
My best wishes,
A quick introduction. I am Sunaina working at Breakthrough, Delhi. This post is most interestingly written and very sensitively deals with the current/topical/most pertinent issue of unequal status of women and domestic violence.... And you have managed to put the issue in focus quite well//What comes through is the sensitivity you have exhibited for this issue.// Well, I work on a youth oriented site called www.bellbajao.org and would love for you to blog on it. Posts like this one, which bring to the fore discussions and debates carrying on in the social media world around sensitive topics like Domestic Violence. This we do, on the Bell Bajao site as well, where we have a category called "Social Media Buzz" which houses blogs highlighting conversations from social networking sites, blogs and other websites.
Please visit the site and do write back to me at sunaina.bhakhri@gmail.com about your thoughts on the campaign.And if you're interested, do blog on the site as well. And if you're a regular blogger, we'd be happy to put you on our blogroll and crosslink your blog page on our site.
Thanks and hoping to hear from you,
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