Tomorrow is your interview with IIM Calcutta and you haven't touched the black and white printed god in three days. So you wake up a tiny bit earlier than your usual, cut short your long drawn out lazing-in-bed-hating-the-morning ritual and sit down to read TOI (unluckily that's all that's available). And TOI, as always, doesn't disappoint. Wait a minute, it just beats itself. The whole 15 or 20, or however many pages there are, scream out 'happy women's day'. You (you're a girl.(who'll be a woman soon)) yawn, raise your eyebrows (eyebrows are nicely shaped) and say 'oh yeah? Give me a break'. You read on only to find every next thing more ridiculous than the previous. But you read on anyways. You hate this women's day charade, it irritates you that every tiny article in the paper has a refernece to women's day. Sometimes so far-fetched and out of place is the reference that you wonder if the journos and editors at TOI have had an introduction to words like irrelevant, non-sequitur etc. Ok, sample this. Some XYZ woman was released from prison and there was tiny article about it. And instead of writing why she was released, TOI writes something to the effect: XYZ released on the eve of Women's Day! As if, Women's day was what saved her from the dungeons. And look at this: Kingfisher Airlines to operate an all-women flight to Delhi and Bangalore wherein all cabin crew, pilots and passengers will be women. Goodness gracious me! What in this friggin world are they going to get out of that? If they wanted women to benefit, they could make their tickets cheaper. If they wanted to pamper them, they could let them fly free and if they wanted women to celebrate, throw them a party. An all women's flight for god's sake! Thats just ridiculous. Anyways you brush it aside without giving it much thought as you carelessly fold and throw away the paper. Its the next day. You're ready and in position for your group discussion. And they announce the topic. 'Should there be a men's day?'. And this was exactly what you needed (for being able to analyze and articulate why the newspaper yesterday irritated you and for blogging material too). We'll cut out of this scene now and just have an opinion dump.What is Women's day? A celebration of the emancipation of women/ a celebration of womanhood/ a party for women's rights activists/ heyday for commercial nautankis? Probably in its conception it was an encouragement and a commemoration of liberation of women. The concept came to India pretty late and was popularized by the media. By the media. For the media. Of the media. (can't make sense of 'of the media' but for the sake of the phrase, lets allow that). That's why no acts of any consequence or any meaning happen on this day but women get to travel on a flight full of women. Some organizations try to get close to meaningful and hold talk shows. Sadly, nothing except cliches are spoken at such events. Some try to get even closer. Even if you grant them the kindness of believing in their intentions, you can't agree with their ideas. For ex: Some organizations held a walk-in interview day for women job applicants. Are they trying to say that they will hire more women? Or is it just a gimmick and men apply on another ordinary day and the women get the marvelous opportunity to apply on this glorious day? Next point: It is patronizing behaviour. Instead of bringing in the feeling of equality, it is defeating just that. Should there be a men's day? There isn't any need for a women's day either. But if we do have one, why not a men's day as well? Some said that men have anyways always showed their strength and made women accept their greatness. What they don't understand is that voluntary acknowledgment by women or rather the opportunity to voluntarily acknowledge men gives worth to acknowledgement by women which in turn gives them a more equal status. (If more equal is grammatically or semantically correct). Some may say that you are all uppity about it because you are an urban, confident and independent woman but the rural women aren't refusing patronization because they're still facing a lot of gender discrimination. For them: excuse us urban women our snootiness, but reality check, the gibberish about women's day isn't loud enough to reach these backward rural areas. So women's day ain't helping no ablaa naris. People tell you that you're a self-proclaimed feminist. (whatever..) so you should stop ranting now. Last shout of protest. You love being a woman. AND you like men. You just prefer the label 'the fairer sex' to 'the weaker sex'. You rest your case.
