A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

 
A long blog-break after a long time! (not surprisingly, there are thousand more things vying for my attention here as compared to when I was in HK, and I just don’t seem to find time for a few of the things I would love to do :( )

Vacation in Mangalore was good…too late to write about it, I guess!

Today was Women’s day. I had no idea of this from the time I woke up till I reached office. A woman colleague wished me “Happy Women’s Day”, and though startled out of my wits, I hurriedly mumbled a corresponding reply. In the evening, a cake cutting session was arranged by two women colleagues and all of us (I mean, men included) participated (or perhaps I should say partook?!).

All throughout the day, I was trying to analyze how I felt about this day. I did not know the history of this day or its background, but assuming there was no context, the idea of a Woman’s day didn’t jell well with me. Especially coupled with the fact that there was no such thing as a Men’s day.

I do realize that women have come a long way. I also realize that the status, freedom, independence that we enjoy now was once only but a dream. I also realize that in view of all this, and in view of celebrating whatever we have achieved till now, such a day might have come into being (this is purely a view/opinion; I did not bother to google and check any facts/history – so there’s a chance I’m wrong). But what I cannot realize is, does this day really send out the message that we had worked so hard at sending? a message that we’re all “equal”? It confers us a “special” status (just like the ‘special’ ladies seats in our buses), when what we would want to be seen as is “non-special” or “not different”, or “equal”. How do we expect to be seen as an “equal” when we ourselves believe ourselves to be “special” (or “different” or “not equal”)?

Hmm…probably it’s only a matter of perception…what’s in a day, anyway! So, here’s wishing all my women blogger-friends around a very Happy Women’s Day! :)

This has already become a longish blog; shall write more about other things soon (hopefully)!

[In the course of my thought process, it struck me that in HK there are seats reserved for the handicapped, elderly and pregnant ladies, but not generally for ladies. This, in fact, reflects the general culture of HK where no ‘special’ distinction is conferred to a lady because she is a lady (there are equal number of lady bus-drivers, lady security guards, lady CEOs, and so on). I found this quite commendable!]
posted by Sylvia D'souza at 11:59 pm 0 comments