There is a wanderer inside all of us, searching for that elusive something. We give it names like love, money, fame, lust, dreams, goals..but try as you may, it is difficult to express that one word. Even the most focussed and determined soul will find it difficult to do so. The problem is most of us, including yours truly do not know what we really want and a bulk of our lives go in searching for that elusive Godot. Those who do not participate in this search, content themselves by just existing,but some of us manage to live a bit of our lives this way. Sometimes even before we know it, time whizzes past like water draining through our fingers, leaving us limp and lost.
Many years ago, when I first set foot in Pune , I thought I got what I wanted. I also presumed that I knew what I wanted. A successful career, a sense of independence and an escape from cloistered life is all that I looked for then. Armed with a happy go lucky attitude, an inquisitive mind for a new challenge, a desire to seek a new experience , I landed in Pune, nervous and excited at the same time.
And around me was a collage of several minds all looking towards a new unchartered destiny. But one thing that separated me from my classmates was that I didnt share their fierce competitiveness . Their cut throatness shook me, their overpowering confidence unnerved me as I waited for my chance for a group discussion. I was confident in my own way and unlike my aggressive classmates, I let my assertiveness speak for myself. I wasnt the dark horse, but many told me later that I was like a chameleon, which could change colours..may be that instinct stood by me in later years.
Today I shut my eyes and the group discussions and lectures in the wide classroom came to my mind. We were a medley of people from different states and were as parochial as we could get. Yet no one could fit into the description called demure. We have come a long way since then. All are settled in lives of their own.
But it was also the first time that a naive girl learnt and experienced a new word in the English language - a word that most of today's 21 year olds wear on their sleeve, a word that I grasped while standing in the verandah of my yet to be classroom , a word that I will hear again and again throughout my career and a word that changed connotations many times - ATTITUDE. If Bihar shaped it vaguely , Pune fine tuned it for me .And in my quest , this attitude gave me company, letting me live my life, while changing gears, while taking major decisions, while hitting my lowest lows, and while reaching the high points..This has been one constant companion, no matter which shore Ive landed in . But today, I seem to have left it somewhere by the wayside and my quest has now multiplied two fold..oh !
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Women Reservation : how effective will it be?
One cheer for Women Reservation Bill. Not two and surely not three. Of all the reservations we have devised till date to transform the society, this one will transform the least. Nevertheless, it may do some marginal good, so lets not make a total enemy of it.
Rotating constituencies would mean women cannot nurse a constituency. Reservations do not apply to Rajya Sabha creating a parliamentary anomaly. Reservations could mean more upper caste women MPs at expense of backward women. Everything apart, the basic flaw lies elsewhere.
Women suffer from thousands of forms of discrimination at most basic levels. Safety is still a major concern at most of the places. India has highest rates of female anemia and maternal mortality. And the chauvinistic attitude needs to be changed. Even with all talk of modernization, till this date women face a lot of prejudices. Surely Chanda Kochar, Akhila Srinivasan, Ekta Kapoor have done well. Surely, women have brought fame and pride to the nation. But still the fact remains that salary of highest paid women in the world is one third the salary of highest paid male individual. How does that justify the talks of equality?
Million dollar question is will all these factors change with more women in the parliament? Who would guarantee that seven daughters of a certain politician will all not end up being members of lok sabha?
Who would be responsible for equality in most basic terms. We already have multitude of laws for gender equality? And what has happened to those? We already have had dalit reservations for 60 years. What has been the progress? Has anything at all changed?
The need is to implement all this at grassroot levels. And this is the root cause. When we think of implementing a change, we try to implement it directly at the highest level of hierarchy. It would have been a lot better if a bottom up approach would have been taken. We need administrators, polices, judges who will implement laws on social justice. And most of all we need awareness and dedication to really implement the change. Before that happens, the bill would not be successful in its venture.
Rotating constituencies would mean women cannot nurse a constituency. Reservations do not apply to Rajya Sabha creating a parliamentary anomaly. Reservations could mean more upper caste women MPs at expense of backward women. Everything apart, the basic flaw lies elsewhere.
Women suffer from thousands of forms of discrimination at most basic levels. Safety is still a major concern at most of the places. India has highest rates of female anemia and maternal mortality. And the chauvinistic attitude needs to be changed. Even with all talk of modernization, till this date women face a lot of prejudices. Surely Chanda Kochar, Akhila Srinivasan, Ekta Kapoor have done well. Surely, women have brought fame and pride to the nation. But still the fact remains that salary of highest paid women in the world is one third the salary of highest paid male individual. How does that justify the talks of equality?
Million dollar question is will all these factors change with more women in the parliament? Who would guarantee that seven daughters of a certain politician will all not end up being members of lok sabha?
Who would be responsible for equality in most basic terms. We already have multitude of laws for gender equality? And what has happened to those? We already have had dalit reservations for 60 years. What has been the progress? Has anything at all changed?
The need is to implement all this at grassroot levels. And this is the root cause. When we think of implementing a change, we try to implement it directly at the highest level of hierarchy. It would have been a lot better if a bottom up approach would have been taken. We need administrators, polices, judges who will implement laws on social justice. And most of all we need awareness and dedication to really implement the change. Before that happens, the bill would not be successful in its venture.
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