Freedom To Choose

15^th August is a big day for the country. For all of us to celebrate the independence that so many able men and women gave up their lives for. A freedom struggle worth remembering. But how about the second freedom struggle that concerns us all women? Have we really achieved freedom. By freedom, I mean all kinds of freedom- financial, professional, emotional, spiritual- in other words freedom at all levels of our being. Or are we still tied down – by tradition, convention, ourselves???

I kept musing over these more-precious-than-the-Kaun-banega-Crorepati questions. On the one hand, I saw women protesters, feminists, Mahila Mandals shouting slogans, demanding equal rights or protesting against the unfair , obscene portrayal of women in the media. On the other, I saw a woman give up her career to appease her husband’s insecurities. And the contrast just keeps getting more and more stark. On the one hand, you had a bold, beyond-the-Indian-moral-boundaries film Kya Kehna and on the other hand you had an ad depicting a woman responsible for her husband’s job due to the quality of detergent she uses for washing his clothes. What an eye-wash! Then there was this girl who was beaten up regularly by her boyfriend but one saw her displaying dare-devil, rebellious behaviour that was completely out of norm. Smoking like a chimney being one of them.

The point is not in holding up a cigarette but the contradiction that was too stark to ignore. I mean, why can’t we exercise freedom in more important areas of life, rather than the freedom to pick up a fag or gulp down gallons of vodka? How about the freedom to choose one’s way of life, the freedom to choose ideals, the freedom to assert one’s self in stifling situations, the freedom to be oneself at all times and above all the freedom to be free. And if you do not have this freedom, then what is the emancipation that we are talking about? Just the stuff of heated courtroom drama or the "in" subject for socialite birds to chatter about at dolled-up soirees. Independence is a word accompanied with fashionable acoustics . Semantics is far behind- left to a meagre liberated lot.

Now, now, let’s not get pessimistic about it. All we need to do is just wake up. And believe you me, a single moment of awakening is powerful enough to release enough energy to effect change. That is the moment that causes shifts within. And once it’s in the mind, it’s out there too. In concrete reality. In physical form. Then independence won’t be just a word from the annals of history. It would be a phenomenon, generating progress not just for the fairer sex but the whole nation. Naturally when a good one half of the country moves forward- the entire populace takes giant strides towards evolution and positive growth.

Then we could truly celebrate. With all the grandeur and ceremony. Ready to welcome the movement? The second freedom movement? For starters, let’s not confuse capris and spaghetti tanks with independence.