Women's Day all over Facebook, in the newspapers, on TV. Makes me think this is really one of the best times in the history of the world to be a woman. We're educated, independent, opinionated, celebrated.
But once you start thinking about something, its only a few turns of the wheel before you start seeing the other side- notably, the section of the populace that doesn't know a Women's Day exists. The section that still feels a girl child is negligible, or ill luck and deserves to die in a horrible way minutes after her birth. As a mother, I feel knives ripping me up every time I read about something like this. As the mother of a delightful girl, I want to shake them and tell them what they're missing. And those who believe in putting their wives through yet another childbirth till a male heir is born. And those who will do the needful for their daughters just out of a sense of duty but secretly wish they had sons.
Its not just the uneducated class. Not by a long shot.
We went to check out a potential hospital for my delivery, and were getting the grand tour. There's this family in one room...private, too, not the general ward. A son had just been born just after 2 daughters, both of whom were present...and this disgusting dad who was gushing to all the guests about how they had been hoping and praying for a son, right in front of his daughters. The mother, stoic and silent. The grandmother, holding on to the infant for dear life. The daughters, looking at their oblivious father with such emotions flitting across their little faces that I just wanted to hug them.
How do you tackle something like this?
But once you start thinking about something, its only a few turns of the wheel before you start seeing the other side- notably, the section of the populace that doesn't know a Women's Day exists. The section that still feels a girl child is negligible, or ill luck and deserves to die in a horrible way minutes after her birth. As a mother, I feel knives ripping me up every time I read about something like this. As the mother of a delightful girl, I want to shake them and tell them what they're missing. And those who believe in putting their wives through yet another childbirth till a male heir is born. And those who will do the needful for their daughters just out of a sense of duty but secretly wish they had sons.
Its not just the uneducated class. Not by a long shot.
We went to check out a potential hospital for my delivery, and were getting the grand tour. There's this family in one room...private, too, not the general ward. A son had just been born just after 2 daughters, both of whom were present...and this disgusting dad who was gushing to all the guests about how they had been hoping and praying for a son, right in front of his daughters. The mother, stoic and silent. The grandmother, holding on to the infant for dear life. The daughters, looking at their oblivious father with such emotions flitting across their little faces that I just wanted to hug them.
How do you tackle something like this?
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