The other day at the dining table in a fleeting discussion on feminism, someone pointed out that Singh aunty was very orthodox and superstitious – the price of being progressive, rational and open-minded is rebuking those who are supposedly not!
Cut to Singh aunty who walked in with a vigour unmatched, there was a magnetic attraction in everything she had to say. She went and stayed at the Mahakumbh for a good number of days with family and yes she must be one of those lucky ones who weren’t engulfed by its aftermath, she had quite some tantalising stories to share. First up, she was jealously proud of her daughter in-law, who dressed up in saffron clothes and unknowingly attracted devotees who touched her feet thinking she was a Sadhvi. She was also happy and content about her happily married daughter living abroad. She told us about her extensive travels with her husband, happy as she was, but then emerged the confessions when she was fully honest about how bored she would get looking at the photo albums – Switzerland, Paris, the whole of Europe. “I get so bored, I then start missing the gupshup, what is there in these photo albums” she quipped.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at her mannerisms, her free spirits with which she spoke about people and things. I felt like giving her a high-five at some of the things she had to say and realised the so-called “generation gap” is a myth. When felt in the right way, the lives of all women find resonance with each other and there cannot be any hierarchy of some being better than the others. In this empathetic setting, resides the solidarity we need for and by each other.
The myth of a “working woman” is also dashed when we realize that a computer screen and an office space are not what is needed to be a woman of character and grit. To think that strength and boldness is embodied only when a corporate suit is slipped on a lean body is a narrow view of the spectrum of womanhood. So many a fun women, humorous ladies, intelligent girls and leaders stroll through kitchens cutting vegetables, cleaning the house and keeping the household in order.
To think that a salaried woman or a one who makes her own money, is on her way to winning the universe is as right a statement as is a housewife being the center of her universe. Do these two universes ever meet? Yes, they do, at a place where struggles are the same, one’s win brings joy for all and there is no contempt for the other.
Singh aunty got up to go after scolding her husband for getting late in coming to pick her up. She signaled me to join her till the road’s end and then we would go our own ways. Just when she sat on her husband’s motorbike, she waived a proud goodbye to me, she was perhaps going to make some tea for her husband and herself after going home, full spiritedly clanking the frying pan. I waived back with a grin, and it felt like giving her a high-five.
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