WOMEN's DAY 2020 : It is the journey that matters

It is the journey that matters*

By

Vathsala Jayaraman

THE OUTBURST OF A FOETUS

          The doctor is scrutinizing the scan.  “It is a baby girl” she says. I jump with joy.  I imagine myself as a plump little baby with puffy cheeks fondled and cuddled by one and all in the family.  Even this imaginary happiness is short lived.  My mother’s face grows dim and dark and she starts lamenting aloud on the outcome of the scan.

          There is a visible threat.  Yes, the battle has started with myself still in the womb.  Whenever my mother and grandma talk about terminating me, I, the foetus, tremble with fear. 

          I know for sure that the agony and anxiety will be a part of my life throughout.  My mother may refuse to nurse me. Who knows she may dripple a few drops of oleander sap in my mouth for setting a death trap.

          At the age of five, I will be made to learn ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’ from strangers.  Nobody to bother about my studies. 

          My parents would not hesitate to sell me off to some stranger older to me by many years and simply pass on their responsibility.  A statutory rape converted into a legalized rape! You may wonder how a foetus has started using such obscene words.

          For the past few days, every third person is talking about ‘rape’ as commonly as they do about a skipping rope.

         

          Now everything is very clear.  Survival of a female child in a patriarchal society is a challenge.  The birth of a boy is stated to guarantee ascension to heaven to parents, whereas the girl signifies the beginning of financial ruin.

          Everyone says that twists and turns are parts of life.  But the entire life of a woman is nothing but a bundle of twists and turns, toils and turmoils.

          I have just started listening about the significance of education and empowerment of women.  The patriarchal culture is so deep rooted that even women don’t appreciate the miracles what the other women are and refuse to shift their preference from male children. the poisonous seed that parents, specially mothers have planted and nourished has grown into a wild tree with branches spread all over.Result, men have become too intolerant even  to meet with  a minor failure and get involved in unruly aggressive behaviour of all sorts.

          The modern woman is expected to be smart and humble, strong but feminine, tough yet yielding, assertive and docile, well earning but financially dependent, educated and unassertive.

    I am not yet born.     

     But the death of  my beloved sister in Delhi in gang rape, has created an awakening in us, the unborn.  We have already started our journey.  We fully realize the significance of Richard Bach’s remarks “you are not the child of the people you call mother and father but their fellow adventurer on a bright journey of understanding things”.

          We are aware that the foetus has a better impact of happenings around.  Prahlad and Parikshit were initiated into divinity even while they were in mother’s womb.  Now, the ‘devotion’ has been substituted by 'self esteem' and  dignity’ of women and have been duly injected into both male and female foetuses by the modern Narada, the audio-visual media.The imprints on blemishless male and female foetuses are indelible.They have been been inscribed on a crystal clean mind.

 There was one demon Hiranyakashipu, one Prahlad, one Lord Narasimha. That is the Purana. Today there are hundreds of Hiranyakasipus spread over the nation.

We are sure these demons are born innocent , but transformed into criminals by the patriarchal sympathisers, by the society and by the parents,by mothers in particular.

There is no necessity for a fierce Narasimha ,not to destroy, but to control and reform these demons.Our silent struggle motivated from within   itself is divinity.

          Is it a force of dominance? Is it a force of baser instinct? Is it the insensitivity of the Government? Is it the lacuna in judiciary? Intellectuals are analyzing.

          But none of these can stand as an impediment to the silent revolution undertaken by the young foetuses, crystal clean, unpolluted by the gender bias, to be continued throughout the journey.

          Dear Sister, your sacrifice has infused fresh springs of vital energy in us, the powerful assets of this nation.

          We are not bothered about the upsurge in crimes.  At present, there is a cry for justice, cry for empowerment, cry for reforms.  “This also shall pass”.  All cries will turn into smiles.  There is light at the other end of the tunnel. 

Our destination is fear free co-existence of brothers and sisters. 

This is the journey of struggle where men and women have decided to fight with unity to preserve the dignity of women,the dignity of the nation.The silent struggle will make the demonic instinct bow before the valiant young.Let the authorities formulate rules and laws.There will be a society where there is no need to implement penalty.

We have started on our journey with lot of focus on our goal or end.

" It is good to have an end to a journey, but it is the journey that

matters in the  end,"-UrsulaK.Le.Guin

* The English version of this article written by her in Tamil in 2013 was received from Vathsala Jayaraman, Exrbites Group member, via email on March 8, 2020
M G Warrier
Blog 5085
March 8, 2020