DIARY ENTRY- NO EQUALITY?
AN AUTO-RICKSHAW |
It was a normal day for her,waking up early trying not to give way to her sleep or else she would miss her lecture,again! Getting ready within 15 minutes was something she had mastered now. She stepped out of the house to catch an auto-rickshaw (taxi) in time for her not to be late. She had to negotiate with many taxi drivers before one of them finally said,"meter se chalenge."(we'll go by the meter)
Relieved that she won't have to spend extra money today,smiling she sat in the auto (taxi).
She was half way to her college when the taxi driver started talking about how it's going to rain today. He said,"madam aaj toh dekhna baarish zaroor hogi." (madam today it will definitely rain) and all she did was nod her head because she did not want to start a conversation with a stranger.
On a traffic signal waiting for the light to go green,she saw that beside her auto (taxi) was a female driving a car and she thought how good and convenient it would be if she had her own car,no more wasting time waiting for an auto-rickshaw or wasting time in negotiating money with the driver and suddenly her thoughts were broken by the driver when he peeped in the car beside the auto and said to her in an almost scolding manner,"kaccha pehen kr gaadhi chala rhi hai aur haath mai cigarette bhi hai aur fir koi ladka chedh de toh kehti hai ki unhe tameez nahi."(She is wearing shorts and smoking,when a boy will tease her then she'll say that he doesn't have manners).
She was shocked to hear what the driver had said and couldn't even reply to him for a minute. Then she replied,"ye kya baat hui.aap bhi toh banyan pehen kr ghumte ho.bidi peete ho.wo galat nai hai kya?" (What is this non-sense. You roam around in a vest most of the time and smoke low quality cigarettes. Isn't that wrong?).* The driver was about to reply when the traffic signal went green and she reached her college. Already late for her class she paid him quickly while half-listening to the driver and replying to whatever she could.
During the lecture, all she could think of, no matter what girls do,how they do it,they will always be judged. Even if the girl was not wearing shorts and just wearing what according to most people is,"decent clothes," people still would have judged her,found some way of letting her down. This is the reality for girls. Either they will have to ignore every one and their comments and just live their life the way they want to (that is what most girls do) or they will have to succumb to the norms of the society and die dreaming of what they could have done (which is what happens to many girls out there). As a strong individual,she had never wished to be a boy as many girls of her age did but now when she is independent and would love to have freedom in a world where girls are not allowed to leave the house after dark and if she does that it means she is from a bad background. In such a world she wishes to be a boy not because she doesn't like being a girl but because she wants her freedom.
*many auto-rickshaw drivers in India unbutton their shirts and drive during summers.
Nice work
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