Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I too deserve to live life I wish...


I am scared, quite scared because I too have an elder sister and maybe I will have a wife someday. I am scared because of people’s ideologue.

If I talk of a girl being asked to do things as per her in-laws wish which no matter how illogical they are, I hear people say “She is a girl, she will have to bend.” “She is the one who has to adjust.”

And I am not scared because these lines are uttered by some male chauvinist guy but rather conveyed by someone from her own gender.

I always found that more than authoritarian male it’s the female head of the family who is more hell bent on making life hell for her daughter in law. And I simply can’t understand that how at that time she forgets that when she was at her place these were the same things that she didn’t like but rather than making sure that the same is not repeated when she has the power she is more or less determined to make sure that the girl goes through the same discomfort as she went through. The customs, traditions and so called culture of which she is now the enforcer are something she herself whole heartedly didn’t like when she was first asked to follow.

I feel disgusted when people say that a girl has to be kept within limits at her in-laws place then only she will accept or respect us, our tradition. It’s just like saying that when an animal baby is born its tied with a rope to a post and it tries to get free in the beginning but slowly slowly it gets used to its limitation and thus when later you remove the rope, it never goes beyond that because in its mind it still believes that its beyond its limits.

If I talk in general then we all know customs, traditions etc are something that were created for our own comfort but now we have just become slave of them and no matter how educated we become we are still naïve enough to blindly follow them no matter how much discomfort they cause.

I am sorry but I am really really disappointed with our education system, with our culture, with our traditions. No matter how literate we become we still don’t develop the logical ideologue required to purify the society. And even if we do, we cannot muster the courage and strength to stand for them.

And when people who are brought up in a well to do family , who are sufficiently educated, have to go through all this then we cannot even imagine what illiterate and lower class female folks have to go through.

No I can’t let this happen to me or my sister or to my female friends. They are not brought up to live their life as per others wish. They are not educated to live against their wish. Yes family is very much important and a daughter-in-law deserves to live with her in laws but in a cordial and happy environment, not in one where her every wish and want is squashed, where she is asked to bend or compromise at everything. A female as human doesn’t deserve this.

And more than anyone else a woman needs a woman to support her.

12 comments:

  1. The last line though true seems wishful thinking ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. So true!!! I don't know what changes. Perhaps the lady changes because she has been following those norms for so long, she starts believing that it's the right thing to do. That's why she starts enforcing them on her daughter-in-law too. I cannot accept/believe that every woman is jealous/evil to her daughter. I've even seen women having different ideologies for her daughter and her DIL. All the things she hates for her daughter, she enacts on her DIL. Hope I can remember this belief of mine and NOT change. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. So true....it seems the Mother-in-Law is kind of trying to avenge what happened to her by doing the same to her daughter-in-law...though I must say there are a few lucky girls who get a sensible Ma-in-law who treats them as daughters...maybe little by little education and awareness will change things for the better..!!


    P.S;-you seem to have struck a chord with the females here:-):-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, I have quite reverse to quote here.I am one of the very exceptionally lucky girls to have been blessed with a wonderful mom in law . Touchwood:).
    And she tries to make sure that whatever she had to go through as a daughter-in-law(lots of restrictions and responsibilities from the elders),I do not have to go through the same.

    When I got married,I knew she was a nice lady , but also, I did know what were the expectations of a typical mother-in-law from her DIL in a joint family.So, just to make sure I don't cause any trouble, I had put some invisible walls of self-imposed-restrictions around me.The same thing you talked about.But then I realized two things :
    one-> she is not like others.I am like a daughter to her.
    two -> if it wasn't for her, I would have got choked living like that for rest of my life.

    And the main reason for this harmony we have struck is : her understanding that being a working woman, I cannot manage everything alone!
    If only every mom in law would acknowledge that,not only this relationship wont get maligned in tv soaps and in real life...but i guess , no girl would ever think of marriage as loss of freedom.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Varun - Hope and wish are our eternal weapons.

    @Hope - Yes I agree not all the MILs are bad. And somewhere natural adaption of the believe that yes this is right now which earlier was not is more hard to understand.

    @Suku - Education is the only hope but if I don't take only MILs, then even educated ladies have the same notion and expect the same from their younger sister in laws that "You will have to compromise and adapt to their ways".

    @Sehar - Oh you are my perfect girl :) So everything will be perfect in your life (touchwood):) :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Btw i simply love the cuty pie in the pic

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. nice thoughts...b'ful click

    On a stupid note: found reading MILs and DILs so many times funny ..especially all the DILs :P

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your story really got me to thinking because i come from a family where the women are to stay home feed the children, clean, wash and cook. So at one point in my life I thought that is what I was supposed to do. But I wanted so much to be out in the world and experience other things. Luckily I married a man that supported me and helped me get a degree. With him I was able to do a lot of things that I grew up thinking I was not able to do.
    And now I am an expectant grandmother with my daughter in law living with me. She is currently in design school and I would never put her down or encourage her to do anything otherwise.
    Thanks for your post

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow...Happy to know that you got such a husband and also that you are fully supporting your daughter in law.... God bless.

    ReplyDelete