We Men, Women

I was trying to do a SWOT analysis on myself. To all those who are new to SWOT is process of identifying (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities & Threats). I am one of those people who can tell and find 1000 weakness in self but struggle to find a single quality that qualifies to be called as strength. After thinking for a very long time I actually realized the strength in my life is a living, breathing person. It is my mom she is the source of my existence itself. She has directly contributed to wherever I have reached so far and wherever I will go in my life all of the success is due to her as she made me competent enough to succeed in life. She fed me when I needed a feeding, she educated me when I needed education and she guided me when I needed guidance. She has provided and still gets me whatever I ask her. Even if I became her slave for next 1000 years I won’t be able to repay her debt.

My mom is my best friend and I never hesitated about talking to her on any matter and I still don’t. There is no topic that is a taboo in my household. I can discuss with her anything without fear. When I had my first crush I came and told her. I brought my first girl friend home and introduced her to my mom. My mom is the coolest and I have a many reasons to say so however today I will cite one of them. I was in my first year of graduation and even on public holidays our principal used to take special classes of Accountancy for everybody and attendance was compulsory and not an option. It was Oct 2, 2002 which is a holiday in India “Gandhi Jayanthi” Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and few days before that I came to know that one of my friends had met with some accident and was in the hospital. I went to meet him on that day and did not attend this special class. Next day when I came to college during the Principal’s class I was thrown out of his class and asked to bring my mom to meet him so that I can enter again. He even called my mom’s office and asked her to come and meet him. I went and conveyed the same to mom and she said fine. This is what happened in the principal’s office he tells my mom “did you know that your son did not attend a special class two days back?” my mom said “yes, I know that and I also know where he was and she even told the reason as well” so the principal says “oh you did no” my mom says “my children do not hide anything with me” so he tells then “your son stands in the corridor and looks at girls” for that my mom says “looks at girls. If he does not look at girls at this age then you tell me can he do that when he comes to our age. Let him do what is right at this age.” For which my principal had no answer.

My mom came from an economically backward family due to their economic condition she could not study much but she made sure that we are well educated and competent enough to face the world. She did not know what pocket money was when she grew up but made sure that we were given pocket money to make us responsible for our money. I know for many it is the same case but I don’t know if I would be able to give even half the love, care or the things she has done for us. Thank you mom for making us what we are and who we are and thank you for everything you have done for us.

Well the title of my post is “We Men, Women” and all I wrote till now is about my mother. I know I test a reader’s patience to the brink however, I felt I need to tell something out before I begin on this topic still it will be worth so without a further ado.

I come from a land where 33% of the pantheon of gods is women, where we are taught in schools the sloka (verse) “Matru Devo Bhava; Pitru Devo Bhava; Acharya Devo Bhava; Atithi devo Bhava” which means “Honor your mother, father, preceptor and guest as a god”. It also indicates that give your salutations first to your mother as she is your first teacher, god. She is the one who shows you and introduces you to your father. Whoever you are from whichever corner of the world the first word which comes to your mind and your tongue is “Mom, Amma, Ma or any modifications of it” (however I may have somebody challenging that it is not true it is actually a four letter word which begins with “F” and my answer to that it is just because of the advent of English). Our manuscripts say that since god cannot be everywhere he made mother.

A pastor of a church got a call from somebody that in a nearby village a family had new born baby and they were going to abandon it because it was a girl. Being a man of god and responsible human he along with few people went to this village the very next day. They went to the house hold where the baby was born introduced themselves and said that they will take the baby since the family was not interested in raising it. The family members did not speak for a while then slowly the mother with a tear eye said you were a bit late and pointed to a medium sized vessel which was on some burning wood outside the house. The pastor along with the people who had come with him slid the lid of the vessel to see a half boiled baby. This is a true story which happened no so far from where I stay, this happed in a village near Karnataka & Tamilnadu border which is roughly around 25 – 30 kilometers from Bengalooru.

This is a true story that happened in Hitech Hospital, Udupi District in the state of Karnataka. The day was November 17, 2008. A baby’s crying was heard loudly from a ward in which 3 days back a lady had been admitted, who was due for delivery on any time that day. She did give birth to a healthy girl and she was shifted in to this ward on November 15, 2008. Since the door was closed the hospital staff thought the lady must be sleeping and the baby must have woken up and is crying for a nursing. After a while again the baby resumed the cry and did not stop for a long time. That is when the hospital staff entered the ward to find the ward empty and nobody was there in the ward nor had anybody seen the mother leaving the ward. They searched everywhere but their search was futile. The hospital staff tried to search her through the contact address she had given while being admitted and through phone numbers she had provided but all of them were fake. The mother had abandoned her three day old baby in the hospital and left.

These are only two of the thousands of incidents that happen here. We get to hear news like girl baby found in trash bin. Dog found chewing a baby’s leg etc. We Indians are a big bunch of hypocrites we revere a female god (Laksmi goddess of prosperity and good fortune and income, Saraswati goddess of education, talent and skills) but when the same female is born in our houses we jeer. India is one of the foremost runners along with China, Taiwan and Korea for Gendercide or Sex Selection or Female Infanticide. Owing to the laws put forth by the health ministry of India no doctor or a scan operator or technician can reveal the gender of the unborn child. However, in India what is banned is in demand more and more.

We men need women throughout our lives. She brings us to life in the form of a mother, while growing up we get her company in the form of a sister. She becomes our girl friend during our adolescence and as a wife till our old age. We want a female to decorate lives and warm our beds but when a baby is about to be born you try to select it to be male. I salute your audacity to do such heinous deeds openly. And such a society which encourages it by holding its silence is worse to live in.

We men are nothing without women actually because she is everything that we can never be. She is by far god’s greatest creation. Her emotional stability is far better than ours. She has a superior pain tolerance than ours. Survival among women with heart failure is better than for men with the disease. The reasons for this remain unclear. Everything around us is women, we call our country mother land, and earth is also a woman. She takes care of our kids, she takes care of us, she works whole day at home and sometimes in a job to support us and gives us company throughout. She is equivalent to a god as she becomes vessel and bears a child and creates life. She can easily live without us but we can never live without her. There is no MAN without WOMAN; MALE without FEMALE and MEN without WOMEN. A wise person once said our country would be truly developed when a woman can walk the streets alone without fear even at the stroke of midnight.

I am not saying that there are good men and bad women but they are just exception, few here and there but we cannot make exception the rule right. People who are reading this from international boundaries may think that this happens only in India then no you are wrong it happens also where you are there the only difference is the degree of the acts changes may be due to the cultural exposure and mindset of generation. It might be far better controlled due to the laws of your respective lands.

This article is dedicated to all the women right from eve till the last baby girl born when you finished this article. Thank you for being there supporting us throughout history and in to the despite of us men being ungrateful B’s and F’s. We can never imagine filling shoes of a woman as you are so perfect at it. God knew that he cannot be there at everyplace and every time that's why he created you.