"Happy Women's Day"

Two days from today we had celebrated international women’s day. There were some TV programs where even awards have been given out to “ Sarvasreshtha Nari”. Spare me that atleast!! I am not a feminist who will start cribbing that women are not getting their due rights and so on. I am just a human being who for once has been made to think a bit.

I had been in the bus waiting at the signal on my way back from a visit to my college, when I saw this lady in the foot path sweeping the pavement. I know most of you would argue with me telling that she doesn’t deserve to be called a lady....but I am calling her so! No reason, no logic...just because my heart felt it that way!!
After she completed sweeping she cleaned up some utensils and then she served food to her children and her husband who has a stall nearby. Maybe this is how she passes her time. What caught my attention was the way she was serving...and keeping aside the remaining part of food for later consumption. I have been doinging kitchen work for a long time and no doubt in more sophisticated surroundings than this. But this lady... the way she was handling... the artistic manner in which her hands moved kept me looking at the scene for quite some time. And all of a sudden a thought flashed in my mind as to whether this lady and many others like her whose days fly by thnking what to feed the next day, are slightly aware of women’s day....will they be bothered in the first place? Will their lives...their fate change because of women’s day?
I spent women’s day with my college friends in Café Coffee Day. Somewhere, somebody has made huge cash by publicizing events for this day. But are the women really celebrating their day?
This hue-n-cry about women’s day makes me bound to think about the prostitutes. Nobody talks about them!! Why? Is it so disgusting? Are they the black shades to womanhood? I, being a girl, know how much it means to sell your body to any Tom, Dick & Harry. No person in this universe would willingly go to this field. There are provisions to makeup for lust without going for prostitution. These are the women of our society who by fate have landed up in a world of no return. If only the media had spent even a fraction of their money to publicize how a prostitute feels about this day, I think that would have been unconventional...but more real. Tell me how a prostitute who has killed the woman inside her would celebrate women’s day!!
I am still imagining how that lady on the pavement would have reacted had I got down from the bus and wished her “Happy Women’s Day”

Do we really feel anything for the women of today... any respect.....that we are up with this so called “women’s day”? Then why are still girls.even kids being raped and left alone to die. Why women are still the prey of society? Why these hollow talks about women’s lib.? What we need is to open our minds. Our outlook. And respect humans as humans. I am not against celebrations of these kinds, but they should mean some value. A journalist will make money writing loads on this issue. Hundreds of articles are being published on these matters, but either people are indifferent towards the actual gravity of the situation since nothing in their close vicinity has ever happened or they have come to terms with the fact that nothing can be done.
Today I am penning down my thoughts, and the next moment I will forget about it.
What we don’t forget are dates: father’s day, mother’s day, valentines day, women’s day and so on.........