Over the years, your support has made Women’s Web the leading resource for women in India. Now, it is our turn to ask, how can we make this even more useful for you? Please take our short 5 minute questionnaire – your feedback is important to us!
With the wedding season going on in full swing, actor Asha Parekh candidly spoke about her decision to stay unmarried. That is why she is an inspiration!
In this age of feminism, film actress, director and producer Asha Parekh spoke about her decision of staying single in an interview with Verve. Born in the era where marriage was the ultimate goal for a woman, it is bold, and frankly, quite unexpected, coming from a 77-year-old woman.
By choosing to remain unmarried, Asha Parekh doesn’t say she is against romantic relationships. In her book, The Hit Girl, she reminisces about her former co-stars. She also candidly confessed her soft spot for Nasir Hussain, the only man she loved.
However, loving him didn’t turn into attaining him being the only objective of her life. Instead, when asked why she never got together with filmmaker Nasir Hussain, she said, “I know I admitted to being in love with Nasir Hussain in The Hit Girl. But as much as I loved him, I could never consider breaking up his family and traumatising his children. It was far simpler and satisfying to be on my own. Make no mistake, it wasn’t like I didn’t want to get married.”
Taking examples from Rajesh Khanna and Vinod Khanna getting chided by their girlfriends for going out at night instead of being in bed, Parekh says she doesn’t want to get married as “[she] would’ve never been able to take someone dictating terms to [her] — [she] was just not cut out for it.”
Don’t the liberating words of the Love in Tokyo actress make you question the necessity of marriage? Yes, you, obviously, might ask ‘How will I look after myself in utter solitude in old age?’
However, making compromises and depending on someone you don’t vibe with, for the rest of your life, won’t make you happy, either. “Time and circumstances are everything. You can’t stop what is meant to happen, and you can’t force what isn’t fated to occur.”
Surprisingly even for Gen Z, both, men and women are put under pressure to get married even before reaching 25. Marriage has been an integral part of our culture and tradition.
From social and financial security to societal pressures, family expectations and even love, marriages are a part of the culture. But, marriage should have our consent, it should be our choice.
We need a world where choosing to get married doesn’t make a woman less independent. Or remaining single making her being judged as the crazy spinster aunty with a house full of cats (I mean, what is wrong with being a cat-lady?)
Asha Parekh is brave enough to stick to her ground and abide by her decision, even though her mother did make an effort to marry her off. But here she is: successful, beautiful and happy!
Getting married should be a choice, not a necessity to save yourself from a lifetime of being on your own. Feminism is all about the choices we make, not the roles that we are forced into.
An English literature student with a love for reading and writing, and who chills tucked under a cozy blanket, with a cup of chai, and a big, fat book on her lap. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
He said that he needed sometime to himself. I waited for him as any other woman would have done, and I gave him his space, I didn't want to be the clingy one.
Trigger Warning: This deals with mental trauma and depression, and may be triggering for survivors.
I am someone who believes in honesty and trust, I trust people easily and I think most of the times this habit of mine turns into bane.
This is a story of how a matrimonial website service turned into a nightmare for me, already traumatized by the two relationships I’ve had. It’s a story for every woman who lives her life on the principles of honesty and trust.
And when she enters the bedroom, she sees her husband's towel lying on the bed, his underwear thrown about in their bathroom. She rolls her eyes, sighs and picks it up to put in the laundry bag.
Vasudha, age 28 – is an excellent dancer, writer, podcaster and a mandala artist. She is talented young woman, a go getter and wouldn’t bat an eyelid if she had to try anything new. She would go head on with it. Everyone knew Vasudha as this cheerful and pretty young lady.
Except when marriage changed everything she knew. Since she was always outdoors, whether for office or for travelling for her dance shows, Vasudha didn’t know how to cook well.
Going by her in-laws definition of cooking – she had to know how to cook any dishes they mentioned. Till then Vasudha didn’t know that learning to cook was similar to getting an educational qualification. As soon as she entered the household after her engagement, nobody was interested what she excelled at, everybody wanted to know – what dishes she knew how to cook.