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"You can study after marriage. You have to make kids first. Start a family. You are twenty right now and how can you walk like this?"
“You can study after marriage. You have to make kids first. Start a family. You are twenty right now and how can you walk like this?”
While cutting my twentieth birthday cake, I saw Ayer aunty hurrying towards me to present me with an envelope.
Is it any kind of letter or gift voucher? I wondered.
She was the kind of a lady who is used to intrude and poke her nose in every matter, as I remember coincidentally meeting her at the airport while waiting for the flight to Paris.
“Dear, your bra strap is seen,” she had shouted from behind me, drawing the attention of all the travellers in the queue.
“Aunty, your sandal strap is also seen, and I didn’t make it a big fuss!” I had replied.
I was anxious to know what she had brought for me as a payback for my reaction. She privately called me to my room after clicking a happy picture with my colleagues.
Immediately after receiving it, I ran my finger on it to figure out what’s inside. It seemed like some hard greeting cards or some papers. She herself opened the letter with excitement.
“Look! This is Bombay’s biggest businessman’s one and only son.”
“And this is Prem. He is studying in London.”
Scattering the photographs of those guys posing like models wearing their Ray Bans and Adidas shoes, she described.
“Umm… I am not thinking about marriage right now.”
Lowering my voice I rejected her suggestion as I wanted to continue studying and be independent first.
“No! No! Sit here. I will tell you about the consequences,” staring into the depth of my eyes she said.
“You can study after marriage. You have to make kids first.” “Start a family.” “You are twenty right now and how can you walk like this?”
I don’t notice what she said further because at that point my mind filled was a single question, “Will my eggs become omelette If I don’t get married early?”
I exhaled to myself after leaving the room because this has become a normal phase of every woman’s life. Where the only thing that mattered to them was today and tomorrow; not the rest of aunts, and the thirty-year-old guys biting on the biscuits and waiting for the twenty-plus-year-old brides to show up with tea.
Image source: a still from the film Chopsticks
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
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Trigger Warning: This deals with domestic violence, suicide, and violence against women, and may be triggering to survivors.
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