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Why would co-education be bad for girls? Parents, please believe in your daughters and their sense of responsibility!
It was time to spread my wings and fly away. All through my school life I had been in a girl’s school but that never affected the way I would think. Be it a girl or a boy, we are equally passionate about our careers.
So I was all set to go to my dream college (lets call it college X) which had happened to be a co-ed. I had studied hard for it and had the required marks.
Now as the saying goes, we should keep our options wide, so I had tried in different colleges. Fortunately, I cleared all of them and the choice was mine. So I was all excited to get into my dream college (let’s call it college X) for two factors – its popularity which would boost up my career as well as fun.
Hell broke loose when my dad said he had got a call from the principal of one of the colleges I was shortlisted for. He knew him, so he called him up personally and told him,”Your daughter should study in a girl’s college. She will be good here (let’s call it college Y). Don’t send her to college X. She will go astray… boys come in flashy cars there and are show offs. For the first time she will be all by herself in a different city, you won’t even know.”
So I asked my Dad, “What do you think?”
Being Dad, he obviously gave it a thought but said, “Do as you wish. But remember what the principal said.”
I had some work in college Y, so I thought let’s go and meet the principal (because I knew him too) who had filled my dad’s ears. I went and met him and to my surprise he told the same thing to me, “See that you do not go astray!”
I smiled and told him,”I will see you in three years!”
I went back happily to my dream college. I studied, had fun, made friends and those were the best days of my life. I never repent it and never did my family.
I completed my graduation without “going astray”.
So I went back to college Y after completing my graduation to meet the principal.
He was happy. I told him that I was finally out with flying colours, of the dream I had dreamt. He congratulated me and told me, “Your dad was right. He told me his daughter is headstrong! If he had a son, it wouldn’t have made a difference, so why the difference for a daughter?”
I walked out proud and happy for the belief my Dad had in me.
Till today, people think twice about putting a girl in a co-ed institute. My advice to them – “Please believe in your daughter and support her to follow her dreams.”
Why would co-education be bad for girls?
First published here.
Image source: a still from the film Gunjan Saxena
Blogger, Writer and Content Curator. Author of 'Infidelity-An Outrageously Funny Affair and The Ultimate Rom-Com' - available on Kindle. read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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