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Drunk on the possibility of putting her in her proper place, a girl who had repeatedly stolen their thunder, they decided to punish and humiliate her. Four of them got together and assaulted her, as she desperately tried to break free.
Riya, a regular class topper, approached the exam hall with a spring in her step. She had worked hard for years, and was confident of acing her board exams. This was when all her hard work was going to pay off. She looked forward to seeing the pride in her father’s eyes, and the happiness gushing out of her mother. Her grandparents, she knew, would get all teary-eyed too.
With the usual smile on her face, she opened up the paper and attacked it with gusto. Everything was going so well, until she came across one question that baffled her. Was she reading it correctly?
This objective question did not even call for a discussion, but expected her to pick from four choices, none of which did were options she would pick. Could it be possible, that this education that was supposed to liberate her, was suggesting the possibility that she and the likes of her were to blame for ill-behaved children and messed up families?
She felt nauseated. The education she had pinned her hopes upon was failing her.
She wondered what was going through the minds of the boys in her class, the ones who hated her for outdoing them. The idea of them smirking as they read the passage in the board exam paper, nauseated her. It made her blood boil. She was hardly able to concentrate. But her self discipline prevailed, and after a few minutes she was able to reign in her emotions and work on the paper, giving it her best shot. As much as she loathed the question, she would not let it defeat her, she decided, and forged on.
As she left the exam hall, she remembered a factual question with a simple answer on a paper a few days ago that the board had promptly apologized for. She had no idea why, but if ever a question needed an apology, it was the one that had haunted her today. It was discriminatory, deliberately designed to sabotage ambitious young girls by upsetting them at a crucial time.
What she did not foresee, was how much that offending paragraph had riled up some of the boys at the exam center. She was a tad discomfited by their leering gaze, but she tried to ignore it. Little did she know how much a few of the boys had been emboldened and inflamed by the ideas shared in their exam paper. Drunk on the possibility of putting her in her proper place, a girl who had repeatedly stolen their thunder, they decided to punish and humiliate her. Four of them got together and assaulted her, as she desperately tried to break free.
By the time help came, she was badly injured. In great pain with broken bones and utterly humiliated, she was unable to give her best to the next few exams. She wondered if the board would ever apologize. Education was supposed to empower her, but it had only succeeded in betraying her. She knew that for sure, when she learned what the expected answer to that horrifying question was.
Author’s note: This story was inspired by some very disturbing news that made its way to my news feed today. Here is the link to the news article titled: Emancipation of wife destroyed parent authority over child: CBSE Class 10 paper. Horrified by the possible ramifications of such a question in a board exam paper, I felt compelled to write a story illustrating just how damaging the effects can be.
Update: The opposition parties were outraged by this question and brought up the issue in parliament and the board has finally recanted the question, albeit without any formal apology.
Kanika G, a physicist by training and a mother of 2 girls, started writing to entertain her older daughter with stories, thus opening the flood gates on a suppressed passion. Today she has written over 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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