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Women drivers in India never have it easy. What it is to be a woman driver in India, this writer talks about it.
Driving was never an interest or a passion with me. I learnt how to drive last year because as a working mom, I needed some convenience in life. Simple! Well, not so simple! As soon as I took the leap to get on the wheel, I realized that not only do we “transport” (pun intended!) our society and beliefs on the road, we also take the liberty to “decide” that a woman driver is always the reason of any traffic pile-ups. Amazing! I decided to dig a little deeper and here’s what I found:
Traffic moving slowly? Is there a mess on a four-way? NO. Is it a woman driver not being able to force her car into that mess? YES.
Driving seems to be a gift which men have learnt from their wombs (not to forget that those wombs were women’s to start with). They can swerve through the road in full speed (overtake from left, right and wherever there is space) and blame a woman driver for following lane discipline and blocking their way.
Women are so “fuzzed up” in the head that they don’t know which direction to go! Forget the cabbies and autowallahs who shamelessly stand on the left-most side of the road when they actually want to take right!
This has been discussed/mentioned to death. Don’t ask a woman for directions – they don’t know nothin’! My question is when I’m a GPS-enabled driver, then what’s the harm in following a map and not knowing the exact route to my destination! Technology is meant for us too! Really!!!
This has happened to me so many times that I’ve now lost count. By any chance, if I have overtaken another car – driven by a fellow male driver, I’m shown my place and how! The egos aren’t satisfied till the “case is settled”. I’ve just learnt to laugh it off now!
I just feel that, as drivers, we need to keep our calm and get to wherever we need to go – safe. Some of us are too “cool” to follow rules and that is the real reason for traffic jams and pile-ups. Blaming it on a gender (yet again!), well, is another example of chauvinism.
So, the next time you say, “Is this a women driver?”, think about this.
Indian woman driving image via Shutterstock
A Learning &Development geek , studied English Literature in Lady Shri Ram College (Delhi University), passionate about women and their place in society, being a working mom, travelling and reading about life and things. read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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