All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

As Shakespeare has rightly said, the entire world is a stage. A stage, where we knowingly or unknowingly play our part. We act as puppet whose strings are in the hands of God (maybe). In this directorial cut of the God, the stage is set, the dialogues are written and each of us has a specific role to play. And our act starts from the day we are born. But while reading these lines I realized one thing, the male chauvinism in the society all over the world. Notice how even Shakespeare talked about the seven stages of man’s life. Now the question is why man and not woman?

But while we ponder on this question, let us consider the women version of these lines keeping in mind the Indian perspective.

ACT 1: A sweet, innocent girl is born. She is crying weakly in the arms of nurse. Instead of rejoicing, it appears that lighting of sadness has befallen on her parents. Some are questioning god about her birth. Many consider her as a burden. Parents have started worrying about her marriage. But among all this hustle-bustle and tensions, she is peacefully asleep knitting her beautiful dreams.

ACT 2: At a tender age, when she starts to go to school. She is ebullient and genial. But she is hit hard with the realities of her existence. Her dreams are modified and even demolished. Or I should say she is forced to accept the dreams of her family members as her own “beloved” dreams and her fairy tales are lost, somewhere. She may or may not be allowed to study but she needs to understand, learn and “do” all the household work apart from her studies.

ACT 3: The stage of a lover is “strictly” prohibited in a girl’s life. She by no precept is allowed to be in love or even cursorily glance at a handsome boy. It is the biggest crime. How could she? She is the so called family’s pride and she need to take care of it. Her each step or rather each action and emotion is being watched and closely observed. She has no right to take the rightful decisions of her life and she silently abides by the words of her family members. She herself digs the grave of her aspirations and then even puts a condolence white flower on it.

ACT 4: Now she is a wife, a daughter in law, a sister in law etal….to a completely new family. She enters the new house with new hopes and vibrant dreams. But would her dreams turn to reality, depends on her “fate”? The pride of this family is again in her hands. This time she is balancing the pride of both the families in her hands and the burden of responsibilities on her back. From the very first day, all the responsibilities are suddenly transferred onto the newlywed bride. But she manages, thanks to the tiring practice sessions at her home. She is judged on every action she performs starting from waking up early in the morning to paying homage to lord and the “in laws”, to cooking food and so on and on and on…And most importantly she must possess all the good qualities of a daughter in law like she must be demure and never quarrels, She should not even seek appreciation.

ACT 5: In this act she plays the part of a mother. Loving more, caring more and protecting even more. All her tears are converted into smile by the look of her child. She forgets her deepest pain by the smile of her child. She is energized by the touch of her child. She again dares to weave a soft blanket of dreams for her child. If it’s a boy, she is strengthened. Even the family members take special care of her. She is respected and appreciated for giving birth to a boy. But if that child is a girl, she gathers more courage to fight back to the society for her girl, for her girl’s dreams. She gathers more patience to listen to various fulminations against her by her own family. Each day she stumbles down, heartbroken and each day she remould herself to stand guarding her little angel from all the worldly disasters.

(Continued as Women Of Substance part 2...)