She. Today.

Sita sees her elder brother drinking with their father. Innocently asks her mother if she can do the same when she is as old as his brother. In return she gets furious looks. How can she even think of something so outrageous, so inappropriate?

 

No, this isn’t a scene from 10 years ago. To a few lucky girls it may appear to be. To the others, something they can connect with.
I have often seen the school textbooks using weird examples to teach tenses, for instance. Why should a girl always bring water for her brother? Why can’t the boy get it instead? Is it because girls are supposed to serve, to help, while the boys are expected to relax, to enjoy?

All this is a thing of the past now. No longer is alcohol only suitable for guys. It’s a thing even for the girls. Why only alcohol? Every other thing which men can do, women can. Yes, we still have those raised eyebrows seeing a girl smoke in public, but it is only a matter of time before that vanishes.

The reason why it is very difficult for people to accept this change is because they have kept the image of a girl in their mind from decades ago. They may claim to be moving forward but the fact is they still can’t alter the image. And thus the hoos! And the haaas!

She is expected to behave in a certain manner. And any aberration may give her a tag of ‘indecent’. If she smokes or drinks, her values are questioned. If she parties with guys, her character is questioned. If she roams about in the night, she has no shame! Where are we heading? We may have elevated a girl’s stature as no less than a guy’s, but what we have not been able to do is not be judgmental about it. Why be shocked to see the changes when we claim to have made our peace with it?

Obviously she has to be careful. It is not a pretty place outside. With the number of rapes on an all time high, a little order and a little more paranoid behavior of the parents is right. But as long as she thinks she can deal with it, as long as she knows she has safe company, why judge? But then there are those parents who restrict girls from doing anything and everything, and this forces them to adopt other means. And yes, we have disastrous results. So why restrict them so much, why not trust them a little?

It is about time you let go the unnecessary conclusions. Men are men. Women are women. To compare the two is illogical. What seems more sensible is adapting to the changed images of the two, respecting it and maybe improving it.