The Change ..

The last week has been as been one of the most satisfying in my career as a stop gap teacher, mentor to a motley crew of children who come every day to teach me about life, how to live with nothing and to not have any expectation from anyone or anything. It seems like an exaggeration but it’s not. I am most passionate about giving these young girls a voice, so they can be heard and can stand up for themselves with logic and reasoning, of course. So, I had given them a topic where the boys had to prove why they were superior to girls and girls had to tell why girls were better than boys and could match them in every area.

Two children surprised me, made me happier and contented that what I am doing is right. A young girl, Anjali daughter of a single mother who is working as a maid said that” girls were not made to study as they were just going to become a house wife but now the world is changing. A girl is a mother, a wife, a housewife and she plays an important role in our life. She also says we saw the film Dangal and it is all about the determination of two girls. Her last line is change your thinking to develop the country.

Then another boy Anmol says girls and boys are the same, no body is better or less than the other it is only our thinking that is old that girls can’t do any thing. They can do and they are doing. He also further says that girls do a lot of things and they do for all but boys only do for their own purpose.

This is the future of India. It is not you and I sitting in air-conditioned rooms discussing the world and the Kardashians and actually following more people on Snap chat than knowing their own family!

Modiji and his acche din will come, they are around the corner it is not based on the hierarchical obsessed Congress wallahs or the Maha gandhbandhan or the BJP. It all depends upon changing the thinking, we all need to get rid of our jaded, old fashioned thought process that belittles girls and is so quick to blame the girl child for all the ill will and evil of the society.

No one is going to come and change the society , we the common folks are going to bring in the change , and it starts from within, and from influencing people around you . None comes from anywhere to corrupt your mind, its what we are fed with the constant virtual social media that we start to show traits of bigotry, close-minded, racism. A great way to begin the change is please by boycotting the matrimonial pages that reminds me of a cattle fair where words like high caste, fair skinned, tall, high east –west values are used to extoll the girls virtues. These are the few adjectives that are used to sell a girl in the marriage mart. A girl might be anything but in the end all that it boils down is getting the right match.

I wonder, if the heavens would part if she didn’t marry and didn’t go down the trodden path. We, all need to change our thinking in reality, practice and stand up for our children to save the next generation to begin the change. The onus lies in us the 40 something brigade .

And, we are old and young at the same time ..