It was about a usual Saturday evening last week. Being locked up inside the home, I’ve been doing nothing so considerable these days. That day too was one of the ‘not doing anything important’ days. The clock hanging on the wall was displaying 9 p.m. while on my laptop it was 9:02 p.m. I was just scrolling news feed of my Facebook wall for hours without any authentic reason. I was commenting on posts that talked about gender disparity, dropping my impactful comment (supposedly), and raising my voice against people who disapproved of my view by defending their cross-interrogations.
I had been sharing posts that demand gender equality everywhere and how gender equality burgeons society. I was also making virtual plans with my seniors about how we can work together for eliminating gender discrimination and had been learning from them for a while. Meanwhile, mom summoned us for dinner. This is the only time when my whole family sits together. Mom served us food and my sister and I checked whether anyone wants anything more as mom was busy in the kitchen. But my dad and brother were just sitting there, eating jovially and in a carefree manner, and as soon as they were done, they went back to the living room leaving their evacuated plates on the table. Mom cleared the table up and started doing her daily chores. From washing the dishes to cleaning up the kitchen, from cooking snacks to meals, mom always makes sure everything’s done well before she sleeps. My sister and I were helping mom and all of a sudden it started raining heavily outside.
Earlier that day we had hung the washed clothes to dry out in the Veranda. Even though my sister and I were busy with stuff, mom said ‘nanu, go get the clothes in’ while my brother and dad who were sitting idle and recklessly weren’t even bothered. It was 11 p.m. then and my dad was sleeping pacifically while mom was busy devising her schedule for the following day and assembling things together to make it easy for tomorrow. Amidst all the rushes and totally occupied time of her daily schedule, I’ve barely seen her getting some free time for introspection. The trend has always been there and it’s well accepted too, by mommy herself, by my family, and perhaps by most people around the society. Like how a caged bird thinks flying is a sin, most of the females think managing time for themselves is an act of selfishness. As always I extrapolated gender disparity isn’t a problem existing on the surface, it’s inherited and is deep-rooted that demands serious and deep processing if we want to change it. I’ve always wanted an appropriate exemplification of the word ‘Irony’ until I realized my life so far has been one.
