WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE?

Scenario 1:

Last time I met Dinesh when I was at Pune. He is about 35 years old and a good friend of mine. We talked about lots of thing but he was avoiding speaking about the topic which I am telling here. It was some nice time when Dinesh fell in love with Disha. Fighting against the resistance from relatives they got married. They have a daughter as first flower in their garden. They were happy as I looked at them from a distance. The real agony started when Dinesh fell in love with Sneha, a good friend of Disha. Sneha is sharp, aggressive, confident, may not be so good in looks as Disha. Disha is confident, talented though typical indian girl who believes in following Dinesh. Now the things are changed Sneha and Disha are staying in same city. But Dinesh stays with Sneha. Dinesh and Sneha also have a son now . He comes to meet Disha and Smriti sometimes. He gives some monetary support to Disha also .

Disha, being a learned girl is doing a job, bringing up her kid . She finds a little ray of hope that Dinesh will come back to her. She still loves Dinesh like she did in college days. She don't teach her daughter to hate father. Divorce is out of question for her. Disha is facing all questions from relatives and non-relatives but curious junta. Like a strong women she is denying to buckle under pressure. She is determined to live without anybody's help. She is making her living without the only man she loved.

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Scenario 2:

Last weekend I and my father went to our farm at our village. After working for 3-4 hours in boiling climate we were resting in shadow. A lady, around 35-40 years old, was working in her farm. My father knew her. She started to tell her saga. She was married to an alcoholic man. I don't know whether he was like that before marriage or what? They had 3 daughters.

Lets call her Shanti. Shanti's husband (say Ram) was a total failure in his life. He was doing nothing. All farming work was being done by 3 daughters and Shanti. Out of three one daughter got married. Ram is not looking actively about marriages of other two. If asked about farming or doing any work Ram starts beating Shanti. Sometimes he beats his own old mother for giving money to buy alcohol.

As a result Shanti and her daughters have stopped interfering or telling him anything. Shanti has taken all burdon to continue their living by labouring in farm. She keeps looking for ideal matches for their daughters with the help of other helping people in village. Like Disha she is also strong and determined to go ahead without crying about destiny.

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Scenario 3:

Last Sunday I went to meet my aunt staying in a town some 40 km away from my home. We were talking about progress report of her son in school. Complaining about his non-cooperation movement she kept water to boil to prepare tea. At the same time an old lady, Radha came in. She was about 55 years old. Radha came to ask for money which was pending with my Aunt for sewing a carpet. Radha, a widow as I could guess from her missing Kumkum on forehead, was looking jaded because of her old age. Radha opened her life in front of us.

Radha's son Naresh is a hood man. He was never interested to care about how money comes for day to day expenses. Radha's family had a small general stores shop in town but most of the time it remains locked as nobody is there to sit. When given the keys of the shop, Naresh will throw them back at Radha only to waste his time in gossiping and roaming with his other vagabond friends. Don't talk about farming he will kill you.

Radha herself run the shop. She cares about watering, ploughing the farm. She is the one who arrenges for feed for their cattles. She keeps doing tailoring or other such part-time jobs to earn money. Like Disha and Shanti, she also has abandoned all hopes from those who were expected to support her throughout life.


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These three instances lively happening around me made me think about women. What they are really? Should I call them strong and defiant as they are fighting all odds to continue their living? Or should I call them traditional as they are not willing to break out from the relationships which are not fruitful and not harmonious at all?

Not the post, I guess comments on this post will be more conclusive...