Storytime
It was a festive occasion, and a gathering was planned nearby.
Permission for girls always comes at the last minute and lasts only a few minutes.
So everyone from the hostel rushed as soon as they could.
We Indians never miss a moment to break into a dance, and our young blood definitely knows how to party. Immediately, we college girls formed into a huge circle going around in sync with music where an equal number of elders enjoyed just seeing our happy faces.
What’s the point of the story without drama?
Thereby entered the in charge, carefully scrutinizing the crowd after offering her respects to the god. Eating Prashad, she was slowly sweeping into the group, and her actions left me surprised.
She started calling out a few girls from the crowd.
Curious me went nearer to the girl whose face was tensed or specifically embarrassed that was yet to turn into a disappointment. ‘What happened?’ I asked
She said, ‘Mam called me to standby as my clothing is inappropriate to dance in the crowd.’
What kind of weird clothing could she be wearing that I have missed observing?
I slowly zoomed back to have a glance at her outfit.
It was regular denim jeans (not a skin fit to be clear even then, it shouldn’t be anything to have a concern, though) paired with a thigh-length top.
And it continued for some time when other jeans, short tops, t-shirts, and sleeveless-wearing girls we called off from the crowd.
Later even after her friends emphasized joining back to dance as Mam moved on to the next crowd, she hesitated and stayed seated for the rest of the event.
Dammm!! A solid way to slay a person without a weapon.
What disappoints me most is when people kill the confidence of others.
We are all bunch of insecure people.
Instead of figuring out their own mess, people (few) tend to crush others’ confidence and feed on their insecurities to make them feel good about themselves.
2nd layer of the story
The in-charge Mam says – It was not her call to get the girls out of the crowd for inappropriate clothing. The head sir may find this an issue and scold, so she was just protecting us from that.
Hmm, Interesting!!
First, suppose the head sir, instead of organizing the event, is checking out the girl students’ attire. In that case, that’s a whole other issue.
We don’t know the credibility of the specific instruction. Was it really given by sir as claimed by the in-charge Mam?
Let’s say he really said that.
This makes me wonder, ‘Is being an employee under someone mean leaving your judgment and obeying orders?‘
I know I am questioning feminism, specifically, her compassion towards sisterhood, when she only wants to protect us.
Her actions convinced me that she also believes in the ideas of the head. If not, she would have guarded us in several other ways.
——That brings us to the end of this story experienced by most of the girls.——–
Irrespective of gender, it is difficult to make your way in the world, be confident and stand by one’s own choices. Being female and spending time with other girls for a long time, I feel we are wrapped in our own standards.
People say women take a long time to get ready. My small theory is that from an evolutionary perspective – Man was always out into society, prepared to meet new people. But a woman with limited public experiences when going out wants to be looked at in her best possible version. It gives her confidence to enter any room, thereby taking more time.
Now, making that person who is vulnerable in the new place conscious about herself because of the clothing she wore is no less than a sin.
A woman shattering another woman’s confidence breaks my heart into a million pieces.
To bring out the optimistic angle that I keep up in my writings – When there is one person to break you, there could be a million others to make you too. That’s where our SISTERHOOD comes to play its part.
I am glad and thankful that I have eight key women in my life who love me and say ‘YOU GO GIRL!!’ every now and then to remind me to be a kind and compassionate woman just like they are to me.
Happy WOMEN’S day, LADIES.
Let’s root for each other’s success!!
#anushawrites 