If you took the metro or any public transportation on 8th March, you must have noticed women carrying flowers, cakes, and gifts. Small token by their office to honor the women labor force. A small token to make them feel equal. I thought a lot about this and have been so ever since I started working 9 years back when women’s day wasn’t a topical day or event for brands. Doesn’t matter what I feel now. But like many women you saw yesterday, I also carried a pair of roses, gift coupons and was fed lunch and chocolate cake by my office. I felt very much like a woman. My office building houses all the leading advertising agencies of this country (probably responsible for sending those women’s day msgs and ads to your phones) was decorated with pink and purple balloons. I was trying not to lose my mind so I ended up staring at the women in the metro, talking to their boyfriends, husbands, sisters, enquiring about their kids, holding lilies, roses, cakes, floral printed boxes. I couldn’t help but eavesdrop as a group of three women between the ages of 27 to 38 years talked about their day. Their ID cards flashed their designations as software engineers. They didn’t have any flowers or cakes in their hands. So they ranted.
“What is this nonsense! they should have at least given us chai samosa, or chocolates”
This went on from Sikenderpur station to Qutub Minar. Then the conversation shifted to them talking about their senior male colleagues. Each boasted about how this one senior male colleague, who is very strong-headed and stern, likes each of them. They boasted about his mistakes like how mothers talk about their toddlers when they begin to learn new words. They talked about him with the same pride. Like these godly male figures who probably have sanctioned the money to celebrate women’s day, some even allowed to have one are human enough to make mistakes. How cute is that, isn’t it? All the men in an organization plan women’s day, call for food, give gifts, buy floral printed boxes, a trait, and habit they have acquired in the post Me Too era but were never taught.
And how ‘sad’ is it that this group of three I saw in the metro was not given chai and samosa on this special day dedicated to more than half of the population of this country. How ‘equal’ is it to see women behave like men in government offices, complaining about their sahebs, sahebs who have had the absolute power of caste and gender. Thanks to all the brand promotions, tear-jerking ad films, office celebrations, we have come a long way. Women now want to be treated differently on women’s days. How ‘equal’ is it to see men of our times successfully finding a ‘new way’ which is more ‘inclusive’ than ever to make women feel like the women they want them to be.
I returned home with the pair of roses tucked in the side of my bag, only to hear from my partner, who has recently migrated to a first-world country and works in an advertising firm too, that ‘nobody gives a shit about women’s day here’. I don’t know what evolved version of ‘inclusivity angle’ is at play in that society. I hope I don’t lose my mind. On that note, I will now go and redeem the gift voucher I have got from my office.
