By Prabodh Gedam:
My hearty congratulations to PV Sindhu and Carolina Marin!
We all saw that Sindhu was determined and vigorous and Carolina was swift and smart. Of course, other factors also induce victory, but what’s to lose when cheering for a national representative? I saw a lot of boys pinning the nation’s hopes on her.
Indian girls like Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar have challenged norms. I hope it will change our views. I wondered, if we were cheering genuinely for Sindhu or because she’s the only hope for India and we wanted our medal, any how. You see, when Sindhu wins, India wins automatically. Then what do we want actually, Sindhu’s or India’s winning? As she represents India, we support her. In other circumstances, what would have been our response as a society?
Keeping in mind our history and present attitudes toward women, we have always wanted our women to be in the house and not engaging too much for individual achievement. Of course exceptions are there and that’s what produced Aditi, Dipa, Sakshi, Sindhu, Sania, Saina and all other female athletes and all whom I’m not noting here. But are we as a society comfortable with that? Girls thriving successfully? If yes, then it is greatly welcoming but we don’t get to see it too often.
We (men) want women to succeed for our own vested interests; not for their benefit so that they may become independent. A good example is working mothers with added earnings for the household as well as in farming procedures or household businesses.
What I want to convey here is, we must stand for womens’ individuality by accepting their own success. Women are an essential element of this society which is again an element of India as a nation. Progress and achievement of every basic element centrally sums up a country whereas supporting every element or individual imparts progress at the ground level. It’s as simple as that. So ask yourself, why did you support Sindhu? For some people, it could be both reasons.
The best part is that these girls, who have earned medals and our love, will be on so many vision boards for years inspiring a bunch full of working keys unlocking our hindering society.