Few days back I met a good friend of mine for a coffee and we had a hour long chat over many random things happening in our lives. I feel many things in my life aren't complete if I don't share them with her, weird it sounds but true. Obviously our conversation was never meant to end in an hour, but we chose wrong time of the day, so we had to leave early and we were talking about the same topics when we started walking back towards our offices.
While walking back we were taking shortcuts instead of going on the main road and there were many cars parked in that area. Cars were very closely parked(well no prize for guessing I live in Bangalore) so there was very small gap between cars but enough for me to pass through. On any other day i would have definitely went through that space but that day, because she was with me I involuntarily avoided narrow space and took the long route around the cars. But she quickly passed through that narrow space and asked me why did I take the long route, I explained that I thought it would be difficult for her to pass through that narrow space and hence i dint take that route. I still remember the look on her face when i said that. Obviously any girl would have been equally bewildered at any statement made that makes them think they are fat. But I couldn't convince her that what I said was not because i thought she is fat, well what else could it be?
After she left, I was asking myself why did I do that? was she fat? nope, she was as thin as i was, then i realized its just my feeling that girls are delicate, very soft compared to boys that influenced me to think that she cant walk in that narrow space and made me take the long and free route. This is just a small incident but made me realize that we always have bias about girls. Girls are not as weak as we think they are, the unquestioned attitude of our society has sown these seeds of discrimination into everyones mind. I wonder how many girls actually are forced to believe that they are weaker, and just their belief would have destroyed their confidence to fight for equality in society. I still feel what if everyone considered girls to be as strong mentally, physically and emotionally as boys, will these rapes,abuses and insanity in our nation come to an end. I strongly believe so..
While walking back we were taking shortcuts instead of going on the main road and there were many cars parked in that area. Cars were very closely parked(well no prize for guessing I live in Bangalore) so there was very small gap between cars but enough for me to pass through. On any other day i would have definitely went through that space but that day, because she was with me I involuntarily avoided narrow space and took the long route around the cars. But she quickly passed through that narrow space and asked me why did I take the long route, I explained that I thought it would be difficult for her to pass through that narrow space and hence i dint take that route. I still remember the look on her face when i said that. Obviously any girl would have been equally bewildered at any statement made that makes them think they are fat. But I couldn't convince her that what I said was not because i thought she is fat, well what else could it be?
After she left, I was asking myself why did I do that? was she fat? nope, she was as thin as i was, then i realized its just my feeling that girls are delicate, very soft compared to boys that influenced me to think that she cant walk in that narrow space and made me take the long and free route. This is just a small incident but made me realize that we always have bias about girls. Girls are not as weak as we think they are, the unquestioned attitude of our society has sown these seeds of discrimination into everyones mind. I wonder how many girls actually are forced to believe that they are weaker, and just their belief would have destroyed their confidence to fight for equality in society. I still feel what if everyone considered girls to be as strong mentally, physically and emotionally as boys, will these rapes,abuses and insanity in our nation come to an end. I strongly believe so..
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