I am Doing Nothing Today -By- Kumar Bahukhand

Possibly I am losing my wisdom. It was International Women's Day yesterday and I got no attention from the womenfolk, (barring the inbox full of press invites ranging from middle aged women using forward and liberated women socialite clubs to SARKARI invitations commemorating centenary celebrations of the significant day. Don't we invite women over to guzzle kegs of beer and entertain them with derriere, driving skills and 'how many women does it take to change a bulb?' jokes on International Men's Day on 19 November? (Yes brothers, there is indeed such a day which tries restoring some gender balance). Then why didn't they return the favour on Thursday I mean today? I was utterly lost and after finishing my journalism classes in the morning I had no idea how to spend the rest of the day. Since the year started till the Women's Day, we have already stocked a pile of 103 molestation and 450 cases

Now many countries around the world, from Afghanistan to Zambia celebrate the day with an official holiday. So perhaps my Afghani counterpart spent the day at home getting high on opium and beating up his wife to show his special treatment towards her. And maybe, the Zambian guy did the same thing since the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey shows that 85 per cent women and 69 per cent men in the country believed that a husband is justified in beating his wife for at least one reason. In my country a woman is killed by her parents because she fell in love with a man they didn't approve of. Lower caste, if you want the full technicolour story of discrimination, prejudice and domination. They watched her die, writhing in agony from the poison they gave her.Another woman in India is told by the cou

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rts that she cannot marry the man she married because her father felt that the man was the wrong man. Wrong religion, too, as far as the father is concerned, because as we see every day, why not add prejudice to the equation wherever you can. It has taken the Supreme Court of India to reassure us that we, as adults, are free to marry whoever we want. At the same time, in some parts of India, we see children married off by their parents even though it has been against the law for decades. Tradition, another side of discrimination and domination sometimes, must win, you see. The argument that more women in politics will help is an old one and an comprehensible one. With women in power, discrimination against women will reduce goes the logic.

The women of Hollywood have at least started a conversation about what happens behind closed doors with powerful men and this conversation has created ripples around the world. A few men have been made examples of. Some people, including women, have tried to trivialise the protests by coming up with some absurd comments about the end of a happy concourse between men and women. It takes a special kind of a mind to confuse rape and flirtation Possibly I could have raided a pub and insisted loose, characterless, off sleeve and jeans wearing women to pay heed. Maybe I could have dropped into a bar and demanded the bartenders' attention or a drink and shot her in the end. But then isn't that sexist, chauvinist, misogynous, biased and emotionally, socially challenged men in this country do? I am but a decent, common man in this country trying to make an honest living like you and everybody else. So like you and everybody else, I am doing nothing on this day . Like we always do!