Treat boys and girls equally

A long time ago , people used to watch a channel called doordarshan. If you still watch this channel, please contact the Discovery Channel team. I hear they are making some kind of documentary on "eccentric personalities and their eccentric preferences" , and they will love to feature you.

I think cable TV entered indian lives sometime in early 1990s. And before cable Tv we indians have only two channels to watch. One.Two.And then back to one. This channel, doordarshan, ran a regular news bulletin. The news there was read by women as sexy as Uma Bharti and men as hot as a cold coffee. And that was typical doordarshan. But thats not the point. The point is the break between the news bulletin. The time when those government sponsored advetisements came on. Say NO to drugs. Say NO to drinking. Say YES to "kandom". And say NO to girl discrimination. It showed stuff like a girl saying "bapoooooo main padna chahti hoon " , "main apne feet pe stand karna chahti hoon" , "main daaactar banna chahti hoon".These advertisements ended with the girl smiling and clutching her degree victoriously .And then the message flashed :

Stop discriminating between boys and girls.ladka ladki barabar hain. Treat boys and girls equally.

 And I plead with the world around me. Treat boys and girls equally.Take away the huge advantage girls get at every step of life. Stop this. Stop treating the "UNFAIR" sex ( thats boys ) unfairly. Anyways, Let me explain the ways boys are treated unfairly. There may be villages called daaruhera and jharsa where men drink "desi" hooch till midnight, go home , and beat their wives till the wine shop reopens. But I have never been to that village and can only write about what I see.

Have you ever driven a blood red BMW at 160 kms per hour with the car stereo playing loud music ? Neither have I. Instead I have to use a combination of auto ride , bus ride and metro train to get to home, everytime i go somewhere which is more than 20kM away from my home ( below 20km i prefer my scooter ). Now lets talk about asking for a lift. I stand with my sleeves rolled up and shirt loosened. I stick up my thumb to every passing vehicle. I keep an expresssion as if my wife is to have a delivery in three minutes and I need a lift. Still I have to wait for almost half the duration of a soccer match before some guy on a shaky scooter decides to stop for me.

And then this girl walks up next to me and stands there, seeking a lift. And the next leather clad guy on his monster bike,  halt almost grazing my toes , let the dust cloud settle , looks back at the girl and asks "need a lift ,miss ?". She leaves with the uzbekistan wrestler clone. And i keep on my "I need a lift" show running.

Scene moves to the DTC bus. I am not a huge guy. So a lot of girls are capable of mashing me and stuffing me to make a stuffed parantha. But still these broad shouldered , biceps flaunting girls have these ladies seats reserved for them. I have to stand in the crowded bus and struggle to keep my nose away from the armpits of the guy to my left and to keep my butt away from the "dance master"-ish gay looking guy on my right.

Now for the interviews. Me in a starched white shirt. Navy blue trousers. Black polished shoes. The interviewer looks like a cross between a crocodile and kadar khan. I hand in my certificate file. He hardly looks at them. How many types of fan regulators do you know about ? , he asks with a frown. But sir, I am a computer engineer, I protest. He looks at me angrily .Havent u studied electrical engineering in 3 Sem ? I cant tell him that I got 51% marks in electrical engineering and dont know much about a fan and regulator. I am out before you can spell regulator.

The next candidate in is a girl. White starched salwaar kameez. Enchanting smile. Pretty eyes. Heavenly ears. Wonderful nose.Even the hair in her nose would have looked marvellous. She walks in. The crocodile-kadar khan cross looks at her and forgets about his overweight and loud wife. He smiles widely. She sits down. She hands him her file. He goes through it with the interest of a teenager going through a porn magazine for the first time. OHHH , you have learnt Bharatnatyam ?? !! Tell me about it , miss ! And the next 10 minutes are about the "mudraas" and whatever ways they twist their bodies in Bharatnatyam. And then the interview ends.No fan regulators. She is selected. I get ready for some other crocodile clone some other day.

And the list is endless. I am running out of time so would have to stop my outpouring about the gut wrenching discrimination I as a boy have faced till now. But believe me , its for real. And getting really real by the day as I watch the world around me. By now, the women liberation movement supporter in you would be itching to send a crowd of angry and agitated broad shouldered women to my place. So as I get ready to leave now , you guys just remember the Doordarshan advertisement. Treat boys and girls equally. I have to go now. If anybody also want to share his discrimination experience please leave it as a comment.