Women Days Out

Premjit Laishangba *

There is no legal prohibition that no woman can do what man does. What would happen if women do all what men do and vice versa? It may sound awkward, ironical and impossible.

How the world would be if it does? Still unanswerable!!! I just sighed when this uncommon ideology clicked my mind, and it suddenly rolled out when I was very busy holding the standing iron bar inside the BMTC(Bangalore Metro Transport Corporation) bus No.362 that routed to Sivaji Nagar, a small town in Bangalore.

My mind was unrelieved looking at the woman collecting the bus-fare. With spending half of my life outside Manipur, my birth place, this was the first time I came across a woman doing what a man, usually and in most of the places, does. She was engaged in her responsibility ensuring no mistake could ever happen.

She wore a khaki-coloured half shirt, a pant and a pair of black slipper with a long leather bag hanging from her right shoulder, which brilliantly fitted her stature, and with her right hand rolling the coins deep inside her authentic bag that she dumped all the money collected from the passengers inside it.

She concentrated on her duty and I was admirably wondering on seeing what she was doing. I was oblivious of the fact that she could do better than anyone else- honestly she was an expert. Appreciating her work, admiring her zeal, staring at what she was doing and her devotion to her duty were what I was doing during the whole course of my journey to Shivaji Nagar.

As my reputation and commitment were still waiting for me, I did not ponder much about the incident, at an extent, but it still perturbed my mind, distracting my entire plan for that day. My mind did not get a proper relief. After coming back from my work, I caught a bus that would go to Madivala, the place that I was residing in Bangalore. It was almost 6 O'clock in the evening. This time, the bus conductor was a male.

Subsequently, I remembered her again and took a hypothetical review of the woman and likened their activities. There was no difference in what she was doing and what the other conductors were doing, except their looks and stature. Male and female- this was the only difference. Then I took a deep breath of relaxation and peered through the window to enjoy the night sky. The sky was clear enough and I could see the bright moon pouring its bright light through the horizon.

Instantaneously, my mind went to our Sana Leipak and then to Sana Keithel, remembering what our brave meitei women had been doing since the emergence of the meitei society. I, thereafter, recollected the history about the development of the meitei society, the impact of the meitei women-I would rather say meitei Nupi, during the socio-economic development of Manipur and the responsibilities they took during the Anglo-Manipuri war, what we called as Khongjom war that led many hundreds of women to spare their life to save the only kingdom- our beloved Sana Leipak.

Unfortunately we lost the war. Despite, we could never forget what meitei women did for the sake of the people of Manipur. Concisely and honestly, I could hardly blink my watery eyes. I asked myself- why did we lose the war? Still unanswerable!!! Our women are no more inferior to any other women in the world. Perhaps they are even superior to anyone.

Just take sports- we have a handful women sport stars, world record holders, world champions and many more. Take art and culture- they have already put a mark of their excellence at the world forum. Undoubtedly, there are innumerous recognitions they kept in the name of our people.

Then, how many Kunjaranis can we bring up?
How many Mary Koms would be born?
How many Linthoingambis will lead the people to fight for Manipur?
How many chanus like Irom Sharmila will struggle for justice?

Still unanswerable!!! No meitei can ever forget the Nupi Lan. Everyone knows about their spirit of braveness and strength. Is this spirit still there among our women? - Yes, they do. What about June 18 Massacre?

I might be hypnotized if I put my head to think more on it. It led all the people to fight for our own integrity and showed to the world that there was always an inerasable footprint of our society on earth. I cannot ignore what men did in this massacre but I saw, mostly, women photos leading the crowd in the front pages of different newspapers.

They are the best. The very moment I started recollecting thoughts about our Meira Paibees, I heard someone calling me. Consequently, I took a five rupee coin from my purse, after I realized that the one who called me was the bus conductor, and give it to him. He gave me a smile and I also returned him the same.

I, then, had a look at my watch and confirmed that I would be reaching my room probably after 15-20 minute- as my room was quite far from Shivaji Nagar. We have many women sports stars, actors, freedom fighters, meira paibees, bureaucrats' etc who excelled in their own traits. What about politician? We have less number because they concentrate more on what has just mentioned above.

Why no women netas? What about education? Still unanswerable!!! The only answer is to make a U-turn in our culture and the mentality that all our women have in their mind. Fewer women have thought of becoming a politician or an astronaut or a pilot or an industrialist or a barrister or an army brigadier.

Innately, they always lean their mind towards certain fields, to mention some, like air hostesses, teachers, doctors, and nurses. Somehow this is good but not enough. We need to let them explore everything. How we can do is to free them- their days should not be at home but should be outside. They should never glue to their second home as housewives after their marriage.

In this case, I will be always in favour of transforming our only Ema Keithel to a supermarket with only the businesswomen and women dealers running a robust business with big-shot immigrants who always keep their eyes to our market of 22-23 lakhs people, dreaming of consuming whatever profits they can afford to by taking the advantage of an under-privileged state like Manipur.

Perhaps, I will genuinely support women entrepreneur than man because they are miser and calculative, and as a result they would be at any cost strict in accountancy- which is the most important pre-requisite to run a successful and lucrative business. However, and unfortunately, they cannot do that because they are not permitted to do so or they are homesick, always bound to their homes.

Why can't there be a woman bus conductor in our place? We should respect and appreciate them to do all manly works if they are willing to do. Any woman cannot be granted or given only some specific privileges and opportunities. Without any objection, they should be given the platform to unveil their talent and we should reinforce them not to look themselves as inferior not only to other women but also to men.

The incidental coincidence of my thought with that of the rare case of the woman conducting the ritual service of a bus conductor made my mind so engrossed to the circumstances that let me to cross-examine what I came across in the past and what I learned from our elderly well-wishers and gurus. I enjoyed a restless evening that day and it led my mind busy thinking about the impact of the past incidents and the future of our new generations.

It is always a high time for us to intervene in such a chaotic situation in order to make up the laggings and the holes created by our inbound culture of human outdated believes. There is no one who can change this, except ourselves. Education must be the first one to tick from the list of dos in our long term planning.

Every girl should be educated and they should be given the same preference of pursuing any level of education as given to boys. They should be allowed to eat what they want, to wear what they like, to go to wherever place they desire. We should only preserve our culture, but should not protect our culture.

Preservation of culture needs to be inculcated in every head but not protection of culture. As the globalization soars higher and higher, there will be transitional and influential cultural migration from and to different countries of different ethnicity and tradition. There will always be a change, but the only difference is how we change it.

This was just a mere perception that I had in my lonely mind after I saw the woman conductor. There might be many other things apart from the very outset I mentioned above.

Nevertheless, I have a firm belief that we need a change. And the change will be a history. It is not easy to climb a mountain with one leg; however it will be easier if we climb with both. The broader lesson, that I would like to suggest, is that we should give fifty-fifty chance to both men and women.

Women need to spend their days not at home but outside which will always keep a challenge to say - women days out. ...