What does Independence mean to me?

It was August 15th and we celebrated the Independence Day. One of my friends asked me “what does Independence (Aazadi or Swatantrya as we call it in Hindi or Marathi) mean to you?” and this made me think. This is what I am going to try to answer in today’s post.
We need aazadi, especially for Indian women from many notions in our “society”.

There are many people who support us in various ways. But in this post I intend to highlight the problems. And I really appreciate people who support us. So, do not get offended.

• Independence from “Tujhe nahi lagta tu thodi moti ho gayi hai?”
  I am a girl who is a little chubby and not skinny. But sometimes, even I get to hear all this. All the aunties in the society are always ready to give the advice on various diets, forwarding diet plans on my whatsapp number, suggesting various workouts, and the list is huge…
  Let me tell you. Every type of body is beautiful. Fat, thin, medium or whatever. So, let’s stop idealizing the body shapes and sizes and women making feel miserable. That’s, Aazadi from having that “perfect body”.

• Aazadi from “Log Kya Kahenge!” (What would people say?)
  “Don’t sit spreading your legs.” “Learn to cook or what would your in-laws say?” “Don’t look straight into the eyes of men.” “Don’t have male friends.”  Like really? We ladies need independence from “LOG KYA KAHENGE!” we want to live the way we want. We are human beings and not the remote-controlled objects to control the way society wants. We are not going to live fearing about what would people say or think if we do certain things.

• “Beta multani mitti aur make up laga lo safed rang nikhar ke aayega” (put on some make-up or face packs to look fair)

Fair skin is something which is very much desirable in our society and sometimes a symbol of belonging to a wealthy family. This reminds me of an incident. I was hanging out with my friend and a woman with brown skin passed by and he looked at her as if she was from another planet. Seriously? I still don’t feel like talking to him. This is the reason, women sometimes lose their confidence. And make-up is not to make you look fair or hide blemishes. It is to highlight your features. It is a choice to wear make-up. It makes some of us feel confident and bold.

• “25 ki ho gayi hai, shaadi kab kar rahi hai” (you are 25 now, when are you getting married?)

This is the “log kya kahenge part 2”(what would people say? Part 2). Sometimes, parents want us to get married because we are crossing 25 and an unmarried woman who crosses 25  is considered as characterless. They don’t think that if she wants to pursue her carrier. And having a male friend who drops a woman home from work late night is a crime! Because they might think of this as an affair. Please understand that we want to be independent.

• “Shaadi toh ho gayi! Good news kab de rahe ho” (you are married now, when are you planning to have a baby?)

Even if you get married, they won’t keep quiet unless they see the face of a child. It becomes very difficult for a woman to work after getting married. So, we want the independence to pursue our careers and have a child whenever we want.

This is what I think. Let me know what Independence means to you in the comment section. This independence day let’s give some Aazadi to women to have their own choices, opinions and make this world a better place for them.