Sometimes, women like me make bad choices. Or at least as you put it, dear ministers, we act “against the Indian ethos”.
Some of us don’t marry because we don’t find the right man. Marriage is no longer the only goal a young Indian woman has in her life. Having an identity and the financial and emotional strength to make her own choices is more of a priority than being plonked into a doli, saying boo-hoo for a while to the drunk marriage party and ending up miserable in some alien man’s home just to ‘be married’.
Young women are choosing a good education over early marriage and early motherhood or is that being ‘un-Indian’?
Some of us are ambitious and capable enough in our careers to want to excel. We end up postponing motherhood, often to a point when our corporate battle-weary bodies just say no to natural conception.
You see, we are inspired today to be individuals and not just women at work. And yes, our typical ladla Indian man, true to our Indian ethos, hasn’t yet grown up enough to understand that being a ‘stay-at-home dad’ won’t make him flaccid. “Mummy daantegi?”