The Customer

EMI is today’s catch-phrase.
Typically, the middle class have latched onto this craze.
In bygone years people believed in advance payments.
Now, the savvy know there’s more to be gained from installments.
How do I know this?!
Oh! You mean how do I prove this?
Easy! See the matrimonial classifieds:
“Wanted a bride, preferably employed…”
No dowry demands from the educated sophisticate.
Why bother when better returns are assured from a working mate?
The buyers, the sellers, everyone is happy.
Why, there is nary a quarry!
The social workers see no problems
That on Indian tradition there is this modern influence.
Money begets independence I am told,
To speak against this working tradition I am a fool.
But I want to inquire
Do the both sides’ folks get the same share?
Which folks get the most gifts?
Which folks do the couple’s home the most visit?
No dichotomy you say!?
No more dowry, hooray!?
In this age of consumer protection
The girl doesn’t even realize she is the customer – instead she serves!

- Written on 6 December 2006, Wednesday.

Yes! very cynical, very bombastic, very very one-sided but also I think a shade of truth we so easily overlook all the time that perhaps it is time it was highlighted. I am sick of the feminist jargon that does not look beyond asking that girls be given equal opportunity without looking into halving their already existing burdens they pile on more. I am very angry today as you can judge. Blame the holiday that got me seeing a debate on why women should be educated - always for the family's sake (read their husband's burden is halved with them working!) - why don't girls ask how much of house training have prospective grooms undergone when these girls are "professionally qualified" and "preferably employed" why not ask for boys "domestically trained and home loving" whatever the latter terms mean. ;)
chalo maine toh apni dil ki bhadaas nikal di. ab aap ki baari. ;)