{"id":7462,"date":"2016-07-09T07:42:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T02:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7462"},"modified":"2016-07-09T07:42:12","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T02:12:12","slug":"even-in-celebration-women-are-expected-to-do-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=7462","title":{"rendered":"Even In Celebration, Women Are Expected To Do It All"},"content":{"rendered":"\nD<\/span>iwali is my favourite time of the year. This is when I get to conquer new heights and discover ancient Milton jugs predating achhe din in my loft. As I slide into\u00a0dark corners, under heavy furniture and return victorious, covered with cobwebs and dust, I let out a silent curse. I\u2019m convinced it\u2019s a male conspiracy to project the goddess of wealth as a cleanliness freak, who refuses to land on your balcony to bless you with a fat bank balance, till our houses are lit up and gleaming like K-pop star Jungkook\u2019s face (the most recent Diwali update if you will). The burden of all this work, even the seemingly \u2018enjoyable\u2019 one, surprise surprise, befalls the women of the house.\n\nWhy else would we be saddled with traditions that demand women slog from dawn till night for every festival, celebration and event in a family while men have all the fun and yum treats! We are told, this is the least we can do for the well-being of our family and their weight. What\u2019s not to like about waking up before dawn, deep cleaning the house for the deities who might just drop in for Diwali, preparing savouries and sweets, praying to the almighty before collapsing in a heap and then picking yourself up to serve your family!\n\n

The burden of all this work, even the seemingly \u2018enjoyable\u2019 one, surprise surprise, befalls the women of the house.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nI\u2019m sure a lot of women have convinced themselves this is how they can make themselves indispensable to their families. The ones who have opted for no-fuss celebrations are accused of not continuing the \u2018cultural\u2019 traditions and family legacy.\n\nFestivals were handed down to us by our ancestors who had yet to discover Netflix and Twitter, as timely reminders of our heritage. Most of our festivals are centred around seasons, harvests, and pampering our million gods and goddesses. And what\u2019s a festival without festivities? It\u2019s like walking into a Gurgaon bar without the cardiac-arrest-inducing music, right! So our entertainment starved forefathers threw in a bunch of rituals that continue for days, elaborate meals and some fun pursuits as an afterthought to take the edge off. After all it is our culture and unique traditions that sets us apart and can be worn as a badge of honour.\n\nWhich is why regaling someone I\u2019ve just met from another country with the complicated customs and hunger games we observe as part of festivities is my favourite thing to do. It gets even better when I tell them all the backbreaking hard work is the domain of women.\n\nIf a woman can carry the weight of her family\u2019s honour on her unwilling shoulders, surely she will be totally chill when she is assigned the sole guardianship of cultural and religious traditions. We can\u2019t give her the luxury of time and freedom and let her get fanciful notions like she is capable of taking charge of her own life, can we! Of course not.\n\nLook, I am not the ungrateful type. Rather I\u2019m glad for the existence of festivals like Diwali and Bhai Duj where we can meet as a family, argue passionately over political beliefs and then call each other names.\u00a0But what I can\u2019t stop admiring is the ingenuity of our forefathers. It didn\u2019t take them long to grasp that festivals are a lot of fun when you don\u2019t have to do all the hard work.\n\n

But what I can\u2019t stop admiring is the ingenuity of our forefathers. It didn\u2019t take them long to grasp that festivals are a lot of fun when you don\u2019t have to do all the hard work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nMen were assigned the primary roles as priests who presided over the religious ceremonies and were lavished with gifts in kind and cash for their efforts. To make sure we are forever indebted to our ancestors for the fantastic arrangement, they assigned a bunch of festivals venerating the men in our life for keeping us either pregnant or safe – Rakhi, Karva Chauth, Jamai Shoshti, Bhai Duj to name a few. There are exceptions, but they aren\u2019t everywhere.\n\nA few will argue we have Durga Puja, Navratri, Kali Puja that celebrate strong women who don\u2019t think twice before beheading annoying men. Now this is where irony climbs the Qutub Minar and dies a quick death. While religious texts extol the virtues of women and their power, in real life we are left with little choice to exercise them. Our menstrual blood that\u2019s a life giving force also ostracises us and keeps us out of temples and religious ceremonies.\n\nPerhaps things are changing. We are questioning the patriarchy that\u2019s the driving force behind festivals. Many of us have chosen peace of mind over backbreaking rituals. We would rather post a million pics in glittery lehengas and Saris looking soulfully away from the phone camera while fancying ourselves as Insta models. We are as excited about Halloween as we are about losing more money at Tambola parties.\u00a0Maybe it\u2019s time we all agree that festivals are a lot of fun when the backbreaking festivities are shared equally by all of us. And if your man can\u2019t make mithais, ask him to look up how to do Rangoli on YouTube and surprise the family.\u00a0Let the artist in everyone present himself.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The festive season is a lot of fun, except for the women of the house who must labour through chores that they have been led to believe is not just their duty, but also some sort of festive privilege.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[2525,186,11458,5539,735],"class_list":["post-7462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender","tag-chores","tag-diwali","tag-diwali-celebration","tag-traditions","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nEven In Celebration, Women Are Expected To Do It All<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The festive season is a lot of fun, except for the women of the house who must labour through chores that they have been led to believe is not just their duty, but also some sort of festive privilege.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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