Satinder S. Panesar

In Ramayana - Surpanakha proposes Ram, who send her to Lakshman which in turn cut her nose, ears and breasts (in south indian ramayana). In Mahabharata - Hadimba proposes Bheem and Bheem marry Hadimba and had a child from her. Such a contrast in both mythological sagas. Reason for bringing out these characters is that i love how women takes initiative and profess their love to the other person, even though they belong to different sects. It's funny how men have made women feel that they are inferior or they " depend " on men for their needs (be it emotional, physical or financial). So it's not accidental that women feel terrible about their bodies and doubt themselves. Now a days across the globe, the demand to treat them equally has grown, which is SUPERB . People have started realizing that women are not their possessions, they are humans and need to be treated equally.

Am sure like me, if you have come to other city to live, you must have come across this situation. Someone from your native land will call you up randomly and will ask - Do you know this person? S/he (they) are very famous (ah, yes popular is the word) .. you must be knowing him/her (them). It's soo strange that people dont realize that any city's population is 35-40 lacs & to know 1 person & particularly that person is highly impossible. Me: No, i dont know this person and somehow this relative felt offended as if i had done some crime in NOT knowing that person, which according to him is very " popular ". I realized that this behavior is very common among the older generations. I think the reason for this behavior is coz earlier most of the people use to live in the villages or even the cities were not very crowded & everybody knows everybody. I can say this coz when i was growing up, everyone from my city use to know us. Oh yes, our complaints us...