On my first visit to
the "Haat" - the local market, which moves from one village to the
other everyday, I found myself lost in the commotion. For a long time, I just
kept looking around to notice and observe how different these villagers were
from us. Nothing more than the language they spoke and the clothes they wore
seemed different, they too just like us- 2 hands, 2 legs, 2 eyes, 2 ears and 1
nose. What then makes us think so differently about them?
Is it the culture? Do we
think they are primitive and backward? Just a little while later, they proved
what they were.
After spending some more
time in the Haat, I realized that about 40% of the villagers were drunk. Being
a young 'Indian' girl, around drunken men, I naturally became insecure and
defensive. Prepared myself to react to any dirty eve-teasing or inappropriate
touch.
But not one, not one of
those drunken men said or looked at either of us, with any wrong intentions. In
a crowded place, where if this was Mumbai, I am sure I wouldn't have gone home
without being commented upon or being touched 'by mistake'. But this place,
felt safer than home. This is their culture, the so-called backward culture.
Throughout the yatra, every
place I went to, was a place 100% safe for women. Their culture teaches them to
respect everything equally, not just women but also animals and nature. They
worship Nature. They understand life much better than us. In spite of us being
so 'forward' in our thoughts.
This culture does not
discriminate on the basis of gender at all. Women have all the freedom to
express themselves in whichever way they wish to. Here, men and women can drink
together, talk together laugh together, Enjoy- without being judged by the
society.
Unlike our 'well'- cultured
society, where it is 'okay' if the husband returns home drunk and beats up the
wife occasionally, but if the wife sips on some wine, she is not a good woman.
That society and their
culture, was what we were. What we should have been. But instead, we are just
living in a 'well' cultured society.
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