I always wanted to be working when I grew up. I had made the assumption. Probably a teacher, but none the less a professional. I was probably in class 8. There was this debate in class(We used to have many at the time). The topic was "Should mothers be working?" or something on similar lines. I remember the teacher. Her first name was "Aktar". I have always liked this name. It sounds sweet when said. There were many participants as usual. But none of us wanted to argue saying "mothers should work". The teacher asked me to argue for the topic. I reluctantly agreed. Some of the arguments were so callous, like "If they are so interested in working, why should they even start a family"!!! Deep inside even I felt the same(ok I know, but its true). When you agree so much with your "opponents", to express disagreement convincingly is difficult! I, like most of the class was just thinking "Would I be liking it if my mother started working?".
I was not even liking the idea of me going home after school to an empty house. Then waiting for my mom to come. It was nice as it was. She waiting for me, and asking me how my day at school was - and me giving her every detail I could remember, right from whom all I quarreled with to what interesting thing I leant that day.
I argued saying "If women are talented and educated it will get wasted if they do not work. Even they have dreams and aspirations, so they must be allowed to work". The very tone I adopted made it obvious, I never saw myself in that position years later!! And I had not seen our teachers in this light! Most of them were women and many of them were mothers! All of us had let our teacher down. When she shared her thoughts we realized we had said all these things before a “working mother”! She was saddened by the way we thought - how possessive we were about our mothers and how selfish, how shortsighted.
7 comments:
Nice color. Are you planning to be not working when you have family ???
Thnx Papillon :)
Hmmm not sure..I may most likely not be doing what I am doing now!
When I said " I never saw myself in that position years later!" what I meant was, had I imagined I would be a working mother my arguments would not have been the same..All the while I was thinking if I would like my mother to be a working women..
Hey...for a moment I was back in our classroom :)
I wasn't part of this debate I believe...so I dont remember anything about this one :|
:) I remember coz i was quite ashamed of how i thot abt somethings at the time!
"But none of us wanted to argue saying "mothers should work". The teacher asked me to argue for the topic. I reluctantly agreed."
This is particularly true of people from our generation.Probably it stems from the fact that We have always seen mothers(ours,our friends women in neighbourhood....) running the household and not running around in the office.
Even I come from the old school of thought and firmly believe that the presence of a mother around a child especially during the growing up years can do wonders to the child's life.
Having said this I also believe in your argument:-
"If women are talented and educated it will get wasted if they do not work. Even they have dreams and aspirations,......"
but when u write
"....... so they must be allowed to work"
u are actually undermining the kind of effort that non-working mothers put in making sure that the household runs fine.For me all of them are 'SUPERWOMEN'
New age girls take up both home and office responsibility perfectly.probably their kids,when they grow up,will have a different perception abt mothers(unlike us)
:)
BTW my mom left her job bcoz she wanted me to have a perfect 'bachpan'.Sometimes I feel a little guilty about it.
working or non working, mothers ROCK!!!
-rohit
PS:BTW did you win the debate competition ?
was i in the debate? i don't remember this one at all!! and who is the teacher u hv written about?
Thnx rohit! Your comment was as good as a post itself! :)
And Vibes, how could you not be in a debate? The teacher's name was Akthar Unissa - AU, remember?
Post a Comment