Just A Housewife
Anjana is now sitting down on the silent verandah in the cool afternoon breeze...She has had a long and busy day today...She woke up at 5 am at the crack of dawn, lit the stove, and cooked breakfast for her husband and her two daughters...Food was ready on the table by 7 am, and everyone wolved it down and rushed out...There was a sudden calm in the house immediately, and Anjana sat down for a while in the living room silently staring at the strange figures on the embroidered curtains...And then it was time to get back to work...She spent the morning washing the clothes, removing the cobwebs, mopping the bathroom, sweeping the floors, dusting the carpets, and cleaning the utensils...Time flew, and soon it was close to afternoon...She rushed into the kitchen and started making food for the family again...Now it is all over, and she is enjoying a few quiet moments of rest on the verandah...Her daughter Niranjana comes home and asks her, 'Mother, can't you get a proper job? Perhaps in some office?'
'What do you mean? Don't I have one already, feeding and taking care of this family?'
'You see, I need to fill in this application form, and there is this place where I need to write what my parents do. I feel ashamed to say that you are just a housewife. Can't you get a real job like other women?'
Anjana looks at the setting sun slowly going down into the tired hills...The truth begins to sink into her...Yes, she is just a housewife...
posted by The Transparent Ironist @ 9:38 am
9 Comments:
At 12.3.05,
Anonymous said…
Hmm...reminds me of the time when i as a child was a bit uncomfortable when all my friend's moms were housewives and my mom used to work. Those days, it was cool to be at home; If moms worked it meant the family could not be sustained on a single income, meaning the dad was earning inadequately...
At 12.3.05,
Anonymous said…
Yes! same here. My mother was a doctor and still she didn't work due to our family responsibility though our finiancial condition was not that much good. When I was small I used to feel that why my mother did not work? But now when I think it was due to her presence at home I received good sanskaras and healthy psychological setup. it was her sacrifice for our family. I will never forget that.
At 12.3.05,
Anonymous said…
It's true that people who have not done much housework cannot realize the immense work women do at home. From cleaning to cooking to everything else required to sustain a good home environment.
I do not have a family of my own yet, but I am wondering, if it is so hard to take good care of myself now, how will it be when I'll be working, and taking care of my family and home..
For people who think housewives have got nothing to do but spend their husbands money, that is a grave mistake, these women take care of the inside world so that it is a place one longs for when in the outside world!
anOn
At 13.3.05,
Anonymous said…
...."it was her sacrifice for our family"...was it really? You speak like a true feminist of the present times. Is it really a sacrifice to be a home-maker and raise kids? Have you ever looked at the face of a housewife (rather a mother)- chances are you will find a unique quality of contentment. Yes, there is a prevailing lack of respect for this work in the society but the real problem begins when the women themselves start believing it. Though this is not to deny the importance of work other than housework. The question is - is she getting the freedom to choose? In the older times a woman could not choose if she wanted to be a home-maker or not (it was taken for granted that she wanted to), is she practicing this right today? Can a woman who is thoroughly educated in a 'liberal' university choose to be at home fulltime and raise kids?
At 13.3.05,
The Transparent Ironist said…
'Freedom' is indeed a tricky notion. Earlier, most women would simply be shunted into family life, irrespective of whether or not they really wanted to have kids and look after a household. Today, of course, many women can 'freely' chose not to have such an existence. The irony, however, is that other women may feel a ort of 'peer pressure' to follow these other women in their footsteps, so that having a family-life may come to be regarded as a retrogade move.
At 13.3.05,
Anonymous said…
"..........Is it really a sacrifice to be a home-maker and raise kids? Have you ever looked at the face of a housewife (rather a mother)- ....."
I think it's again relative. For a mother may be it's not but for an educated woman in a 'liberal' university it is....
Actually while writting that, general senario of life of a houseife was there. Because when her (any educated housewife) children were small she might have found happiness in raising them....but then it becomes difficult for "humanbeings" not to have expectations from children and oters. After certain age everybody including her children becomes busy and most of the times children get engaged with their own studies/activities and peers and that time husband gets busy with 'His' friends...so it creats a vaccume in her life and sometimes her children and her husband fail to achieve her expectations from them. I am dam sure at that point every home-maker, or a mother think their work as a "sacrifice".
BTW- Nowadays also I have seen a kind of pull and stretching is there for such ladies who do their career and who look after their children. I have seen though husband is supposed to be supportive but then in most of the stretching times 'This Great Pearson' ignores and sometimes at the top of that he starts finding his other friends for timepass.
It's very hard to say but How many married ladies can maintain their college friendships (irrespective of gender) even after marriage? I mean to ask here about the ladies who do both and have to rush for their children and husband in the evening and eventhough they want they can't just go after their office hours with their friends...to enjoy because of household duties. But if you see most of the "husbands" can maintain such friendships without bothering about household responsibility and towards children. In this age also it is going on in India......and ladies they have no choice to accept it because they don't want to loose their career.
I agree with "TI" that most of the ladies though they feel about the freedom and all still due to "peer pressure" and a social pressure they follow blindly others steps.
At 13.3.05,
Anonymous said…
I think a human being is born into this world to fulfil some potential. In most cases and with both genders it doesnt happen. Fulfilling the role of a parent is a biological and social one. Yes a woman may feel fulfilled by that role but there still would be something she would like to do. So merely getting a job is not the issue here; the issue is to have the opportunity to do what the individual feels like. If certain doors are closed to an individual , it automatically restricts, the choice that individual can exercise. Anyway peer pressure can work both ways. Many women maybe under pressure to fulfill their roles as mothers when they would have liked to do something else. Anyway, i do not appreciate glorification of mothers or career women. But i definitely am in awe of those who can achieve against adversity.
At 13.3.05,
Anonymous said…
My dear friend reader,
I am also trying to put the point that ....'When we are going to start thinking about women and ladies....beyond their gender role.....like anyother humanbeing?'
At 13.3.05,
Anonymous said…
sorry!..."Women and Girls"
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