It’s a woman’s world

While speaking Hindi, non-Hindi speaking people often get confused with genders and wrong usage of the qualifying verbs. For example – Roti khani hai but chawal khana hai making roti a feminine and chawal a masculine. Chawal khana hai but it’s derivatives khichadi snd kheer again become feminine causing confusion amongst non-Hindi speakers.

However, notwithstanding gender usage and in general, a bias against everything feminine, today I received a beautiful post on WhatsApp that highlighted the importance of feminine in our lives. As it goes, it says that first we need Vidya ( education) and then Lakshmi ( wealth). All of us basically want Shanti ( Peace) in our lives. From dawn to dusk ( Usha se Sandhya tak) we work for Annapurna ( food). At night we want to sleep and see sweet dreams ( Nisha mein nindiya lete hue sapna dekhna chahte hain). Whether we chant the main Hindu mantra, Gayatri manra ( Om bhoor bhava savaha) or read Gita or do Puja, Aarti and Vandana with Shraddha ( devotion) , we are still in the feminine mode. Post further goes on to describe other Bhavnas ( emotions) – Khushi ( happiness), Karuna ( empathy), Kshama ( forgiveness), Jaya ( victory) etc. And for us, Indians, the planet we live on is Dharti mata and the country we live is in Bharat Mata. Therefore, while speaking anything of substance, a non Hindi speaker need not worry about the gender use – it’s a woman’s world!

I think it’s a great post that places the women at a pedestal that they deserve to be. All our emotions, feelings, experiences are not feminine for nothing!