joie de l'écriture

Because their brains have been wired to focus on details… from picking vegetables in the market to the embroidery on their sarees, from the laces on their petticoats to the shade of their nail enamel. Because they can never read maps nor can create one let alone making an effort to lead you to your destination. They like to simply be on the back-seat and give worthless advice or be on the front seat and doze off. Because they always equate power with ownership and ownership with extreme possession…boyfriend, husband, recipes and ideas. Because they are eternally lost in a pursuit of proving themselves in a role…loving wife, caring daughter-in-law, super mom, cool aunt. Because they have always been told – The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. That behind every successful man there is a woman. They selectively take some words very seriously. They understand humor… too little…too late. They cannot live without their daily dose of gossip and banter - the two most important deterrents to productivity and peace. Because they always consider the penny wise and pound foolish – will haggle with the vegetable vendor but will let their pockets lose on discounted sales. Because they are programmed in binary. Either you are right or them. Because the winds of women empowerment and diversity has created a storm in their tea-cups which are always full of coffee. And too much off caffeine is bad for the brains, especially when you have more of the former and less of the later. Because their understanding of technology is often restricted and sometimes challenged. Because they cannot live or let live without reminders, lists, alarms – you find it everywhere – on their refrigerators, in the knots in their handkerchiefs, on their palms, by their bedside, on their ovens. They like being noticed and love hogging the spotlight. The multiplicity of their efforts is commendable – clothes or sometimes the lack of it, make-up, jewelry, tick-tock shoes, free-flowing tresses, loud ringtones, silly giggles, and conversations at inappropriate levels of decibels. Working women generally carry their work home because they carry their home to work. The reason for the dearth of women managers or must I say good women managers can be best explained like the journey of the Indian cinema industry from the 1990s to the present. We hope 2020 would be the year of coming of age of the women managers when the stereotype associated with them would die a silent death and experience, exposure, etiquette, education and equality would pave the way to change. Until then patience is the key to survival and good appraisals by the biggest nightmare aka women managers!