'Change is necessary'

                        Every time there is a 'Change', it brings about a Revolution. Not French or an American Revolution, but a Revolution in your ideas and the way you look at them. I have always stood up for myself and even today I would do the same for others of my kind- be it on reel or in real. If I wish to change something, I would want to Change the way women are portrayed in Television Serials, popularly known as 'soap-operas'.

                         The other day, I was watching a prime-time soap-opera, when suddenly the female protagonist got slapped by her husband. I was shocked to see the suddenness of the physical blow, an unnecessary event in the woman’s life. The scene definitely showed physical abuse, and I had a notion that the woman would stand up and face her husband bravely. In this hope, I watched it the following day. But to my utter surprise, the woman did not stand up for herself; instead she asked for her husband’s forgiveness and readily agreed when he told her to forget it all.

                       Is this a portrayal of a 21^st century woman? I don’t think so. Then why show it on Indian television soap-opera, a medium propagated to a half billion people?

                      On one hand, women are going out to work and are even at the highest positions. They have equal rights as men and are also allowed to have their own way.  But on the other hand, they are shown in these serials as a shadow of their powerful husbands, with no voice of their own. I don’t say that all soap-operas are the same, but then majority of them portray the feeble yet brave woman, with her in-laws dominating and harassing her. This woman is not given a right to talk in the house, but still she does, in order to change the household. But how much of this is true? You never know. All mother-in-laws are neither bad, nor all sister-in-laws come and stay at their brother’s houses. And not all ‘bahus’ are ideal either!

                     And the paradox in this situation is that all the viewers of these soap-operas are the so-called ‘modern’ women, their rights and voice secure in their own houses.

                    Then why do they even watch these serials? Because they get pleasure, or do they want a life similar to those helpless women? This remains a mystery to me. And it will never be solved until we change the impossible portrayal of the Ideal Indian woman on the Indian television scenario.