Pink was the King's Colour and Blue was the

Queen's

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome prince who was kind, gentle
and tender-hearted. The prince belonged to the Kingdom of Belltown. He
was to be crowned as the King soon. Unfortunately, like any other story,
this story has a twist. Owing to his naive nature, the prince fell into the
trap of the antagonist. The minister, who pretended to be loyal, betrayed
the Kingdom. He abducted the prince. The prince was hidden in a remote
steeple and was left there to starve.
Like most of the other stories, this story also has a happy ending . The
prince was saved by a tribal princess. She was strong, brave and most
importantly she was fearless.
She sensed someone's presence in the steeple and her curiosity ended up
saving the prince.
In the very end, the princess helped the prince to get back his Kingdom
and route the minister.

Could you find something new in the story? If you feel that the
characterization has been wrongly done then you must question your
ideologies .

At some places in India, girls are not even provided with basic education,
they are married at a very early age and they undergo all sorts of abuses.
These are the same places where male dominance is still prevalent. We do
have several laws which describe such ignorant and brutal actions as
punishable offences. There also are several women helpline numbers.
Ironically none of the resolutions has brought down the number of reported
crimes against the women.

On the other hand, in the very same nation, men have also been victims of
domestic violence and abuses. Ironically any law against harassment and
abuse does not consider men as victims. Maybe because men are supposed
to be strong, they are not supposed to cry. Obviously crying and expressing
pain or grief are womanly characteristics. This is how our brain has been
conditioned.
Our constitution says that all of us are equal but the same constitution has
laws where women can seek protection against any type of ill-treatment
and exploitation but men can not. The laws framed for the protection of
women are considered as laws in the favour of equality. Should they be
considered so? The layers of gender tag imposed by the constitution is
indeed the opposite of ground reality. At some places in our country women
do not have rights and at some other places men can not raise their voice.
We have absurd thinking. We even associate colours with genders. Girls
are supposed to like pink whereas boys are supposed to like blue. I think we
all should give it a break here. Let us not fight for women against men
and let us not do the vice versa. Let us not consider the male gender as the
strong and emotionless gender and let us not consider women to be inferior
to men. Rather than thinking as a radical feminist or a misogynist, let us
think as humans. Why not bring in laws for the protection of the human
race rather than the protection of any particular gender? If we let the
stereotypes occupy our brain, we will never have a society free from
inequality and gender bias. If we want freedom from the evils of
inequality, we will have to fight against it as a human and not as a man
or a woman. Let us just be humans, that would bring true equality.

-by Shailshree Sinha

11 H