Today is International Woman’s Day. I pay my tributes to those great women who fought for a cause, who fought for humanity. But before that, let me pay my tributes to each and every woman on this planet who is the cradle of life and who is the light of the family.

If you are a woman, be happy because you are the life. If you are a man, with due respects bow to the woman who’s most special to you in your life. She has given birth to you. She has raised you. She has taken care of you in all the walks of life. She has dedicated her entire life to you.

As I read the newspaper with these thoughts in my mind a stray incident of domestic violence caught my eye. Domestic violence in 21st century?

The bizarre fact is that we don’t believe in domestic violence unless we are confronted by it. I have always believed that the globalization has liberalized our views. And true to the fact, women are now working in major leading firms competing with their male counterparts. Perhaps they have broken the shackles around them imposed by their families and more importantly by nature.
Women are still compelled to live with this evil called domestic violence. The reason, they have spun a web of hope and love around their families. Where would they go leaving their husband or children? This is their major limitation.

If you think that this is applicable only to the lower strata of the society, then you are absolutely mistaken. I have come across many women who are beaten black and blue by their husbands. At least they can treat them like fellow human beings, if not as a soul mate.

Why husbands behave like this? I exactly don’t have the rationale, there may be umpteen unjustified reasons, but I can say that women are very unlucky to be at the suffering end.

Lucky is a woman who gets a husband who is liberal and broadminded and who has an ability to understand and empathize with his wife. Lucky is a woman who sees in her husband, a good friend and a soul mate, who cares for her and stays with her in all the ups and downs of her life. Lucky is a woman who can raise her voice against her husband against his misdoings, if she feels so. And lucky is she...

I typed this and closed my laptop even as my fingers still fresh with those burns from the cigarette butts pained a lot and my neck, which mutely witnessed the tremendous strength with which my hair was pulled, discomforted as I turned to the door when I heard my husband knock at it.