Somedays ago I woke up as early as possible and after having breakfast I rushed to office . I took a rickshaw to get to the Jadavpur railway platform as early as possible and I boarded in a train and headed to Sealdah station. After reaching Sealdah sation, one of the busiest stations in the world, I had moved to the other platform to catch the train for going to Bidhan Nagar station. In fact, from Bidhan Nagar station, it takes a very little time to get to my office within scheduled time. When I used to travel by bus, I was always being late for due to heavy traffic jam, the buses are compelled to move in a snail’s speed. That is why I quit the idea of travelling by bus and started travelling by train. I have also got monthly which is worth 100 INR. with a validity of one month, so that I can avoid standing in the queue for ย getting the ticket for the purpose of not getting caught by the station master . Anyway, when I reached Sealdah station with the hope of getting Sealdah-Bidhan Nagar train, all of a sudden my ears started ringing ……….. “We are announcing that due to some unavoidable circumstances the trains are not going to move. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to the passengers.” It was 9-30 AM and hearing this I was feeling like that i fell out of the sky or to be exact, the whole lot of sky had fallen on my head. ย I was in such a position where I was completely embarrassed and did not have any idea what to do next so that I could get to the office withing time. I could have got out of the station and took bus to get to the office, but I did not because I felt that that idea might not work in way I thought it would. So, I preferred waiting for sometime. While I was waiting in the platform, I asked an GRP officer what exactly had happened due to which all stopped moving. What I came to know from him that about 150 women obstructed train movement at Khardah station protesting the opening of a few coaches of Ladies Special train for mail passengers . The obstruction ย was removed when some of the railway officials came to the place and assured the protesters of reviewing the decisions taken by the authority. But the matter did not end . The male passengers, being unhappy with the decisions of the railway authority, sat on the railway tracks demanding the share of coaches in Ladies Special. When local GRP guys reached there to remove them from railway track, they started throwing stones at them in which lots of people got injured and wounded. ย Anyway, hearing all these things, I decided to go out of the station and took a cab and reached office at 11 PM as I had no other options.
I want to ask a few questions to all the women, girls and everyone……. do you people think that we, guys are being overgenerous to you and do you take our modesty and chivalry as our weakness? You ladies, whenever you come to us and demand the share of the seats in buses and trains, we happily leave place for you if it is within our limit. ย But whenever a man seating in an ladies’ sit, you compel him to leave the sit for you saying that ladies’s seats are only reserved for ladies. Is it justifiable ?We have no problems in sharing seats with you. Why do you people create unnecessary problems when we want to share one coaches of an train ? Or you people consider your father’s property whatever you will get, right? Go and tell these stories to the people of other countries and see how they will react. It takes two hands to clap. If you expect us to give you respect, then you need to do the same for us. Moreover, I want to tell those people who think in this way they will be empowered, ย they are the fools of the millennium. ย Women empowerment cannot be achieved in this way by raising unjustifiable demands, if you want something , you need to earn it. You cannot get yourselves empowered by merely creating scene. ย Try to be liberal and learn to share. And do not take advantage of our modesty and chivalry.
In the conclusion I would like to say that world is made of men and women alike. Just like one man cannot walk with one leg, once society cannot progress without the participation of men and women alike. With small sweet talks , ladies, you can win the whole world. You can’t have all the things you long for, Try to find happiness with whatever you have. Excess of something is not appreciable. I am not against women. But I am against taking undue advantage in the name of gender equality and women’s participation. That’s the world has to learn.