Kamrajya: India 2988
May You be Blessed with a Hundred Daughters!
Dr. Anamika
Literature & Associate Professor,
Satyavati College, Delhi University
She hums it slowly as she enters Mother Draupadi’s cottage in the Himalayas.
Nandini:
Paa-lagan, great-great Maa Draupadi!
Draupadi: Ayushmati Bhawa! May God (and also the system) grant you a long life! Do you know, child,
there was a time when only men were expected
to be Ayushman (wearing fruitful years of a long
life). Women were content with the wish of
remaining “Saubhagyawati” (unwidowed). The
life of a widow was made so wretched that even
parents wanted their daughters to die early, at
least before their husbands.
Nandini:
I
n 1988, there were 933 women per 1000 men. This is the
year 2988. Now there are only 133 women per 1000 men.
There is a severe shortage of women in “Kamrajya”.
How can all the men find their wives?
The world is full of Tommy Suckers. Sex-starved men crawl
on roads. Each woman is supposed to take at least 7
husbands. Women all act like precious babes, and like
near-extinct species, they are pampered and cajoled.
Why say “even” parents? Parents were the real
culprits. They were the ones responsible for
this drastic fall in the sex-ratio. They were the
ones who murdered foetuses in thousands,
after sex-determination tests, amniocentesis,
a needle into the womb drawing out the amniotic fluid and testing it in a lab, then an abortion
if it was a female foetus.
Draupadi: But parents were not the sole culprits. India
has always been a land of huge inner contradiction, hailing women as devis and killing them
as dasies. Food, medical attention, education
and property have all been a son’s prerogative
because he alone has been entrusted with the
two mighty responsibilities of protection in old
age and funeral offerings leading to the steps of
Heaven.
Nandini is one of the most sought-after woman-sailors,
supposed to have a husband at every port. Fed up with
advances, she travels in time to meet Draupadi. On her
agenda is an animated discussion on the art and craft of
managing multiple husbands. As a brilliant career woman
she is hard pressed of time. This situation of having husband here and a husband there reminds her of the old
Nursery Rhyme her great grandmother had recorded for her
way back in 1988:
Nandini:
“Here a chick and there a chick, chick, chick everywhere.
Old Mc Donald had a farm EIEIO”
4
But reports say that sons have never had time
for their aging parents. Daughters have always
symbolised care ethics. Even those who have
been denied the privilege of education and a
decent job thereafter, always looked after the
natal families without neglecting the adopted
ones.