BREAKING FREE! COME ON GIRLS!

This could be the most controversial piece that I have ever written. But the unique journey of life that I have lived tugs at my very soul - and I must put it to paper, for not doing it would give me enormous pain.

I have loved girls. I always wanted to be a girl - as most boys do! I couldn't live without my mother. As I grew up, I always was playing along with girls - till the gestures of elders and the girls I played with started changing - a subliminal indication that I should play WITH BOYS. In the rains, in which I danced - I often wondered why my younger sister too couldn't - a wedge was created in my soul. I saw the injustice and vowed that when I grew up I would change things.

The girls are supposed to sweep floors, wash the vessels, cook food and maybe iron their brothers' clothes. Times have changed, you may suggest, but there are other forms of `slavery' that continues. Women, too, have been responsible for their own miseries - a mindset has been created. Look at the serials on the TV or the movies - which continue to depict the `girls' like products. The painted faces, gold laden necks and arms - the ultimate `clone' that every one should become. A slavery of a mind-set that sees the `girls' as picture post cards - but take away the cosmetics and it is a story of a `lost soul'.

The refusal to deny the `girls' their humanity has continued unabated. But the denial has not been by `boys' but by `girls' themselves. So for the freedom to come - the girls must `break free'. Every song that my mother sung for me as a lullaby is etched in my memory - she has been my original `girl' till today. Bold, fierce and true to her convictions - married at a young age - she `broke free' in spite of never having had formal education. As I see my sister, managing her family, she too has broken free and I wonder what is it that would take - to see that the `girls' have
the same rights as the `boys'.

I remember the day when C climbed a hill and I knew SHE HAD BROKEN FREE! I remember the day when half of our cricket team was girls and we beat an all boys' team. And the day when an eleven year old spastic S scored her first basket. And the days, when almost all the club's girls climbed hundreds of hillocks around Bangalore. And the day when R - a thirteen year old - scored her match winning three pointer. And the mother of a child who was hurt during climbing telling me `my daughter will become one of the best climbers one day'- and a girl from III standard who beat V standard boys in high jump - and a girl who is with me all day long trying to do the most extra-ordinary job of managing her `grandson' and enjoying it.

GIRLS must get back to being `the better part of humanity' - to break free, they will have to have firmer convictions and focussed goals - and not be merely the recipients of `cloned' mind-sets. It is not enough for them to march along with the boys - it is time to move ahead of them and BREAK FREE! COME ON GIRLS!