It’s evening. And I am leaving office. A well known voice calls out to me and starts chatting. Well OK, I have some time for a little bit of this and a tiny bit of that, so I stop. After some perfunctory conversation, the voice casually mentions the dryness of my hair and puts an enormous effort in giving some well-meaning suggestions to smooth and silky (dandruff-free!) hair. I wouldn’t deny that it is an unruly mane only pacified by tons of deep conditioning and tedious brushing. But it’s not that which I take offence to. In fact, I don’t take offence at all. I only think.
It may or may not come as a surprise to you but the owner of the voice is of the male species. Now, I am only in my mid-twenties and it is not a scandalous revelation. It is not, as a friend of mine often propagates – A Haw (Hindi) Factor. I know about the metro sexual man, his awareness of beauty and the means of achieving it. His feminine side and various unfeminine ones do not faze me. So, I gulp down my lack of the inherent modernism and take it in my stride.
Coming from a background of co-education, snide remarks from boys about unwaxed arms and hints about the impending trips to the parlour were the order of the day. But those were naïve times and anything went. But now I am driven to wonder if it’s me who is outdated? Another instance where a colleague wanted to catch a movie with me produced comical results. This male expected me to do the groundwork that is find out the movie timings, arrange tickets for the most convenient time (For Him!!) and take a deep breath here, drop him back to his place too!! And I hadn’t even asked him out!! Don’t get me wrong here, I am not counting male buddies which I have loads of and share an ultra cool relation with. This is something different. I can feel the current. The modern man is not only getting in touch with his feminine side, but now, quite imposing it on the hapless females around him, who actually have no idea what’s hit them! By the way, I never went for the movie. Couldn’t bring myself to it!
But is it me then, who is stagnant amidst the rising tide of change? Who despite shrieking out desperate cries of feminism to the slightest slip of male chauvinism, wants to hold on to the comfortable dated values because they make me feel special and terribly feminine? Will I be able to adapt to the increasing demands of the gradual morphing of gender roles?
Maybe I will, or maybe I’ll just let the next generation make sense of the chaos. They already have, I think. Meanwhile for me, the only hope is to find a likeminded companion, who doesn’t mind being chivalrous and dropping me for a change.
