On being Woman

Well, It's always good to say - I am proud to be an women! At least, on this day; but the hard hitting fact is that none of us are, in reality. At least for certain point of time, we always want to be born as the opposite gender. I don't know about others, but I definitely do. Why? Let me tell you!

For the first, I will put the fact that being a man will help me to avoid all those recurring pains of menstruating. Those days are hard, really hard. Forget about all cramps and pains, it is really hard to spend the whole day during those days in schools, colleges, offices or wherever you are amidst those unequipped, unhygienic washrooms. God bless you if you are on a field duty and are travelling somewhere far away; public toilets are next to non-existent. Or even if you are in a sitting job, staying in the same place, sitting in the same chairs for the whole day with that pinching back pain and cramps is next to scaling a mountain peak! Am i exaggerating? Ask any women near you, you will get the answer.

Then comes the most inevitable aspect- the pain of molestation. Physical or mental. Since your childhood, you have to be alert everywhere; there will be touches, there will be winks, there will be eyes, there will be lips and there will words. On the road, when you are walking after office hours and you are in a hurry, because you have to reach somewhere to finish some urgent work, one or the other person will come from the front and will try to hit your boobs. If not, their looks will rape you in public. Those who blame a dress for the same, ask me. I have never worn anything other than Kurta-Salwar-Duppatta or Sari or Mekhela-Sador in my life (Except childhood days of wearing frocks).

Learning for the Environment: Experiences from International Course on Applied Environmental Education.

I never thought that IAEEC2019 will be so much engaging and encouraging for me. I became a part of it as a member of the organizing team first. But, when I learnt that my responsibilities will require me to spend all the time with the event, I was lured to take the opportunity to be a participant. Today, when I am looking back to the time almost a month ago, I feel that I took a best decision to join this course.

As a educator who is on the initial phases of her career, I believe I have so much more to learn on educating communities and students on environment and nature. International Applied Environmental Education Course gave me a very good opportunity to enrich myself with so many good experiences.

Apart from the course curriculum, which was well thought, planned and executed by two of the best environmental educators of the world, this course also gave me the scope to learn from field works. As a part of our field exposures at Manas  National Park, we interacted with Bodo communities in the fringes of the heritage site on various resource issues and tried to identify problems and issues of them with respect to the national park. We have collected information, analysed and developed communication packages for the communities which was shared with the representatives of the EDCs near the park. Their feedback on our plans and packages gave us new insight to the process and I believe this will help us in future. Similarly, we have also gone for a river walk and interacted with the Karbi communities as a part of our aim to design an educational campaign for saving the river from dying.

Experiential learning was one of the best thing that we have been taught in the course. Learning by doing and the scope of applying it to generate awareness and knowledge is a strategy every eco-educators should know. The practical exercise was fun and our application of the concept during the river walk made it more enriching in many ways.

But, the most interesting part of the course was that it opened a way for interacting and sharing ideas with experts from various sectors. Participants, guest instructors, instructors, community members, conservation activists, forest management personnel - we met so many people in this 21 days and got a glimpse of many good works and ideas that are being done across the globe. Further, developing a bonding among all like minded people and opening up the ways for future coordination and collaboration was something I have gained from the course, which will last beyond its stipulated duration.

With all this, I would like to sign off for the day and say - Vive la IAEEC2019!!

How do you conclude a day!

Learning every day is the key to grow up. So, the course called 'International Applied Environmental Education Course 2019' taught us many new things and presenting the 'wrap up of the day' was one such. Everyday, one or the other participant took the responsibility to keep a track of the entire day's activity and presented in their own way at the end of the day. I took that opportunity to write a 'poem' kind of thing summarizing the day. and would like to share that with you all -

As we all stood up for Myanmar
The shy girl explained their anthem
It was pride that filled their heart
Echoed equally to all of us

Then Vandana came
Stood and explained
Colours and cultures of Devbhoomi
A folk song that echoed nature
Giving all a change to realize how it nurture

Then came the proposal writing session
Voila! Hardly people sat there!!

After the lunch, it was time to decide
What is wrong and what is right
Gus taught ETHICS are situationaly diverse

We had a guest in between
Welcomed Kishor sir all smiling


An university that opened with Devrai
Following Surabhi, came Mahendra Bhai
Showing works of WTI


At the end, came Bibhuti sir
Details of Human Animal Conflict
Seekh lo sab yaar!

Wrap up completed
Let's go together!!

(Details of events in 8 feb, 2019 at IAEEC2019.)

An Ode to the Women!

You will be judged, because you are too fat,
You will be judged, because you are too thin,

You will be judged, because you are dark,
You will be judged, because you are too pale.

You will be judged because you are taller
You will be judged because you are shorter

You will be questioned, because you are single
You will be questioned, because you are divorced
You will be judged for being married too!

You will be commented if you are working,
Eye brows will be raised if you are non-working
Or even you choose to do everything in your own way.

Every morning, your efficiency will be measured by
How early you get up,
How good your handmade tea is or
How round and soft your chapati is,

In every lunch and dinner,
You will be judged based on
What and how quickly you plate up
How many varieties of dishes you prepare

Every movement, every action
Is judged and judged and judged
Whether you wear comfortable cotton or exquisite silk
Whether you choose to remain without make up or
Want to glitter with make up
Whether you choose to adorn yourself with gold, platinum and diamond
Or you don't

Those who want you to get up in the dawn
Will never ask how long you were awake in the night
With the pain allover your body
Because you choose to give your best to them
Those who suggest you to reduce your weight by working out
Will never really come and reduce your workload
So that you get sometime free to take care of yourself

You will have so many nicknames
Depending on how you look
You will be the butt of many jokes
Depending on your weight
But, nobody will ask you ever
How good or bad you feel
How do you long for a night of sleep
Or something that you have loved forever.

You will be kept out of the rituals because every month you bleed
You will be marked unlucky because you continue to bleed years after getting married.

If you are tired, you are weak;
If they are tired, then its work pressure
If you are angry, its your lack of behaviour
If they are angry, its your fault
If you are sick, you need to be mentally strong
If they are, they need rest and care for long


When you sit alone in the dusk with a teary eye
No one will ask, what is the pain
No one will see how restless you are even
They will just count the time till their evening tea
And you will remain
Out there alone, O thee women!!

                                    - Manoshi Goswami
                                      04.01.2019
                                   

                                 

On Independence

So, for those who have celebrated their dose of 'independence', congratulations on 72nd Independence Day of India!

A group of women in remote areas of  Assam

Probably, our dash of patriotism have almost subdued by now, if we have not finished watching all those patriotic movies, that have been highly vocal about the 'Aan Ban Shaan of the great Bharat Ma' or 'Desh ki Mitti''s greatness! After all, It has been long 9 hours and by this time, all the plastic flags in our cars and bikes, shops must have found solace in the roadside drains and dustbins! And, in last 9 hours, this is the first time that I am trying to write those two-three words, that define my sense of nationalism.

Well, I have no criticism against anybody who is celebrating Independence Day! After all, it's their freedom. But, today, as I was pondering over the speech presented by Hon'ble President Kovind ji on the eve of nation's Independence Day while washing the dishes after the lunch, a question popped up to my mind.. 'What is the meaning of Independence for an average women in India?' Hon'ble President have stressed on the freedom of women. Great! However, it would have been greater, if this nation, which have completed 71 years of Independence, would have been able to devise a strategy to recognize the daily contributions made by the 'non-working' fraction of the economy.

What? Wait a second,please! Don't jump into quick conclusion! I am not blaming Modi government for this! Neither the party that ruled the nation for 60 years!

Women busy at weaving

A 2017 report of World Bank says, if more women would have been working, India's Economy would have gone up by 9%. On the other hand, till date, National Sample Survey Office have not been able to find any tool or device that can include or compute the contribution of the women workforce of India who have remain unpaid and unrecognized. Well, to be precise, they belong to 'those who attended to domestic duties only' and 'attended to domestic duties and are also engaged in free collection of goods, sewing, tailoring, weaving etc for household use.' So, at the same time, two different types of discrimination is going on for this group of women - First, they are under constant pressure of daily duties, for which they don't get paid and can't take leave and Secondly, we are not bothering about recognizing their vital role which ensures that other working members of the family can contribute to the nation's development in the best possible way.

This leads to development of a general sense of negligence towards this group of citizen, who are officially 'not economically relevant', because, they don't earn; hence they don't save and support the family with money and also they don't pay the taxes. So, who cares about them! Let them be where they are! They are the most unproductive population!

As of now, I pay a good amount of tax and can boast of the that. But, that has happened only because my mother has chosen to remain such an unproductive 'housewife' and devoted her time in bringing us up to today's stage. You will find such moms and wives throughout every nook and corner of the nation. And because of the financial dependency on their family members, they are not free to live on their own terms and conditions. So, for this whole lot of women, independence is just the smoke that smears their kitchen every day.

The same situation implies for every educated women too. "So, you have completed graduation, chalo theek hai, jaldi se shadi karke settle karo" or "Why you have earned so many degrees? Who will marry you? Then you get married and you are about to reach your thirties, suggestions will come pouring in - "it will be difficult after 30. So, have a kid now itself, you can think about your career later." Or in jobs having field work, a small line in the advertise will say, 'Male candidates will be preferred.' The reason will be simple, this will need extensive field visits and travelling and hence women are not considered possible winner there. In any field you name, same discrimination will continue.

Sometimes, when I hear people talking about choosing something as per talent or interest, I smile. Most often, the example of two great Indian personalities- Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar are cited. It is often said that, if his family would have forced Sachin to learn singing and Lata ji to learn cricket and play, we won't have been able to none of these giants. Perfect and I don't deny that. While agreeing to this, what often surprises me is that, nobody says a women that- 'It's okay if you can't cook this or make perfectly gol roti. This is not your domain. You should concentrate on your research, because you are made for that.' Also, nobody says to any women, 'It is perfectly okay if you don't want to have a baby and become a mother.' Because they are women, they should know how to cook good food, they should know how to manage home and they should make perfect wife and women material.

This is the essence of freedom for any women in my beloved nation, after 71 years of independence. And I am so sorry, that I am unable to celebrate this history of non-recognition, mental and social barriers that put real freedom a distant dream for my fellow women in the nation. I am so sorry, that I could not utter those three beautiful words to any women that I have met in my life, not even to my mom!

And with this apology, let me say bye to all of you for today, because, for me, my time of independence between lunch and evening tea is nearing an end. But, I promise, I will celebrate Independence Day everyday, once my fellow women citizens are given their rights and due recognition, not in literature, but in the real, legal and official words!! Till then, cheers to your 'Independence'!

-- Manoshi