This blog post is not about marketing, its not even about New Media, which I write on, but this is about life. I have been lucky enough to see the evolution of a trend which is great, but has many in-built flaws.
If you really give it a minute of your time and think, then you will see a particular trend in everything in this world. The things we go through, what we do, its all a trend. Everything in this world has its own good and attached with it its own bad (or not so good) however you want to put it.
Lets talk about Independence
I am proud to be the citizen of one of world’s largest and strongest democracies, where people sacrificed their lives many years back to give us freedom. I can see dreams and do what I want to today because I have been bestowed with the freedom to do this. But over a period of time, I have strongly felt that whatever comes to us easily in life, we start taking its presence in our life by default. The appreciable value of the same thing goes down!
Women and Independence
Before I write this, I must confess there is a lot I have learnt from the leading ladies in my life, my Mother, Sister, Wife and Many of my female friends. There’s a certain way of life for them. Anyway, now let me share a picture and this is not a myopic view of things, so hold before you react.
My Mother (just like you’rs) went through much in life, she saw phases when she lived her life and raised us up with almost no means. Obviously my Sister and I were brought up well. My Sister belongs to the generation which has values from her Mother but is changing and evolving with the times. My Wife pretty much belongs to my Sister’s times.
What’s common though in all the three ladies?
Well, they have all been raised up and been ‘looking for’ a certain kind of a feeling called ‘Independence’. For my Mother, Independence lets say is about having enough means to build a strong happy family. For my Sister, lets say to ensure while she is a working woman, she is project managing her home. For my Wife its pretty much the same perspective.
My Mother raised my Sister, telling her stories about what all she has faced and hence made her daughter strong enough to face the world. My Wife’s mother did the same. But what is changing now is, these stories along with the times we are living in are becoming inspiration for the birth of a small ‘Rebel’ inside the heart of the otherwise sane human.
I earn my own money, I am Independent!
I have heard so many women today speak of this and I am sure many of you would agree, that I want to earn my own. A girl in college says I don’t want to be dependent on my parents and a Girl getting married says, I don’t want to be dependent on my Husband.
Hold for a second and think, its the same girl who is growing up and one day will have her own family and will tech her daughter/ son one day that I had to go through so much in my times, I will make you guys strong enough to ensure you don’t.
Does money really makes you independent in life? Well, yes it might buy you many things, but Independence, well, probably not. And mind you, it also does not buys you confidence. It only buys you things.
I have my own life, my own decisions: I am the 21st Century Woman!
Agreed. And everyone has the right to live a good happy life. But in this whole ‘want’ of living your ‘own’ life and taking your ‘own’ decisions, you are being ‘reduced to only you’. I take many workshops for college students and corporate(s), I have seen the shift in the thought process. Education must have made us go getters and more enlightened, somehow I feel its making us more like rats in a race.
Especially in India, where we are all ‘bechara’s’. Somehow I feel we have been fighters (not in the literal sense), but we have many fights in our lives. The whole thing is, we are trying to ‘prove ourselves right’ all the time, by getting over the whole scene of ‘boss life mei bahut fight hai’. From a railway station to a college form line, there’s fight in every sense of the word.
http://www.ambuuncle.com/images/indian_women.jpg
And one day we get married!
While we are growing up through all these fights of life, one day we get married and the whole thing of raising up a successful family dawns upon us. Now lets re-visit, what I said in the starting of this post. When a girl gets married, the same mother will give her lessons of life, her friends will give her some. But what’s happening in India, as I see it, today is, what a professor of mine at college told me: “Paritosh, chances are that the woman you will marry tomorrow might have multiple relationships in her life before and she must have learnt from all of them, for you life is not the same as what I had”.
And I agreed to him and accepted the fact with just a line from my side, I said whether a woman OR a man, I don’t see much differences other than physical. What I would really want is to see women in this world really creating a beautiful world (because I strongly believe, men are a little lacking in this). The only rider I have for women is, have fun ladies, but do take care of the future, which is changing for all of us.
I hear so many people talking of how the world is changing and I instantly get reminded of a line I heard from a gentleman many years back who said, in Bhagwad Gita, Bhagwan Shri Krishna has predicted that generations will go down because the raisers (women) are changing.
Do I have issues with women leading the game?
NO! Ask my current boss/ colleague Geetika, she is a wonderful person to work with (not because she is my boss). Entrepreneurs don’t have this thing of buttering and all, we are straight talkers and so am I. I love the fact that women lead the game, infact I would love to see women creating a whole compassionate environment in the corporate jungle. But not at the cost of creating a future in the name of a feeling called Independence. Remember Money in the short term is NOT independence.
But I do have issues seeing the future!
What we do will come back to us within this lifetime, I strongly believe in this as well. And hence the next generations. More sharp, more intelligent (great), but into drugs, cigarette buts in schools, liquor is a fashion statement. And I am not saying this is all due to women, it is NOT. Men are as much responsible. But Ladies, you always say it and its true, you guys can create a far better world and a great happy future.
Maintain your relationships, whatever it takes
Ensure that whatever it takes, build strong relationships, because a broken relationship in your early days is an experience which you will at some stage share it with your kids, your daughters who will be raising a world of their own tomorrow!
I just wanted to share this on this Saturday, because this is one thought which disturb me personally, this is one thing I am seeing building around me and I will be the happiest to see folks roaming around happily with each other, creating a future of this country, which is truly BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL 
Over the past couple of months, while supporting many clients in creating success with innovative New Media efforts, by helping them reach out to their target audience, a good chunk of what we do is RESEARCH on the CONSUMER BEHAVIOR.