Lockdown and housewives

Housewives is an outdated term. More fancy word would be homemaker though the life they live is just the same. It might have improved over the period of time due to the upsurge of electronic equipments and facilities. But does their life change? I have been mulling over this topic for sometime when my daughter told me that she wanted to be a homemaker and somehow I was not happy. There is no other better time for this post as it is lockdown and everyone is having a chance to have a first hand witnessing experience of a homemaker’s life. Atleast 60% of the judgemental world, which include men and working women, would understand that “simply sitting at home” is not easy, that lack of social life is frustrating, that living a life of a proverbial frog in the well is humiliating, being called jobless is unfair and holding it together amidst judgement is disheartening.

Coincidentally, I watched two women centric movies back to back. They are more homemaker centric. Panga and Thappad. This is not a review of the movies but they need to be referred here so as to put forward the point.

The life portrayed and the message conveyed by the movies are similiar like the actresses who have stark similarity in their looks. While Panga sketches the life of an ex Kabaddi player who left her passion to take care of her son, Thappad tells the life of a woman who left her passion for dance to take care of her husband and mother in law. While Kangana’s character did all household jobs and managed her railway job, she is blessed with a husband who takes care of her and understands her. But Thappad is a whole different tale on that front. I might be the only woman who opposes the message conveyed by the movie.

While I second the argument that slapping is not done in a relationship, a slap being counted as a reason for divorce is immature. Nonetheless the screenplay justifies the protagonist’s actions by developing the circumstances where her husband is proved at fault. I wonder why the movie was promoted as a mere message against slap. From my perspective, Taapsee’s character is unjustifiable from the moment she decided to be a mere homemaker just because her mother told her to be. In the current scenario keeping one’s desires aside and brushing it under the carpet is not so done. If one should take home anything from the movie, that’s the message that never compromise on your passion.

While Kangana’s character in Panga has all the right reasons to choose her family over her passion and later go back to her life. Taapsee’s character is shrunk down to a name sake feminist, for the sake of being tagged a feministic movie. All the male characters expect Taapsee’s father are chauvinists in the movie.

Now, coming to our real life homemakers. The message one should take home is not that a single slap should end up in divorce. Communicate well with your spouse but don’t be silent to domestic, emotional and psychological abuse. Realise them and work on them.

Girls, there is nothing wrong to be a homemaker. Being a homemaker doesn’t make you jobless. Find your passion. Pursue it. Use this lockdown to prove that you’re not “simply sitting at home”. Let this be a blessing in disguise. Let’s see more passionate home makers after the lockdown. Identify your passion and develop it.