Where there is a Girl, There is a way! :P

Before I really go about writing this post, I wanna state that I am not a male chauvinist, neither am I a feminist and I hate it totally when people of the two ideologies strain their vocal chords to prove their point, over the other!(phew! bail taken!hopefully granted! :P)

It was a Friday afternoon and even being an hour early did not really help me get into a comfortable position in the long queue of people waiting to take their learner's license. Well the test had to be easy...at least thats what people around me had told me... however that did not really stop me from taking momentary glances into the test-guide i had been given earlier that day!

It was around 1:45 pm. I could not help noticing that i was sweating profusely(thanks to the sultry monsoon weather) and even being on the first floor veranda with an open side facing a barren land did not help much!

I looked around.. There was a group of guys, flocked together in front of me making it difficult to see what was happening ahead of them, in the queue. I even doubted if they were there for the same reason as I was.... Well I took a chance and slid ahead of them, as if I motioned just to see where the curved queue was heading! When they sensed that I was lurking around for more than 2-3 minutes, they started giving me weird looks and I sensed it would be better(for their vocal chords and my ego)(or thinking further, for their fists and my face) to return to my original "coveted" position in the queue! Before I returned I did notice that the person standing immediately next to the group was almost a meter ahead of them and it turned out to be a girl of around 18, who was constantly throwing glances of discomfort and fear back at them! She was one of those typical Malayalee mankas(traditional beauties) with hip-long hair (almost entirely soaked in coconut oil) tied in a mudi-pinnal fashion(hmm... its a mallu lady-hair style where u take 3 strands of hair, one each from right, left and center and inter twine them and let the rest of the hair flow :))well of course her light green colored churidaar with a neatly ironed one-time-folded shawl, pinned towards her left shoulder, covering the entire length of her salwaar, almost confirmed my doubts that she belonged to a typical mallu family which had its own share of narrow minded thoughts when it came to girls and their freedom! I really wished I took a place in that 1 meter gap but i guess I dint trust my physique much :P and yeah I dint wanna scare that girl either..

It was almost 2 when another girl walked in(with almost similar physical appearance as the previous) and she took a look around the place and decided to take up a position in that 1-meter gap with the least of guilt! "Noooooooooooooooooooo...." I shouted to myself! "Thats mine.. I spotted it first,you bitch! :x " "anyways you wont be there for long! those guys will anyways throw you off the queue in no time... I am pretty sure you wont be able to resist those looks! muahahhaha " I consoled myself!:)

But that was not meant to be! or maybe that was meant not to be! Not a single guy retorted.. on the contrary they moved a step back to maintain the 1meter gap! "losers :x"... A guy from inside came out and announced that the server was down and the chances of test being held today were dim! "wah! 1 hour worth wait for nothing! :x" But something told me I should wait a bit more and test my luck and I was all set to grab the spot right behind the girls if the group of guys left.. They,however, were undecided on their next move!

Suddenly as if a flock of birds had been shot at, they decided to leave the space in the most random fashion ever and I could not even save myself from their stabs and hits , forget grabbing the spot right behind the girls.. and as soon as I freed myself off their clutches i realized that the spots were filled but I dint really regret since it was quite a cute girl(pretty modern for kerala standards) standing right in front of the guy standing in front of me! Of course his testosterone levels were at an all time high and he had started his hit-on attempts right from the beginning thought it took sometime for them to see the fruits of success because the girl could not, even for a moment, take her hands and eyes off the mobile set into which she was typing in stuff as fast as she could making sure her mom(standing next to her) saw nothing of the text! In the mean time they had announced that the server was back on track(yipeeeeeeeee "at least one right decision")... One by one everyone made their entry into the cubicle where the test was bound to happen! Of course that wasn't anywhere in the near vicinity though! I amused myself with his on-going failed attempts to patao that girl(he even excused himself and brought her mom a chair from i dunno where!ha the old impress-mom-impress-daughter technique!)and the moment I thought i should probably lend him a helping hand in his endeavors (:P) the girl started showing interest in him too!

In about an hours time, i was at the origin of the queue and all 3 of us suddenly got confused as to where we were supposed to go! I inquired and found out the right counter we were supposed to go to! But the guy in front of me insisted on going to the other counter and of course the girl believed "her man" more.. lol... anyways i stuck to the right counter but the queue still had around 5-6 people in front of me! and soon the duo realized their mistake and got back... As i saw them coming I said to myself "i tooooooooold you...serves u right.. now stand behind me as a punishment for not listening to me":P.. To my shock the girl made a separate girls queue(wah! smartass!) and the guy stood in a peculiar way, semi-legged, with one leg in (now) the gents- queue as if he was there only to have a chit-chat with the girl and nothing else... soon her turn was up and she handed over her form to the person at the counter and said in one of her girly tones " Sir, I hope you wouldnt mind taking his form too.. he is with me" and waved a smile at him! The guy dint give a second thought and took it! "what the helllll! not again!!! as if the earlier queue mishap wasn't enough! :x"i looked back and gave a "you-loser!" look to all of the men standing behind me... well it took me another half an hour to get done with my tests and walk off that building!!!

As i walked back I thought to myself about the social set up in Kerala and the position women held in it! (this is where my bail comes into action.. just to remind you :P) I had met 3 entirely different kind of girls in past 3 hours, and all of them reminded me of the weird society we had set up for women in Kerala... Of course it is the most literate state in India especially when it comes down to female literacy and it has always boasted about its much-envied sex-ratio! But in spite of all these, when it comes down to dealing with men especially by a girl of the first kind I had mentioned, brought up in a typical mallu, narrow-minded, male-chauvinism- supporting family, she would find her mouth drying and knees shivering! The second girl who remorselessly occupied the free spot would definitely want to believe those MCP theories but would rather "turn the court" in favor of her benefits and take advantage of the social situations (where an act of insult to women is highly defined, forcing one to believe that it is more at the mercy of women than at men) which have in turn been formulated from these very MCP theories!The third one is an out right believer in equality of the sexes and maybe even one of those who thinks it is her responsibility to take care of her man than vice-versa!

And all these different ideologies are set against the backdrop of the "age of women liberation"!It sure does puzzle me how the whole women's liberation act is going to happen over the coming years (at least in Kerala) where probably every woman has a different interpretation of her existence and her strength in comparison to men! I guess that is where men score! They universally believe they are the better sex! I guess once women r universally made to believe the same, things should be much easier! But of course that would be an uphill task!

Now I don't wish to support any school of thought! I have and will always believe in the power women possess, however different it might be! "Where there is a Girl, There is a way"

P.S Well maybe the context is well applicable to all states and all countries. But I believe Kerala required its share of attention in gender issues for the reasons i stated above and u guessed it right! I am a mallu :)