The Great Indian Kitchen: is all my fate?
This simple and thought provoking Malayalam movie, “The Great Indian Kitchen” took me down the lane. The last time I had grown my nails was for my wedding, and now it’s been 14 years. Cleaning vessels till date, never allows me to have a proper long manicured nails. No one to blame at, I just became submissive to the situation. We cannot afford the luxury of having a maid in an average middle class family.
The movie: Can I say loud that it is a mirror of the society?
The theme of the movie focus on how a young girl gets married to an employed man of the same caste. Coming from a different background, upbringing, the heroine tries her level- best to fit in the house. The husband and the father-in-law happily enjoy the food served on the table.
Everything has a saturation point, so does in this movie. The rest, I want you to watch yourself. For those, who don’t understand the language, you get subtitles.
It’s very rarely seen where a husband helps his wife in the kitchen, even though both are working. I can count the times when my husband picked his plate, washed and kept in the shelf. I can vouch the same for majority of working class women. If I retorted, it ended up in ‘halla-gulla’. Over the years, my husband has taken few baby steps in helping me out in the chores.
Something to think about!
Soon after my marriage, I decided, if I ever bore a son, I would teach all the housekeeping from the very beginning. I am a mother two boys, elder is 13 and the younger is 11, I can proudly say my boys know, how to sweep, mop, wash clothes, folding and ironing clothes, clean vessels, cut vegetables, etc. When they were much younger, I would get harsh comment for making ‘boys’ to do such female oriented works. I know I was stubborn at times but I was determined.
My mother never forced me to do any such chores all alone, instead she made my brother to share them. I learnt all the chores slowly and steadily.
Think different.
The point is that especially in our Indian system, “housekeeping= girl’s or woman’s job’’. Can someone tell me that how holding a broom in hand will demean a man’s ego? A working woman has a lion’s share of work, though her husband might be the ‘’lion king’’. Actually she does the second shift, once she reaches home.
E”go’’: nothing official about it!
It says all!
What is meant by ego? Don’t we have it? Or does this come as a patriarchal gift to a male?
There are few movies and advertisements which throw light on work sharing and gender disparity equality, but how far their impact remains is a question.
As a mother, I took pledge to raise my sons well not only providing them education or values but also how to handle the daily chores of the house. We can’t expect them to show respect woman one fine day, that miracle will never happen, instead it should be nurtured in them from the very beginning and remember it’s a daily process.
