The marriage – cinema syndrome.

\”Oh, you girl. You are way past your age to get settled. What are you doing with your life? What? You want to get to Cinema? Don\’t you know its a bad field? No good family will give a boy to a girl who is working in cinema.\”

Stereotypes. Cliche. Syndrome. Damn, you call it! 

An year back I wrote something on why Cinema can\’t be accepted as a profession. It was one of those rare blogs which fetched me quite a lot of reviews and recognition, as a blogger. The fact that I am still getting views on it clearly indicates something is right in what I said. Hmm. No wonder why I am back to a similar topic. 

So one of my friends who is said to be well past her age for marriage – I don\’t know who has defined an age for marriage – was asked to shelve her passion in front of the groom\’s family. Rather, just mention \’You like cinema\’ as a matter of least importance, in a casual way. Two questions – 

1. Why should a girl\’s passion be hid in front of the society? 

2. Is it because the passion is cinema, it should be hid? 

Women\’s freedom, Women empowerment, Women safety.. blabber all that as much as you want. But make it a point, you don\’t blabber it in the cities alone. Because, the root of a city\’s mindset comes from its rural areas. Go there, talk there. You will be thrown stones. You will be booed. But show your mettle there! If the young girls from the outskirts of a city can travel a mile to achieve their dreams, it will eventually spread like a virus – a good one – to all those in the city. Its unfortunate, I have to divide this matter into city and rural areas. But its a fact we all should painfully accept. 

Secondly, cinema. Hah! Why is there so much of presumptions when it come to being in a Cinema? IT, Journalism, Athletics.. All these areas have the same problem you are scared of. Then why single out Cinema? Is it because of the fame that comes along with? The funny part is all these people who want their daughters to hide their passion, if its cinema, are one of the bigger audiences of masala cinemas, where they go and blindly clap for the misogynist dialogues. In today\’s world the fear of having a daughter is sadly understandable; for that we live in a world with less humanity. But the tendency to single out an art form as the sole place where such things happen is a sin to the existence of human beings. 

Final point. Marriage is NOT the last word in a dictionary.