KBC And Women Empowerment

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Started watching Kaun Banega Crorepati since Monday. The show has unexpectedly changed my daily routine as someone who goes to gym / walk late after dinner. Now I have to complete my exercise before 9 pm so that I can watch it peacefully. I don’t know after how long I am watching something on television. The good old days when we ran to the kitchen or the wash room during a break. For the longest time that I can remember it has been Netflix, and Hotstar, Ozee (Mom misses her Zindagi channel) and Altbalaji. (Don’t judge me… I am a fan of Sakshi Tanwar and could not resist Kar le tu bhi mohabbat).

Coming back to the show, last two episodes there was a female contestant from Uttar Pradesh, Archana Vijay. She was full of spunk. I would have loved to see her win more. She said some things on the show which I could completely relate to:

• How every girl is told to get up early, do household work etc so that she is prepared for marriage! As if marriage is the sole goal of our existence!

• As a perfect career advice people give young women – Why don’t you do B. Ed and get into teaching. It is perceived as such a future husband, future in-laws and future children friendly profession! Well, what if the woman is not interested in that?

• She also talked about how following tradition blindly makes no sense. We have conveniently adopted all kinds of new techniques to save time and effort. Why be regressive when it comes to women?

People always say society is like this. People are like that. What can we do? What can we possibly change? Well, nobody is expecting anyone to change the society. But we can at least take charge of our own life. This lady started a cyber café. She speaks up against what she does not feel right. She is not badtameez, she is just logical. I loved the example she gave of aata chakki. But regressive people don’t like logic. Logic defies tradition.

On a completely irrelevant note, she referred to her husband as her “Mister”. Mr. Bachchan interrupted her and clarified that she was addressing her husband and that some people may not get it as it is a very UP thing. Throughout my childhood I have heard people say, “Humare Mr. yeh karte hai, Unki Mrs. nahi hai.. etc.” The fact that I did not find it odd at all, was a reminder that I am quite rustic myself! 🙂

One of the questions asked to her was ‘Which movie has won the National Award for a social message in 2017?’ The answer was Pink. How could I have missed that? A movie with the message ‘No means no’ won an award. The same movie that so many progressive people failed to understand and said,‘But why did the woman go inside a room with an unknown man? What was she thinking?’ Mr. Bachchan then reemphasized that message – No means no whether the woman is your wife or girlfriend.

The next contestant who came on the show spoke about female infanticide. I missed that part but my mother later told me that he coaches women for competitive exams.

By the end of the show, I felt really happy. A financially empowered woman who spoke her mind. A man who wants to empower women. A movie on woman’s consent winning an award. And the greatest superstar of all times spreading the message.

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