Man, a bicycle
At a seminar held on the occasion of International Women’s Day, celebrities shared their idea of the relationship between a man and a woman
By Shubhdarshani Mitra
Celebrating feminism is considered fashionable these days. Within a marriage or outside the institution, the message given out loud and clear is that the women of today can be successful with or without men. There is a consensus among the two genders that the women folk are doing equally well and also better than the men in various fields. Be it women in politics or women in space or even a next-door housewife-turned-entrepreneur; women are proud achievers.
While International Women’s Day was celebrated across the world, the women’s wing of industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), celebrated womanhood by conducting a seminar on supporting partnerships in New Delhi, a day ahead of the Women’s Day.
While the question in focus was ‘Is there a man behind every successful woman?’ as opposedto the conventional ‘there is a woman behind every successful man’, the thoughts shared were varied, interesting and multi-hued.
“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” this is what Sadia Dehlvi, an author and an actress had to say about the relationship between the two genders.
Married more than once, Delhlvi, this child of the rock n roll era of the Seventies strongly feels that men want to own women and it’s the woman who has to make multiple choices in life, whether it’s a choice between marriage and career or otherwise. With her heart and soul dedicated to Delhi, Delhvi (as her last name suggests) was the only single woman among a panel of three couples — filmmaker and revivalist Muzaffar and Meera Ali, Bridal Asia heads Sandeep and Divya Gurwara and former director of Sriram School and soccer coach Bill and Dr Abha Adams.
Delhvi, with her sharp sense of humour, kept referring to men in the panel as ‘bicycles’ and wanted to know how they run the wheels of the house and how supportive they are. This is what Muzaffar Ali, filmmaker of Umrao Jaan fame and one of the ‘bicycles’, as referred to by Delhvi, had to say about the relation:
“I think all relationships have to be very creative. It’s about synergy between two people It’s about two people having same values” .
As an artist, Muzaffar feels that in no way can a person claim to be an artist unless his or her heart is drawn towards something and that “you need a combination of madness and sanity to make sense of things you are into.” However, Muzaffar’s wife Meera Ali, while agreeing with her hubby, confessed that marriage is a tough choice for the woman as the men in question always put conditions like ‘love me, love my family etc’. It’s the woman who has to walk the tight rope of pursuing her career and running the family and bringing up the kids.
As to whether a man is behind every successful woman, Bill Adams said, “Success of any person is not of a single person. There have to be many people.” Abha, on the other hand, said that her husband was not only behind her but also pushed her when she needed that extra nudge to follow her dreams.
Sandeep and Divya Gurwara believed that though poles apart in terms of their nature, they compliment each other and owe their success to each other.
The day ended with the thought that ultimately men and women don’t exist in a vacuum and both need to successfully walk together and not one behind the other.
