My dream is to fly, over a rainbow so high!!

To me a rainbow means perfection. The perfect seven shades arched over a bright blue sky can be nothing but bliss. My dream is to attain bliss, to attain perfection. I know it is difficult or maybe the toughest thing to achieve, coz as they say, nothing’s perfect. But yes, striving for perfection is also an end in itself, something to be proud of.

In the life of a girl, especially an Indian girl, this rainbow of perfection gets a new name. This standard of perfection is called ‘Sarva Guna Sampanna’. Relax! My readers don’t faint for what you just read. It is Garry writing. To not make you feel uncomfortable by referring to this super loaded expression too many times, I will refer to it in the future as ‘SGS’. How much ever we may blabber about the modernization of the world, the new age thinking process, the ideas of Gen Y, what can never be challenged is that we are ultimately traditional Indians, who are way too much in love with the Indian ways and pay respect to everything Indian in all sanctity. This applies to religion, rituals, traditions, social norms and the like. Though certain things have been tweaked to varying levels in this modern society, it essentially remains what it used to be even half a century ago. And if I were to plot myself on a traditional-modern continuum, I would be 70 traditional, 30 modern. Yes this result is after significant level of analysis of me. The fact that I am an MBA, I am bound to analyze everything that exists, so pardon me the overly done analysis of every damn thing. That’s me.

What probably has undergone a sea change in this time is the definition of SGS. While some 30 years ago, a beautiful, homely girl got the status of SGS, a few years later, the criteria were beautiful, homely and convent educated. Now, when women have undergone a treatment called “empowerment” the standard still remains, it’s just that it gets a new, more exacting definition. In today’s times an SGS is a girl who is beautiful, homely, well educated, and working. She should have the skill to earn a fat pay packet as well as mange the home, the parents the kids and live up to all social expectations. The only thing this translates to be is that life becomes a battle, a walk on the tightrope, the most difficult balance to strike.

I feel that not too far away in time, I will be subjected to such scanning and analysis and I will have to relent. So like most Indian girls, even after going to the best schools and being exposed to the big bad world out there, and believing all my life that I have a highly liberated existence, I will yet be exposed to the inspection and evaluation of the world, will I make it to the famed lot of SGS. Will my avaguna (ill traits), I think I have just one, overpower and be the hindrance in me getting there.

Time will tell how much of the positives and the negatives remain, and which side wins the battle. Whether I will manage to fly over the rainbow, so very high!!