I really wish if it had there been a gender converter. It would have been so nice if I were able to change myself from a girl to a boy.
There would have been a lot many advantages of being a boy.
I would not have been referred to as " Paray Dhan" because one day, it would be married off and given away to my in-law family as an object or a property. The reason for my birth would not have to be get married of ane day but have a boy like me educated. I would have been an asset as a boy and a liability on my natal family for being a girl. I would not have been sold with a hefty bride price to a greedy family, which will treat me as their own daughter. Who asks for money for their own daughter?
I would not have to conceal my monthly belly pains from my brothers and guy friends because if I will all my female relatives will kill me for concealing it. I would not have denied entry in the kitchen and temples, because I would not be impure because of menstruation.
I would not have to invite comments from those chatty aunties about not knowing how to make round chapatis. It would have been perfectly fine to not be able to cook because, in my life, it is my wife who will feed me.
I would not have to leave my job after getting married or even before. Luckily, my top priority would have been my job, not just to do all the homely chores and please my in-laws. I would not be merely taunted as too career-oriented and selfish if I worked after having kids.
I would not have been curfewed by my family. I would have been like a free bird and allowed to go for late-night parties and road trips. I would have been allowed to hang out with my friends for as long as I wanted.
I would have not been taunted by the chatty aunties to not dress like a prostitute to attract men. I would have not been mocked for wearing the soo called skimpy clothes. As a boy, I would have been allowed to wear shorts and roam around in undershirts. As a girl stepping out in those would have brought to my family.
As a boy, I would have not been questioned on why consume alcohol. But as a girl, my drinking habits would invite stares from strangers and whispers about my characterless nature. Everyone would socially boycott me and call me shameless for doing so.
I would have not been subjected to any fat-shaming. As a boy, it is all right to have a plum physique, but as a girl, my plump physique would be a disgrace and treated as a liability for my natal as well as my in-law family.
At this time, I really crave if I can be a boy. At least in a patriarchic place where I live it is the need of the hour. It feels like women or girls will be extinct species here so many females are killed inside the womb and outside or ruthlessly send to orphanages and they are already endangered.
- Pragati Sharma
