Photo by: Hitesha
Teej is the festival which my mom cherish a lot. She loves to be in red apparition and everything she uses must be red. Even the rubber band she needs red. Red symbolizes my father’s biological existence and my mom does that and keeps that with her extremely respectful heart and soul. Red is the thing she loves a lot. Seeing that I too give that respect to the color red a lot.
Red symbolizes victory, power, and blood. The true color of life nothing can compete with the color red. However, I rarely use the color red and there is only one red kurta in my wardrobe. But I love to see my mother wearing red things.
Finally this year Teej is in and we can see flocks of women on the road wearing this red dress and red bangles and red everything. I feel an utter happiness when I see these women’s and girls celebrating Teej then I feel really good because it is the part of our long culture. Perhaps the girls are going to find out their Prince Charming. But I love their attitude towards a continuation of their culture. I do that for sure and for obvious reasons. I love to continue what my mom does but a big NO to finding out my Prince Charming. ( I am reluctant to this part of culture )
Teej particularly knows as a festival of women is considered as the biggest festival and biggest day for women. ( For satirizing purpose it is often regarded as the Freedom day for women ). Women go to their parents home for eating Dar, which is food that is eaten before the Teej day. Particularly Dar is not any kind of dish but it is preparing different kinds of tasty meals and eat it till the midnight so that women do not go hungry on their fast the following day. Hmm…The following day they even do not drink a drop of water ( I do this not drinking a single drop of water)
So, I was writing about the Teej’s enthusiasm in women and how do they cherish this day being so much euphoric. The married one do it for their husband’s long life and the young girl like me do it to find their Prince Charming, Mr. Right and perhaps the Shiva. ( As Parvati, Lord Shiva’s wife had done this fast and got her Lord Shiva ). Perhaps the girls search for their Shiva. ( I feel seriously laughing because when you take it from the feminist point of view then I become reluctant. I do not want to live under the whims of my Prince Charming )
When we look at the other side of the Teej how could we miss those innocent women’s who have lost their husbands and living a life of a widow? They even took fast but they rarely wear the RED. Red is totally forbidden to them. If they wear red it will be a sin. Why the color red becomes the curse for these women. They have trembling heart whenever they see other women in their attractive RED apparition. They lose the right to wear red since the death of their husband. It is the most painful when women’s Red bangles, Red sari, Red Pote ( the wedding band women wear around their neck) and Red Sindoor ( Vermillion powder which they put on the forehead) is mercilessly taken away and burned with the body of the husband. This is perhaps the snatching of the most beautiful right a women preserves.
I hate this brutality of culture. I seriously hate it. This is a cultural mystery why after women can not wear Red after their husband’s death. I am going to encourage those all ladies to come forward and wear the red apparition as a celebration of their Teej. I want to encourage those women to enjoy their liberty and then to come forward and be in red.
P.S. I have been desperately waiting for the day to come and I am really going to enjoy the day.