Juggling thoughts

In one of the conference I attended  to cover a feature story some years ago, there was this young well-educated man who took to stage to showcase one of his innovation on kitchen appliance and his hook was the word “Made easy for house wives.” When he repeatedly hooked the word “house wives”, I thought, he could have used a better choice of words. Since it was unpleasant to my ears. The two different words implies the same person, yet it has a huge line of difference in addressing. Then,  there was this wise lady who manages one of the famous women weavers group of the state walked up the dais, all composed and she smilingly said, “let me correct this first.” “Young man, they are home-makers not house wives, you see!” she said. The audience cheered and applauded her. It boosted my notion of how I have always had this corrective thought of how to address any woman who may be your mother or your wife who does or doesn’t work professionally. Just think ….the salary for ...

Dimapur: For one long week, the complex of Government Higher Secondary School, Chumukedima resembled a make-shift baby nursery. As the young mothers, all elementary school teachers, appeared for a ‘mandatory bridge course’ exam, babysitters and husbands waited outdoors for the three-hour test to get over. A 14-day-old baby was also not spared this ordeal as his mother, a teacher in a government primary school at Toluvi, sat for the bridge course exam. Another parent, Mahesh Singh, a businessman from Lhomithi colony, Dimapur, turned his van into a nursery for his 45-day-old child, that necessitated his mother to take an hourly break from her exams to feed him. Singh’s wife teaches in the primary section of a private school in Dimapur and holds a B.Ed. degree. “I am sharing responsibility, as she loves teaching and she will do anything for it. After all these months, it will be a waste if she loses her job for not doing this bridge course. It is her passion and I support her,” S...