Open Letter - 12

Dear Society,

                How was your week? I am writing this letter to confront you on one particular statement you have been propagating since time immemorial. You always say women cannot keep secrets and every time I hear it I giggle at women’s inability to hold their tongue.

                Women are your news correspondents. They are your network that works at a speed beyond human imagination. From domestic trifles to international issues women are always up to date. You share your household problem with them, it becomes community gossip. You tell them your views on an issue, you become talk-of-the-town. You tell them to keep a secret, it becomes a universally-known-secret.

                Every time I come across a friend, scores of secrets unveil between us. One such conversation made me write this letter to you. Mind you, it is top- secret I am made to promise not to tell anyone. I expect you to keep it a secret as well.

                It had been a couple of hours since we started chatting, by when we covered almost all common friends and family gossips. It was then she embarked upon this story of her friend who recently committed suicide owing to domestic violence. The story lit a new path to our conversation and we started discussing suicides and domestic violence. Half way through the discussion we identified that majority of the cases ended with none in the family aware of the suicidal tendencies in the women and the presence of domestic violence in their lives.

                It came as a surprise to me that all those women let not a single word of their painful situation reach your ears. It might seem unbelievable to you, but, dear society, they kept secrets. Those women kept harassment showered upon them a secret. And you always say women cannot keep secrets!

                True. Women cannot keep secrets. They cannot keep the achievements of their family a secret. They cannot keep their happiness a secret. They cannot keep their petty trifles a secret. But when it comes to pain, trust me, there are no great secret keepers than women. If you give a deep look to their gossip-mongering faces, you can find traces of stained tears on their shallowed cheeks. You may hold them in a conversation for hours together but not get them reveal their personal secrets of pain and sorrow that they hold as a shield to their family’s honour and pride.

                Dear society, how wonderful it would be if you were completely right when you said women cannot keep secrets? How wonderful it would be if women truly cannot keep secrets? Scores of women can be saved from burns, scars, pockmarks, tears, isolation and death only if women can’t keep secrets. No woman shall suffer in silence if she doesn’t know to keep a secret. Well, if I were to give birth to a child, I shall teach her to make your words come true. My daughter shall know not to keep a secret of pain and sorrow. You are bound to see her tears as much as you see her smile.

Note: If you think these letters are our personal means of communication, then I must say you are wrong on one front and right on the other.

                Because I am a woman and you very well know I cannot keep secrets.

Feel free to contact me at any time if you feel isolated and depressed.

Yours lovingly,

An Expecting Mother.