Women - to be celebrated on a day?

I don’t want you to celebrate my existence on a particular day

I want you to understand that before being a woman I am a human, just as you

I don’t want you to offer me to stand ahead of you in a queue

I want you to let me stand on my own, just as you

I don’t want you to compliment me on my beauty, my style, my dress or my shoes

I want you to understand that I might also have an equally beautiful mind, and this in no way should threaten you

I don’t want you to extol my patience as my biggest virtue

I want you to understand that being impatient is as much a birthright for me as it is for you

I don’t crave your accolades for the excellent upbringing of our child

I want you to understand that motherhood is as much a joy and responsibility for me as fatherhood is for you

I don’t want you to look askance at me if I choose to not marry and live my life on my own terms

I want you to understand that marriage is as much a choice for me as it is for you

I don’t want you to take vows of protecting my dignity and my honour

I want you to create a world where the need for taking such vows no longer remains for you

I don’t want you to grant me equal status, and wear it as a sign of your virtue

I want you to understand that it is human beings who are natural creations, divided by us into me and you

I don’t want any special treatment on any day of any month of any year

I just want to live in a world where no ‘him’ feels the need to bestow special treatment on any ‘her’, and the world belongs to ‘us’, neither to me nor to you