Daughter, epitome of love

On the first day of their marriage, the wife and husband decided and agreed not to open the door of their house for anyone.

 On that very first day, husband’s parents came to see them, they were behind the door. Husband and the wife look at each other, husband wanted to open the door, but since they had an agreement, he did not open the door. So, his parents left with heavy hearts.

After a while, the same day, wife’s parents came, wife and the husband looked at each other and even though they had an agreement, wife with tears in her eyes, whispered, “I just can’t do this to my parents,” and she opened the door. Husband did not say anything. Years passed and they had four boys and the fifth child was a girl. The father planned a very big party for the baby girl, and he invited everyone. Later that night, his wife asked him what was the reason for such a big celebration for this baby while they did not do it for the others! The husband simply replied, “Because she is the one who will open the door for me.” One proud parent announced on begetting a daughter – ‘the dark world of my life needed a light that only a daughter can bring’. Every girl may not be the queen to her husband, but she will always be a princess to her father. Though daughters are to be loved, cherished, protected and pampered like ‘princesses’, it is up to the parents to mould them through right upbringing. Either she can be raised as a positive individual or a negative one.

There are two types of women as per mythological constructs. Zeus, the Greek leader of immortals and divines, was supposed to have created with help of other gods, an evil thing in the form of a young woman, and called her Pandora - ‘Giver of all’ and ‘All-endowed’. Her body was designed from the Earth, waters gave her voice, and god Athene gave her dexterity and skill, while Aphrodite put a veil of enchantment around her head and finally Hermes filled her mind with treachery. Then Zeus unleashed Pandora onto the mortal man, filling his world with woes. In Indian  mythology, woman was created this way - The creator took the lightness of the leaf and the glances of fawn, the gaiety of the sun’s rays and the tears of the mist, the dance of the winds and the timidity of hare, the beauty of a peacock, the softness of the throat of a swallow, and he added the toughness of a diamond, the sweetness of honey, the warmth of fire and chill of snow, he added the chatter of joy and the cooing of a dove, and he melted all this and made a woman. He then presented her to man.

What daughters turn into greatly depends on their family values and upbringing. What is portrayed now through daily soaps on TV is a terrible image of femininity. Let little daughters grow into responsible women with their biological and emotional road map clean and clear. Let our daughters grow into arbiters of all relationships lovely and lasting. It is a sad fact that female foeticide has become a rampant crime these days – even women themselves become crime partners in this. Let us all shun that destructive, gory crime act.