Happy Women's day

I would’ve never paid special attention to this day (never have in the past) had it not been for the following reasons –

1. It was splashed all over ToI. Kareena Kapoor’s face was on every page. I wasn’t amused to wake up and read about how Kareena believes Saif gives her enough space and what she does on Sundays.

2. There were way more lingerie ads than usual.

3. Hilary Rodham Clinton had made a statement that investing in women should help us out of the current recession.

4. Quite a few people called up to wish my wife

I guess it makes sense to devote a day to celebrate the presence of women in our lives, since we do take them for granted the rest of the time. But I guess every year it turns into a gimmick, and newspapers and TV channels have a field day “celebrating” it.

Being the male chauvinist that I am, I started wondering if there was an International Men’s day. To my surprise, I found there is one such day. Among other things, this day is an opportunity for men to recognize achievements, project role models and highlight discrimination against men!! One more interesting fact – International women’s day was first observed in 1909, a full 90 years before the first Men’s day, which was first observed on Nov 19, 1999. Now, I wasn’t around in Bombay during the last women’s day, but I sure was around on Nov 19^th. I definitely don’t remember seeing Saif’s (or any other man’s) face on every page of ToI, giving me intimate details about how Kareena gives him enough space. I don’t remember if there were more male underwear ads than usual. It would definitely be interesting to find out!