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[Zainab Bawa]

How important is TV in the life of women?

I undertook this journey as part of the series to observe office-going women 
and train groups during the evening rush hours, when all the birds are 
flying back to their nests. As usual, at VT, the women entered the train in 
a mad rush even before the train had stopped. Gradually, I am coming to view 
this as normal, even though this pushing and rushing means that at a woman 
or two fall down with a violent thud on the compartment floor! The women 
jostle around and try to occupy the first best seats and if not the first 
best, settle with the second, third or at least the fourth best (the regular 
train seat can only occupy for persons at a time). Long distance commuters 
do not wish to stand on their way back home, particularly the 
office-going-home-returning women who have to anyway stand on one foot back 
home to cook, wash, clean and field after husband and children. This is 
their daily routine which they perform quite religiously.

I was intently listening to the various conversations in the area in which I 
was sitting. Some of the groups were inquiring about missing members, 
“Kidhar hai? Aaj nahi aayi? Train miss kar diya hoga! (Where is she? Has she 
not come today? Must have missed the train today!)” Some of them would even 
go on to say that, “Aaj subah mein bhi nahi dekha usko? Kya baat hai? (I did 
not even see her this morning. What’s the matter?)” As the train proceeds, 
conversations center around different topics including what happened in the 
office today, visiting relatives, occasions, what’s gonna be cooking this 
evening back home, and the current topic of discussion is the heat and how 
to beat the heat. As I was listening to the conversations, I began to draw a 
picture of the typical office-going woman traveling in the ladies 
compartment on a daily basis. Here is the picture:

She is the superwoman who manages work, house, husband and kids with 
absolute dexterity and all these four elements are the fundamental basis of 
her life. Her existential problems revolve around these four elements and 
the fifth element of extended family. At times, She need not work, but She 
wants to because She does not want to sit at home all day.
She’s work at office involves routine tasks like clerical work, accounts or 
secretarial work, all of which require a strict framework. A lot of she’s 
like her probably work in banks. (They form the task force!)
She starts her day at 4 AM or 5 AM in the morning. Getting up, cooking for 
self and husband and kids. She then readies the kids for school while 
husband gets ready for office. She also needs to ensure that she has filled 
the water tank for to last for the day’s quota. By 8 AM or 9 AM, She is 
ready to step out of home, to the railway station, where the trains lead her 
to her workplace. In the trains, She either has her train group or She is by 
herself. By 10:AM or 10:30 AM, She is in office, with papers and files and 
phone calls. By 5 or 6 PM in the evening, She is ready to head back home. 
She must get back home by 7 or 7:30 PM latest, so that she is able to 
prepare dinner for the evening, take children’s lessons, and prepare herself 
for next day by ironing clothes or cutting vegetables for the morning meal, 
etc. While on her way back home, she shops in the train or at the local 
market, buying groceries for the house. By 9 or 10 PM, She sits before the 
Television, eating her dinner. This is the time she has to enjoy herself. 
She is glued to TV till about 10:30 or 11 PM and then goes back to clean the 
kitchen and then off to bed by about 12 PM.

This is the life of She, life in which the space She has to herself is 
either before the TV or in the ladies compartment or both. I wonder whether 
TV has modified the life which she used to lead earlier? What has it added 
and subtracted from her life?

[Please read this piece without any judgments pf goodness or badness of the 
life of She or the influence of TV!]

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