From Being Single To Being Engaged On Facebook.......

She is a normal, girl-next door type girl who is still a student technically as she is pursuing her doctoral research in one of the central university (though she is recipient of national scholarship and earns more than her friends working in corporate sector). Everything else is normal except the fact that she is going to be 27 yrs old in barely one month’s time. This makes her family, relatives, friends and neighbors very concerned and anxious. She always refuses to have been involved romantically with any boy in her life whenever enquired by her family and friends. She also does not agree to meet the ‘right’ boys whose proposals are endorsed by the most ‘trusted’ relatives and neighbors. So what is wrong with her???
She believes she is committed to her research work and it would not be possible for her to manage the dual responsibilities. She lives alone in this big bad city and knows how much exactly one need to invest in home making. Whenever faced by questions related to marriage or so called ‘settling down’ in life, she just ignores that.
When more than half of her friends on Face book are announcing either their entry into next phase of life- “being married” or the entry of a new family member- sweet, adorable kids; she wonders what is wrong with her???
One fine day, she decides to change her status from being ‘single’ to ‘engaged’ on Face book. She is convinced that she is committed and engaged to her research work and need not be engaged with some person to change her status on Facebook. So she puts the date of registration into Ph.D. as her engagement date. Interestingly this date was almost one and half year ago.
This simple change flooded her notifications on Facebook account with as many hundred likes and thirty-five comments. Her face book friends are really happy to know that she is engaged. In most of the cases they failed to notice that date was of last year and a person’s name is also missing. Though some are disappointed that she did not invite them in the engagement and some others (women) over the fact that she would be hitched before them and now they have to listen to their parents’ comparison tales.
Our smart Facebook also does not stay away and it starts suggesting her web pages offering discounts to plan a perfect and hassle free wedding and then offering honeymoon packages at exotic locations for the best prices possible. So in the end all becomes happy.
This story becomes important as now-a-days social media is going gaga over Sania Mirza’s fitting reply to Mr. Sardesai’s question of her settling down in the life. People have posted and reposted the incident many times in order to express their solidarity to Mirza. But does it also indicate any change in our perception in real life. An ordinary average girl who is not as famous as Mirza, still haunted by the same questions in her life again and again by her family, friends, relatives and even strangers. Her stability and success in life is measured on the scale of being married and then producing babies. Why this hypocrisy? On one hand we are uniting in support to Mirza and on the other hand we look suspiciously at the twenty-five plus, single, working women as defaulters of societal norms by not getting married or choosing their career over their marriage. So think over before you start asking the same questions to some pretty and amazingly single woman.