Rohit sped fast on his bicycle. Esha beamed with pride. Yesterday only they had bought this cycle through OLX.com and today Rohit was speeding off on it. And she felt proud. But then, mothers do feel proud of whatever their kids do, don’t they?
‘He is so happy, he wanted just this kind of cycle’, she said to her friend Ayesha.
‘Huh, hoon’, said she
Esha continued, ‘He wanted a Huffy bicycle with raised handlebars for so long. But you know it is expensive so when I saw the ad in OLX, I grabbed it’.
‘Err, don’t mind’, said Ayesha and stopped.
‘About what Ayesha’, said Esha.
‘Purple is a girly colour’, said she.
‘IS it’, said Esha.
‘Yes, don’t you know… Purple, pink are all girly colours’, said Ayesha.
‘Then what are boyly errr, which colours are meant for boys’, asked Esha.
‘Blue, don’t you know. Blue is the colour for men’, said Ayesha.
At that moment Ayesha’s two-year old daughter came crying, ‘Bhaiya is not giving me his ball’, she complained.
‘Don’t mind, Faizu, if Bhaiya doesn’t give you his blue ball….I will buy you a pink ball today’, she said and walked off.
Esha felt dizzy, so many thoughts went like a whirlwind in her brain that she gasped for breath.
Rohit had pink T-shirts and shorts, he had a pink ball, a pink book..did it mean that she was making him effeminate. Rohit cries a lot at the simplest of reasons. Many say that he cries like a girl. Was it because he had so much pink in his life? She had visions of a grown up Rohit walking in a ‘girly’way, wearing skirts and blushing. She held a pillar for support. But then her husband too had a pale pink shirt in his collection and he was in no way effeminate.
‘Ignorance indeed is bliss’, she thought to herself. She was so much better off not knowing that pink is for girls and blue is for boys.
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Written as a part of Write over the weekend an initiative for bloggers by Blogadda.
The theme this week
A very good conclusion. We stereotype colours , mannerisms etc . boys /men wearing pink does not make them less manly but a girl/lady wearing blue is not frowned upon.
True Kalpana. I fail to understand the categorization for a mere color
Good one. I am really thankful that people don’t categorize food items for girls and boys. 😛
He he… but then isn’t thumps up for ‘men’ 😛 Aaj kuch toofani karte hain 😉
Love the gist of the story and how many stereotype boys and girls thinking-process and attitudes. So well told, Bhagyashree:)
Thanks Vishal. I feel we parents are the culprits in trying to impose rules like these on children. if you want to raise boys and gorls as equals first remove this mindset.
I have always found this categorization very silly.
Me too 😀
Great message! I’m not sure who started all this categorization, but I’m sure it is nurtured and encouraged by manufacturers of clothes, toys, etc. for children.
I think so too.
And here is this girl who never liked pink and has blue for her favourite colour. 😀 I came to know about this pink and blue categorisation of colours when I was in college. 😛 But even then I did not find pink pretty. LOL
My wardrobe has sarees in all shades of blue 🙂 So maybe that is why people find me dominating 😉
even when i realized about this colors i had the same feeling. nicely written.
Thanks Amar, welcome to SS
Nice take on the prompt, loved how you used a simple children’s tale to bring out a very important message, that of discriminating colors for boys and girls. I personally have found it to be ridiculous, more so because as men we have only blues, greys and whites to rely on whereas as girls you have the rest of the color spectrum to play around with. How is that fair to us men?
Ha ha, u got a point. But then I do see men experimenting with colors nowadays
Knowledge is power, they say.Irrelevant knowledge is a bane where ignorance may be bliss.Nice and simple story
Thank you KP sir
Being more informative leads to confusion only…definitely ignorance is a bliss….lovely 🙂
Knowledge like this I feel is dangerous 😛
Thank you Shelly
Pink & Blue! Really true!
Once we know, then we change our view! 🙂
He he Thank you Anita
I don’t agree to it either. Unfortunately, the country I am living in, it is categorized all the time and no escape 😦
😦 That is so sad
Wonderful take on the prompt! And this stereotyping of blue/pink is so weird! I have seen some homes where the kid room has everything in pink including the wardrobe! Seeing so many shades of pink, works me up into a tizzy!
Me too. The poor child will not know that other colors exist too 😦 Why this obsession, I have failed to understand.