Amidst the incumbent Male patriarchy, shouts for Feminism and Emancipation, there emerged a women power that shattered the unshakable glass ceiling, or so what I believe. There were several thrust and poke by the Indian women Badminton legends like Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu but this day witnessed the last catastrophic thrust, shattering the pervasive glass ceiling.
India is always believed to be a secular nation, a home to different religions and also of the most peculiar one—Cricket. India’s tie with Men Cricket is an age old phenomenon and not a newly created Chum theory. Indian legends from Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi to Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil dev, Sachin Tendulkar or Virat kohli have all enjoyed massive fan following from not only the dominating men folks of India but also of the subjugated women folks. Till few months back, there was not even any solid point of comparison that could be jotted down between the undisputed reigning Men Cricket team and unheeded women team, but the preceding months have contorted the situation like an upturned religious book.
News channels, Newspapers, journals, magazines and digital media were flooded with names and recent accomplishment of some women Team players like skipper Mithali Raj, Jhulam Goaswami, Shikha Pandey, opener Smriti Mandhana and newly added Harmanpreet Kaur. Adding numbers to the bag full of it, Indian skipper Mithali Raj became the leading ODI run scorer. She is, perhaps, the only batsmen to cross the 6000 mark. Another record breaking achievement comes into the bag of Jhulam Goswami who surpassed Australian Fast bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick’s tally of 180 wickets, in the quadrangular series, targeting 200 as her next action. Third in line is newly added, recent record breaker Harmanpreet Kaur with her smashing 171 against Australia leaving Aussies stunned, dazed and flabbergasted. At such a valiant performance, her mother even gave a message to the nation citing “Girls must be empowered, shouldn’t be killed in womb. The way my daughter made the country proud, other girls should also be encouraged,”
While the overconfident Indian men’s team losing against the arch rival Pakistan in Champions trophy, these underdogs has compensated with their heroic performance and indomitable spirit. With the team going to play the finals tomorrow, it would be interesting to see the janitor of the broken, crashed glass of glass ceiling. Will it be Indian Women Team, Australia, Indian Men’s team or the Mankind as a whole?
The News Factory 