Jani Viswanath (PhD)
I came across the story of a woman known on social media as the ‘Outback Whisperer’ who is known to communicate with animals. She was invited to anelephant orphanage in Sri Lanka to talk to a troublesome, violent male elephant called Raja.
Raja had been labelled aggressive and unmanageable, a rogue tusker. The whisperer connected with him and Raja told her that he was in immense pain as his hind leg was hurting because of the chains. She spoke to him gently and he assured her he would be calm while she examined him.
When she asked the caretakers about his injured leg, they said it was true — he had an infected hind leg and it wasn’t healing.
She asked them to remove the chains so she could examine his leg. A dozen men anxiously stood behind her with bull-hooks in case of an attack.
And here my dear friends, I present to you the photographic image of the reality of this world in a nutshell.
A petite woman in her flip-flops, fearless, bending down gently examining the injured leg of a rogue male elephant in pain, her only concern being his welfare, whilst the men stood with bull-hooks behind her ready to attack at the slightest sign of intimidation!
What a contrast, and what a pity indeed, that the part of humanity that reaches first for the bull-hook, not for healing, is the one in charge of this world!
Here we are, come October, and we celebrate and tout breast cancer awareness campaigns. We love the drama, the performance, so we pin a pink ribbon and pretend that is all it takes to make a difference to women. Ignorant of the fact that real change has to come from a much deeper space.
in my opinion, If the world had more real women with sensitivity and courage leading the way (make of this statement what you may), than by the testosterone and senseless brute force leading it now, it would perhaps be a magical place rather than the fragmented, fractured mess it is now. The planet that is hurting would heal.
No, this is not a feminist rant and I don’t consider myself a feminist because I don’t know what that word means anymore. I don’t endorse the bra burning era or the women ‘can do whatever a man’ can school of thought. What I do emphatically endorse though, and believe is equality of opportunity, rights, dignity and respect. If this is something so hard for the other half to understand then it has to and can only be taken by strategy, not force.
Women and men have not been treated equally from the dawn of humankind, that much is true. They have had it rough despite the fact that half the world is made up of women and the other half are birthed by them. There is no denial that biologically, emotionally, physically and mentally we are made up differently than men and herein is the beauty of life.
The unique capabilities of one gender cannot be substituted or replaced by the other. We should be complementing, rather than competing or controlling the other.
Inherently a woman is gifted with the power to create, nurture and preserve life., they are the strong, silent pillars of every society., without them the entire foundation will collapse. It is rather unfortunate that some women are their own biggest threat. Their insecurities and jealousy amplifies their vulnerability and they become obstacles to another women’s growth and progress.
If only we could applaud, support and cheer other women to thrive and excel, we would be the most intelligent, potent, magical force on this planet and no man can come close to abusing a woman’s tenderness, kindness and generosity.
But generalising would be unfair. There are many intelligent, kind, strong and dignified gentlemen too and I am privileged to know some, but the majority dominating the power grids seem to be the less worthy kind.
To the women, I implore – let us come together no matter what our colour, backgrounds, beliefs or statusare. It is our duty to do this for our daughters and our sons. True feminism is incredibly inspiring, courageous and noble. It cannot be sacrificed for fleeting fame or momentary gain.
We cannot leave a fractured earth for our children or the millions of other species to inherit. That would be the most vile, malevolent and selfish act we can commit.
Instead of the millions of ‘isms’ that we have created – racism, classism, sexism, feminism, chauvinism, ageismlet us first try to understand that “human-ism” is the fundamental alphabet of existence.
Jani Viswanath is a humanitarian, artist, author and film producer who believes in the power of storytelling to inspire peace and empathy. She is dedicated to uplifting lives with stories that bridge cultures and has meaningful impact across communities worldwide
