Women yearning for wives? To almost all of you, the word “wife” necessarily means a married woman who goes about managing the household and acts according to the whims and fancies of her so called “family”( her man, her kids, her in-laws)!! So, before we go any further, we’ll go slightly off the conventional track and from now on interpret a wife as a companion or a consort or a partner! Thus either of the two spouses could work the way a wife does.

Why I have chosen to talk about women wanting wives rather than men wanting husbands is because the fact remains that

whether a woman works as a housewife or as a working woman, she’s the one who ultimately takes care of the usual household chores (cooking, washing, cleaning, looking after the kids and elders etc.). This holds true for most of us yet many would love to manipulate this definition in our most ingenious style just in order to make less crude/blunt. Cannot help it…that’s just human tendency to act like a saint!

I just came across this topic while I was going through an international daily. Thereafter, just felt like holding a poll over the idea. The views were strange… ranging from being very conservative to absolutely forward-thinking.

There were a few who thought I was testing their stand on lesbianism!!! So, to make things simple and clear I first asked them to define a wife and then to connect it to their views on women wanting wives. It was fun seeing people react so differently…some almost forgot the simple meaning of the word wife, many (men of course) maintained a diplomatic stand-point, some just refused to answer, and there were those (women themselves) who heartily welcomed the idea!

My discussion particularly refers to the present scenario. With two-income families now the norm, and both men and women working record-breaking number of hours to get ahead in their respective careers, the question that crops up is that how should the couple accomplish what used to be the wife’s job. Though men have started sharing the responsibilities at home, and many families manage with domestic-help, the fact remains that women still shoulder a greater share of the domestic burden.

We’ve seen our mothers doing so, parents take pride in training their daughters to be standing examples of perfection for their married life, men wish to have a perfect spouse, in-laws love to see their daughter-in-law being the obedient ‘bahu’. It’s like a tradition being brought forward from ages.

If the woman rebels, what follows is either a divorce after incessant fights or a life-long battle of independence from family affairs.

I’m yet to see this stage of first working my wits out at office and then getting back home hurriedly to organize, juggle and fill my head space with the daily demands of family-life. The sheer thought of it arrests the high-sounding idea of being a “complete woman” (as they say)! I’d rather be a woman ‘alone’-both literally and figuratively. Especially when it comes to getting ahead in my career. There are many who’d instantly agree that it’s either career or family. And it’s not the woman who is at fault in such a case; it’s the fact that women are taken for granted when it comes to managing home-affairs.

Can we have a change of ideas, of the accepted wisdom? Can we get the society out of its hackneyed state of affairs? After all it’s a question of simply being rational nothing less, nothing more! And I’m sure we all would like to be known as rational individuals-living or dead.