To be a woman

I really don't have an opinion on Women's Day one way or another. Sure, it's fun - the only man in our all-women firm got us a chocolate cake today. Others on twitter tell me they're getting free lunch, chocolates, even first prizes in singing competitions. All very nice, yes.

My Facebook feed is filled with status updates by women congratulating each other on how privileged and special they are to be women. Again, fascinating.

Yes, it is wonderful to be a woman - most of the time. When we're not beset by insecurities about our body shape, hair colour, wardrobe's colour coordination, it's lovely to be a woman. When we're not trying to work twice as hard to prove ourselves in what is still a man's world, when we're not ignoring the not-so-subtle leering by a potential client, when we're not juggling career and family because the menfolk still don't pitch in, when we're not responding to "your husband earns enough, why don't you take a break?", when we're not constantly justifying our decision to go for an MBA at the age of 26 instead of "settling down", yes, it feels really special to be a woman.

Facebook bemuses me at times.

Did I ever tell you I found lumps under my breast two years ago? We went to the doctor, he assured me they were just cysts that I am prone to and nothing to worry about. Then last year, one of the newer cysts started bleeding. So we went back to him. And he said the same thing - I tend to sweat a lot, this creates these cysts, I just have to live with them.

Then a month back, a friend and I were chatting when she suddenly tells me she had found a lump in her breast. More than a year back. And that a few days back, she found some more. So she was finally going to the doctor. The doctor told her she had three tumours. Three. All benign, but it would be a good idea to have them taken out. I hadn't felt that level of terror in a long, long time.

Your Facebook campaigns that ask you to post the colour of your bra mean nothing in the midst of all this.

My twitter timeline points me to an article practically every day about either a rape, a murder, a female foeticide, a case of domestic violence. Women power my ass.

I really don't have an opinion on Women's Day one way or another. Treat it like Mother's Day or Father's Day - one day in the year to celebrate being a woman. But stop telling me it's about woman power or about gender equality. Because that's just a load of bullshit.