From elephant ride

Fun on an elephant today.

I had been excited since I opened my eyes in black because I had been looking forward to the elephant ride day for so long.

From childhood, I have read many stories about elephant, and watched cartoons and programs featured with elephants. However, the visual familiarity as well as the strong terrible smell did not weaken my enthusiasm when I stood in the elephant station looking up at those elephants.

They were beautiful, strong, and peaceful. I did not know why I came up with the feeling of peace when I was in a state of excitement, in an environment that you could never call it pleasant. But I felt that way. Everyone was talking, and I could hear the sounds from the road - it was noisy in the station, but nobody was bothered by that. They looked like they were enjoying their leisure time when they were actually doing their work to live a life. Indians are never in a hurry – this may have something to do with their optimistic belief that there is always a way. Sounds like elephant, they usually move slowly and are tame, but you can never ignore their power – they were horrifying weapons in war.

This led me to think about the female in India. As a daughter, she is discriminated from her birth, and thus obedience is a highly valued virtue for a good female. But when she becomes a mother, she gains an overwhelming power that is almost unlimited. And the interesting transition of roles is mainly reflected in the interactive dynamics between female and male. She is the burdensome liability of the original family, then incurs abuse from her husband and his family when entering another life stage. Only until she has a boy baby, her situation totally changed - her position skyrockets, her power explodes. As revealed in "Mere paas ma hai," the mother represents the source of everything to the Indian imagination. Meanwhile, the mother is still the wife and daughter. It seems so hard to resist the temptation of abusing the sudden gift when the female have been so depressed before. Again, Indian wisdom demonstrates its power: the legitimacy of the almighty lies in responsibility over the family, especially the kids.

Does this sound familiar? Remember the discussion in Traffic Metaphor? Indians do not care about “set” rules because they have a non-verbal philosophy to determine and to feel the way of doing things right. In this case, though it is said she, as a mother, “faced no censure and no limits,” every Indian, including the mums, knows that her power is only endowed over her kids, and the bottom line is “acting in the interests of her children.” Maybe in that way they can balance in those contradictive situations.

However the thoughts above are generated based upon the reading rather than the first-hand observation – it seems that the power of mother’s role is limited within family settings. My statement is based on my experience in India. Outside of the five star hotels or other westernized place such as W+K Delhi office, is Male India. Waiters served us in restaurants; buses were full of males; tailors I visited were males; vendors I saw in the markets were males; our tour guides are male… I saw females only in some family-related activities, such as ironing service, selling and buying produce in community market. Well, this might just be another manifestation of the Indian way.

Another interesting discovery was that all the elephants serving in the summer palace are FEMALE, while they are all controlled by MALE. Does this sound like a metaphor that manifests the situation between the two genders in India? You got it.

P.S.
The first photo is from Don, depicting the residence community where women involve in the family related affairs.
The third photo was taken in elephant station.