A woman from Uttar Pradesh climbed up an electric pole to show her autonomy in a dramatic way. What most resign to their fates is exactly what Old Meera did on that day in Gorakhpur. She was a mother of three whose 34-year-old husband found out she was in an affair that lasted for seven years and so he hanged her.
By these actions a certain mythology is created beyond women’s quest to attain self-determination within the given social pattern to be repeated. Pole, the emblem of force and egalitarian relationship became her stage, where she issued enough demands, for approving an unconventional approach.
Measured at the center of the storm, we see more than just a scandal, the dialogue expanded about marital expectations and the inner workings of one’s heart.
Climb of a woman is not that of just a literal path but rather a metaphor of rise against the background of a world with limited choices that are mainly for women. It is the incident of loves and hate, too, and the search for a voice and maybe one’s own self all the while asking us to reflect on what we will eventually achieve when the heart is broken.
