MANifesto for the dudes?
Men will celebrate a Day dedicated to them today. But what does it really mean to them?
By : soumashree sarkar
Update: 2015-11-18 22:59 GMT
Legend has it that Bengaluru manages with élan what the rest of the world struggles with. The case of the celebration of International Men’s Day is one such thing. While most of us admit that every day of the year is a rampant celebration of Men’s Day, enthusiasts in Bengaluru are never one to let a recognised date go by without either treating it with humour or lauding it for what it stands. This Thursday, therefore, Bengaluru will usher in International Men’s Day with its traditional subtlety and laughter.
When it comes to men’s health; a day like this one is as good as any to remind the male brigade to exercise more and get fit. Prabhakar Rao, the founder of Go Green Go Cycling organised a cycle run around Cubbon Park in honour of Men’s Day. He says, “We had it on Sunday, so that a larger number could participate than on weekdays. While we do a lot of events for women, we realised that the occasion of Men’s Day would be a good way to make people aware of the benefits of health through cycling. Men have been receiving a lot of flak with reason lately, so this is a good way of reminding everyone that there are good ones out there as well.”
City comedian Sanjay Manaktala will be performing his act as part of the Bangalore Comedy Club, on Men’s Day. Sanjay says, “A lot of jokes that I have are at the expense of men (and well, women too), but if I were to make a specific joke on Men’s Day, then it would be that every day is men’s day in this world. I did not even know that it was a demarcated holiday, but you see, it is only a matter of time before a man would have thought that, ‘Huh, there’s a women’s day, a children’s day – why should we miss out now?’ and just gone on and declared an International Men’s Day.”
Some others though believe that the day should be recognised in earnest. Deesh Mariwala is one of those who realised the odd coincidence of the date of his poetry performance falling on Men’s Day. For his celebration of the works of past poets at the Sandbox Collective, Deesh is guided by the conviction that ‘not all men’ are as villainous as they are made out to be. “Focus of the evening is the poetry and the poets we are looking at are male. If you look at the history of poetry, very few poems are written on men — except for Shakespeare’s sonnets and a recent poem by Leonard Cohen that I read. We will attempt to have a spoken word performance that will look at the poems written by dead poets,” says Deesh who in addition to believing that equality between the sexes is an impossibility, also does not believe in listing favourites when it comes to writers.
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