September 15, 2006

Call it Quits

Jyothika announces her retirement from acting post her marriage.

This has sparked such a debate- in the office, on NDTV, on the bus, in the loo. It is not as if there is a dearth of good actresses. It is not as though she has retired from any and every kind of work. One would think she is joining a monastery the way people are reacting. She has only hung up her acting shoes- for the time being. As with Khusboo, she may reinvent herself or come back like Kajol did. Or she may stay content being Surya's wife and her in laws DIL. It is her decision after all.

Marriage and maternity can turn out to be the reasons for a well deserved break for most women- not for men though- oh no, no sabbatical for them! Under the guise of spending time on the home or your child- you can say bye bye to long hours in the office, avoid having to commute, nagging bosses, inconsiderate subordinates. Then again is it hardly a break to be slogging at home or mooning around the house ( if your hubby works late hours and you are in a nuclear family) or have to listen to endless banter if you are in a joint family. And yes, not everyone enjoys diaper changing and hourly feedings all the time.

Some women, are prepared to juggle the two. Some who quit work view motherhood as a second career and envision starting a third when they're ready to return to work. Some of these women are educated professionals who have invested years in higher education and are at the peak of their careers. I guess to each their own.

My father says " You need to be involved & not attached to your work." I think that is so true in my case. I remain involved at work and attached to my home front.

It is a BIG decision and either way it seems like a compromise. But I hope none of us including Jyothika regrets our decision- which is indeed a very personal one, despite all the public ramifications it has & whatever bloggers may say about it.

7 comments:

Itchingtowrite said...

oh yes. tell me about it. we moms work 24 * 7 ... working ones or home makers. its only now i appreciate moms & grand moms who cook & clean endlessly for us

mommyof2 said...

" You need to be involved & not attached to your work."

Really like this one:-)) but this works for men not women:-)) We put our soul to what we do so its all personal.. even the work:-))

apu said...

Art, from a feminist or even humanist perspective, I would say that it truly becomes a choice only when this choice is available to both genders. In a sense, this *choice* is discriminatory to men, though most people may not look at it that way. How many men have the *choice* to not work and stay at home, saying that *its my decision*. So basically the *choice* exists only for women - which is a good thing, and bad thing, because while we get to choose, often, we are the only ones, who *have to choose* or even *feel the need to make a choice*. I am sure Surya didn't ever feel the need to think about it, did he?

Ok, this is turning into a post of its own, so I ll stop here :))

Artnavy said...

so true - wonder what u will do when u get there. .dont get mad:-)

Anonymous said...

well said arthi...very well said. To each 'her' own.

Ananya S P said...

I agree with u! I had quit a lustrous software career for the past 1 and 1/2 years after I tied the knot in holy matrimony...Anyways I am studying, doing my financial mgmt in order to switch to the challenging finance field...This decision of mine makes me go nuts sometimes but I then get back to normalcy with the hope that I will get back to my career with a bang :)

Twisted DNA said...

I don't know anything about this. So here is my opinion going solely based on what I read here.

It is kind of alarming that she wants to quit acting. My problem is I don't see many men quitting their acting careers or any other careers for that matter. Why does it apply only to women?

About Kushboo, she had a different reason for quitting. She couldn't fit on one screen any more ;)