Yogen Patel, 63, chartered accountant
MY take on women in general is they have a natural aptitude for compassion compared to men, and a greater sense of selfishness compared to men’s self-centered or self-righteous nature. For me it all starts at the motherhood stage. The mother who I believe valued compassion more than selfishness, given the male dominated socio-economic structure and behavior towards women in general. With a woman’s natural ability to have compassion, she taught us to be fair and civil; I am sure with it the ulterior motive to gain security and dignity later in life.
Born out of compassion is the most complex sense of the notion of love either for the opposite sex and devotion towards duty and responsibility – karma. Both if not understood will cause hatred and carnage of various magnitude! My personal experience with the hindsight of being 63 years of age was more hinged towards responsibility rather than love towards the opposite sex, which in my opinion left me with an impression of people in general having the perception of loving or being loved rather than experience true love; hence, the spate of arguments, quarrels, etc. So, true love is the source of creation in all beings. And karma is the source of all preservation right, wrong or indifferent. Underlying all the above said is how one or the society in general graduates into acquiring true education and knowledge from understanding various subject matters, and this is not easy – given current social media opinions bought and sold in the form of news by politicians, business people and media alike.
So again in my opinion and life time observations (acquired through relationship with my own family and friends) in developing and so called advanced society, maturation breeds true love for opposite sex. But a shift is happening from just men being self-centered or self-righteous, to educated women fighting for the same vantage point at the top of the pyramid, for centuries a male domain!