Here is a short story I wrote for a contest at my company. The occasion was Women's Day and the  topic was 'My Pledge for Parity'. Had to keep it below 250 words. Hope you have a good read. :)

 ‘All men are the same!’ exclaimed a disgruntled Miya while narrating an anecdote about a flirtatious colleague at office. She went on to describe how she, with the help of other female employees, managed to throw him out of the company.

Though the issue seemed to be valid, but, I was taken aback by such a reaction of hers before Rishi, her boyfriend, who was also giving a baffled look to her.

‘I am not the same!’ he might have thought.

We were walking towards the café, when suddenly she took a pause before the main door. Before I could make out what happened, Rishi hurried, leant towards the handle and opened the door for us. This occurred again at the lunch table where she pretended to be busy with her phone until he pulled the chair back for her to sit down.

My ex-classmate continued with her speech over various aspects of feminism. It had been 3 years since we had last met. Since then, we had remained connected mostly through social networking sites where one could find every other post on feminism and women empowerment in her profile!

We had had our lunch and I had had a good enlightenment on women empowerment, at large, when the waiter brought the bill and kept it in front of Miya.

‘So, you know Sonakshi, it’s our life, our rules…and, and, we are at par with men..we are equal….and..’ she continued jabbering while sliding on the bill towards Rishi.

Just as Rishi reached out for his wallet to pay, in that short span of 30 seconds, my heart realized that it had had enough. It signaled my hand which grabbed the bill back from Rishi and slid it back to Miya.

‘You are so right, Miya! Indeed, WE are equal to men. SO, WE MUST PAY EQUALLY! ’

And, my heart basked in its feministic glory when the pseudo feminist sheepishly reached out for her credit card while the real one grinned back at his counterpart!