Sir: Every man is taught to dream and is advised to aim at a benchmark. This journey begins from childhood when all and sundry pose a boy with their standard question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” These boys are taught to come up with as glorious an answer as possible and, one day, one of these answers, involuntarily, becomes their goal in life, a perfect analogy for hopelessly falling in love. The path thereafter is often difficult, long and at times excruciating. I remember my difficult path vividly and I have a confession to make. Whenever I had a plateau in my path that I could not surpass, God would silently send a woman into my life as a guardian angel. I still remember that I turned into a committed athlete when I was 14 because of a girl that I had a crush on. When I had zero aptitude for chartered accountancy and circumstances were difficult I was forced to keep my grades on the leader board because of a ‘she’ that I hoped to impress. Very recently, I was inspired by a woman who brought me back to life and I cannot thank her enough. The tenure of these three women in my life was short-lived but their effect was lifelong. Finally, my mother is the reason for my existence. As mundane as my thoughts may seem it will make complete sense if extrapolated to a grander scale, so then we realise how instrumental woman’s role has been in motivating men to shape the world as we see it today. I want to bring to your attention that their mere existence made a difference. Henceforth, judging them on the basis of their mental capability, achievements, educational qualification, job profile and not to mention their exterior is highly irrelevant. I propose that we do not challenge them to embark on the meaningless quest of proving themselves and, in the process, allowing them to completely lose themselves. I am afraid we will drive the female persona to extinction. I have come across numerous, fabulous women openly stating that they only look like women but are actually men inside and therefore openly and proudly patronise their own gender. We men as leaders of society should cultivate an environment where women can thrive personally, professionally and be proud of their gender profile. Society should therefore liberate them of their insecurities, treat them gently and respectfully, not as a proprietary object, imply without questioning that they are as good as men and, most importantly, let them be and that too happily. I assure you that the happiness of a woman is contagious. After all, we should understand that genders are mere accidents and we men could have easily been women. FAHAD QAZI Via Email