KANYA-DAAN nahi…… KANYA-MAAN

The famous Manyavar advertisement – ‘Tradition wahi, soch nayi’ featuring Alia Bhatt depicts the feelings and restrictions a bride experiences while getting married. It rightfully questions the age-old tradition of giving away girls at weddings as a part of a ritual called ‘Kanya-Daan’. 

In the commercial, Alia recalls her grandmother telling her as a youngster – ‘When you’ll go to YOUR home, I'll miss you loads' - to which Alia asks herself – ‘Isn’t THIS home mine?’

When taking a selfie with her father, she gets nostalgic about how he used to always pamper her and fulfill all her wishes. Some people often adviced her father to 'not spoil Paraya Dhan', however he never paid attention to it. 
While her father never paid heed to these naysayers who thought so poorly, neither did he ever refute and correct them, that his daughter was neither 'Paraya' nor 'Dhan'.  Never did he ever tell them that she was a rightful and equal member of the society and not a liability. 

As Alia sees her mother looking at her, she remembers how she used to call her 'chidiya' (bird) whose 'daana-paani' is ELSEWHERE. To this Alia ponders and asks the viewers, ‘doesn’t the entire, vast sky belong to the ‘chidiya’ (bird) where it can fly and live however it wants to?' 

A bride is not an object to be loaned or given away? A bride is not to be donated but to be honoured. The ritual should not be ‘Kanya-Daan’, but ‘Kanya-Maan’.

With this new thought, the groom and his family also join Alia and her parents in performing a combined ritual, symbolising that the two are now equal partners and each other’s responsibility rather than a 'transfer' of the bride to the groom's family.

It’s time we step towards gender equality and recognize women as rightful members of the society. It’s time we start following the ritual ‘Kanya-Maan’ instead of Kanya-Daan and honour the women, instead of transferring her to the groom's family. 

Let the tradition be the same, but let our thoughts be NEW AND ADVANCED.