‘Isn’t it an unethical outlook,’ said Roopa, for once upset with Tara.
‘Ethics, my foot,’ Tara became animated. ‘Don’t we women have an innate weakness for successful men? If merit alone were to bring success in this world, that might still justify our preference. But don’t you know the mettle of many of these successful men? What all it takes to succeed is a mediocre mind to serve the system and a slavish tongue to praise the powerful. Isn’t it a sad commentary of our times that mediocrity is eulogized as dependability and buttering is sanctified as good PR?’
‘How true,’ said Roopa, ‘but can anyone change that?’
‘It’s not the question of changing the world but of how to meaningfully live in it,’ said Tara, as Roopa was all ears. ‘It’s high time that women realized that they run behind these mediocre minds, masquerading as successful men. As for their wealth, the less said the better, for its mostly ill-gotten. As the social dice is loaded against the straightforward, it’s seldom that you see an honest man prosper. Anyway, the righteous cut a sorry figure and we fancy them in no way.’
‘But why this feminine weakness for the wealthy?’ exclaimed Roopa.
‘What can be done when we are made that way?’ continued Tara, ‘It’s as well that these rouges hoard the gold, leaving us to live with the coppers. But if they eye our assets, why shower our favors on these with bladder egos, acquired on their shameless climb up on the social ladder? Ironically, it’s to these pseudo successful that we give in, and won’t that give away our poor IQ. That being the case, what’s wrong if we put a price tag on our favors?’
‘What’s that but sex toll to get even with men,’ said Roopa disquieted further. ‘Is that your feminism?’
‘What’s wrong with that anyway?’ said Tara not giving up. ‘One needn’t be an Amartya Sen to grasp that it’s their black-money that skyrockets the real estate beyond our middle-class reach. Those positions, to which they butter their way through, might have gone to our men by merit, wouldn’t they? And what gadgets they bestow upon their kids! Are we not forced to match those with our limited resources, lest our children should suffer from an inferiority complex? As the unscrupulous enrich themselves without a hitch, how is it immoral for us to filch them a bit, if they seek our favors?’
‘Leave alone the merit or the lack of it,’ said Roopa as though pleading for a review, ‘I’m sure it’s not your clarion call for woman’s liberation.’