Here is a new ad featuring Fatima Sana Sheikh and it is so, so wrong

It's so irritating every time a 'compulsory' ad plays right before you want to play a song on YouTube and you have to wait thirty seconds or more. Specially when there is no 'skip ad' option. Ugh!So aj kya hua, I was waiting for this song to start and saw that an ad was about to start. So like the velli I am, I decided to watch the ad too (Now don't' tell me you haven't done that). I saw it was a soap ad. Here, take a look and I will tell you certain issues with it:

It brought back certain memories.

Do you remember yourself in the childhood, running from your mother because she insisted on applying lotion or oil after bath? Remember the time till when baby soap was the only soap you used? Does your mother keep telling even now that your skin used to be very soft but now you don't take care of it and it feels like the scales on a snake's body?

If you do, congratulations--that's the story of most women. But I wonder, why do we need to be soft after all? I mean if you want to, cool. But being soft and compromising on it, isn't that stretching it a bit too far?

Also, why are mothers supposed to feel soft? Have you seen the amount the work they do?

There are women, house wives, weavers, farmers, sportswomen, power-lifters, office going women, even daily wage labourers, who work with hands constantly. Their hands aren't soft anymore because of the work they do. A lot of women neither have time, nor the  luxury to keep their body soft like a dream. I am one of them and that's okay.

The glistening skin that is shown on the TV isn't possible without extensive skincare. And that costs a lot. But soap is cheap and everyone uses it. But I barely think that can shield one from everyday work and the effects it can have one's skin.

A soap can clean dirt, not keep you glistening like Fatima in this ad

If you wield a sword and your hand is rough, it's okay. If you lift weights in the gym and your hands have hardened, that's okay as well. I mean why so much pressure on women to 'feel soft'? Aren't we more than just 'soft', 'good to touch' objects. And for whose sake? Someone who will touch 'soft' us and feel good?

Yes, it's an ad that says that women can be soft and assertive, but why always focus on the soft? Why is a 'hard' or 'tough' woman undesirable? If soft is good, tough or calloused palm is desirable too. Bas soch ki baat hai, jo jaldi badalni hai. Like, right now.

And kaun bolta hai, komalta mein taqat nai hai?

Dude, remember how pitaji would rage at you and you wouldn't be affected. But ma would say one sentence, and like Jaya Bachchan in Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001),'bas keh diya.' Her 'soft' authority got more work done.

Soft for whom? A man?

Also, one more thing. I think we should really stop forcing roles on women- caring mother, caring partner and caring friend. It's not just the job of women to be caring and nurturing. It's a good human quality that both the sexes should have.

And before I end, let me give  you something to think of? Why is it the woman who needs to be soft? Why not the man? Don't the inexpressive, egoistic, rough lot of India men need to be explained 'softness' more?

Yes, strong too can be soft. But not all women are, and need to be soft.

The whole point is, be what's comfortable and that is what really is #absamjhautanahin.