MCP's are not dead - but are a dying breed!

If you thought MCP's are dead think again...

I had spent that morning riding with men who sacrificed their sleep and their family time to be out on the roads on their bikes promoting, of all the things - Menstrual hygiene!
I had spent that morning listening to the Commissioner of Police - Praveen Sood, IPS stand up in a public forum talking about Menstruation and how it is time for the men to support the women through this very often traumatic days of the month.  

So why am I saying this???

Here is an excerpt of events as it transpired some weekends back…, (as best as I can recall since I'm still seething over it!):

Setting - helping a friend pick up a Bike that this MCP's (who is a bit elderly man at about 60 or thereabouts) son was selling. 

Wife introduces friend and me to the MCP who is her Husband. This is our first meeting with this MCP and hopefully our last. 

We have just exchanged names and nothing more…

MCP, "so you are all geared up already?". "Yes, but actually I'm not fully geared. The Riding jacket and knee guards are missing. "

MCP "whatever happened to all those good women who just ride Scooty's"

Now I'm meeting him for the first time, I thought he just had a convoluted sense of humour and I was a guest in his house so I in good humour reply, "we're helping change them and they will hopefully change soon".
MCP "humpffff"

Now all of this he delivers with a smile!.

So I go off to check the bike. 

The MCP follows and in a highly sarcastic tone - "Do you know anything about bikes"

Me "a little". He doesn’t know that I have been riding for the last 10 years and that being a woman doesn’t necessarily mean that we have no brains and that the workings of bike aren’t as sophisticated as rockets though some women have cracked that code too!. But then this is a MCP, I just hadn’t figured that out at that point in time.

His wife, knowing him, is smiling and trying to veer the conversation away from what I later on understood is dangerous territory and something this man loves to do – insult anything that is female – “our son spoke with her yesterday and he says that she knows more about this bike than he does…”. This should’ve got him to shut up…

But then the MCP can’t really hear that, he is just intent on insulting a woman who has the b***s to do what he considers is a male right – RIDE A BIKE!

Meanwhile I go about my business and check the bike out. He follows and continues with his verbal lashing. “You clearly know nothing about bikes. Why don’t you go back and come once you have learnt to ride? You can’t even reach the ground. How tall are you (he himself towers at 5.7 or thereabouts…not exactly anybody’s version of tall!)?” I continue to ignore, I am in house, I know his wife; his wife and I have met earlier and I am better brought up than this. So I continue to shut up. But my temper is beginning to rise.

I wheel the bike out of the garage and he turns to my friend, “you people should get married. Then all this stupidity will end. That’s the problem. Once you all are married you will be ok. All this rubbish will end.” (Meanwhile that idiotic smile is plastered on his face like it is all a big joke). My friend ignores and urges me to get out of there. She is whispering in my ears to get out, the wife is telling him that we can sort it and asks him to leave (all said like it is a big joke).

I am almost at the gate.

He changes his tone and says, “so what do you do?”. I tell him that I am a Market Research consultant. He goes “bah, all that is rubbish. What do you people do, take a paper and tick some boxes.” The wife in a joking manner, “anytime you want an argument you should come here…” This is directed at me. His response, “no, anytime you need some brains which you completely lack you can come here maybe you will get some.”

I am seething, it is beginning to show on my face, the MCP’s wife can see it, my friend can see it. Both are urging me to get out of there…and in my head I am going “I am better brought up…I am in his house, I don’t need to see him again…GET OUT FAST”!

I get out of there seething, I am shaking with anger – all of those insults cause I am a woman who dared to ride. Cause I am a woman who did not subscribe to the norms of what MCP’s have decided that we can do over the course of several centuries. All of that for what? Cause I have two legs and two hands and everything else except something that defines his being? All of this cause I belong to that gender that was solely responsible for him being on the face of this earth except for a contribution of half-a-teaspoon?

I refused to be as nasty as him that day cause I am better brought up but I wish with everything that I had that I had never met him and that people such as him (no not men – people – anybody man or woman) who think this way, who’s thinking is limited by gender or status or other inconsequential rubbish wilt and die from the face of this earth and leave this place better by their absence and allow man or woman to achieve their potential not cause of a hormone that determines their sex, but by their ability and their will.

Despite such incidents that happen with alarming regularity, I still know that our world will get better cause the morning of this incident I had the pleasure of meeting several other 100’s of men who gave up their Sunday’s to draw attention to a cause such as Menstrual hygiene. Because the world belongs to these men that I ride with who bring up their sons and daughters as human beings with manners and ability and a sense of equality…cause the world thankfully belongs to those who do not weigh people by the hormones they are blessed with, but with their ability and aptitude.

To this MCP I say…your world is over, your days are numbered for there is a legion of people – both men and women who know that being a man or woman doesn’t define one’s abilities or the lack of it. So, wipe that sorry smirk of yours…I have nothing more than pity for you and your sorry life for I can’t but imagine just how limited your very little teeny-weeny world really is. You have done nothing but yourself a disfavour for you have lost out on some great relationships, great conversations and greater experiences that this world and this life has to offer. I feel sorry for you.   

Hampi - Ancient Splendor

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