Dear Railway Ministers and Authorities,
Firstly warm wishes to you in advance of upcoming Men’s Day, which falls on 19th November. I am sure you all are doing some fantastic work in your respective areas and I appreciate you for that.
I am sending this email (also an open letter shared outside) with 3 simple reasons to light up our Mumbai’s iconic World Heritage structure and a historic building we are all so proud of – the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) – in Blue lights on Men’s Day eve and Men’s Day i.e. on 18th and 19th November 2017.
- Men have always been silent contributors for the society – be it a young man supporting his family or a senior citizen indulging in social service. Their contributions deserve to be respected and acknowledged. They need to be appreciated and encouraged. “CSMT in Blue” will be step towards achieving this.
- Men’s Health: There is a huge “vaccum” in India when it comes to men’s health. There is a lot of space for research or simply generating awareness related to health disorders men suffer from. “CSMT in Blue” can spread light on such health concerns of men and these ought to be highlighted.
- Issues related to men is a very dark area. The universal belief that men dont need help or they can be on their own leads to almost complete ignorance towards grievances of men’s issues. There’s a huge lack of empathy towards men and their problems. However men are human too and can be as vulnerable as women when they find themselves wronged by same or other gender. In fact suicides in men are double than that of women which confirms that are under tremendous stress or burden and there grievances need to be addressed. “CSMT in Blue” can be symbolic to light up these dark areas concerning men.
Elaborating on Men’s Health: Men’s Day falls in the month of November, which is also called as Movember. During this month men are encouraged to “grow their mo” i.e. moustaches & beards. The idea is to save some money by not shaving for a month and donate this saved money for cancer research which men suffer from. Every 7th man can potentially suffer from the life-threatening Prostate Cancer sometime in their life. Not much is known or researched about Testicular Cancer. Like breasts in women, testicles are external organs and careful amputation of testicles is done to save lives. Early detection of Testicular cancer can help prevent loss of lives. Periodic physical examination by self is the only way to early detect lump formation or Testicular Cancer. Lung and Throat Cancer are also very prevalent in men and campaigns to give up smoking (also used by men as stress-buster) can save lot of lives.
“CSMT in Blue” can be a message to all men to be self aware of their health.
On other lines, if CSMT can be lit up in pink on Women’s Day, in Indian tricolour during India’s Independence Day, in French tricolour after terrorist attacks in France and otherwise in different shades normally during the course of a year, why shouldn’t it be lit blue on Men’s Day? Mumbai is probably the most advanced city in India and we do support equal rights amongst human beings without any discrimination, don’t we?
We already had an instance of CSMT getting lit up in blue lights on Autism Day. Having done it in the past and having all the resources to light it up in blue, if we have the correct intent, we can light-up “CSMT in Blue” again!
Thanks in advance and in anticipation of this wonderful gesture by you for Mumbai, Maharashtra & India.
Regards,
A proud Indian common man.
the parallel opinion 