Cometh the hour...cometh the (wo)man?

A few days ago, before the sugarcane farmers were defecating and urinating in the thousands at Jantar Mantar, protesting the control of sugar prices by the government, before the leaked liberhan report to indian express caused the Lok and Rajya Sabha to be ground to a halt, before the tabled report accused Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi of inciting communal violence. A much understated drama was being played out by the Air Chief Barbora when asked about the future of women in aviation and direct combat for the Indian Armed forces (women as fighter pilots and in the infantry) he said that he could not forsee a role for women fighter pilots in the near or for that matter in the far future, these comments were made on the back of India's imminent, 126 fighter mega-giga-tera-peta deal. The deal hopefully is in good hands, unlike the future aspirations of the women-fighters of India. He said that the government spends about 9 crore on the training of the pilots and they have a service bond of 14 years, *ok good enough, now where is the reason a woman can't fly?*, and only after 12 years in service can a pilot pay back his training costs to the force,*ok, we get the commerce but where is the reason???*, well yes a woman would have to sign the service agreement, she could be happily married but we say no to pregnancy,*that is all fine, well and dandy but where is the fuckin reason that women can't fly*, and that was the end of the interview. And i was left wondering that while Pratibha Patil hits the treadmill to get into shape for her maiden and hopefully last flight aboard a Sukhoi 30-MKI, the rest of Indian female population will have to wait to a long time before they see the inside of a fighter cockpit urrrr.... excuse me HEN-pit. The respected Chief said many things, but never gave a plausible or even an outlandish reason for this policy. I mean to say that if a suitable contract can be drawn and a woman after considering the restraints, wants to do this, what is the problem? Is it because the woman is not patriotic enough? or because they have lower brain capacity? the only credible and practical difference between men and women is the physical aspect. Yes, Men have the physical advantage when it comes to combat and extreme situations, but it would be hardly tedious work to draw up a suitable set of benchmarks for the physical qualifications for women. This is all fine and jolly if the whole armed forces fraternity were on the same page, but no sooner had the air chief given these statements, the navy commisioned its first 2 women aviators. I mean bravo, we really are the pastmasters of double standards.
Lastly, Just this one thing if a demure, average Indian girl can fly a Space shuttle, it must be soooooooooooooooooooo difficult for indian women to fly aircrafts....

I have a bone to pick with women too, but not today, not in this post which i have so carefully moulded to show them in good light...that one is for another post at some other time....