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Friday, March 21, 2014

Fatigue, Profession and Gender in Dhoop Kinare

The role of profession in Dhoop Kinare could be seen as one effectively promoting the democratization of gender. Several incidents be it Zoya's forgetfulness to inject the child or Dr Sheena's wrong diagnosis of child point towards the seriousness of the profession. A single mistake could be worth a life. Equal pressure is applied on all the doctors regardless of their position.

However, what bothers me personally is the role of fatigue which in the show (at least the first part of the show) is depicted to be a function of the female doctors.

For instance, in the scene below Dr. Sheena's posture clearly shows she is really tired.

In fact she enters Dr. Ahmer's office claiming how tired she is:

Uff takh gaye aaj din buhat lamba guzar gaya 




However, what makes it interesting is contrasting Dr. Sheena's posture with that of Dr. Ahmer.



The picture above shows Dr Ahmer to be much more relaxed than Dr. Sheena. The engagement between the two makes their commitment to the profession more e

Dr. Sheena says,"duty toh tumhari bhi nahi thi" to Dr. Ahmer making it clear that he stays overtime and puts in extra effort. Yet what bothers me is the fact that we never see him as being as tired as the female doctors.

The scene below shows Ahmer entering his house late at night (or perhaps early morning) yet he shows no sign of faitgue. He tells Mianji to wake him up in an hour which again points out the fact that he takes his profession seriously. Yet, we never see that kind of commitment in his posture.


Moreover, the case of Zoya is particularly interesting to analyze in this regard. As she is shown to be one character most affected by fatigue. She is the one who is shown to have slept in the hospital at least three times as shown in the picture below.



The reason for this could be that Zoya has back to back duties (purposely done by Dr Sheena to put extra pressure on Zoya). Zoya discusses the reasons for her fatigue with her father as shown in the dialogues below.

Baba: Beityan ? Kya phir duo raaton ki duty lag gayi ?
Zoya: Jee baba. Roz Koi na koi chutti kar leita hai, aur jis din raat ki duty hoti hai na aksar log gayab hojate hain.
Baba: Takh gayi ?
Zoya: Jee...khaaskhar jis din surgerical ward mei duty lagti hai, uss din toh bas khare rehna parhta hai… bachey rote hain, shor machete hain saaron ko bhelana parhta hai.


Not only that but the scene shown below shows Zoya complaining about how tired she is,

Dr. Irfan kal bhi meri duty thi, aaj bhi meri duty hai….ain buhat takh gayi hun … mujhe buhat neendh aarahi hai aur aapki baatein mujhe bilkul samajh nahi aarahi hain.



Showing that fatigue is definitely taking a toll on her body. But this kind of tardiness or constant fatigue is never seen in Dr. Ahmer's posture, expressions or words.

So far, we just see the women complaining of being tired. It could be that Dr. Ahmer is may be seen as their leader. Someone who perhaps sets the benchmark on how to behave. Or maybe it is an unconscious comment on the female physique or their inability to deal with daily pressures. 

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