Chivalry - the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms....that's how the oxford dictionary describes it.
But then my guess is that the existence of this word is best left for usage in romantic novels or medieval age literature, cause today's male world has long back forgotten its meaning or usage.
Then some might argue about the new-age woman demanding equal rights, working hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder with her male counter-parts, not bowing against the age-old ideologies, making her own-way, leaving a mark in every field....why does she ask or look out for chivalry or valor from the other half or in case of India for the other 53% of the population.
Well valor is not something women look out for in all men, for she understands that she is the one who wanted to break out of those old shackles, she is the one who wanted to be brave enough to fight her own wars, to voice out her opinion about what she felt wrong, to understand the difference.....but then women will be women, she expects not all but only a few around her, with whom she spends or desires to spend her magnificent life with, to be kind, generous, understanding and caring....
she does not want her guy-friends (with whom she might have spent hours at the chai-adda, pulling each-others legs,laughing at stupid jokes,making plans for the next holiday trip) to be chivalric with her, nor does she expect her male colleagues (with whom she is at swords edge for the next promotion, the next project, the next presentation) to be chivalric with her.....though if they are then its good for then as it just goes to show good grooming and mannerisms :-))
So i write on this issue as i was witness to one such very rude, non-chivalric situation recently.....i had travelled 300km by road,with my family, to meet up with a guy as is so common in an arranged marriage scenario in India.....well as i am not a big rope-in on looks or money i shall leave all that aside, but what struck was the so non-chivalric behaviour of this guy(let me call him X), just to jot down a few....
*after the initial introduction X simply called up room-service and asked for 5 cups of tea, sorry, dude there r 4 other people whose drinking taste u don't know about, ever heard of asking people first, at this i asked X to cancel 1 tea as i do not drink tea, at this he tells me to take a sip and leave the rest, sorry again.....but then i forget about it....probably he is nervous
*we walk down to pizza-hut to catch a bite as their is no other eating joint in that area, we call for pizzas and when the bill arrives, X simply looks the other way, dude it is we who have travelled all the way and ideally we r your guests, ever heard of treating your guests out, OK i understand, Indian marriages where the girls family takes the bull-shit onus for meeting all expenses, but then at least pretend to try and pay the bill, pathetic.
*then my parents leave us alone in his hotel suite for the famous 5 min. chat after which u decide that whether u want to spend the rest of your life with the said person :-)), well i take a seat on the sofa, all dressed up in salwaar-kameez, heels, well-shampooed hair....all of it making me quite uncomfortable, X is sitting on the bed, my bro had left the door ajar....as soon i get settled down, X asks me to close the door, SORRY so sorry, did i hear u right, u r asking me to close the door, a woman who has come to meet her proposed groom...while u sit on the bed....dude i am through with u
...mmmmm if u think of it, it was not that big a deal, people may or may not want to drink tea, people eat out at pizza-hut and one of them pays the bill, whosoever might close the door to the room....who cares....true who cares, but then we care when the person doing such non-chivalric person is the person with whom u r expected to marry (marriage being the most loved, adored and cherished institution in this world)
I pray god to take away barbarism, terrorism, evil, cannibalism, etc from this world but never take away chivalry, valor, charisma....because then the world would become really not a great place to be.....women will be women, after all aren't we the extraordinary species from Venus :-))