It was an ad by Canara Bank - possibly to advertize a recurring deposit scheme - that was plastered all over the bus stop. I cannot be sure because I really didn't pay much attention to the rest of its content. It would be more accurate to say that "I couldn't". Why?

I couldn't take my eyes off the two pictures in the ad and the captions above them. One was a picture of a young girl in a bridal attire. The caption above read 'For your children's marriage'. The other picture was of a young boy on his graduation day. The caption above read 'For your children's higher education'.

I wonder if the people who design such campaigns ever pause to think about what messages they are sending. I could think of three and not one of them was positive. First, if you have a daughter, you will need money for her wedding - but maybe not for her higher education. Second, if you have a son, you will need money for his higher education - but not for his wedding because his would-be in-laws will be responsible for all the expenses. And third, not perhaps immediately apparent - because you have spent for your son's education his wedding is your chance of getting all that investment back, in the form of dowry.

Just goes to show how deeply patriarchal our society is and how hard it is going to be to change it.