Preeti Kochar, a dentist and passionate belly dancer, juggles between family and work and what she wants in return is love and support from her husband, but rues that partners don't understand women.
"Men don't understand women. They don't understand what hardships a woman goes through. Sometimes in the process of meeting expectations of others, we forget about our own happiness," complained Preeti, 33 and mother of a two-year-old.
Agreeing with Preeti, 30-year-old brand manager Pallavi Burman, asserted: "In our society, a woman is blamed for everything, no matter if it is her fault or no. Why don't men understand women?"
"I have always done what my family wanted me to do. I even married a person they chose for me. We got separated when things didn't work out. And everybody boycotted. Now I am marrying someone who is willing to accept me the way I am," she added.
Also Read
What women want, their woes and much more will be shown on a new show "Connected Hum Tum" through the stories of six women, including Preeti and Pallavi. To be hosted by actor Abhay Deol, it will go on air June 3 on Zee TV.
Paromita Vohra, director of the show, feels that every woman can "relate to the stories of these six women".
She said: "We started working on the show one-and-a-half years back. We asked women to share their stories online and then we went to meet them in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Meerut and Bangalore. We selected these six women because we felt their stories will definitely connect with Indian women."
After being trained in camera handling, each woman was given a high definition camera for six months to shoot their daily routine.
"We wanted to show the real side of a woman. Everyday they used to send us their videos. They were also free to delete what they didn't want to show. After watching 1,500 hours of videos, we finally shortlisted scenes that the viewers will see in the 52 episodes," said Paromita.
What is the idea behind the show?
"Every woman wants to be heard, to get acknowledged for their work. These six intelligent, honest and confident women have a story to tell and most importantly the courage to show their real side to the world," said Paromita.
During the show, host Abhay will put his point of view on behalf of men.
"Though the show is scripted, but the scripting has been done by the women themselves... there's no sensationalism like we see in other reality shows," said Paromita.
The television industry has become women-oriented with saas-bahu sagas, and Paromita admits that "it's true", but the show is "for both men and women. It will help mend their differences".
No negativity will be shown and the participants got support from their respective families.
If Preeti and Pallavi are doing the show to discover themselves, Mumbai-based Malishka Mendonca, 34, feels it will help her expand her horizons.
Struggling actress Mahima Chaudhary, corporate trainer Madhavi Mauskar and theatre producer Sonal Giani are also part of the show.