Celebrating the essence of woman

I am not sure how you all have felt, but from the moment I understood the song by Roy Orbinson , pretty woman, walking down the street, I always felt a sudden sprint in my walk, not because I am anywhere near the term pretty, but I feel the beauty of my being from inside myself for being a woman.


Why I mean I understood, it so happened, when I was in school, I was the only one with a darker complexion, that it kind of created a complex, not because I was feeling inferior, but because of some of my classmates and their parents (yes ) who used to make fun of my color. Well who said color discrimination is not there in India.


One fine day, I realised that you need to be real beautiful inside and what you are outside does not matter much. By the time I entered college, I never thought about color. Today I feel every women is a pretty woman in her own right. Today I believe beauty is something that embraces and enhances lives around us.

Let me not digress from what I wanted to convey, the whole of last week, looking at offers, sales, dinners for women’s day has been a making me go crazy. You had offers in watches, spas, dinners if you went with your daughter etc..and to the extent one of the restaurants invited the men folk to cook and serve their women.

Well, for me, all the days are the same. I feel it as an official day that was declared in the year 1909 to commemorate the ordinary women making history, for what started even before that. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men to end war, the French women calling in equality and liberty and an end to suffering during the French revolution.

Interesting in the initial period when women’s day was observed it was on the last Sunday of February. Which later came to be the march 8th of the Gregorian calendar though that is again a history in itself.

What pains me more, is have we taken to taint the spirit of the women’s day with the advent of commercialization, what started as a women’s movement of sisterhood to unite against the sufferings of the women all over. Well I am sure there is going to be two different school of thoughts on the same.

Switch on the TV, you get to see movies that you will not select to watch, as a movie fit for women’s day. You get to see songs that make you cringe in your seats, celebrating.
I would have been really happy to see some programs that showed woman of substance. Why is that only the celebrities get to be termed women of substance. I appreciate and acknowledge kiran bedi, and the likes.

What about the numerous women who work so hard to empower woman, the women who make positive things happen to others at the grassroots level.
Green Woman from Orissa Urmila Behera, who takes to planting trees and balancing the environment, and we do need one in each town to compensate for the ozone depletion.
Koushalya, who came forward and announced boldly that she had AIDs, and is a crusader for the cause. Chelakkodan Aysha the pioneer of the complete literacy movement .

Well some of you may be knowing them. A few more to my list,
My flower vendor, who says she is going to make her sons a engineering graduate and the first one is on the way to become one.
My milk-woman, who is a millionaire today, but still says she cannot stop delivering milk.
My maid, who has brought her 4 siblings, after her parent died, and her husband left her.
Well, I salute the spirit of the women, who does what she can, and never relents from trying.

I forgot the author, but had recently read an article where in he said, He salutes the spirit of the Indian woman, who has the courage to toil, and do what is needed in any situation and keeping the family as a single entity.


Here is to the woman of today from me

Who knows to laugh when all she wants to do is cry.
Who makes all the sacrifices to meet ends,
Who believes in fighting till the end,
Who believes in finding the best possible solution,
Who makes all the difference in the lives of her children,
Who makes it look easy standing behind and cheering the success of her man.
Who makes it look loving is so easy with the unconditional way she loves,
Who knows to carry with aplomb in all walks of life.
Who knows to excel in any career she chooses to be,
Who knows to be strong, even while she looks brittle,
Who knows and fights for her identity,
Who protects her self-respect at any cost.
Who cheers for her sisters,
Who looks dynamic in the board room or the kitchen.
Who is a blend of traditional values and contemporary style.
Who is a storehouse of incredible energy
Who is as vibrant as the colorful rainbow.
A woman who needs to be respected and cherished.


Truly the essence of womanhood needs to be celebrated. Let us be the woman who other women admire and respect and trust.

Are you joining me???