A Woman of Substance

Editor's Note: Dear IL'ites, satchitananda has shared a very heart warming story about a friend who never quit and it was this attitude of hers that finally took her a long way in life. Please read and share with your friends. Satchitananda, thank you for sharing this story with us. This has been selected as best of forums and featured here. Congratulations!

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It was a wonderful moment today when i logged onto my e-mail and found a notification of a friend request from a close friend whom i had lost touch with 15 years ago. i had absolutely no clue where i could hope to find her or get any information about her.

sometimes, one can be so stupid, the most obvious answer eludes the mind. why did not search on face-book? we have 2 common friends. why did i not think of asking them about her? scattiness - early signs of alzheimers. ok, i shall leave it at that then. i didn't think of it, but to my luck she did and here i am in touch with her once again. so enough of the self-flagellation .

naturally when one gets in touch with someone after so long, one wants to know how time has treated them and the first evidence is a picture of the person. unfortunately she has absolutely no picture of herself. however, she has posted pictures of her parents and family wedding pictures.

what touched me the most was the picture of her parents outside buckingham palace. you may wonder what is so unique about this. now let me put it like this. imagine a girl from a family which is very economically underprivileged and socially disadvantaged . the father works as a peon in a government office. mother is a housewife and is illiterate. brother is an auto-rickshaw driver. she is the only one in the family who has studied very well and has got a ph.d in the biological sciences from the university of oxford about 17 years ago. all this on her own steam, getting scholarships to fund her studies abroad and working part time there to support herself and to help her family.

she was a few years junior to me in school. however, i got to know her when i was working with her in the same lab in my hometown. and let me say this, she was brilliant. this is one case where i could not harbour any resentment to the government's policy of reservations. she deserved to be helped. not that she needed it, as she was smart enough to make it there on her own. after that she left for the u.k. to do her ph.d. i followed a year later and got to know her really well during that time. i have been witness to how hard she worked, how she used to save money to buy gifts for her family - including parents, siblings, nephews and nieces. while there, she met and got married to a man from across the border, despite the possibility to familial objections. she went with him to his country, had a wedding ceremony in their style and came back. she said it would be very difficult because of her educational background to find someone of equal or similar qualifications in her own community. hats off to her courage

today, when i saw pictures of her parents in her album, imagine how happy and proud i felt of my friend. this girl has not forgotten her roots despite all the progress she has made, nor is she ashamed or embarassed to acknowledge it. she has given her parents an opportunity to visit the u.k. and it is so heart-warming to see pictures of this couple, the mother with her head covered with the pallu of her 9-yards saree tied in their traditional fashion, posing beside wax models of indira gandhi and rajeev gandhi at mme. tussaud's and outside buckingham palace. she did not feel embarassed by their dress in that ambience either. blessed are such parents to have such a daughter. can you imagine with what pride they must have felt to show these pictures to their family and friends when they got home ?

i can't think of a better example of an indian woman, to justify our celebration of international womens' day :bowdown:bowdown. who says sons are better than daughters? they have another think coming. cheers to more women like her may their tribe increase. :cheers

 

i totally agree with you shakambari.