Woman on top
I stirred in my sleep this morning and realized that I had one new message. “Here’s to all the women who make this planet as habitable as it is! Happy Women’s Day!!” it said. Even in that groggy state of mind, as I saluted the spirit of womanhood, one face, the embodiment of a Woman’s power to me, sprang up in my mind; My Mother’s. If there is one woman who inspires me to do something big with my 60 odd years on this planet, it is her.
Who is she? She’s no women’s lib activist or corporate biggie. She wasn’t in the army or hasn’t been responsible for the best performing constituency. No, none of that for this woman. She, on the other hand, fulfills some of the most crucially important portfolios of this society, as do so many more women. She is a WOMAN. To anyone else, it would be ‘just another woman who teaches school children, and takes care of her family.’ To me, she is the lady who took up the responsibility of her two young siblings at a really young age and tended to them as a mother as they studied here in the city, while her father stood his ground for what he thought was right and fought against a system, in a little coal mining village in Andhra Pradesh. She became her parent’s strength when she was a mere teenager, taking up the responsibility and leaving them free to cause a minor rebellion. She then got married and had two girls; my sister and me. She taught in a school for 12 years and such was her effect on her pupils that some of the students of her first batch still come back, teary eyed to seek her blessings before launching onto something new. She didn’t just teach subjects; the taught Life to those future world citizens.
Today, I am proud of what she’s made of me. I have a strong sense of justice, people tell me. I say, my mom taught us to see right from wrong and fight but never go over to the wrong side. People say my sister is courteous. My sister says, mom taught us to think of everyone they way we would of ourselves. Mom taught us to be good human beings. Mom fulfilled her responsibility of being a good mother; a good woman; a good human being. To me, she is the best woman of the world and as I salute every woman, here is a special prayer upwards for my mother, my hero!!
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