Being a Woman

I met an interesting girl yesterday, a maid in one of the neighbouringapartments. She is from a remote village down south and speaks my language. I saw her speaking to my neighbour in Hindi. Although it's not very surprising these days to see South Indians speak Hindi, this girl intrigued me. Considering the anti Hindi protests in the South of India few years back, I was wondering how a girl from a small village down south managed to pick up Hindi. From one of her former employers I presumed, though I did not ask her. It takes a lot of courage and determination to come all the way to the Middle East and work as a maid, where the daily newspapers are filled with horrors of maid abusing. This girl, Vasanthi, has surely come a long way and I was overwhelmed by her strength. I am sure she supports her family back home and hopes to get married and settle down some day, like any other girl in her village.

Meeting Vasanthi made me think... From being a cute little girl, to a boisterous teenager and then to a responsible adult, a woman constantly evolves, physically and mentally. Adorns various roles in different phases of life, and plays her roles to the best of her abilities, given the constraints in terms of social and familial backgrounds. What hurts most is that they don't get credit for what they are and what they do and sometimes even highly criticized.

I wish to record here my appreciation for all the woman in my life, starting from my Mother to Vasanthi - whom I met for a few minutes, for what they are -personification of strength and affection, two extreme qualities, in perfect combination, resulting in a woman of substance.