As a child I was always aware of the fact that people felt sorry for my parents who had no sons; but never, I insist never was I or (I think) my sister made cognizant of this through our parents ideas or views. I had once written an essay on the role of the modern women where I began the essay as “In the ancient times the role of women was limited to the household and domestic arena. They played behind the scenes, they were the backbone of the society and they nurtured and cared and reared great men in their backyards. If you notice I have used “Great Men” only, this is not because I have a gender bias but it is because that was the truth.” You might wonder where I got this idea from if not from my parents; actually I got this from all the history books that we study in school. I realized that women from the 8th century started regressing into the back ground or maybe after the birth of Christ (I really haven’t done accurate research on all this). When we search for women in mythology whether its Greek or Indian, we find a powerful mind and in some cases a powerful body (Athena or Durga) and we must remember the deity of learning is Saraswati!

I have, as every woman at one time or the other in her life, felt insecure because of physical frailty. I have also taken advantage of the social bias and got out of a lot of work that I know I could have easily done!
But remember, all the women who read this, we can change the world with “ideas” and we are best equipped to deal with this. Ideas do not need strength nor are their any social bias connected with who gives the idea. It’s very heartening to see magazines doing write ups on successful women, our heart swells up with pride and the small imp called envy rear its head – worm like- to sow its seed of discontent amongst us!

I am not a “Successful woman” per se, in the sense I have no earth shaking achievement to my name, but as The Geeta has advised us, I have fulfilled (Still doing it!) my duties to the best of my ability! Women all around me are doing it all the time without any hope for recognition and that is wonderful.
A minuscule part of me is always dissatisfied with- why I didn’t do this or I could have done that- so I go on stumbling on the road to…… (You fill in the blank). Middle age has brought with a lot of wrinkles, Grey hair and fat! It has also brought with it a sense of peace and calm and an acceptance of certain truths which though unpalatable is bitter sweet and edible!

Men have an equally important role to fulfill, poor things! Most of them do great things yet no one goes gaga over these works. I will at some later date talk about “What I feel is the importance of being men” not today, as I am feeling very “feminist” but just to give an insight into it – their ancestors were responsible for the regression of women but the modern MAN is playing his part in uplifting and pushing woman to her rightful(?) position!