Women I admire

Even though I grew up in a traditional mallu home I was exposed very early on to the potential of women...

the first such lady was my grandmother ... she was one of the first lady doctors of India... at a very young age my grandmother did the unthinkable in those days- took a train all the way from Kerala to the State of Madras. All alone!!!... and enrolled herself in the medical university at Madras... she was one of the four women students there in the midst of about 40 male students .... one of them ofcourse being my grandfather.... they fell in love in medical school and defied parents to get married ...... well the romance of their lives is another blog but today it is about the phenomenal grandmother that I had.... she went to practice medicine till she died.... I am named after her and she died within a year of me being born.... and not only was she smart people remember her even today for her generousity..........sometimes I wonder - if she had been alive today would she behave like a typical grandmother and tell me to start producing babies or would she understand that I am embarking on the same journey similar to the one she embarked on about 70 years back... I dont know and I guess I will never find out....

The other ladies who have always been a source of inspiration for me are my father's aunts- his mom's sisters.... now they were 4 in all - my grandmother being the eldest........while my grandmother completed her class 10th (a big thing in those days), my grandmother's sisters went on to study medicine!!! yes all three of them were doctors .... and all of them also did the unthinkable those days by travelling all the way to Chandigarh no less to study!!! well I dont know what it was like in those days but I have to admit even now going alone to Chandigarh is not an option that I would readily jump at.... and these grandaunts have often told me about stories of people harassing them on the way to Chandigarh... including that of a stalker whom they finally managed to catch and beat the hell out of .... well I do the same now at bandra train station.. hehe...

And then ofcourse there are the slightly distant relations who are equally impressive... one of them being Anna Malhotra who has gone down in Indian general knowledge questions as the first woman IAS officer of India... from early childhood her name was taken as a role model for me... "when you grow up you must become like Annakoch"... and I would imagine this superwoman lady and wonder whether I will ever be that revered by family..... and about 3 years back I finally met the great Annakoch face to face... and while she was stiff and not really warm, for me it was like meeting a legend... in my eyes she was.....

Having grown up in an environment where it was normal for a woman to have a job and a family it really shocked me that women of my generation are really living in an age beyond that of my grandmother.... for instance the girls in my batch of 12th standard had picked out the names of their children!!! and to be a part of the crowd I would also pick out random names for my as yet unborn children.... and some girls would also counsel me sometimes about how I should try and "tone"down since boys will never marry me if I am so bold.... and to be honest at that age I did start believing that being a woman with ambition was really a disease.... while in hind sight I realised that I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I did go through some soul searching for being the way I am ....

To be honest I still have not met women as amazing as my aunts and grandmother... today we are given all the opportunities on a platter... we didnt have to make the opportunity ... and these women made their opportunity ........... and I am proud of them......

Women- Just Do It, I say!