Navratri celebrations in a unique way!
Today, on the first day of Navratri, may Ma Durga enter each and every girl’s soul and give her the strength to stave off the rapists; to thwart all those who force her to abort her own female child; to stand up against sex discrimination in every sphere of life; to foil the efforts of the society that makes women feel small in comparison to the men; to fend off the evil manipulations to subjugate her in relationships!
Friends, we all know that just praying will not take us anywhere. As they say, “God helps those who help themselves”, we women must stand together, understand, accept and support each other, every single time we get an opportunity to do so.
We women in India are conditioned to think that once we are married, our marital home is our real home. This mindset has resulted in so many young girls’ suffering silently, even being burnt, mostly with the connivance of the mothers-in-law and the sister-in-law, proving the oft quoted phrase, “A woman is the worst enemy of another woman”, especially in our Indian patriarchal society.
Now, slowly and steadily, the scenario is changing as more and more women are getting educated, becoming economically independent and are asserting themselves, however we have a long way to go.
Talking of my own family, we are four sisters with no brother, we didn’t know any discrimination at our home though I remember very vividly the snide, derogatory remarks passed for my mother by my grandmother and her cronies.
Our father was a great visionary, he ensured that all four of us acquired professional qualifications and pursued a career. We got married and settled down in our respective marital homes.
I don’t know how and when we started giving priority to our husbands and our new set of relatives at the cost of our own personal relationships. Maybe we took our own parents, our sisters, our own flesh and blood for granted; we busied ourselves in nurturing our new associations.
Now when I look back, I realize that, ever since our binding force, our parents have gone, we sisters have lost that close bonding. The wheels within the wheels are there, somewhere our children don’t gel with each other, sometimes our husbands don’t see eye to eye, ego clashes and rivalry are apparent now, in the process we sisters have drifted apart.
Ladies, I am sharing it all, baring my soul on this platform, just to let you know that we must keep nurturing our GIRL BONDING during every phase of our lives,
Let’s celebrate Navratri differently,
Let’s felicitate womanhood,
Let’s be our own Durga,
AND
Let this bonding season be a lifelong one.
Renuka.