Being A Woman

Obviously I’m writing this today at the end of the much talked-about ‘Woman’s Day’….Nevertheless when I started pondering about my own womanhood for a while, it was a bunch of mixed feelings that gripped me……..It was a journey down the memory lane, a reminiscence, a realization and above all ‘It is what my life is all about’……..

Firstly to begin with what does womanhood mean? How is it like being a woman? How do we women strive in the ‘patriarchal society’? Or is it the story of our valiant achievements in spite of facing the handicaps of being the weaker sex? .......... It is none of these things and yet it is all about these things. A woman no doubt plays many roles and plays it well….. She can nurture as a mother, care as a sister, support as a friend and love as a lover……..She is a soldier, a martyr and a creator……. yes the creator of life…….And this perhaps is one of the greatest achievement in a woman’s life as what can be more beautiful than being able to give birth to a life…..Even the almighty has been prudent enough to give this magic only to a woman, not that I’m being blasphemous by questioning his capabilities…… I hereby take pride as well as a humble bow…….Long live my feminity

Coming back to my own story……….Yes it has been amazing…………I have played only a few roles among the many that a woman does and yet I have learned so much and loved so much………A sense of completeness grips me here.

Like any other girl I have grown up seeing my mother. The fighter that she is, she has raised a family with love and care and yet made me what I am today….. Mothers are always an inspiration. So not being an exception, my mother has taught me to love to live and to endure…….The last lesson has a tremendous impact on my life because for feeble mortals like us the only thing that helps to strive through this life is endurance and for a woman this lesson is unavoidable. When I was a child, my mother was more like a protector…….She was a cocoon within which I grew…….Over the years her role transformed to a friend or rather a support……. The cocoon ruptured and the worm that was once in a slumber was taught to fly….And now that I’m growing before her eyes she herself is maturing as a woman in this new-found definition of motherhood…….To be honest, this is another beautiful yet astonishing fact of womanhood……The variety of roles that remain under the veil of a single one…….

Apart from being a doting daughter, perhaps the most significant part of my womanhood lies within my being a sister. Friends close to me know about my late brother, who in the short period that he lived, have nurtured me to become a lovely individual by doing many a wonderful things…… Bountiful I am to God for gifting him to me and despondent on the same note for snatching him away from me so ruthlessly….. His haven might have been segregated from me yet he still lives and breathes in my heart…….For I know and he knows there cannot be a better abode for him than the place where my soul resides……He taught me to love , showed me to play and showered me with care………..Yes he remains an intrinsic part of my womanhood, of my entity…….

Till date, if you ask me one role in which I have been the best, I bet it is as a friend…… And that is just because I have been blessed with so many lovely friends…….. Friendship is the beginning of every relationship, as the adage goes. And what is a woman if she is not a friend? She is non-existent. A woman befriends her parents, her husband, her children and above all she befriends her own self….. So without you my friends , life would not have shown me so many vestiges of colors. My friends have paved the way through the thick and thin of life. When I lost my brother it was you Jeba who hugged me to your heart and had it not been your healing touch I myself would have departed by now…….Had it not been all you beautiful ladies, my schoolmates, this girl would not have learnt to grin and giggle and combat through every battle………For we have bloomed together and we will charm this world together……….Long live our friendship……

This was my story……….very prosaic and yet so dear, at least to me…………My gratitude to every woman who has shaped my life and every man who has admired it………Just praying to fit well in all the other roles I am yet to face I bid adieu!!!!!!!!!