Women you are Blest!

        Free Press, Weekend, Sunday, March 07, 2010

              “Women you are blest. You have taken upon yourself the creator’s work and are his helpers. You open the way to recovery and ever renew the outworn world. Quietly, bravely is beauty’ form you carry within you the preserving force of universe and for the fallen, the broken, the deformed, the gracious touch of the lovely.”

        These noble words of great Indian poet Rabindra Nath Tagore most aptly articulate the real worth, dignity and place of the women. Philosophically speaking ‘every reality has two sides, whether it is good or bad, light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance and so on. One has no meaning without the existence of the other. Without tasting the acrimony of failure we will not know the syrupiness of success. To put it in context, man is incomplete without woman. Can we imagine a society or world for that matter, without women?

          A man is borne by a woman in her womb, with great care. She brings forth the new life, sacrificing her own comforts; she provides the best circumstances for the baby. The man, in his childhood, has a woman as his sister to play with him. When he grows up and becomes ready to be responsible in society, gets married with a woman; she gives him the real meaning of being a man, a complete man. She is always there to help man in every test and time till the end of life of a man. She is there at every crossroad of man’s life to give a hand to him, to be his aide. But is she only an aide? Doesn’t she have her own independent identity, her own penchant and dislike, her own independent existence? She is not created just to be a helper to man alone, but her existence is complimentary to that of man.

        If we skim through the timeline, it is very clear that women are beginning to comprehend their real dignity. They are not less in any matter. They have their own identity and full right to assert that. Mrs. Indira Gandhi probably meant this when she said, “to be liberated woman should feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to man but in the context of her own capacity. Woman should be more interested, more alive and more active in the affairs of society, not because they comprise half the human race.” These words though spoken in the past are now being fulfilled. Woman is changing her susceptible image into the image of an able and independent being. There are numerous examples of women coming forward to assert their identity and are shining.

            She has been created by God with certain purpose and accordingly endowed with abilities and capacities. She has a compassionate heart with immense patience. Mother Teresa is one of the best examples of how a woman can feel for the suffering humanity. The present president of our country stands as in icon to indicate to the women of our country, that nothing is impossible for a woman that is possible for a man. Kiran Bedi, Medha Patekar, and several other ladies with “iron will” give a strong message that women have the aptitude not only to change somebody’s life but can give a new direction to society. With all the inimitable qualities possessed by a woman one would admiringly say ‘women you are blest.”

- B. Johnson Maria