Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Being the best version of yourself is the only way to be - emulating others supposed to be cool never works!
Being the best version of yourself is the only way to be – emulating others supposed to be cool never works!
On a lunch break, I was out eating a sandwich on the street side restaurant next to office. This restaurant is my favourite as it gives anyone sitting here a great view of the buzzing pavement. Office goers, shoppers, tourists from the nearby 7-star hotel, you get to see a variety of people – their differences coloring the afternoon languor with a vibrancy.
As I lazily observed people, one girl in her teens particularly attracted my attention. She had cropped unruly curly hair, wore torn jeans and a t-shirt. She came riding on her skateboard covering the length of the pavement. She looked so free and independent that I longed to get to know her.
I watched her for quite some time while she continued on her skateboard until she stopped abruptly. She stopped and started looking at something. As I followed her gaze I saw that she was staring at two girls her age who passed her by. These girls looked like they were out of a magazine. Well-dressed, toenails polished and shiny, straight hair in braids and feminine to the core. Of course, they turned heads and of course they looked pretty but the reaction on my favourite girl’s face was one of being awestruck and a feeling of rejection.
I completely understood her. I, myself as a teenager have often tried to fit in. To look like and be like someone, I am not. We try as a youngster to emulate, to fit in, to be accepted; but in the process we lose ourselves. The problem with women is, we still do. Looking at this girl with the skateboard, I thought, if there was one advice that I would like to give her it would be this – Be your Own Hero.
There are many ways to be but the best way to be is to be yourself. The only place a woman can reach by emulating another is mediocrity. Greatness is achieved when you dance to the tune that your heart plays. A friend of mine gave up playing the drums though she was good at it because it was ‘oh-not-so feminine!’ Now when she looks at the young female drummers in rock bands, she realizes that she had the potential to be one of them had she given herself a chance. It was something that her heart desired but also something that she never pursued.
It is good to have an inspiration but better still to write your own story. The one reason I like a woman like Chef Ritu Dalmia is because I feel she is everything what she was not raised to be. She is a simple Marwari girl raised in a Kolkata business family who followed her path. The most celebrated chef now in India.
As I left the café, I saw the young girl being joined by a sleek looking woman who came out of an office building. She was dressed immaculately in an corporate attire with high heels and a branded bag. Going by her looks she seemed to be her mother. I could not help but wonder what would such a free spirited child come to with a mother so perfect like the one she has. But I realized I was too fast to judge.
As I entered my office building I could not help but look back at the duo while waiting for the lift from the glass cubicle. The mother took off her heels, got on the skateboard and did some really cool moves while teaching her daughter how exactly to do it. It was then that I realized that this teen was in good hands. With a mother like the one she has, her fire of passion will not be smothered under the placard of ‘What society deems correct for a woman’ but will be fanned to be a trailblazer.
Image source: shutterstock
A Social Media Content Writer by profession. A writer by heart. A genuine foodie. Simple by nature. Love to read, create paintings and cook. Have impossible dreams. At the moment, engaged in making those dreams read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Children should be taught to aspire to be successful, but success doesn't have to mean an IIT admission only!
Imagine studying for 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 whole years for the JEE exam only to find out that there’s only a very, very slim chance of getting into an IIT. It is a fact widely acknowledged that the IIT-JEE is one of the toughest exams not just in India but in the whole world. Apart from IITs, the NITs and IIITs of India also accept the JEE scores for admission. There are said to be a total of 23 IITs, 31 NITs and 25 IIITs across the country.
Now, let’s first get a few facts about the IITs right. First, according to the NIRF rankings of 2023, only 17 IITs rank in the top 50 engineering colleges of India and only a few (around 5) IITs are in the list of the world’s top 100 engineering colleges. Second, the dropout rate of IIT-qualifying students stands at least at 20%, with reasons being cited ranging from academic pressure and unmanageable workload to caste discrimination and high levels of competition within the IIT.
So, it’s quite clear that the journey of making it through IIT is as challenging as the journey of getting into an IIT. Third and most important of all, the acceptance rate or the odds of getting into an IIT are below 3% which is a lot lower than the acceptance rate of highly and very highly ranked US universities. Four, getting into an IIT of one’s choice doesn’t mean one will also get into a branch of one’s preference at that IIT.
Please enter your email address