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Mary Kom has set the bar high once again by winning her 6th gold at 35, against a 22 year old opponent - a huge thing in competitive sports. She is truly Magnificent Mary!
Mary Kom has set the bar high once again by winning her 6th gold at 35, against a 22 year old opponent – a huge thing in competitive sports. She is truly Magnificent Mary!
Dear Mary Kom,
“I am still dreaming,” You thundered after creaming your opposition. And you are legendary! The way you convert those nascent dreams into resounding realities is emulate-worthy, across genders, across ages!
Marriage, 3 children and pushing 35.
Well, most athletes would be planning their retirement, but not the lioness that drives this petite you. You are already eyeing acing the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. At that age, most of us would be told gently, directly, ceaselessly to take it easy and put our own dreams on hold because our homes need our feminine and maternal touch.
You are rewriting the mothballed gender rules and set the bar really high for us!
You have shattered the glass ceiling, broken the male bastion. A parliamentarian, a pan Indian inspiration.
Your soaring popularity cannot be tied down to mere stellar statistics that you have piled up in the last 17 years. Your undying passion for this sport, teaches us a thing or two, about age being just a number and that dreams are to be nurtured, pursued ardently. ‘Go for gold’ is the life-mantra that works for us too.
You gain weight and drop weight just to fit in categories so that you can fight more duels and win more medals, more laurels. Another important lesson for us there. Weight gain is a part and parcel of our existence. Work that weight gain off. Don’t fret till cows come home or make it a weighty issue.
Believing in self totally and going all out is no longer bad or considered vulgar but is utterly aspirational now. Bless you, for setting some staid records straight!
Six world championship titles!! They say no one asked you to do so, to walk on this tough road but you are one stubborn lady, who wouldn’t take a ‘No’. Just imagine, you won your first bout when there was no Facebook or Gmail or the iPhone and are still going strong.
You have boxed yourself to immortality in the Bouting history. How easily have you surmounted the pressure of expectations?
True, There can’t be another Mary. You are the Magnificent Mary.
You have given us much to mull.
Thank you.
A middle-aged-mother
A version of this was first published here.
Image source: YouTube
Anupama Jain is the author of: * ’Kings Saviours & Scoundrels -Timeless Tales from Katha Sarita Sagara’, listed as one of the best books of 2022 by @Wordsopedia. Rooted in the traditional storytelling of Indian legends, warriors, read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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