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A daughter understands the life and mental burden of her mom after she becomes a mom herself, and writes a heartfelt letter to her. Do read.
Today, when I walked a mile in your shoes, I realized that life is no bed of roses. I realized that each rosy sunset was the culmination of a day’s labor. It was the final act of a day spent in toil and ardor. It was symbolic of all you accomplished in that day before you could put your feet up and enjoy the view of the setting sun; before you could rest. This realization taught me that you now call chaos your life; that you now live in an atmosphere of perpetual motion.
When I walked a mile in your shoes, I realized that the way things seem may not always be how they actually are. I realized that behind the serene smile that I always see on your face, there are a hundred emotions playing riot. I felt the weight of what you carry; I felt the magnitude of what you bear. It was humbling because I understood your strength. I understood that even a cracked interior can have a placid facade.
When I walked a mile in your shoes, I realized that being one person was not enough. I realized that in order to accommodate so many people and so many things in your life, you had to be more than one person, and at all times. I realized that somewhere in trying to be someone for all of us, we actually might have lost the real you. I never realized when the beautiful person that you were, transformed into the person who we wanted in our lives. This realization has shocked me today.
When I walked a mile in your shoes, I realized how tired you must be. I realized how you relentlessly trudge on every day, day after day to tend to us. How you never stop even when your yesterday merges into tomorrow without meeting your today. You just carry on with an indefatigable spirit. You keep walking even in ill fitting or over sized shoes. You keep walking even if your feet hurt. You just never give up. This realization has been a revelation of how much we take you for granted.
When I walked a mile in your shoes today, I realized that I cannot walk on. I cannot take on even a fraction of your day and still continue on. I realized that I need to transcend from being me to being someone who has no sense of “me”. Someone who lives a life but not her own; someone who takes a breath to breathe life into others. This realization has shamed me.
A version of this was first published here.
Image source: a still from the movie Listen…Amaya!
Sonal is a multiple award winning blogger and writer and the founder of a women-centric manpower search firm - www.rianplacements.com. Her first book, a volume of poetry - Islands in the stream - is slated read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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