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Women hate being called "Aunty". What's wrong with being called an Aunty? Is it a bad word? It is much better than leering glances from strangers.
Women hate being called “Aunty”. What’s wrong with being called an Aunty? Is it a bad word? It is much better than leering glances from strangers.
“Those were the days”! How often have we heard people say these words? Usually, these words refer to childhood or youth.
A lot of people look back at their childhood and youth years with nostalgia. I have not heard anybody speak fondly about middle age or old age. But how much of this is true? Are childhood and youth the best periods in our life?
Let’s look at our childhood years. Exams, unhealthy competition, bullying or being bullied, insecurities about the outside world are hardly the stuff of sepia-tinted memories. And if you add bickering parents, emotional abuse and helplessness to the mix then you have the recipe for a nightmare. Children also face risk from sexual abuse at home and outside.
Youth can be even more difficult. More so if you are a woman in a conservative family. The 20s are the period when you go through career and relationship uncertainties. Bad bosses and bad boyfriends only make things difficult. A young girl or boy is under constant scrutiny from friends and family. Young girls have to put up with unwanted advances everywhere. In most Indian families this is the period when the girl is up for sale in the marriage market. This means endless girl showing sessions, rejections and heartbreak. The parents are beside themselves with worry. Nosy relatives add fuel to the fire. After marriage comes the adjustment issues, demanding children, quite a whirlwind. Men spend this decade trying to establish themselves in their career. What’s so great about this decade?
What’s wrong with middle age? I know of people who hide the fact that they are on the wrong side of 40. Women hate being called “Aunty”. What’s wrong with being called an Aunty? Is it a bad word? It is much better than leering glances from strangers. Your 40s are a period when you are not too old but not too young either. You have the advantages of experience without the ill effects of age. Women feel more confident to face the world.
If you take good care of yourself then you can be fit in your old age too. Death and disability can strike at any age. Actually, it’s not the age that matters, it’s your relationships. If you have a loving relationship with yourself and others then each stage in life can be beautiful. The glass is never full. All the stages in life have their advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s stop looking at life in stages and accept and cherish our present. Its never too late to make new beginnings.
Image Source: Roman Odinstov on pexels
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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!
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Being a writer, Nivedita Louis recognises the struggles of a first-time woman writer and helps many articulate their voice with development, content edits as a publisher.
“I usually write during night”, says author Nivedita Louis during our conversation. Chuckling she continues,” It’s easier then to focus solely on writing. Nivedita Louis is a writer, with varied interests and one of the founders of Her Stories, a feminist publishing house, based in Chennai.
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