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We celebrate Ma Saraswati, the goddess of education, and who brings order to our lives. Shouldn't we value the education of women?
Ma Saraswati is heralded as the Goddess of Education. She is a woman. She is said to bring order in a world of chaos. When the world was disorderly, Lord Brahma brought Ma Saraswati to use education to find problems to every solution. Her birth gave rise to animals reproducing and flowers blooming and seasons changing.
Education shows people possibilities and solutions amidst problems. A woman is able to inspire others to use speech, think, understand and study. The literal meaning of Saraswati is “the essence of the self” as sara means “essence” and swa means “self” in Sanskrit.” Why do we the disrespect a woman and feel her birth is a curse. Society thinks a man brings good fortune and is useful to the society. The woman is a burden.
Ma Saraswati, the lover of music, books and culture does not believe in gaudy displays. She is pure and wears a white saree. This shows how knowledge is supreme and pure. Yet women is society are never listened to. Her views and opinions are ignored and the men of the society are the rulers. Whatever they say the women follow. What does a woman know beyond cooking and gossiping and raising kids, says the society. Men think that by giving a woman jewelry they are making her happy. Ma Saraswati does not wear these heavy jewelry.
Ma Saraswati sits on a lotus flower. The lotus flower stands on mud and always blooms beautifully no matter how dirty its environment is. The woman in society works hard and adjusts efficiently in the home where she grew up and in her in-laws house. She is always expected to make the sacrifices and learn the in-laws norms as quickly as possible.
Ma Saraswati has a swan with her. The swan is said to differentiate between good and bad milk. Education helps a person know what is good and what is bad. Education helps a person stay firmly grounded onto the virtuous beliefs and not get carried away by worldly wealth. The woman is our society are not allowed to study beyond a certain grade. Their education is deemed to be useless in front of marrying a man and keeping him happy.
Ma Saraswati holds the veena which is a musical instrument that requires extreme skillfulness and dexterity. People are urged to live a meaningful life. In society this means the woman performing multiple tasks and yet never being acknowledged. The man still gets paid more and the women’s multiple skills are just taken for granted.
Today when we celebrate Ma Saraswati’s festival, let us pause and think that if Lord Brahma gave so much power to a woman, then why we as a society cannot stop condemning the women and looking down upon them. Every woman’s skills should be highly appreciated and recognized. Her words of wisdom and pearls of thoughts should be given the highest value and acted upon immediately. When she says something, think it is Ma Saraswati singing the words of wisdom. Let us not forget that Ma Saraswati holds the Veda in her hand which is the ultimate knowledge. Let us start applauding and respecting the women in our lives.
Image source: by Grufnar from Getty Images Free for Canva Pro
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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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