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Here are the results of the Women’s Web FemInspiration contest, but honestly, every inspiring woman in your entries is the real winner.
When you announce a contest to celebrate women’s strength and 100 years of celebrating International Women’s Day, when you ask for people to write about their “FemInspiration”, when over 40 enthusiastic bloggers and readers respond, when every one of those entries is lovely to read and thought-provoking –
Whose fault is it that the judging gets so difficult?!
Reading the entries for the FemInspiration contest has been a tough as well as humbling job. Incredible stories of women who’ve faced their lives with dignity, grace, courage, humour, compassion – and yet, women who consider themselves “ordinary”. Women who’ve built careers, raised families, saved themselves (and loved ones) from poverty, healed hurts with love and compassion.
Yet, choose we had to, and here are the 10 winners! (Whether or not your entry won, we’d like you to know that we enjoyed reading your story – as I am sure hundreds of other readers did. Thank you so much for your FemInspiration story).
Here goes then!
Our 1st prize goes to Agnija Bharathi, for her post, ‘A brave woman on the bus’, about a woman who is the only one to stand up to a creep harassing a young girl on a bus. Her post was not only inspiring, it was also thought-provoking; for after chasing the harasser away, this woman asks the young girl, “Why do you encourage this?” Even in their most inspirational moments, women in our society still have their own fears to contend with, and Agnija’s post was a good reminder of that. Agnija will be receiving the cool reversible denim-brocade handbag from our sponsor, New-Improved.
Our three 2nd prizes (Rs. 500 Flipkart vouchers to each of them) go to:
– Suranga, for her entry, ‘Celebrating Kashibai‘ about an uneducated domestic worker who brings up a physically challenged son with tremendous courage and resourcefulness.
– Chandni, for her post, ‘One for Women’s Day’ about a woman whom life gives a hard deal, leading her to become a sex worker, but who is now empowering other women.
– Priya Mani, whose entry reached us via Facebook notes and is about “Celebrating Draupadi”. Talking about this strong character from the Mahabharata, she says, “Rape/sexual harassment are traumatizing experiences. Victims clam up, or worse, take the bleak route of suicide. Can one imagine the enormity of such an incident (as the Vastraharan) when it occurred more than 2500 years ago? Yet, Draupadi held her own, and voiced her protest so vociferously in an assembly of the so called heroes and dignitaries of Aryavarta.”
(Since the entries on FB notes are not public, we hope to be able to share some of them with you here with the writers’ consent).
And, our six 3rd prizes (a Women’s Web mug each) go to:
– Shivaja, for her story, ‘She’ set in God’s Own Country – a state that boasts the highest female literacy and yet unable to throw off antiquated notions about what women should be like.
– Kiran Manral, for her touching post about her mother, ‘Of Woman Power’. (disclosure: Kiran Manral regularly writes for Women’s Web, but did not receive any special consideration on that account!)
– Deboshree, for her entry, ‘Having the last laugh’ on a young woman from a conservative family who rebels against an unsuitable marriage.
– Vasanti Ramesh for her entry, ‘Slings and arrows’, sent via FB Notes, about her inspiring friend who decided not to suffer the slings and arrows of fortune, but oppose them.
– Puja Thakur for her entry, ‘Strength of a woman’, where she points out that “The strength of a woman cannot be measured by the number of children she raises, the amount of household work she does or the pay packet she brings home.”
– Chandrima for ‘My Inspiration, My Women’ where she lovingly celebrates the many women who’ve touched her life in ways big and small.
Congratulations, to each one of the winners, and we’ll be sending you your prizes soon! Plus, here is a winner’s badge that you can proudly display on your blogs 🙂 To use it simply copy this code into your page:
<a href=”http://womensweb.in/item/celebrate-women-s-day-with-feminspiration.html”target=”blank” alt=”Celebrate Feminspiration on Women’s Web” width=”200px”><img src=”http://womensweb.in/images/stories/Ads/feminspiration-winnersbadge.jpg”></a>
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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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