The FemInspiration Contest Results!

Posted: March 20, 2011

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: