We all are what the world, our family and the people around us make of us yet life always presents a turning page to this story of ours where we have two choices either we can be what we have always been or discover ourselves in an all new light. It’s like a new you a new world a new dimension.

Everyone comes across this in their own unique way for some it’s through love for some through an opportunity. My reality too wasn’t far and came in knocking on my doors with no prior warning but in my case it was a tragedy, a weird and twisted sort of a blessing in disguise that no one had thought of. 

The innocent Bengali girl who had lived her entire life in the sheltered atmosphere of her father and then husband, who was always taught that this is how it has always been and it will always be.  Marriage had to come at the top spot in a women’s ambition. 

It was around the year 2014, my husband came in earlier from office then usual with a grim expression on his face something was amiss. I quickly silenced the kids and asked them to go play in the garden for sometime. I knew that there had been some tension in his workplace for quite some time yet today felt different. I walked into the room with a glass of water and asked what happened. He told in a dejected manner that his company has been having lay offs and this time it was him.  I took sometime to gulp down the hard fact. We had two kids to raise, living in NCR on single income and now this big blow, how will we be able to pay the installment of the home loan. What was to become of us, what would we do….

A thousand questions clouded my mind………………

Some time later when we had absorbed the shock of all this, we considered our options. It was decided that my husband would hunt for a new job while to support the family I too should start working, but what would i do with the kids so young, Teaching one of the biggest female employments of the country sounded right. The conditions were just appropriate.  

All our savings were invested in my teachers training as I had only done my masters in science and never dared to opt for a profession and had got busy in marriage and domesticity.  When I started off I had my own set of doubts too will i or will i not be able to do this.

Nevertheless I started training our routines started to change bit by bit every day, my kids were taught to be more independent day by day.

4 years later………….

Time flied as if it was just yesterday, I completed my training and got a job and started contributing to the household. My husband too found another job, my children grew up my elder one who was in 4th is now in 8th and is involved in a plethora of extracurricular activities my baby the younger one who was just in class1st is now in 5th and is a school prefect. All is well now except that I have changed, the journey, the exams, the studies, the colleagues changed and made me think in ways that I never thought  I could.

I had seen how a woman’s life was to be dictated by the society, throughout yet there are so many who break the glass ceiling every day for themselves, their families, their parents and kids.

I had learnt to appreciate that there was nothing wrong with living life on one’s own terms.

I had started seeing the greys, the dark side of the relations that surround us, the decisions are elders forced on us deeming right.

How it was taught that  apex selflessness defines and is the skin of women at it’s core. I realized on stepping out of the shade of the men in my life that we are all complete individuals and had the whole right to choose and decide for ourselves , how it is completely appropriate for women to prioritize themselves if it improves their well being and empowers them to take good and better care of them and their loved ones.

Most importantly I had learnt  to let the wings grow, a lot of people lose themselves on this defined track of life by the society. We all are unique in our own ways yet get lost in mediocrity by the environment that dictates us what to do. At the end happiness is all that matters.

Written by

An Indian woman, A mother, A daughter, A wife, A human

Song Recommendation to go with this read

1. Daayre from Dilwale

2. Kahaani from laal singh chadda

3. Aashayein from Iqbal

4. Abhi mujhme kahin from Agneepath