A woman is like a tea bag - you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. There is nothing she cannot achieve. She is a celebration of life. She dreams, and she conquers because girls with dreams become women with vision.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Sarika Halder
Remember the Billy Ocean song: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And if it is with a hearty laugh, the journey becomes heartening. I met such a toughie in the fag end of January, this year, while hiring an Uber cab in Kolkata. From behind the wheel, she gave me a shy smile, trying to anticipate my reaction. I was pleasantly surprised and the next 45 minutes ride was wrapped in conversations that made me feel good for this year’s International Women’s Day pledge for an inclusive, fair and empowered society.
Meet Sarika Halder, 32, my cabbie that afternoon. She was driving confidently. We spoke mostly when the car was stuck in a traffic jam. She had to live separately from her husband because of her problems with her in-laws. Her husband was not ready to shift with her. She did not insist either. Over two years now, she has been living with her nine-year-old daughter and mother. Earlier, she had been working as a nanny for infants. But she was not a celebrity nanny. Looking for this job every second year with decent salary could be difficult, she thought. So, for a work profile with more openings, she started learning to drive, thanks to her friend who connected her with a non-governmental organization(NGO). For eight consecutive months, she would learn driving during day time and work as a nanny at night.
With the hard work she had invested, she passed her driving test as well as saved some money. Along with a bank loan, she bought base model of a Wagon R, costing Rs 5.9 lakhs. She knew the risk of taking a loan, but she was determined to draw a better curve for herself and her dependents. She is required to pay Rs 10,000 per month for four years to repay her loan. She is so fiercely independent that she is paying back her husband in instalments, a sum of Rs 2000 that she took as a loan from him. In some time, she plans to learn driving tempo and bus. She also aims to complete her matriculation. She has studied till class VIII.
She has been driving since the last six months. She takes a hearty breakfast in the morning and drives the whole day till 11 pm at night, almost on empty stomach. Just a cup of tea and biscuits and that too only twice a day. She avoids eating from outside. When asked about her experience, "no untoward incident. Not even, when the passenger in the front seat is a male”, she had said. She was all praise for Uber, police, male cabbies and passengers in that order. Because, while some passengers are nice, some are not so nice. Few are plain rude. They would either disconnect when she replied to a booking call or cancel the ride when they discovered her behind the wheel. But she was dismissive about such irreverent attitude.
Ditto with a meter reader who visited my premise yesterday. Since she did not want to be identified, I will go by her pet name, Pratima K. Mine comes under the ambit of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation or CESC. When I asked her about her experience, she was candid. "Nothing negative to cry over. Yes, few residents were condescending. They were rather shocked to see me when I rang the bell for the first time, doubting my capability". But like Halder, she was nonchalant.
Beauty, I learn, is no longer skin-deep. Rather, it is quality conscious. In the process, what evolved is grit. That is why, when I met 78-year-old widow and a grand mother, Bulbul Bose, I was mesmerised by her spirit. A music teacher and kirtankar by profession, she loves to dance and can gyrate to all the Helen numbers for over an hour at a stretch!!
Bulbul Bose
I find their courage infectious, especially in today's time when the scope and depth of abusive behaviours have expanded. They may or may not always get the support of the company they work for. But, they no longer dither to walk that extra mile to earn their place with dignity. And it can be any city. With the celebration of 'Feminism' today, thanks to all the media paraphernalia and advertising blitzkrieg for an 'Equal Tomorrow', it is women like Sarika Halder, Bulbul Bose and Pratima K who take up the baton. Especially, when you see how they take on key challenges and grab emerging opportunities in a cut-throat market place, you know, women are no longer 'second sex'. In fact, today, notwithstanding the patriarchal symbols in rituals and male gaze, women of any age show the zest to live life on their own terms.
Better still, they are no longer few in number and limited in certain brackets. They are ambitious, confident, gentle, cheerful and go-getter. They live by choice and shun compulsion. This is the India I am comfortable and proud about.
Happy Women's Day!!
#EleanorRoosevelt #Feminism #CESC #BillyOcean #SudeshnaChatterjee #malegaze #Uber #EqualTomorrow