Life is beautiful no matter how hard it may seem sometimes. It is completely a roller coaster ride. Full of ups and downs. When we are living as daughter and son of some amazingly affectionate people, our parents, we feel so safe, so comfortable, but when we come out of our comfort zone our real struggle starts. We learn to be strong, be independent once we face the realities of life. During our childhood the main struggle was how to get more times to play and how to avoid studies. During teen age how to get rid of pimples, how to get noticed by the person we like, how to look beautiful or stunning were the main questions and how to get the answers was the biggest struggle. Then our career gets the priority and for a country like India marriage gets the priority for the parents of a girl when she hardly crosses 20 years of age. Girls are advised so many thinks, how to behave, how to cook, how to obey whatever in-laws and husband say etc. etc. , but in very rare cases parents give the assurance to their daughter that if something goes wrong with her marriage then she can come back to her parents or they are always there to support her no matter what. Many people still believes in "Ladki Paraya dhan (a girl is other’s property)", "ladki jati sasural doli mein lekin wapas arthi mein hi aana chahiye (once a girl goes to her in-law's place as a bride she should come back only in remains)","career kyun chahiye ladkiyon ko, woh shadi karke ghar sambhalne ke liye hi paida huyi hain (A girl should not choose her career, because she is born only to get married and do the household chores)","Girls shouldn't study after marriage", "Girl should leave her career and her dreams once a baby comes","ladko ko bahar ka kaam sambhalna chahiye aur ladkiyon ko andar ka..grocery, cleaning, dusting, cooking, ironing yehi sab ladkiyon ka jindegi hain (girls should only take care of household chores like grocery, cleaning, dusting, cooking, ironing etc.)", "pati ko pamper karna hi biwi ka kaam hota hain, pati ke charno mein swarg milna chahiye use (a wife should pamper her husband and she should find her heaven under his feet only)"...kind of statements. Our society will change only if there is gender equality in our society. To bring this change we have to first change our own mindsets. There should not be any concept like weaker or stronger sex. I am a strong believer of gender equality. At a very tender age most of the Indian girls go through the struggle of handling such type of situations when they are expected to leave everything just to get approved as a good daughter-in-law from their in-laws. But boys are hardly advised by their parents on how to make a marriage successful. We are saying that India is progressing, but is India really progressing?
After marriage life changes for a girl. Every possibility is there to lose self esteem, confidence, career and most importantly love for her own life. That is the time when a girl needs to be strong enough to put her view and if someone humiliates her then she should have the courage to fight back and if required then to take the bold step of separating from such a humiliating situation rather then finishing her own life. For that also we need to teach our daughters how to be independent and how to be happy with own-selves without looking for some one else's approval. Life is to live. No one is permanent, so everyone should be strong enough to lead their own and most importantly one life. Expecting our man to be a knight in shinning armour is also an impractical expectation. So to become empower we need not to be feminist but we need to respect each other. Male and female are two genders only, no one is superior. So, respect for each other and love for each other can only change our society. It's easier to criticize our societal norms but we only can bring the change to the society and change will come only when we will try to change the taboos there in our families. To clean the ocean the rivers have to be cleaned first.
How much tough your life may look, it's temporary only. Life is simply wonderful when one knows how to live it. Life is for living. We human beings have to make our lives worth living. Everyone is here for a certain period of time, so why to become the reason of sadness for others? We are here to help others, make others feel happy and comfortable. And at the end, it's all about Karma. Life is nothing but a full circle, whatever we will give good or bad we will get that back during our lifetime only. So, do good, be good and live good.