An ode to the unsung heroines

March 8th is celebrated world over as International Women's Day. Infact this is the 100th International Women's Day. I feel proud and happy for women who have made great strides in all fields so far including the ones considered to be traditional male bastions.

But today I would like to salute the indomitable spirit of those scores of women who are unsung heroines. These are very ordinary women who most of the times are uneducated, unsophisticated, simple women. The zest of lakhs of women who walk several miles in the hot desert sun every single day to collect just two or three pots of potable water with a smile on their face, the loving hands of those mothers who cook food for their loved ones unmindful of inhaling the toxic fumes of coal, the sacrifice of those mothers who starve to feed their family. These women are my heroines.

The women who put up with physical abuse everyday and yet turn up the next day ready for work, those women who have to bear the physical and emotional assault of killing their female babies in the womb and yet again unfailingly having to try again and again, I salute these women.

Those millions and millions of women who have lost their loved ones in the mindless war that is going on and yet surviving against all odds, those women who have taken up the burden of looking after their entire family without a single whimper, these are the unsung heroines.

A brave Bhanwari Devi, a vocal Shahbano, the courageous Rukhsana Kausar, and many many more unsung, unforgotten heroines. This 100th International Women's Day is an ode to this undying spirit of this all powerful, all pervasive shakthi - The Woman.