Bharatiya nari comes of age

bangalore: imagine a world with only women and what do we have: a conundrum of envy, hatred, backbiting, unhealthy comparisons and gender rivalry? this is not misplaced orchestration by women-baiters or the smug reaction of men who revel in putting them down. let''s face it there are as many women forthright enough to admit that women can be women''s worst enemies, oftentimes the means and end to their own undoing.therein lies a woman''s strength -- her courage of conviction to admit where the wrong lies, even if it were within herself, and to make amends from there. but think of a world without women. it is like darkness at noon. it is a world stripped of its conscience and shorn of inner beauty __ that glow called the woman which morphs into a groundswell of patience in trying times or which translates into dignified endurance of pain, suffering or loss without allowing herself to crack up under its burden. she can be the voice of reason finding the right answers to life''s knotty problems or the balancing factor who brings to keel equations gone awfully awry. she is the factor who works hard at turning around no-win situations, however invincible the prospects. from a woman springs hope eternal. from an indian woman springs that and more, as her persona is constantly adding on roles, switching roles and adapting to the demands of the many characters she must play out in a single day. the indian woman, unlike her counterpart in other parts of the world, is not an entity unto herself. she lives for her family, the larger family and is strapped in by the dictates of community and society of which she is a part. they all make demands on her which she must comply with, be it at the cost of her self-worth or identity. and there is no urban or rural face to this. but despite the shackles, the indian woman has come of age. a quiet, industrious evolution. like the chrysalis metamorphosing into a butterfly. today, she has arrived. whether in india''s vast villages or the happening metros, she is everywhere. toiling, calling the shots shoulder-to-shoulder with the man in the field or in the board room. holding sway, on her own steam with the poise, self-confidence and sensitivity that is unmistakably a woman''s patent. and for a reality check on that: no one even dare imagine a world without women any more. it just won''t work.