Thru my heart

Meera disconnected the call and chuckled at herself. She ran to the mirror and looked at her image. She was glowing, the blush and pink tinge in her cheeks was so evident. The doorbell rang and she ran out to answer it. A new set of guests were ushered in. The house was full of people- relatives, friends, and cousins. The constant chatter, music, dhol, the aroma of fresh jalebis and mithais, samosas and kachoris filled in air. Her mother ran from here to there checking if the guests were comfortable and running over to supervise the cook. Her father was busy on the phone discussing details with the wedding hall manager. Meera's best friend Juhi grabbed her by the arm and took her to the terrace. So you are finally getting married my dearie. I cannot believe it. I am so thrilled I am going to dance the whole night. But hey don't forget the promise we made to each other years back. We will share the details and our first night experience with each other. So you are goin...

In the middle of the night when most people have retired to bed, barring a few lovers who are whispering sweet nothings into their phones, and a few who are hooked to the idiot box or catching up on the latest series of " Game of Thrones" or some other daily soap on their laptop. An eerie silence has crept around but for the occasional bark of a stray dog. In our home, the hubby snores blissfully unaware of worldly woes. In the other room, I, my mom and the baby are asleep. What a picture perfect moment! And then the clock strikes 1.30 am. It's time for her night shift. The baby opens her bright big eyes and lets out a wail. I and my mom are jolted out of our reverie. I hurriedly reach out for her milk bottle as my half asleep self starts frantically searching for her glasses, pops them on and then hurriedly starts making milk for the baby hoping that she would have it quickly and sleep. High hopes! Which are surely not going to be met. The baby hungrily slurp...

First year of marriage. The hubby's birthday. Demand for party by all his friends and relatives. Let's call them home for lunch, he says. I look at him- my eyes wide as saucers, a look of bewilderment on my face.  Well you know right that I can just cook for 2-3 people. I won't be able to handle this battalion. Let's just order in or better take them out. Will be the perfect thing to do I say. No no you don't need to cook. My sister will do all that. And her co sister will help. You just need to be around to help them with odd jobs. Umm that sounds ok then. I never realized at that point these odd jobs and this thing of entertaining people would be such a tedious thing and so taxing for a woman. So, as a woman of the house who was about to have visitors and many of them were coming for the first time, I had to make sure the house was spic and span. Right from dusting the furniture to cleaning the loos till then shone like that harpic ad, and ...

We see a lot spoken about having a diverse work force, not enough women in the corporate world, women not getting equal pay and opportunities as compared to their male counterparts. Many corporates are waking up and taking this widening gender gap seriously by investing in women. They are setting measurable targets for the % of women they want to hire, thinking about ways and means of encouraging their existing women to grow in the organization, standing side by side with women as they go through life changing events of having a baby and providing them facilities like day care, flexible work arrangements to keep them in the workforce. These are no doubt great initiatives and as a woman out there in this cut throat competitive corporate world for the past 7 years, I have seen that the journey of women towards the same destination is so different from men. I have been raised by strong gender neutral parents who never distinguished between my brother and me. We were given good educa...