BE PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE

All women are working, only few are salaried! Even if, some are not paid for their job, but they're graceful in their own ways. Women's day have no impact in my life, if I'm not thankful to all those elegant ladies, who led me to be a good human being. For me, there's not a single woman, who supported me in my journey so far. Rather, I'd narrate an untold story of 5 women, with whom I'm specially acquainted. They excelled in their fields to a great extent and became an inspiration to my life. Honestly, there are even more, but these five, deserve special mention.

When I was a little kid, I didn't have much exposure to the outside world. I was happy with my school life and enjoyed doing whatever I felt like. The best place to stay away from all external influences is the 'sweet home'. I used to spend most of the ME-TIME with my grandmother, who accompanied me for many years. The only thing which I've learnt from her, is the urge to know more despite all odds. She had less opportunity for the so-called formal education due to financial and family issues, hence could not succeed to go beyond primary school. However, I saw her reading books during leisure and kept on studying with an inquisitive mind. During vacations and holidays, we used to read stories together and exchange thoughts. I hope, this was a beautiful way to learn through interactions. Most importantly, she was a story teller and I got familiar with Bengali novels and Indian epics through bed time stories. She was good at sewing, playing chess, financial planning, but undoubtedly the best at cooking. I lost her in 2012, but her words remained immortal surely.

On a diverging scenario, I started learning dance at the age of 4, and then continued practicing over years. In this journey, my biggest inspiration is my Guru, Smt. Krishna Nandy, disciple of Pandit Kelucharan Mohapatra. During my initial days, I couldn't understand the dance form called Odissi much, so just kept on following her instructions. When I was in school, I got to know from my family physician that I suffer from breathing problems, due to bronchial spasm. So, he suggested to discontinue this stressful classical dance for safety measures. I had to take a break and joined afresh. But I think, perhaps, dance had never been a barrier to health anyway, rather it always helped me to stay strong, fit, balanced and fresh all the time. My teacher never felt disappointed, but supported me constantly saying, if we love any subject, it will also love us back. I struggled to put efforts, to improve my physical strength and the ability to work out for stretched hours and not to get exhausted, even if I'm completely drained out from within. She said, if we want to perform on stage for 1 hour, we have to practice in class for 3 hours. I think this is applicable to every field. My dance teacher, fought against her unexpected heath complications and other major social problems, but never gave up for any petty reason. This was one of the biggest inspirations in my life and therefore, didn't even notice, when exactly my hobby turned into passion.

There's another story, once upon a time, I had a private tutor, Miss Smita Das Varma, who taught me Mathematics for 4 years. She was never married and used to stay alone in her house, because her parents also expired a long time ago. But the single woman, that time around 55 years old, lived happily by teaching students over batches every day. She had bold personality, strong character, hard dedication for students and never wasted time for any awful reason. During those days, she was very strict and we used to get scolded or beaten also, which seemed to be harsh a few times. Later on, when we all grew up, felt, may be its sometimes required to make things perfect. Particularly for every child it's important to learn Mathematics well, regardless of the stream we choose in higher classes. It's the teachers, who are actually building blocks of this society and they aim to shape our future, no matter what happens in their personal lives.

Again, in my career, there was a phase when life was in turmoil. When I was in my engineering college, I never thought of being a software developer, because I wanted to be an HR manager and was taking exam preparations accordingly. But there was a change in decision, when suddenly I got job in a service-based IT MNC and I opted for it, without knowing further consequences. So that part was pretty hectic, to shift my line of thinking and just accept the truth. May be, God had a different plan for me and I was destined to be an IT employee. From then onwards, I never felt ashamed of my deficiencies, even did not regret for what I lost. But down the line, I realized, this might have been far better than other professions in all aspects. Technology nowadays is a weapon to change the world and India is on the right track. On a daily basis, my job helps me to improve perception, problem solving analytical skills, decision making abilities, confidence and a lot of other stuff. In my current organization, I met one colleague, named Prachi Verma, a senior associate, who is still one of the nicest women I talked till now. She is neither my supervisor, nor my work is related to her by any means. Whereas, in my project, I saw her leading a different team, managing obscure situations, handling tremendous pressure, trying level best to achieve targets and parallelly staying calm, patient, soft spoken, kind, intelligent and humble all the time. This is certainly a quality that makes a huge difference in the crowd and brings other leaders in the near future.

Last but not the least, in our daily life, there remains at least one person who is always there throughout the peaks and valleys unconditionally. Its my mother, who indirectly inspired me at all these stages and is nothing less than the above mentioned four great women. She speaks less and listens more, writes less and reads more, also reacts less even if a situation is out of control. Its good to showcase talents or get appreciations, feasibly that's of utter importance to some extent, but its equally meaningful to comment only when it's absolutely required. Life is not always meant to show others how successful we're or measure those parameters. Sometimes, its better to be modest, polite, benevolent and be grateful to God for all those comforts we enjoy sitting on the couch. If education brings wisdom, I hope then only its worth studying everyday for shaping a better 'Tomorrow'.

I'm not sure, how much have I exactly acquired from others, but however less it is, I think I'll keep on exploring myself everyday to be a better version. Some days are most challenging, some are quite tough, some are normal at different arena of life, but I'll try to figure out a solution regardless of the situation. No matter what's happening all around, I believe, the only thing that will stay with me forever is, PERSEVERANCE.