Mum’s the word

I have had a roller-coaster ride understanding womanhood. To truly share why it has been a larger-than-life experience,I must rewind a bit. I was the original tomboy. I wore dungarees,lived on a tree with bruised knees,holding a cricket bat. I was in complete adolescent denial. I thought girls were weaker,did uncool things,and didn’t really know how to have fun.

Then,what happens to everyone,happened to me. I started growing up. Discovering boys and love helped tremendously. Since then I haven’t looked back. I have perhaps enjoyed being a woman thoroughly,even a tad more because I started late and can truly appreciate it because of my earlier denial mode. My experience of womanhood may have started with frivolous details like dating,clothes,bags and shoes,especially boots,but slowly went on to more meaningful realities like marriage and kids.

Marriage and motherhood,mean “being 24/7 at the frontlines of humanity” (a quote I frequently re-quote ever since I heard Maria Shriver say it on Oprah). If you survive these two M words,everything else becomes a cakewalk.

Contrary to what I thought as a child,today I realise that women are stronger,do very cool things and know how to have fun. They live life the way it’s meant to be lived. There is nothing more alluring,more resilient,purposeful,or more beautiful than being a woman. My idea of womanhood is to have a new memory,a new story at every milestone.