Red Letter day

Dear Reader,

March is the month when everyone is trying to overcompensate in applauding women. Every brand has an offer, every business salutes their women employees, every advertisement is talking about us and it all feels a little nauseating. If everyone truly believed in these – the respect and adulation would then become a part of our society's DNA. We do not demand a day or a month but just basic understanding every day.

While March is unique, something that happens every month does not spare us. It arrives with all its fanfare. It announces its arrival details with a little cramping, leg pain, and the urge to burst into tears. It becomes more real as the pain increases and then it's there – on a red-letter day. It makes me want to cave in one moment and take on the world in the next. But who do I turn to? I am superwoman remember – I can endure it all, I can care and give with a smile while dealing with this and a work deadline. I am supermom, not allowed to feel low – no hugs, no warm mugs of soup – the routine homework and the list of craft things to pack.

Every month, it arrives and it passes like it never came. It is a guest almost treated like a ghost who can't be seen or felt in my household and at work. This is just one of the many challenges that are unique to our gender – it doesn’t make us weaker or less capable – it is just our reality.

We, as a group – have never been craving for attention and equality but embraced our differences and asked for equal opportunity. The odds are always against us. Start-ups with women founders find it tougher to raise funding, women climb the corporate ladder slower than their male counterparts, and innovations coming from women receive more skepticism. The magnitude of these odds has become a part of our self-confidence meter which drops and it is left to us to pat ourselves and rise again.

The glass ceiling is not a myth. It exists and that is what we need to shatter. If we were to come back to the simple case of menstruation, I never fathom when half the population goes through this why is it that social conditioning cannot normalize the feelings that we feel inside? The PMS, the cramping, the bleeding, the discomfort – it is all real. It is time we spoke about it more and said NO when we wanted to. Take the day off, two if need be. The world around us will stay where it was, only we will be better off. We are sometimes very harsh on ourselves, taking on all the load, for if we continue to who would want to take it off?

And while we take on extra responsibilities, we forget to take a moment and embrace our individuality, our dreams, and our passions. We forget what we set out to do and become a version of ourselves we do not recognize. Let’s say hello to who we really are this March, and be true to ourselves, be determined and a little selfish if we must!

Comment and let me know what is the special thing you did for yourself this March...

Finding my calling,

Nidhi