from the place where I'm serving...
learnt how much suffering women carry around in their hearts as they stoically go on and on and on...
learnt how the only way to break a woman is through her daughter...for a woman can take everything except the tears of suffering of her daughter...
learnt how a woman will do all she can to see that her daughter is happy in her in-law's home...even up to spending money she can ill afford if it meant buying her daughter at least some peace of mind...
learnt how much a woman can hold in her heart...and hold it in silence...
learnt how accepting a woman is of a lot that she may not have ever wished for, have ever dreamt would be hers, or even agree with...
learnt how a woman sees her dreams broken one by one by one, even as she keeps the smile pasted on her face...
learnt how a woman grapples with a fate she never thought would be hers, and tries to be cheerful about it...
learnt how a woman finds her own freedom and space and learns how to hang on to it and keep it against all odds - for that is the only place where she can let her heart roam...
learnt how women try to balance their place in society, at home, and in their workplace...
learnt how women try to protect their reputation knowing that always the first stone is always thrown at them...and that stone invariably comes from someone in their own home...
learnt how a woman who wants to educate herself and work will not let anything or anyone stand in her way - like water she flows on till she finds the route that will let her get these two things...
learnt how protective a woman can be of the weak links in her family...
learnt how women immediately form a fierce and protective shield around a woman who has been hurt by a man...
learnt how women give tips to other women about how to deal with difficult situations in the home...especially when it is related to the mother-in-law...
learnt how sometimes it takes just one hurtful word or call or look to make a seemingly strong woman crumble...
learnt how a woman can be diminished if the men in her family relentlessly go on at her...and yet she goes on and on, till she can go on no longer...and even then she will make one last-ditch effort to redeem herself...
learnt that a woman can take a whole-whole-whole lot before anything finally breaks her...
learnt too that when things don't work out for a woman, some of the first stones that get thrown at her are by women who live in glass houses...
learnt that these women who belong to this small town and do not have the kind of access to things that big city women have, are braver, tougher-without-being-rough, more down-to-earth, more silent and hence stronger in their silence, have more laughter and are more unselfishly supportive of each other...
I still have some more time here with them, and I hope I can absorb more of them for after all I am of this same soil...