Medha's Medha

Two women about whom I think are strong and do what they believe in. They have tried to spend their life on their own conditions. One is my mother and the other one is about whom I am writing today. I am starting writing about one of the person who is not perfect. People criticize her a lot. They criticize about her way of working; about her stubbornness; about her carelessness for almost everything which is her personal; about the way she dresses and does not comb her hair.  May be most of them are true. But…. here I am not going to write about the merits and demerits of her life and her decisions; I am not going to write about her political decisions that she took in the recent past and I am not going to try to judge her. Yes…I will not praise her unequivocally. I shall observe her objectively as a person and write how she unintentionally changed the perspective of my life. I saw step by step the events which occurred at that period of my life and how it changed me as a person. I could see How I became more determined and clear about my thoughts, about the things I believe in and how I have solved the most bothering question of my life (What to do next). She helped me without her knowledge. Medha Patkar still doesn’t know that she made an impact on me.    

Working with Medha Patkar was a very good learning experience. Personally I learnt a lot from her. Her individuality, depth of knowledge, her endless determination in fighting against all odds even if she had to walk alone (I refer one of my favorite poems from Rabindranath Tagore, ‘’Ekla chalo re’’). I have seen that fighting spirit in very few people in my life and whom I personally know (One of them is my father). She has a great sense of humor and she gives me courage  by just being a woman. While doing the campaign for her one of my duty was to be with her all the time and to do administration work for her campaign. This was the time when I spent almost every day with her. I walked 7 to 8 hrs everyday and visited literally  door to door for almost two months. A woman who met us on our way told me “Medha gives a feeling of strength for just looking at her. The way she carries herself, behaves with others and is careless about what society would say gives enormous confidence.’’

Statements about woman created by male dominated society, She proves them all wrong. Whether it’s about being female not having sense of humor; whether woman cannot have general awareness about the society ; can not have  depth of knowledge  or a woman keeps her personal belongings and herself always in style, beautify  herself using cosmetics and artificial jewelaries. The concept that a woman should fit in certain type of frame or otherwise people will judge her is proved wrong  by her.

When I brows this  year, I see the chain of events which occurred in the last few months. The major DOTS of my life, like someone wanted me to be in Mumbai at that time of election was like a destiny.  The saying whatever happens, happens for the good, feels so true. Working with her was one of those sayings became true for me. For that I suspended few of my major decisions and that was worth doing.   

To be continued ……