The picture-perfect family exists and I was in living in one. Living in a home where my Papa used to treat his daughters like princesses and his wife like a queen. My Maa made sure that our house remained warm home. It was a typical old Bollywood movie family where the husband used to work outside and the wife took care of her family members. She was never worried about outside work like credit card bills, electricity bills, school fees, etc. since all this was done by Papa. In 2017, my whole life crashed down in front of me when I lost my father, the person who was my hero, my best friend. It took my family one year to get our life back on track, but it was not easy. My whole life, our father used to take care of things from paying bills to teaching me maths. It was scary for all three of us to think about living a life without his presence, especially my elder sister and me. But there she was, my Maa, she was not ready yet but still, she chose to learn things and face the outside world. Being a housemaker for more than 20 years and suddenly preparing yourself to take up the responsibilities for your daughters and home was not easy.

I remember the first thing she learned was to withdraw cash from an ATM. With that she kept on learning new things every day, like paying my school fees online, paying electricity bills, and buying vegetables, in short, she had started taking care of both inside and outside of our home. With all these things going around, me and my sister started spending more time with our Maa and we saw a side of her that we had never seen before. She carries a funny and chill personality. The calm woman who never really liked the idea of family property rivalry gathered her courage and fought for her rights. She had a whole different person inside her.  

I started becoming closer to my Maa. I never thought that I could ever become this close to her. Every day she inspires me with her curiosity to learn more whether it was operating a smartphone or paying bills online. The vibes I experienced were so empowering around her. Whenever I felt like giving up I just thought of her and tried my best. The aura she had inside her was never really seen by any of us, but when it came out, it turned every difficult aspect of life into much easier tasks. I never thought we could live the same life after my father's death but my maa made sure that both my sister and I got all the things that we wanted. I passed both my 10th and 12th exams with a 90+ percentage and now pursuing my BCom degree from a reputed college and my sister got a job in a IT Company. 

This is the story of my maa who was a calm and composed housemaker, but with time she had to change herself and become her true self, in my eyes, she became a wonder woman. We as children never really realize that our mothers are also human beings and have a lot of personalities apart from the family serving mother or wife. They just need the support, that even after trying and failing at the end of the day we will be proud of them no matter what the result is. It is easy for a man to prove himself powerful in any aspect but it takes a lot of courage for a woman to take a chance and show the world that she can be more than what the world thinks of her. 

People might think what's so hard for a woman to prove herself in today's world, well it is for someone whose childhood was spent in the late 1900s, the mindset of stepping out and proving oneself as a woman is still mentally challenging. The mind is still not ready to do the things that once you thought only belonged to men. The world around you becomes so beautiful once you see beloved women sensing their inner power and feeling more confident than before. The fact that a woman is so much more than she knows. In day-to-day life, we experience so many opportunities for a better life and try our best to grab that chance without fail, it's because of the support we get from our loved ones because they know we have the potential and the inner urge to do that. Only if the same amount of appreciation and support we could show to those women around us who have never really experienced what the real outside world is, they might try to cope with the real world and find themselves in a position where they need not have to ask for help for things that once they thought they couldn't do it. It's so much better to be confident in the outside world than to be vulnerable. Nowadays, doing the bare minimum and taking initiative has become a topic of feminism on social media, but is it something we should relate to feminism? it is the duty that we need to fulfill for our beloved women around us who just needs a little push for discovering their true powers that are buried somewhere inside because of their family responsibilities, societal pressure, etc. Being around those persons who know themselves and are not dependent on others, helps to inspire and motivate us also. It's their personal choice whether they want to give it a try or not, but if we are capable enough of recognizing opportunities for ourselves, then motivating others to achieve their true self is not that difficult. 

In the end, I just want to address this thing that today's world is offering lots of opportunities for women, but to evaluate and achieve them is not easy for those who have never really stepped out of their comfort zone, therefore if we want them to recognize their true self, it is our responsibility to support and motivate them to do find themselves and to not waste any more years of their life. 

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