Sometimes a random conversation can turn your life upside down. Often the “advice” comes from people who are insignificant in our eyes. And the conversations themselves, happen in the most unlikely of places.
Washrooms being a pandora’s box of such magical exchanges for me, here are some gems which have stayed with me and have become the rules I live by in life.
In A Mumbai Mall: “Be Unstoppable”
“The time I took that role, I was pregnant and didn’t take a maternity leave because I was starting my venture. Didn’t want to put it on hold because I was having a baby. The venture was my baby, and both my babies couldn’t wait to happen to me. Both were my priority. It took a lot of courage, however, I’d look in the mirror and be like if you can make a baby, you can do anything!”
In The Office: “Invest In Yourself”
“It’s so hard, I understand that when he looks at me, he wants to move forward in life with me and trust me I love him. I do. But, I need to be selfish right now, I am in my 20s.
This is the time I need to selfishly own up for myself. I can’t invest it in building a relationship with someone else. I need to focus it on building it with my own self”
At A Restaurant: “Don’t Give In”
“You know what’s the sickest thing we do as women? We take it in.
We take the period pain in, we take the boyfriend’s low standards in, we take our parents’ control in, we take in too many hours at work, the misbehaviour at trains, the gossip, the random advises. And maybe, if for once you could just be like you know what, keep your bullshit to yourself I have a life to live and love. Just maybe then we wouldn’t be walked over all the time.”
In A Movie Theatre: “I Feel In-Charge”
“I feel like I could go out to the world and shout that I made it! I mean I look at the mirror and for the first time, I feel like you know what? I got the way around with life, and I mean NO, LIFE ISN’T EASY but I know my hacks around. I feel in charge, I feel happy, I feel so much more in power. I finally feel that I have my life in my own god damn hands”
At The Tuition Center: “Be #HappyToBleed”
“I can’t believe that just happened. I was sitting in class and you know what, I got my period. The skirt as you see has been stained. So all the guys started looking at me, the teacher asked someone to escort me. I looked at the boys with my stained skirt, just looked at them straight in the eye, and was like yeah I bleed, it’s crazy but all of the girls in this class do. I walked out, you have no idea how badly my heart was beating and how crazy I felt “
At A Path Lab: “Parenting Requires Commitment”
“It’s okay if you just want to stay at home and raise a child. I know it’s considered doing nothing but, look at the people around us. If there’s anything we need, it's good parenting”
Womanhood is an experience that is seen in spaces we least expect to, right from coming to the rescue for anyone who might need a pad. To the stain checks, to random makeup checks, to 3 am phone calls for the craziest advice, the tribe grows and it will not stop growing!
“A woman's a different thing entirely. Who knows where a woman begins and ends? Listen mistress, I have roots, I have roots deeper than this island. Deeper than the sea, older than the raising of the lands. I go back into the dark ... I go back into the dark! Before the moon I am, what a woman is, a woman of power, a woman's power, deeper than the roots of trees, deeper than the roots of islands, older than the Making, older than the moon. Who dares ask questions of the dark? Who'll ask the dark its name?”
Ursula K. Le Guin, Tehanu
What are some of the rules you live by? Share them with us in the comments below!