My inspiration, My great grandma!

"Come and sit with them, you are also the eldest daughter of the family!", I heard my great Grandma saying. As I tried hard to hide my tears, I calmly turned back and said, "Nevermind mummum, I will sit with the other women afterwards, it is my fault, should have been accustomed with the norms." She looked at me and said, "Sit down here, I don't believe in these norms and you know that well, just because i was away doesn't mean they can say and impose anything on you."

I obeyed her and sat for lunch with the other sons in my family. 

My great grandma, was a very simple woman, who lived in a village since her marriage but her revolutionary ideas and modern thoughts has always been admired by me. She has stood beside every woman in the village who faced abuse and insult. She never distinguished anyone with caste and religion.

Another quality was her courage. I had heard a story of her past from my grandfather, it went like this-

'Long back, in villages a common problem was Dacoits. One night, when I was 9, I heard a tremendous chaos outside, saw maa hurrying out without even a stick in her hand. After few minutes we heard a hoarse loud laugh and then maa's voice, "Don't worry, I am fine". When my father went out, he found that maa was explaining to the dacoit the evils he is doing and asking why he was doing so. When the dacoit told her that he was very poor and could not feed the family otherwise because he had nothing else to do, maa told him to visit next morning and assured him a job. She gave her a piece of land to cultivate and sell the crops for money. She was truly one of a kind. I had seen everyone fear dacoits that they might cause harm and she!'

I have always been inspired by her, and tried to keep up her confidence in me. She told me to forget the sarcastic norms where the creator is under burden. It has been 3 years since she left us, but till the very last day, even at the age 103 she has been unique in all the ways possible. She has been my inspiration and the wind beneath my wings. The only thing I feel sad about is having no material picture of her, but truly the image of her I have in my heart will forever be.