Nidhi Shegal

The Tag of Step Mother

Nidhi Shegal, Agra, Uttra Pradesh

An year has passed, Shilpa still misses Riya. Watching the burning embers in the fireplace, Shilpa gets nostalgic about Riya’s wedding. She opens the drawer of the corner table and picks out some old photographs. All the forgotten memories recall at once to her mind.

She remembers, the day when she stepped into her husband’s house. Riya had refused to accept her, primitively. She thought that Shilpa has robbed her father’s love towards her.

But as time flew, Shilpa’s patience and her love towards Riya resulted into a blessing for her. Her relationship with Riya not only turned into a mother-daughter bond but they became best friends also. Today, on Riya’s first wedding anniversary, Shilpa is missing her so much. Suddenly, the bell rings. Opens the door and is emotionally overwhelmed to see her beloved daughterand son in law. Riya envelopes her in a tight hug and sees her childhood photographs in her hands.

Riya excitedly says to her husband, “Look Raj ! I told you naa. My bestie would be missing me terribly.” Shilpa, with tears in her eyes, in gratitude to Lord Almighty for giving her strength to redefine the tag of Step mother.

Success Story

Pinkishe Foundation

It was the late eighties. I was in class eleventh or twelfth. Television used to be a luxury. Households would have a single TV set installed in the drawing-room that the whole family will watch together.

It used to be the time of some marquee advertisements – washing powder Nirma, Hamara Bajaj and the likes. Three used to be advertisements for Sanitary Pads too. They used to show a pad with blue ink. I never understood what it was. Suddenly restlessness and awkward silence would engulf the room whenever they showed that advertisement. I used to get a peculiar feeling that there was something strange. But I did not know what menstruation was, and I would not understand. I could sense that maintaining silence at this time was the best thing.

Many months passed. The sanitary napkins advertisement was a regular. My curiosity kept growing until one evening, when everybody was sitting, and garnering some courage, in a slow voice, I asked, what is this? And suddenly, I saw my mom’s cheeks getting flushed with anger. Both sisters were visibly upset and uncomfortable and started fidgeting. And everybody looked at me like I had crossed a limit. I saw the same disgust on their faces for me that they had for Prem Chopra and Ranjeet.

I felt hugely insulted. It was a very innocent question. Someone should have told me what menstruation was. But nobody did. I thought it was an injustice to me. Why should I be blamed for asking something nobody told me about.

Many years passed. It sounds strange, but it was only after I got married that I got to know correctly what periods were.

In the following years, I witnessed my wife would bear much pain during every period. She would dread and hate them. Looking at my wife every month, I became compassionate for every woman in her menses. During my corporate life, as

soon as I would see some signs of fatigue or discomfort amongst any of my female co-workers within my team, I would make sure that she took some rest. Less work was offered to her. But even then, I would never have the courage to ask her or tell her to take a day off. I gathered that women do not like their period status to be known to men, and sometimes even women! I thought they would find the mention offensive, despite my best intentions.

In 2017, one day, my sixteen years old daughter Khyati discovered that our maid’s teenage daughter was not wearing a sanitary pad. She researched and learned that period poverty was a pervasive problem in India. For some reason best known to her, she approached me and asked me if I would work with her and help her develop an organisation which would work on menstrual health and hygiene.

It was like a déjà vu moment for me. The hidden pain of that insult and injustice meted to me during my teenage years became vivid again. After deliberating and checking if she was motivated enough to do this and could follow up, I agreed. At that time, I thought, may I give it some time and help the enthusiastic young girl take a step in the direction she wanted and then she will take over. Never did I know that destiny was silently smiling hidden somewhere.

Even five years ago, menstruation was not a comfortable subject. Not even for me. I had never discussed menstruation with any female except by explaining it to my daughters when they hit menarche. Accumulating some courage, I approached a few of my female friends. The first few shooed me away. Eventually, I came to Shalini Gupta Ji, the co-founder of Pinkishe Foundation. II happened to know her for a few months only. But in that period, I had learnt that she has a golden heart and has been active as a social worker for many years.

I clearly remember her first reactions, and we still laugh thinking about it. When I mentioned this to her, there was pin-drop silence for many moments. Almost a minute, I guess. It felt like much longer. Finally, she said, no man has ever spoken to me about periods. But if you think this is what you want to work on, I will work with you.

We started Pinkishe Foundation.

We discussed a strategy and started an all-women community on Facebook. Women joined thick and fast. In just six months, over 150000 women joined, and we initiated 50 branches across India on a single day!

These were ordinary women. Homemakers, as we call them. And they started a mini-revolution. They were hugely motivated. They would collect packets of sanitary pads from nearby households. They often put a stall in a nearby market and request the local shoppers to buy them a pack of packets as donations. It was amazing. I never thought that women would show that kind of courage and initia-

tive. But hats off to them. They started a mini-revolution.

Rest is history. We got success we had not imagined. Imagine getting a video message from Mr Amitabh Bachchan suddenly one day. We cried that day. We all cried.

We went forward to get support from many. We got ourselves in the Asia Book of Records. We started a few more programs. We kept working on the ground, keeping our heads low until Facebook came and selected us for their Community accelerator program and gave us funds, support and mentorship to help us grow ourselves and our impact.

Pinkishe is a stable organisation today. We do much work. Our guiding principle is that civil society has a massive responsibility for nation-building and making the world better. One cannot expect the government to do everything. We need to contribute too.

We have just completed our five years. During this time, we have supported more than 200 thousand girls. We have distributed more than 3.5 million free sanitary pads. We now run a free stitching training centre, and around twenty-five girls benefit from it. We have collaborations and partnerships with many organisations of the highest repute.

Our speed, zest and focus are all intact and only growing with each passing day. Our goal is to create at least 100 thousand certified menstrual educators by 2035 and train over 200 Million girls every year. If we can do that, every girl in India will get a period education and access to safe and affordable menstrual options to manage her periods better.

Period education will enable these girls to fight the taboos and societal silence built around periods over the generations. No longer will they be pulled out of their schools when they hit their menarche - their first periods. They will no longer be made to compromise on leaving education midway and compromising their life choices due to periods.

I am committed and have pledged the rest of my life to achieve that goal.

Arun Gupta President, Pinkishe Foundation Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Inspirational Story

Pinkishe Movement is a dream, an ever-growing dream, which first rippled in the eyes of a 16 years old schoolgirl, Khyati Gupta, when her teenage eyes noticed something which smote her tiny heart. One day, this chit of a girl was appalled when she saw bloodstains on her housemaid’s daughter’s dress. On enquiring, to her utter shock, she discovered that they cannot afford pads, hence they recycle discarded pieces of unhygienic cloth every month.

Heartbroken, Khyati undertook research on the subject on the internet and the study showed that the majority of females in rural India lack the awareness of menstrual hygiene and some even have no option but to resort to using material like cow dung, leaves, sand, etc. That was horrifying. This gave birth to Pinkishe Foundation.

The dream that rippled in the eyes of a tiny girl gradually started getting a firm footing, and slowly, with the robust support of many committed people, the contours of a solid movement became visible. Women kept joining hands and today Pinkishe is a community of over 2 lakh+ women. It is run by common women who operate from their homes and do voluntary service.

Women in this foundation are common women who have pledged to make a difference in the lives of fellow women and girls. They operate from their homes and contribute their services voluntarily. There is not even a single person in Pinkishe who draws any salary or compensation in any other form.

The foundation aims at supporting women in living life with strength and dignity. We, at Pinkishe Foundation, are hopeful of converting our dream of building a better world for females into reality.

All this because a small girl dared to dream big.

Pinkishe Movement

Khyati Gupta, Director Youth Activation, Pinkishe Foundation

BEING FAIR IN A UNFAIR WORLD

K Sudheendra Nayak Mangalore, Karnataka

Life is mostly unfair. All the principles of life holds good but only theoretically. In reality, we all know how it goes. As all of you might agree, Life only returns the vibes you give to the nature. Yes, it's true. There is something called law of attraction which works more often than not. For example, if you crave for something so much, continuously for many days, you will get it no matter what. At beginning, it may feel impossible to get it, but when you actually get it, you will feel the divine presence in your life. That feeling you get, when whole universe actually conspires to make that one thing happen for you. Yes, all of this actually happens and it's beautiful.

But then, there's also a scarier aspect to all of this. When you start having negative thoughts and you feel in secured and bad thoughts starts to appear, which most of us will experience at some point in your life, then you start to give negative vibes to the nature. Then shit starts to happen, when actually the nature starts to give it back to you. And that's when your life starts to go upside down. Everything that you once represented, be it ethics, moral values or honesty, the same things are held against you. Your life gets screwed in most unimaginable levels that you find it impossible to even dream of coming back to normal. And you start cursing everyone, once whom you considered dear.

You start to blame everyone for your failures, be it family, friends, co-workers or your relatives. Yes, everyone except yourself. But the worst part is, you completely believe yourself that you are right. That's the dangerous bit. Actually if you analyses properly with reasoning and logical thinking, you will realize that you are the only person to blame for whatever happens in your life. No one else is responsible. You are completely your own responsibility. This all leads to the point I have mentioned at the beginning of the blog. The vibes you send into the universe are very crucial. Universe has no brain and it does not think. It just receives those vibes and energy which it receives from you and gives it back to you in exactly same way.

That is, if it receives positive energy from you, you will be receiving good things in your life and vice-versa. I'm no philosopher, but if you follow the above principles, there are high chances, you may not falter in life.

Just one more thing, make sure you are filled with positivity and optimism, surrounded by people who makes you to level up with higher standards and create a beautiful atmosphere where you can pursue your dreams and live your life to fullest of your ability.

That's how you send good vibes and energy to universe and by law of attraction, it will surely reciprocate back. After all, we can only strive to be the better version of ourselves.

THE SOUL

It is believed that the soul Should be free from the body, Merges into the divine, As long as it stays in the body, The spell is engrossed in attachment, By activating the body, Dances the desired dance, By making everyone a self-image Brings along with you, In the bond of relationships, It shows direction to all, With knowledge and devotion, Gives a vision of the hereafter, Its conductor is the mind, The mind is fickle, Moment by moment, Sometimes it rains; love, Sometimes it calls for war, By creating a stir of destruction, Makes humans cry, Occasionally, towards Ram, So sometimes he becomes Ravan, With your creations, It hurts the soul, The soul is immortal, Even if the body burns, Soul in due time, The body becomes free. It is said that the soul, It should be free from the body, Goes to another body, And there, according to the same body, It does all the work, Sometimes so, It performs the work of the previous birth, In the relationships of the past, Surprises everyone, The whole game is of the soul, She shows whatever she wants, Sitting in a quiet heart space, He makes all the laws, The flame of knowledge burns inside everyone, After gaining knowledge, The mind goes to the world of science, Through a variety of uses, The moon reaches, The soul of all. Becomes absolute. Liberate soul from his feat, Get absorbed in the divine!

Piyush Raja Young Writer, Researcher Nawada, Bihar

Puneet Issar Quotes

“In 2017 I started writing “Mahabharat An Epic Tale” and it took me two years to write it and prepare the production with Rahul Bhuchar of Felicity theatre, and we launched it on the 17th of Nov 2018 and it was a super success. The audience have been asking me to do something on Duryodhana and that is when I decided why not make the Mahabharat from Duryodhana’s perspective.”

Yogic Lifestyle Need of Today’s World

Rajnath Chauhan Founder - Naisargik Yoga New Delhi

Good health leads to human happiness and well-being that contributes significantly to prosperity and even economic progress. First let us know, what is health? According to WHO – Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. habits may leads to poor health. As we all are familiar with common lifestyle disorder like Hypertension, diabetes, anxiety, depression, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, chronic back pain, cervical issues, eye sight problems etc. A single solution for all these problem is Yogic lifestyle.

Today, where at least one in our family member is facing common health issues because of many reasons. But one among all is our Poor Lifestyle, like no physical activity, sitting or lying for long periods, having unhealthy diet and eating late at night, not getting enough sleep or erratic sleep patterns, smoking, drinking etc. Practicing any of these Yoga – an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition to the mankind. It helps to unite mind and body, thought and action, harmony between man and nature; holistic approach to health and well-being. This all can be achieved by just changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness. Narendra Modi, UN General Assembly.

Yogic lifestyle

Waking early in the morning (i.e before sunrise in Brahma Muhurta, people who follow this regime are found to be more productive and practicing this boost energy to keep up with the hectic day. Also, early risers are reported to be more adept in taking better decisions, planning and achieving goals).

Proper physical activity (practicing simple yogasana and loosening practices every day, like Kagasana while drinking water; Sukhasana while eating food; Dhanurasana, Bhujanagasana, Ustrasana for chest and shoulders; Chaturanga, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana for strengthening of arms; Balasana, Trikonasana, Janu Sirasana for back pain; Navasana for core/abdomen; UpTo-Down Gaze, Side-To-Side Gaze for eyesight; Padmasana, Sarvangasana for memory and mental health; Virabhadrasana, Uttanpadasana for strengthening legs).

Satvik Diet (Includes fresh fruits, vegitables, sprouts, milk and dairy products. The food we eat directly influences our thoughts, character, mental well-being and health. Keeps a person calm and boosts the immune system, thereby are both physically and mentally healthy).

Fasting (It purifies and detoxes our entire body system; develops willpower and spirituality; reduces fatigue and sleep disorders and helps to attain a state of inner balance and harmony).

Regular meditation (It has a profound healing effect. Neuroscience has discovered that regular meditation causes changes at cellular level and can even alter DNA. Meditation also helps to maintain and re-establish homeostasis in body, which is essential in maintaining proper health).

Going to bed when one feels sleepy (today we are constantly exposed to electronic gadgets, like computers, phones which has severely affected our natural wake/sleep cycle.

Yoga recommend to sleep at night and stay awake during the day, practice its reverse is very detrimental to our health and cause lifestyle disease). So, to achieve our goal in life we need to be aware of our healthy lifestyle and spare time for our good health by following Yogic Lifestyle in our precious life.