This is a time for healing, and indeed for restoration of the body, mind and the spirit.

In the Indian ethos, more than anything else, it is the time for reaffirmation of the feminine element. It begins with the period marking the 'Navratras' which is an acknowledgement of the complex and composite nature of femininity. Nine facets of the feminine are identified and celebrated singly, which, then fuse to come together as Durga, the beautiful goddess, all aglow to light up the world, as she evolves towards the dark and awesome Kali, who destroys all evil in the world. While one has the lion, the other has her naked, ruthless power. Strong signals from both to the world are one and the same: "don't mess with me - or - " .

However, even while the world fasts and avows yearly devotion to the iconic strength of the goddess, it continues to, unabatedly, mess with her kind.
This year has been especially prolific in events centering around the mess our society is capable of creating. The incident in Imphal with the BSF, and the parade of the naked women had hardly subsided when Akku Yadav was done to death in broad daylight inside a courtroom in Nagpur, by a group of women. This was followed by yet another incident of women taking matters into their own hands to deal with elements pushing them to the wall.

These are indeed strange times, repeatedly forcing the Durga into assuming her Kali avataar. What or where are her choices?
What is a Gudiya to do? A month old bride, presumably widowed, married off again, and now pregnant by her second husband, but as decreed, has to go back to her first spouse?

Or what can a Sonia do for that matter?
She is required to make an even bigger shift; which is, to regard the father of her yet-to-be-born child as her brother. And here a simple token of brotherly love, a thread round her husband's wrist, is supposed to resolve a dilemma, which exists only in the minds of some befuddled community elders.

If we deconstruct the myth of the goddess, as our culture requires us to do constantly, to assess its relevance and applicability to our daily lives, similarities sprout all over. It surely must have been in similar times, that the myth was conceived of, worked upon, and handed down to the community.
Surely the women must have been facing choices like allowing assault on their wombs to 'cleanse' them of female foetuses, of having mates thrust upon them, of always living in fear and peril, inside homes, and outside in social spaces, of living deprived, beleaguered lives in the midst of plenty. Plenty of talk, plenty of ceremony, and plenty of similar plenties, translating into nothing besides insecurity, injustice, pain and rage.

However, since this is also a time of reaffirmation, and of counting our blessings, there is plenty to celebrate as well. We have several capable and strong women at the helm of affairs, and their numbers are growing all the time. There are many more of the other kinds in between. What the women are beginning to understand, and are trying to make everyone else understand, is that the nine faces are all of the same persona. The segmentation serves the society and the market well, but has very little to offer to the women.

Therefore this is the time for the women to come together, merge, bond and fuse, and to stand up tall and be counted.
Are you there?

Wishing you all a happy Divali, Iid and a Merry Christmas.