From the Editor’s Desk

Like every new beginning, the year 2021 also ushers in new hope and optimism. Though the world is getting adapted to live with the virus, the prospects of vaccines and cheap rapid tests are there and we hope that it may make a difference.

The year 2020, unfortunately, bore a black swan event that upended the natural course of life and will be remembered as a year that changed everything. The only beacon of hope was the undeterred human spirit to evolve and adapt to the challenging situation, by exploring new avenues and possibilities, and with this momentum, we have leaped into year two of the pandemic.

We the women in Prayaana,  had a rocking year in terms of finding newer ways of sustainability and growth and our fruitful efforts are growing in leaps and bounds. The C2C mission, for women that call for a second chance to live her dreams and to dream beyond the world of being a successful mother and wife, has been a huge success.

Unfortunately, the covid claimed many lives and in December we lost Sugathakumari teacher a poet, and a leading social activist, whose “personal voice seems to merge into the collective voice of all suffering women”.

In her poem “The Women’s Commission”, she narrates the woes of women,

They curse, they come

my daughter, my mother,

my sister, my child,

they come in hordes and they curse

They come crawling

with a noose around their throat

They come with battered, bruised body

They come burnt black by fire

They come drowned in agony

holding their swollen belly

wailing like lost souls

But they come holding high their anklet

with smoldering eyes

(Translated by Sugathakumari Teacher)

Their “smoldering eyes”, point at the silent inner burning before it grows into a raging fire.

Our heartfelt tributes before her fondest memories.

As the poetess rightly points out let us flower before the smoldering from within turns into that raging fire and begin the year with cheers and in a hope that  “ all that begins well, ends well”.

Editor, SheSight