An All Rounder Woman

A fleet of cars is waiting for the CEO of a big Multinational Company. Sarita, the 50- year-old woman CEO steps out of her board room with a group of executives. She makes a quick exit from her office to step into her car as she has to reach the airport in time to catch a flight to New York. She is on her way to New York to receive “The Global Industrialist Of The Year” award.

Her secretary discusses the itinerary for the next day’s programme in New York. She has to reach by 10 am to receive the award. She enters the aeroplane.  She now has to sit in the aircraft for the next 24 hours to reach her destination. She always prefers a window seat while travelling on a long overseas flight.

Looking at the clouds, she was trying to get some sleep but sleep evaded her. She started recollecting the memories of her journey from childhood to now – the successful CEO.

Sarita’s grandmother, aunt and her mother used to work as daily wages labourers in the cotton fields. When Sarita was one year old, her older sisters started going to school near their place. They were really interested in studies. After coming back from school, they used to go to the farms to help their parents in farming. After a few years, all four sisters started going to school. They only had a primary school in their village.  To study in a High school , they would be required to walk a distance of 7 km daily as the school was located in the neighbouring village. So, all village girls used to study till Grade 5 and then stop their education. Later, either they helped parents in farming or got married. This was a common scenario in the village.

In accordance with the practice, when Sarita’s elder sister completed her primary school, her parents stopped her education.  They forced her to join them to lend a helping hand at the farms because they couldn’t afford her future education. They were not willing to send their daughters to distant villages. The older two daughters stopped going to school but the third one protested. She wanted to study more and convinced her parents to send her to High School. This made it easy for Sarita to join a High School too for further education.

While going to School, they faced a lot of problems and had to walk all the 7kms to reach the school. They had to bear eve teasing by local boys. They were also subjected to humiliating comments by unruly men. However, the sisters were courageous and fearless, overcame all obstacles to reach the school because of the burning desire to excel in education.

Meanwhile, the other two older sisters got married to local farmers.  Sarita’s father took a loan from their village head for both his daughters’ marriages.  He could not repay the amount and interest as there were no rains and hence no profitable crops.

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The village head got furious with Sarita’s father on the non-payment of the loan. He humiliated Sarita’s father in front of the whole Panchayat. He asked him to sell one of his daughters to repay the amount. Her father got extremely disappointed and depressed. In this depressed state, the absence of a male offspring compelled him to commit suicide.

Sarita was totally devastated by this incident. She vowed that she will work very hard to achieve success in life and show the world that women can match shoulders with men and they are no less.

Sarita completed her Class X with distinction in the State. She got a scholarship from the Government to pursue higher studies. She lived with her elder married sister in the nearby village to complete her Class 12 and had to deal with a lot of taunts from her sister’s in-laws. Nothing went in her head other than studies.  Again she topped in her class 12 and got a State-wide rank. She got a seat into IIT. She took a loan from the bank to pursue her higher education and completed her engineering.

On completion, she joined as a trainee in a good company. With her hard work and determination, she excelled in her workplace.  She faced gender inequality in her office too. She observed that some of her female colleague’s works were being looked down upon by their male counterparts. She developed and implemented several strategies to combat gender inequality efficiently. These policies resulted in an increase in profits for the organization.  She conquered every obstacle which came her way. She climbed the corporate ladder steadily and soon reached the top position and became the CEO of her prestigious organization.

Sarita was married to a well deserving person. She balanced her family and her professional life efficiently. Her priority was the only family when she was not at work. She excelled both in her professional and personal life.

She also donated money for constructing a High School and a college in her village, so that nobody should suffer from a lack of basic education. She also started an awareness program on child marriages in her village. This program resulted in a decline in child marriages.

Her mother remained proud of her daughter’s achievements always. The entire village is also proud of Sarita. Her mother admitted that she has no regrets raising a daughter and is lucky to have a daughter like Sarita in her life.

As she was recalling the past memories of her life, the pilot announces that they are about to reach New York. Getting distracted by the announcement of weather conditions, Sarita decides to enjoy the moment that awaited her the next day… “The Global Industrialist of the Year” award. She was sure that her father must be very proud up there. She wipes a stray tear on her cheek and gets ready to disembark.

Image Source: Pixabay

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