I am starting this blog almost at the fag end of the year, and also when I have not really been updating my blogs on other topics faithfully in some months now. Why do something that I have not been good at following through with other topics?
Well, its been 25 years since I have been working. And almost 45 years since I was born a girl. And 45 years since I am an Indian. Apparently, there are not too many people for whom all three of the conditions are true. I am an outlier in this group of people. Why is this so? Don't know. That's one of the things I would like to explore through this blog.
In other words, there are very few 45 year old indian women who have worked in their professional capacity for 25 years. I am in a minority - though a minority that is struggling to up its numbers. Consequently, I get asked questions very frequently these days on how I did it. Many women and girls want to know the "secret sauce" so that they can do it too. I used to be embarrassed about it earlier, but these days the question being asked is so frequent, that I have stopped to consider the underlying numbers. Am I really a rarity? Are there really very few people like me? Have I done anything that people can find instructive? Am I, or can I be an example? Bewildering though it has been, I have acknowledged that yes, I am one of those few lucky people, and perhaps there was a need to share in what I did, for whatever it is worth.
So, this is just what I plan to do for this blog; I plan to share my experiences and observations of an indian woman at work. Nothing unusual, nothing serious, nothing spectacular - just day to day observations from my past 25 long years, and more as I chug ahead in my professional road. I start this with a hope that it is useful to some people, or at least provokes some thought somewhere.
Frankly, when I was doing whatever I was doing, it never occurred to me that what I was doing was not being done by many people. It never occurred to me that in doing what I was doing, I was displaying grit, hard work, persistence and all the other exemplary qualities that gets accorded to me and my work these days by well meaning, affectionate and kind people. I was just leading my life. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I once again want to re-iterate that I am an absolutely ordinary woman, doing moderately challenging work, and have had moderate success in what I did. There is nothing that I have done that is worth a brag. I am very conscious of the fact that what I have just said in my previous paras sounds extremely pompous and self-congratulatory. However, if I needed to truthful in my reason, I had to say it, and so there. On the narcissism, only one defense - I am just doing this with a hope that this is useful. To whom, I have no idea. Why should it be useful, I have no idea.
So, here I am, signing off from my first blog post, on the purpose of this blog. Will post again. While this post was not too useful to anyone, the next one should be. Or could be.
Tada then!
