Everyday SHEROES: Mrinalini The Teacher

“A woman may not be visibly a muscle manifested hero, though is a hurricane inside that angelic craft. And in our lifetimes, we would realize that the power of a woman is in fact a celebrating underdog”

I am a 23 year old woman who is awed to learn this beautiful fact every day with every single story heard and it inspires me to see how a ‘she’ is eccentrically an epitome of functions that actually completes life cycles on earth.

One such inspiring story is of a hero named Mrinalini who I met while travelling in a metro yesterday. We exchanged greetings when she came over to be seated next to me and sighting immense hustle in her presence, I offered the 40 year old beautiful lady some water.

With her big graceful grin, we commenced with a pep talk about our destinations.  Since our drop down stations were an hour away; the talks had dug into certain striking sectors of our lives.

“How times change” was what she repetitively exclaimed, which now seem immensely motivating after listening to her story. With two sons and a daughter, all grown and settled away, she was a happy woman off to teach underprivileged kids in a school and a happy woman who came back to an empty house.

“I was married early at the age of 18 and no, I had not eloped.”  To that projected humor, I could not withhold my smirk but the following statement had quickly started to unwrap the brave heart inside.

“My father lacked funds for he, a mere farmer had nothing more to ask but a nice proposal to shrug the responsibility of one daughter out of 5.”

I took a moment to grasp her dialect for it was coming from a well groomed teacher in a gorgeous pink silk saree.

Observant of my clueless look she laughed with an expression of “Hold on, you’ll know.”

“Fortunately, My husband was a very supportive man in whom I found love and friendship. He backed my keenness on taking my studies further. I went on to pursue my honors in English literature and he worked as a clerk in a bank. We both were struggling with work, studies and kids. The first four years when both my twin sons took birth had been the toughest for we were still summing up our lives .I had started off with college and also had to take care of my dearest kids with my husband having his days of irregular pays. Though we were making efforts to have our lives to anyway sail through.”

Eight stations had passed and we still had ten more to go. I was curious enough to have the story finished for nothing had enlightened me more in the entire day than this encounter.

While munching on to some figs in her Tupperware, she continued: 

“We worked through, keeping the family intact. Days passed and we bloomed. I moved on to do Masters in English Literature and my husband grew to be a branch manager. Let me tell you, it was an amazing time with all of us  growing. But since nothing is permanent, happiness came to a standstill when my husband passed away in a car accident. My kids were still in their teenage years and there were now three.  It tore us apart with many responsibilities still on my stout shoulders. We had to move, fight it with keeping him in our spirits for I could not see my family diluted in sorrow. I applied for a post of teaching in a school, having my kids enrolled with fees compensated. They grew out to be amazing personalities with two being engineers and one a social activist. Now having a settled life, either one of them come once a week to see me. That one setback, no matter how much it pulled us back, glued us with sheer emotion and strength.”

Adding to this she said “Everything happens for a reason and I guess my education had to happen to keep my family alive be it spiritually or materialistically.”

Gasping with her every word I exclaimed “Did you not ever lose hope or faith and how can you be so strong? A woman with three kids, fighting the world is imaginably so tough!”

“Times change, my dear and we changed us. We simply adapted when we accepted our realities. See time passed so quick, I have also reached my station. Have a good day darling”

Signing off with that waved a goodbye and gave me probably the most insightful thought.