To all the incredible women..! Shine on…not just today… but everyday…!!
Today, everyone and everywhere we are hearing / heard of a woman, the wheel of the family, in a more louder way, and we too in ‘Team Barkuronline’ join the chorus to wish to congratulate all our women….. and wish them on this exclusively special day of theirs….. it’s our prayer too, all other 365 days in the year to be like this….happy, joyful and blessed with all good things in theirs and our life….!
Today, being Sunday, morning we had been to Church for Mass and todays liturgy also focusing on women, though not directly…..Specifically the first reading taken from Genesis, it narrates, how Almighty Lord directed Abraham, Father of Faith to leave his ‘original place’ and go to the unknown but Gods chosen place Cana and settle…..where he establish his family…..
Yes, in our Christian, in general Indian society, a grown up girl, a woman - bride on her wedding day, leaves the home she born and brought up and moves to a more or less, unknown man’s or husbands house to make it her own permanently….We feel this is the greatest sacrifice of her personal feelings, intimate attachments and feel comfort zone…..!
Over the years, she has done it and today also she is doing it with a smile on face, hiding all implied sentiments in the back burner. She becomes a loving and caring wife to her husband, gives birth to children and revered as mother, rightly the most intimate and divine relationship….Her roles as sister, a brother only can explain….a pretty daughter, generally a darling to the father, an helping hand to mother, of course an angel in the family…..!! Who can forget a grandmother, who loved us the most with her stories and fought with even our parents, by taking our sides……? In short, God created someone who is wise and wow, a person only knows to love, make sacrifices, one always encourages and never gives up in life…..she is a woman….!She have multiple roles to perform – A mother, Wife, Sister daughter and a Friend too…..!
Let me change the track, for a while,…….Dislocation, settling in a new place itself challenging….Many a times, our emotional bonds to our birthplace was either misunderstood or taken for granted….Some stupid’s, back home brand them as outsider, challenge their authority…..suspect their genuine passion for the place they born, spent their childhood….very interestingly no hesitation in accepting their monetary contributions……!!! Let me request all who experienced this, to take it as their ignorance and continue your services better / more than earlier…. Many a times we made a categorical statement, the number of Barkurians living and settled outside Barkur are ten times more…If anyone challenge this statement can make a survey of statistics…Forget everything else there is a parallel church in one city like Bombay, which account for almost 300 plus families….!
Personally speaking me too experienced such stigma, most of the times took such comments as compliments, occasionally gave them back the way they never expected from my mouth….Some great men even asked ‘ you are a Mount Rosarian Parishioner….don’t you have any work there….?’ What I suspect, they mean we have no respect or so called recognition…. that’s why, hang on to Barkur….? There is a limit for tolerance, if one wish to serve the society, no barriers, believe me, I have the privilege to be a member of Pastoral Council, elected from the ward, more than that additional responsibility as elected member to the Finance Committee, member in Editorial Team Rozaricho Gaanch, and reluctantly accepted in these days, the responsibility as Secretary of Catholic Sabha….Friends, not writing this to beat my drum, but to make such idiots to understand, Barkur Church / parish or town belong to all Barkurians, wherever they are….. definitely not to a group of people or frogs in the well, who had no option to leave that place….and claim they have lien on this soil….!!
There is a saying ‘to understand the world better, leave your home town’, in other words, transformation or transfiguration is essential in everyone’s life, and that will be easy in a new found place. We have seen hundreds of Barkurians shined elsewhere and in the end the flag of Barkur flying high…
Coming back to women’s Day, let it begin from our homes by not just wishing them today rather recognizing them, their role, contribution, sacrifices everyday…..Let us love and respect them…..Over the last century, their status has been at par with men and today they are visible in every walks of life, not just confined to kitchen and taking care of children….
Before calling a close, let me share a message sent by a friend, ‘Great Women of the Bible’ who may inspire, motivate and encourage you in the fields, profession and day today life….
On behalf of Team barkuronline.com,
With all best wishes,
P. Archibald Furtado, archibarkur@gmail.com, Cell: 98457 42750.