In this world, in our life, we get inspiration from many things as from birds, animals, nature and from the great people. That inspiration may change our lives. Then we may have the zeal to get something, to achieve something and we too be like that people. That inspiration and zeal may bring happiness to our life. Actually, to live happily with some special name and fame and a golden mark to our lives, we should observe and have some lives of the great people and books who and what makes us inspire. I too get inspiration from one book named "Women" by Sri. Dr. KVSG Muralikrishna. In this book, we have the great personalities of women who won the victories and made a special mark for them in this world in several aspects in several fields. Though it is about women, everyone must read and keep this book in their desk or on the table.
For centuries, women did not have several rights including the voting right. Two-thirds of the world's work has done by women, whereas they own less than 7% of world's wealth. God made men and women equal. But, many women were not given a single chance also to excel or prove their worth. Some women has shown their spark but all care was taken so that their names did not come to lime-light. Today, the days are changed. Women are no more the pinion raiders, they are on the front, occupying the driver's seat. In all fields as philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, social reformers, patriots, political readers, connoisseurs of art, writers, painters, musicians, actors, enterpreneurs, in each and every field women are on the front, they are on the top. We can observe many women who acted the above roles in their lives in this book "women". But even today, for many mean men, women's education should be confined to the so-called womanly qualifications like mercy, patience, suffering, nurturing husbands and nourishing children. They have no role in the society, they can't be thinkers or scientists or social reformers or patriots! These mean men mean this an Ideal Woman.
So, what is the most important is, not a change in attitude of men towards women but a positive attitude of women towards themselves. They should realize about the hidden potential within them. We, mean or woem, are neither inferior nor superior to one another, we are all equals. In the 19th century, women were not given any chance and were treated very badly by men, they were looked down upon by men, but in the 21st century, the exponential growth curve of womankind has already started rising. Women will slowly but steadily and surely take over the scene.
In this book, we have many life-stories of many women who inspired the world in an exclusive and an attractive manner. We have the life-histories ofthinkers, rulers, explorers and adventurers, games and sportswomen, writers and entertainers, connoisseurs of art, glamour queeens and actresses and epilogue. Let's see them in a short manner. Under thinkers, Trendsetters, Revolutionists and philosphers, firstly, we discussed about Yasodhara, the wife of Sidddartha. After a son was born, then Siddartha got enlightenment and became Buddha. Yasodhara, a great lady, became a monk and she was one of the first women monks in Buddhism. Before that, she brought her son in a right and good manner. She always told her son that if everyone, including sun and moon wants no rebirth, what'll happen to the world? Like the sun and moon, let us wish to live to serve the world for 24 hours, 365 days a year and life after the life. That alone is true enlightenment. Yasodhara always told his sone as be like that little lamp. The philosophy of Yasodhara is described in a great manner in several books like "Yasodhara" by Mithali Saran Gupt.
The another lady is Anderson E Garret was the Britain's first woman medical practitioner at 29. She was also a champion of women's rights.Annie Besant, a great lady, influenced by the Indian culture and civilization, philosphy and spirituality that she became an ardent Indian. She participated in many revolutions and she started herself the Home rule League.
Kiran Bedi, "Iron Woman of India", forst woman IPS officer in India. Actually, she prepared well for IAS but was not selected for it and that was her turning point. She took IPS as a challenge. She wrote many beautiful books, started a Social organization named "Nav Jyothi" means 'New Lamp'. She believes that anything is possible if you leave your fear, you'll be fearless only if you are selfless. That belief only gave her a victory. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel Pankhurst, worked for the vote for women. Many women, now, use thier vote and they may not know about the rights of vote and the birth of vote, they should know this. In 1914, world war-I began and these two supported the British Government and proved that they could do all kinds of work and in 1918, women over 30 years age, were given vote. Only in 1928, the voting age was lowered to 21.
We all have known about Helen Keller, a great lady, is blind and deaf. Though she was so, she proved to be an intelliegent student. She learned to read and write in Braille script and graduated in English from Cambridge. She wrote many articles. If we have any set backs, God must have given it with a purpose and must have definitely provided us with a superior quality. She knew, "Giveing is living". Whatever we earn, it will leave us, it will not live with us. Whatever we contribute to the society, it has no death, it only gives is life. So, if we want to live even after our death, contribute something to the society. If we do something good for the society, however small and insignificant it may be in other's eyes, we will be a successful person. Be good, try to be better, ultimately ourselves to be the best. Think about the soceity and life, be thankful to God for given everything in life. The ultimate charity is to "Smile". The best way to cheer up in life is to cheer up others. The seeting sun asked, "Who will do my duty?", a little candle,"I will do my level best." Try to be that little candle.
Madam Curie, went on to become the first human being, men or women, to get the Nobel Prize twice -1903 and 1911. At that time, a woman in science was beyond a man's imagination! She got married and both had passion for research in Physics and Chemistry. She invented an instrument to measure Radio-activity. This tiny lady incented the heavy and millions worth Radium for the cure of Cancer patients. She got Nobel Prize for this work. She used to work for 18 hours a day and finally, after 8 years of handwork, she for second Nobel Prize for research in Chemistry. Mrs. Marie Lavoisier, the wife of the father of Modern Chemistry, Lavoisier, really did a fantastic job as a wife and as a woman. She always encouraged her husband and after his death, she edited the book, which was written by her husband and got it printed and published. The greatness of the scientist was soon revealed. He was described as the greatest French scientist of all times. So, all the women too do like that because we have an eternal truth that there is a woman behind every man's success is made to known to the world by the Lavoisier.
"Beware!! Behind every successful man there is one woman
Behind every unsuccessful man there are two women."
Shakuntala Devi is described as the "Human Computer" of her unbelievable capability of solving mathematical puzzles. She got her name in the Guinnies book of world records. Today, she is one of the greatest astrologers. Come to the social workers, Florence Nightingale, as we all know, was the founder of modern nursing. She organized nursing on a scientific basis and while visiting the patients during night time, she used to go with a lamp in her hand, that's why she was popularly called 'The lady with the lamp". She rejected her luxuries and comforts and dedicated herself to the selfless service of the sick. The patients used to kiss her shadow as it fell across them. We all know about Mother Teresa who is very inspiring to everyone and makes a desire to every owman to become another mother teresa. She is a prestigious heroine. Don't postpone a good thing. Life is short. Already we are late, Do everything and success is ours. We all know about Narayana Murthy, one of the first richest persons in the world, one of the ten stars of Asia, the establisher of "Infosys". Behind him, a great lady is there, his wife, Sudha Murthy. She was the first owman engineer who worked in Tata Telco. She is the chief patron of nearly 1000 school buildings, 4000 libraries and several children and women education programmes. She is a good novelist. Her book "Grandma Stories" is a very good book and a must to read.
No other women patriot of India has made such a powerful impact on the minds of Indians as Rani Jhansi Lakshmi Bhai. She learned horse riding and marshal arts from her father. At the age of 8, she got married and became the Rani of Jhansi. After the death of her husband and son, she was asked to left that place but she refused ot and adopted a son and fighted for that place and finally, she used to fo the battle field with her son tied to her back! The british were scared of her courage and somehow wanted to kill her. And she died on the battle field. Sarojini Naidu was a great freedom fighter and was a great poet and was sweetly described as "The Nightingale of India". She was the first woman president of the Indian National Congress. She wrote many books. We know Indira Gandhi, a great leader, a great lady. Benazzir Bhutto, the Ex-Prime minister of Pakistan. And we see many as Queen Victoria, Sonia Gandhi, all are women.
Kalpan Chawla was the first Indian - American woman to be sent to space. She was selected by NASA to serve as a specialist on board the space shuttle. She was died just minutes before it's landing. But, some persons have no death as Kalpana Chawla. Even after 1000 years also, they'll have a permanet place in our hearts and in the books and scriptures. If we have great ideals and goals and even if we die in our efforts to reach those great goals, it'll not be our death, our real life starts then! Sunita Williams, Christina Dodwell, many adventurers were born in our country.
No other woman player enjoyed the popularity that Chris Evert did for over 20 years, She is a Tennis player and became a star. She won $8896,000 in just under 18 years. She had a career of great records, Over 20,000 fans had literally tears when Evert retired from Tennis. To get inspiration, many players are there like Wilam Rudolph, was born prematurely iwth a weight of less than 2 kgs. She suffered from many diseases one after another like measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox and so on. Later her left lef and foot became weak and deformed. Superfinally, she had polio, a crippling disease that had no cure. It was followed by paralysis, which permanently weakened her leg. Doctors told that she would never walk. Her ife is a story of achieving against the odds Her first accomplishments were to stay alive and get well. In high school, she became a basket ball star first, then going to her first olympic games at the age of 16 and won bronze medal. Success is not a destination, it is a long unending journey. She became the first American woman to win 3 gold medals in different events. At lead her to become one of the most celebrated female athletes of all times. The success story of Wilam Rudolph was possible only because she had always a gret dream, she never permitted to erase off her dream and above all she toiled hard to achieve her goal. An 'asha', a dream can make a crippled man to climb the mountains. And also here we can see a house-wife established world records in olympics. She was voted "The female Athlete of the century". If you lose patience, you'll lose everything. A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. We can see many, Martina Navratilova, P.T.Usha, Sania Mirza and so on.
Anne Frank, the dairy of her has now been established in 19 languages and has sold over 2 million copies. Many women writers are there and they gave us many good writings. JK Rowling - Harry Potter, Kamala Das, her autobiography, "My Story", MedhaPatkar, the Indian Social Activist, Environmentalist, Toru Dutt, her writings on Hindu Philosphy and Hindu Gods are extraordinary.
Lata Mangeshkar, she was placed in the Guinnies Book of REcords as the singer with the highest number of songs. She has sung more than 30,000 songs, in all varieties. Everyday, somewhere or other in the corners of this world, Lata is heard every second, every minute throughout the day. MS Subba Lakshmi, 's music could inspire many people Ekta Kapoor, Amrita Shergill, amy were famous with their art. Here, we can have the role models of Glamour also. Cleopatrsm Samanta Fox, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Hema Malini, Nargis Dutt, Madonna became famous and printed their mark in the world history. We couldn't cover several great humans who happened to be women due to lack of space. We have many more great women like Rukmini Devi Arundel, the great Indian thinker, Sirimao Bandaru Naika, the first woman PM in the world, the women who shined in India, like JayaLalitha, Menaka Gandhi, Priya Tendulkar, Priyanka Gandhi, Mithali Raj, Vasundhara Raje. We can inspired from the other women like Kiran Majundar sha, a brew master and turned into a pharma gaint, producing everything from Insulin to antibodies with an annual revenue of over Rs.1000 crores. Preetha Reddy, learned nothing more than danceing and produced two children. One day, she joined the Apollo group of companies and soon, became the Managing Director of Apollo Group of companies. Anuradha Desai, the key person of one of the biggest poultry farmers' body National Egg Coordination Committee and increased the turnover of her company from 400 crores to nearly 2000 crores. Shabana Azmi, a famous film actress, Arundathi Ray, Indian English Writer, Brinda Karat, woman activist are also the great inspirers.
God has given two great gifts to the womankind. They are: Motherhood and Beauty. Of course, God has given several negatives to her. In this book, at the end of the pages, we can observe the negatives but we should understand them positively. Anyway, what is most important is that we men or women are neither inferior nor superior to one another, we are all equals. We do not belong to Purush Jati or Stri Jati, we all belong to one jati that is not Manava jati but Jatu jati, Animal Kind. Let us all realize this eternal truth or persih from this life forever. I agree with this. If you read the book "Women", you too agree with this.
