Where Do We Begin?

I was sitting in my political science class the other day and my teacher was talking about women and politics. She stated that no female politician in India had risen to the top without some connection to an influential man. Sonia Gandhi would not have entered the political arena had there not been so many deaths in her family. Mayawati wouldn't be a political force had it not been for Kanshi Ram. Also, the women haven't done much for women's rights. Another observation my teacher made is that, they haven't come to power out of a struggle or a movement. It wasn't like the suffragette movement in England. Women in India have never really gotten up and fought for anything as a United front. The Nirbhaya case brought us together and yet, we haven't achieved much.
The problem is, where do we even start? Do we fight for equal pay? Do we fight for safer streets? Do we fight so that future generations do not have to listen to,"Tum wahan gayi kyun?"(why did you go there?), when groped in public? Do we fight for the simple reason that we deserve to be treated as equals? Not metaphorically, not opportunistically, but truly. Where do we start?

Bidding Adieu and Saying Hello

It's officially my last day on earth as a teenager. Tomorrow I shall become an adult. A real life, walking, talking adult. Huh. That doesn't sound as frightening and ominous as I thought it would. So what did I do to commemorate this very sacred day? I studied. Quite mature of me, no? Perhaps premonitive of the years to come. It's been nice being a teenager.  Tantrums were considered rebellion, identity began to take shape, opinions were formed, friends were made, friends were lost, pimples were a constant enemy, so was a widening waistline. And as all good things come to an end, I bid my teenage years goodbye and say hello to my twenties. Here's to a whole new decade of establishing who I am; here's to a decade of actually acting my age; here's to a decade of falling in love (fingers crossed), here's to a decade of no childish temper tantrums (I will try my best), and finally, here's to the decade that I've been looking forward to since before I knew what it was like to grow up. Hello new friend, I hope we are good to each other. We are grown ups, are we not?