Editor’s Note: Strength of a woman

As the son of a mother who was widowed at age 35 and remained single for the rest of her life, I am reminded of an incident at Mumbai’s Churchgate Station from when I was just 10 years old

As the son of a mother who was widowed at age 35 and remained single for the rest of her life, I am reminded of an incident at Mumbai’s Churchgate Station from when I was just 10 years old.

Raja grew up in the USA, and brought with her to India the strength of knowing that “nothing was out of reach” for women

It was rush hour and my mother and I were returning from a visit to the erstwhile Prince of Wales Museum. However efficient, Mumbai railway platforms, like most crowded places, are notorious for all kinds of perverts making their moves; something I realised for the first time in my life that evening, as a man bumped into my mother.

Mom’s grip on my hand tightened and when I looked up, she had stopped in her tracks, her face white as a sheet.

I didn’t understand it then, but I do now. That day I learnt that the challenges women face every day in a male-dominated world are far bigger than we can ever imagine. Which is why their hands must be strengthened, as must their voices.

Raja grew up in the USA, and brought with her to India the strength of knowing that “nothing was out of reach” for women. “I have a loud voice, so I bypassed issues like harassment and pay disparity, which other women in the field go through,” she says. “But I still wanted to utilise that voice to make a safe space for women.”

Today, Raja Kumari says, strength isn’t gender-based. “There are events where people reluctantly list women. But, in every situation, you can no longer keep women out. There is a rise of female energy. We are watching it happen in Iran. And it’s contagious.”

Raja Kumari on the cover of HT Brunch in June 2021, where she spoke about her Indian roots and Western upbringing

Thank God for that!

Also with this issue: Comes our year-end travel special: Vir Sanghvi writes about the one city in Rajasthan that’s still poorly-connected, Jaisalmer. But that’s also probably what has kept it so pure.

Kolkata girl and food content creator, who moved from India to Germany last year, Natasha Celmi, picks the best Christmas markets in Europe. And I take you to Santa Claus’s home in Northern Finland.

Merry Christmas, people! (My first instinct would be to say “Merry X’mas, guys!” but the gender-neutral term “guys” isn’t kosher any longer. Nor is “ladies and gents”.

What if there are those in the audience that don’t identify as ladies or gentlemen?

Jamal Shaikh is National Editor – Brunch and New Media Initiatives Hindustan Times

Follow @JamalShaikh on Twitter and Instagram

From HT Brunch, December 24, 2022

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