With apologies to William Shakespeare, who said in great dramatic flourish and rhetoric in the play ‘Hamlet’ ‘Frailty, thy name is woman,’ I have to disagree with him, at least today being Women’s Day! It is one of the memorable expressions from that play and has over the years become proverbial.

He thus describes all of womankind as frail and weak in character. But in reality no. Only Hindus understand this I suppose, with apologies to all those male chauvinistic pigs and misogynists. These days we find men frail and weak in character. If Shakespeare refers to the changing nature of women, it might be in his time and age. Not today. Today we find men with character that Shakespeare found in women in his day. Today, look at men changing political parties, changing their love for the woman they married, changing their loyalty to the political party or their leader etc. Also, because the men these days are weak in character they are also corrupt without any moral compunction.

Be that as it may, I was reminded of Women’s Day by my good old friend K. Vijaya Kumar, who sent me a WhatsApp early this morning about woman and the role she plays in a man’s life as the conductor of the family orchestra. Here is what he sent me:

WOMAN

• changes her name
• changes her home
• leaves her family
• moves in with you
• builds a home with you
• gets pregnant for you
• pregnancy changes her body
• she gets fat
• almost gives up in the labour room due to the unbearable pain of child birth
• even the kids she delivers bear your name

Till the day she dies… everything she does… cooking, cleaning your house, taking care of your parents, bringing up your children, earning, advising you, ensuring you can be relaxed, maintaining all family relations, everything that benefit you….. sometimes at the cost of her own health, hobbies and beauty.

So who is really doing whom a favour?

Dear men, appreciate the women in your lives always, because it is not easy to be a woman. Being a woman is priceless. Happy women’s week! Pass this to every woman in your contact to make her feel proud of herself. Rock the world ladies! A salute to ladies!

WOMAN MEANS:

W(?)  WONDERFUL MOTHER

O(?)  OUTSTANDING FRIEND

M(?)  MARVELLOUS DAUGHTER

A(?)  ADORABLE SISTER

N(?)  NICEST GIFT TO MEN FROM GOD.

Yes, Vijay I have already passed this appreciation and recognition to my wife with an amendment to what you wrote on “What woman means.” I made the W(?)  to read as wonderful wife! Howzat?

Happy Women’s Day to all beautiful women.

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