Monday 14 July 2014

Lean In


It was 10th grade, the topper of our school was asked to say a few words about her achievement. She started with thanking her parents, her friends , her teachers and her lucky stars . There I was sitting in the audience wanting to scream "For God's sake, tell them how hard YOU worked for your exams !!!" but had no courage or confidence to raise my hand.

Thankfully, my parents always allowed me to be myself. I was never pressurized to "behave like a girl". As I entered all women's college, I started adapting some "girly" behavior to fit into the society. Time went by and I realized that Indian girls were not allowed to even dream big. Most of them were preparing themselves for their future life partners and future mother in-laws. The little ambitious ones restricted their dreams till marriage, as they knew that they will have to sacrifice their career life for their family. By the last year of college I was sure that I am not going to end up living like that. I believed in living in present, for myself and for the people I love , not for the imaginary people who have not yet entered my life.

That's when, My dad gifted me this book after watching (also making me watch) Sheryl Sandberg's ted talk ( http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders ). I felt like I got magic beans which will lead the way to my ambitions. Life became simpler, when while making any decision all I had to do was ask myself  "What would I do if I weren't afraid?". I am working on "Raise Your Hand"and "Sit at the Table". When I read "Don't leave before you leave", the first thing I did was pat myself on the back because I already believed in the same thing. This book made me write this blog as I am not known to be efficient in writing skills. So I took it as a challenge !!

Being a leader was never on my mind. I was very sure that I didn't possess leadership qualities. Now that I think bout it, I WILL HAVE to lead and I will have to LEAN IN in order to encourage other girls. Still not knowing the how's and where's , I am starting it with the people around me.

Few days ago, I completed my graduation and was updating my Facebook status..."feeling blessed" when my father interrupted and said "After reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, you still feel blessings are the cause of your achievements?? ". I immediately changed the status to "feeling proud" ... So Girls be proud of yourself and LEAN IN !!!



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