From the time I understood that I am the one who will be responsible for my decisions, I started making my own choices. Starting from taking PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Maths) after the 10th grade.
In the middle of the night, sitting in the dark, I had removed the option of ‘Commerce’ (that I had tick-marked first because I had been strongly suggested by my family and asked by my father to opt for it), using a whitener and selected PCM with a thought in my mind that I don’t want to blame anyone else in the future for the choices I make today.
I decided not to go for a 9-5 regular job, choosing to continue to experiment for better learning. Then one day, I chopped off my long curly hair to feel freer than ever! I took off to the Himalayas. I got my hair colored for the first time ever and got my first tattoo, at the same time. “Why did you do this to yourself?”, my father asked. “I wanted to get this done now, there is no point if I do it at the age of 30, when you think I have become older and wiser,” I answered. He smiled back in acceptance.
Adorning myself every year with the tattoos that I have chosen, believing in their depiction, make me not an ‘ideal woman’ at all, especially as I work with children. I also have taken a very well-thought out decision in cohesion with my husband to not have a baby. We don’t have answers if and when s/he asks us what were you doing when this world was becoming a sad place to live for us!