She got up!

          Tejaswini’s memory is clear – she’s sure of it.  She was four years old, and was in kindergarten, her first year at school.  She tried to slide during the lunch break.  Before she was prepared to descend, someone pushed her from behind.  She lost her balance, dashed against the sides of the slide as she went down, and had bruises on her elbows and knees.  But, she got up and was administered the tincture.

          When she was in the first standard, she followed her friends in jumping off the window sill, but unlike others, who landed on their feet, Tejaswini fell on her face and badly bruised her cheek.  One more shot of  tincture; but, she got up, as before.

          She was expected to be the state topper in her tenth standard.  Forget the honours list of the State Board, she did not even stand first in her school.  When people greeted her with a foregone conclusion, she was sad.  Very sad.  But then, topping was not the ultimate thing, encouraged her parents.  Everyday, she’d curse herself for not being the topper, but, the stage was transcient.  And, she got up.

          When she was in the Intermediate, one day before Varalakshmi Vratam, it rained hard.  Tejaswini always took an active part in the pooja, so she wanted to reach home early.  Little did she realize that the afternoon rain had rendered the verandah slippery.  She slipped and fell with a thud.  Her friends helped her up and she went home.  She was down with fever, but she got up the next day and ensured that there was no interruption to the pooja!

          One day before a major Inter-Collegiate competition and Tejaswini suffered from acute tonsillitis.  The hitch was that she had to travel out of her hometown, about which her parents were not too keen.  She tried to send the message across to the college but in vain – the friend through whom she wanted to convey the information (remember, in those days, very few could boast of a telephone connection at home) wasn’t going to attend college that day.  She forced herself to go to college, and then her professor who was in charge motivated her to attend the competition.  She actually carried glucose in her bag, and walked away with a prize in the competition.  That’s because ………. She got up!

          One week before her degree exams and Tejaswini was attacked by viral fever.  She was least concerned about her ill-health, because she was well-prepared!  She knew she’d get up, and she did!

          Tejaswini fell in love with Varchaswi, who, she felt, shared her ideals, and therefore, was worthy enough to share her life.  He responded, and both were happy – they believed that love was a more matter of the heart than of the body, and the love in their hearts grew.  When they decided to seek their patents’ blessings for the relationship, his parents objected to her caste and he capitulated.  This was different kind of fall.  She was excited at ‘falling’ in love, and never intended to get up; she wanted to go headlong into it.  But the ‘fall of failure’ hurt her more.  There was no bruise, no bodily injury.  But her heart ached at the break.  She wept for hours on end.  He parents consoled her that it was not the end; she was not keen to accept it, though.  She took up a job and slowly the challenges of the job helped her overcome this grief, like a longer line made a normal line smaller.  She had to get up.

          Tejaswini had a tough time in her office.  She was the only woman employee in that branch office.  Despite strides in education, gender bias was not an issue her colleagues had over grown.  ‘It’s not enough to talk about women’s lib.  It is not easy to work equally with men’, was a common taunt.  She met all her targets ahead of the timeline, yet she was entrusted with more work.  All work and more pressure took a toll of her health; she had to be on leave for a month.  For all her hard work, her boss evaluated her thus: ‘She has no great initiative.  Moreover, she does not have the fitness to withstand strenuous work’.  This, despite the fact that her stellar performance played a big role in their branch winning the best branch office award of their company.  She was terribly upset.  This is the reward one gets in a male dominated world, she lamented.  But not for long.  If this is the fate that awaits a highly accomplished professional, what can one speak of the less educated and lesser privileged women, who accepted patriarchy as a given fact?  She decided to do her bit for a more equitable society- she decided to fight back.  She had nothing to lose – if the Regional manager’s evaluation were to be accepted, she’d lose her job anyway.  Let the company know of the rot within, she thought.  She got in touch with the HR department for a review – and her representation was forwarded to the corporate office, which accepted the objectivity of her achievements and promoted her as Regional Manager to replace her boss.  Did she not get up?

          One day, Tejaswini had to cross the road to reach a parking lot.  She narrowly escaped being hit by a bike coming in the wrong route.  In a reflex action, she managed to evade the vehicle but fell on the road.  There wasn’t much traffic at that time, but surprisingly the bike rider got off the vehicle and apologized to her, and gave her a hand to help her up.  It was then that they looked at each other.  Tejaswini got up on her own and said, ‘I think I can get up on my own’, she told a visibly surprised Varchaswi.

          That day, when she was back, she found her daughter learning Stanley Lanepoole’s famous statement about Emperor Humayun – that he tumbled through life, and tumbled out of it.  Tejaswini became reflective – if she were destined to tumble out of it, she’d never be able to prevent it.  But, in the meantime, she’d be happy to get up whenever she fell down in life, either literally or figuratively.

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