“I come from a traditional family and am a second daughter to a set of three to my parents. Throughout our childhood and adolescent years and adulthood, we had a very good education. Thanks to my parents who have a liberal mindset. It’s nothing new that being a woman in a patriarchal society is very difficult. We have to face questions like – ‘Itni mehengi school mei kyun padhana hai?’, ‘It’s about time to get the girls married’. As a child, I used to look up to my teachers and I was always inspired by the way they would dress up, speak, confident, the aura they generated. But my parents have been my biggest inspiration, especially my mother who had to leave her education due to familial issues and got married at an early age due to societal pressure and she thought that the same experiences should not be re-lived. She has been my constant source of inspiration throughout my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood years. My parents had to face a lot of backlashes because they were

Author-Shlok Talati