Kallola

  ~ It's the sari tude, girls! In my hunt for a fitting end to March, imagine my delight when today’s Google Doodle showed a sari-clad icon of mid-nineteenth century India! Well done Kashmira Sarode , for depicting an event of national honour from a time when women were not even allowed to be seen, let alone heard.  The first lady doctor of India, Anandibai Gopal Joshi , earned her degree in America, at a time when women everywhere in the world were discouraged from aspiring beyond domestic excellence. To then wrest not just an education, but a full-fledged medical degree and stand among accomplished men of the world, was nothing short of a miracle. To cap it, she did this while hailing from a conservative community where crossing the seas – for anyone, man or woman – was the greatest religious taboo.  Married at nine to a progressive man many years her senior, she learnt to read and write. The trauma of losing her 10-day old baby to scarce medical care when sh