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It's the saritude, 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 she was only 14 years old, moved her to study medicine and bring change to India’s medical scene. At 21, she was a qualified doctor and on returning to India in 1886, she was given charge of princely Kholapur’s hospital. The country, sadly, lost her to tuberculosis in less than a year, when she was just about to turn 22.
Today is her 153rd birth anniversary and the google doodle is a fantastic tribute to the woman who changed the view of women’s empowerment in a culture strangulated by abhorrent patriarchal domination. Let’s not forget that it would be another 60 years before the Indian nation itself would be freed from servitude.
To be reminded of such an indomitable symbol of Indian history and to see her flourishing her degree in the attire that proudly proclaims her identity, is a testimony to what the sari too stands for – dignity, resolve and timelessness.
Wear the sari, my proud Indian sisters and flaunt the self-assurance it gives. Anandibai inspired a multitude of women to gain an education then. This tribute and its imagery, inspires on many levels today. It gives me an extra kick that the doodler hails from namma Bengaluru, my city of joy 😊
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Next in the series: Sari-telling be like... Previously in The Whole Nine Yards: Stand up for your sari!
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