Edit: I have been composing/editing/re-editing this reply for last 18 hours. I think I now have what I want to say/share.

Response:

Firstly, I thank you for writing this piece and sharing it with all of us. If there is anything that would define your contribution to humankind, this would be one. Regardless of what outreach this achieves and what impact it ultimately creates, the iota of awakening that this has already generated is sufficient.

There is no second. There is everything else. I felt goosebumps reading this. Because this piece validates what I have developed as a framework (broadly focused on empathy, equality and empowerment) for myself since my development years and have espoused since. I read your thoughts both in context of what you sought to share, and in the larger context of women everywhere. And truly, it speaks for the ante diluvian challenge of a woman’s rightful place in society. And in that frame, I shared your article with my friends and asked them to read it for the import it carries.

Now, I am married to an intellectual wife, am a father to an intelligent daughter and a curious son. I teach my daughter to aim high and achieve and not succumb to perceptions. I also share with her what a true partner and a good relationship should be. And while at it, I would teach my son what I learned so he could be better than I am. That is what parenting should be. Values, values, values.

Outside of this immediate circle of influence, I have shared/coached/advised my brother/peers/friends/whoever in how they can enrich the lives of the women around them and therefore their own. I have received gratitude and rebuke in equal measure. But the true metric I choose is the happiness I see in those who chose to swim against the current like I did these many years.

I shall end my comment with a quote that is sometimes attributed to George Bernard Shaw and to Gloria Vanderbilt at other times… often left anonymous — “We are not put on this earth to see through one another. We are put on this earth to see one another through.” This one truth epitomizes what is so wanting in humanity today, in so many levels — including the one being discussed here. Empathy. Equality. Empowerment.

Thank you once again.