To Begin Again, as the Eagle suggests

The story of an eagle is one retold many times. These majestic creatures soar high in the sky, gliding through the currents, gleefully, as they please.

These august beings have lives spanning almost 70 years. At 40, the eagle feels her age. Her utilitarian talons no longer grasp prey as effectively, her beak bent with the memory of a once sharp feature. Her wings struggle as her overly dependent feathers fasten onto her bosom, disrupting her flight. However, the monumental decision of which pill to swallow, at this point, is a purely subjective, yet all-encompassing solution. She may decide to remain and let nature take its course, or she can choose to undergo the painful process, so underemphasized and condensed, yet aptly named—Change.

Her story is so relatable, it’s practically impractical not to draw comparisons to humanity and human life.

At 40, humans too begin to morally question their worth. The schedules, elements and microprocesses that affirm what one is and how deeply one connects with that assessment. Questions of whether this is the person they set out to be or, over the years, if this version of self still stands relevant to one’s ideologies, principles, and growth.

As these questions undeniably impend around the same age, somehow, these questions and their solutions seem to fall into two major categories, characteristically – the male side and the female version. Typical characteristics of the male moral quandaries involve a delve into relationships (familial and/or otherwise), forgotten hobbies and next of kin.

An appalling number of women, on the other hand, are asking “Where did I go wrong?” “How do I begin again?” Women around 40, having accomplished much in life, yet feel so distant from any complacency that could derive from her burning ambitions.

Any individual from the younger Indian demographic could effortlessly recount the distinctions at home as men stepped out to work and the women who looked after their abodes. Perhaps most retellings would involve a weekend or a festival of sorts where women would be in their respective kitchens making delectables the family so enjoys, while men button up to step out to their jobs. Even if the gents were at home, they would be glued to their laptops or phones, while the family went beyond their means with adulations of sympathy and respect for the rest, they “deserved”. The rudimentary unfairness of pitting “professional work” against “duty”. Most women are weighed down with domestic responsibilities, and this doesn’t fall under the category of work in the perception of corporations. This undermines a woman’s value as an employee and burdens men to be ambitious, to provide for the family. Resultant overclocking for men at work and women at caregiving and childrearing. This disparity in the distribution of labour manifests in the perpetuation of the very problem permeating the working class – the culture that compels one to equate her values with what she has accomplished, her financial gains and how much her output is. Ironically, the 40-year-old man would narrate a story with the same constituents from his time. Change never really paid a visit to these households. In fact, change, she never paid a visit to most households. 4 per cent is all the Indian households she covered.

Recent statistics suggest that only a meagre 25 per cent of women are part of the working force. Below half a per cent are seeking work and the total labour force among this is 25.3 per cent. Only 4 per cent of all women waged in India are in the organized sector and with prospects of availing job security and benefits.

India is no longer a country where the population tips toward one gender over the other. In point of fact, India's current statistics show 1,020 women to every 1,000 men. Women outnumber men in today’s India. Yet mother India still can’t seem to respond to her 980 daughters around every 1000 men: perhaps all 1,020 of them.

The issue that this gender divisiveness is still being debated upon is another reason why so much progress is being held back. Women are still internalizing the need to overperform so that the whole idea of simply performing is not even being conversed about.

Men approach opportunities even when they are not fully qualified. Women still must work hard to create platforms to do things when they are overqualified and over capable while still debating the now over- wrangled topic of gender divisiveness.

For the glorious eagle, the requisite for this 'change' is her journey to a mountain top where she is to hammer her beak on a rock until it falls out. She must then pluck out her talons with her new beak, and when her talons grow back; she must endure the agony of picking off her old-aged feathers. This is not a process where she mends what is essential, this is one where she mends what she essentially is.

Her leap from the sharp cliff edge is now one of rebirth. A flight – symbolizing her choice to begin again; to endure and soar again in her regal glory.

To begin again, as the eagle suggests, is no mere task. It is no simple reach-and-grab. Women are aware of this on a granular level. At 40, it is astounding how an over-functioning individual is put to be dispensed off. A woman of 40, holding so much enthusiasm, experience and eagerness, is just benched away and denied the option of a beginning.

The belief, the idea of even desiring for change so ridiculed. Present in a moment so impacted by the past, so influenced by a possible future – it is almost imperative to rid of unpleasant old memories, habitual actions, and static mind frames. Beliefs, like prison bars – archaic and limiting, are all that the mind sees when it truly wants to soar above the clouds beyond the same tallying rainstorms it has seen for over 40 years.

The yearning for change is no more a calculated footstep, it’s a calling that beckons from deep within.