Whatever she is doing- is- "None of your Business"

From #metoo towards #shetoo moment

In life, sharing a life story or similar path of life, makes being compassionate about something or someone very easy.

If you have gone through a personal injury or a set back that someone else has, the understanding flows towards each other so spontaneously and naturally that judgment disappears

It’s so easy to utter these words - "I can really connect with her".

That’s why #metoo moment made it so big- women could connect against an external factor and I am so very proud of the awareness it brought about .

But what about when struggles we face are unique

The experiences have become microcosmos on its own - it’s collage of errors and sufferings and victories like never before where margins at times blur

Being feminist for me means- respecting each and every human’s right irrespective of man made barriers, towards the choices they make and supporting them if we believe in those choices and LEAVING them alone if we don’t believe in those choices, because we are not them

Everyone has right to life 

Everyone has right to make their own mistakes 

Everyone has right to decide course of their own lives

And when we put ourselves in pedestal and look down and call women names for what they are doing or choosing to do is anything but feminist

Being feminist is being humanist

And tearing someone apart, just because they are making choices different than what you have made or what you are making, by cruel remarks, is neither a humane thing nor an evolved thing

We are not in a position to send approvals or validation on other people’s life and we should not be

if it threatens your own life, yes you should voice your opinion but claiming what should or must happen, in other people lives, as if they are less than you, is narcissistic

The world has become smaller so our minds can be wider / limitless, so we can meet stories more than what our life has known

So this brings me to #shetoo moment

Priyanka Chopra, a Bollywood megastar, a self made icon, a role model for many- chooses a 10 years-younger man for courtship and marriage and internet goes up in arms against her. Leaving cruel remarks, suspicion and what not.

Easily forgetting that she too has right to decide, what she wants in her life, whether it matches your right or wrong checklist

She too has right to make her own choices, even if her choices are unfamiliar to you

She too deserves respect and freedom without being called names, by fellow women, who should be her tribe- not tear her down- for every single decision

She too has a right to define-what and who makes her happy and feel wholesome, without millions of women screaming down her ears

It’s very easy to fight enemy outside but it’s harder and more gratifying to win traits and work inside of us, our own belief system , our own emotional band width, our own limitation to make space- for tolerance and acceptance of what we perceive as -“Different”

So to anyone calling- Priyanka Chopra, names for choices she has made or is making or will make

Just remember #Shetoo

As far as I am concerned — anyone- men, women, gender specific/ non specific - LGBTQ community or any fellow human with or without labels -

Live your life - 

We will learn to celebrate 

Till then we will learn to understand

So Congratulations Priyanka Chopra - do what makes you happy- you are the queen of your own life ??#priyankachopra

Nivedita Lakhera