She was there and will be survived for the woman that she was !

December 5, 2016 ... I sit down to write few words that will possibly connect to feminism...not being able to arrive at one single word until I am told the final verdict about the woman that I have unintentionally admired all my life.

December 6 , I start writing about her not just because she is no more but because of the inspiring  lady that she has been.

She was there ruling the state .

She was there since I heard the word politics and she was there when I came to know what politics really is . She was there when  I found out how dirty it could get and how people picked up advantage of the dirty side to make it dirtier . How the governance could change people's lives to the better and to the worse.

She was there when I got to know how being a woman makes us not only to lose few battles but also how we are denied to enter into the battle field itself and how we are not allowed to play an effective part even after having broken the gates made by the not easily malleable metal of misogynistic societal norms.

With growing list of names that disprove the stereotype, her name has remained and will remain a remarkable one on the list.

She was a teen when she was made to act in films to put up with the financial crisis of her family . She soon had a stable and busy career but never did she choose conventional ways to raise to the top.  Kept herself aloof from the mainstream off-screen part of the industry , was professional in her own ways. 117 movies out of 125 were critically acclaimed as well as commercially successful.

Even though it was DMK and its former leaders who had the ideology of bridging the gap between women and politics . It is MGR'S AIADMK which exercised that. She was a close pal of MGR, he knew her not just as a co-star but also as a woman of great wisdom. She took charge as the propaganda secretary  of the party when MGR was serving his second term as CM. After MGR's death in 1987, She proclaimed herself his political heir and having fought off the faction headed by Janaki Ramachandran , MGR's widow, emerged as the sole leader of the AIADMK. Following the 1989 election, she became Leader of the Oppositon to the DMK government. From then she has served as a CM for four times.

She is often ridiculed to have been dominant, tough and self assured. In a state that is largely dominated by men how else will she prove herself effective in position. She lead the state with great amount of charisma , confidence and effective leadership skills that made people her biggest assert. She made a statement saying if she was not tough then people would have been told that she lost because she was a woman. She has confessed to the public that she was a failure in her personal life.

The world knew her as the conventionally glamours and beautiful woman that she was. After unfortunate incidents of her hair and saree pulled  in an assembly session where she expressed her own take about the party in opposition . She did not make a  decision of not being out spoken but she made one to not to seem attractive in conventional ways. She put of layers of clothing and minimal accessories.

I am not against her counterparts or completely for her decisions during her political tenure but will be a strong awestruck admirer of  the audacious woman leader that she has been.

She has achieved things that seemed to be far from possible. Now she has proved it all possible through her own life.

There is a monotony that has struck people after the declaration of her demise but never her defeat. The void that she has left behind will be filled by nothing but the inspirational personality that she has been will fill voices of virile women.

She has swooped through all the odds to break open the glass ceiling.

Now if I and my generation can believe that a woman can remain immensely successful but also impact irrespective of one's personal life , private space, the way one decides to look and how people oppose her for whatever reasons. And it is so only through her determination, knowledge and unshaken attitude to all the barriers put forth. She has taught us to shake and challenge the unfortunately deep rooted system of misogyny through nothing but our meaningful and effective existence.

She will be the reason for the decrease in death rate of women (some existing and some not allowed to exist even as a fetus or an infant) and will be the reason for many cassowaries to unearth their wings that will never be willing to wilt.

 Thank you for everything that you have left behind..... Dr.J.Jayalalitha will not just rest in peace but will also be survived.