Zest of St Thomas' - You and Me

Hello dear Thomasite, 

My dad tells me - "whenever you feel low, remember that you are a Thomasite."Trust me, it works. 

This is an open letter to all of you. All the proud woman, who once adorned the STS badge. 

I am sure, all of you today, are independent and strong woman. You have your own identity. You may or may not yet be successful, but each of you strive hard towards achieving the best which your heart wants, and you mind says.Creating one's own identity is a task. You need to explore your potential and your interests, and follow the path of desire. You have to tread a difficult path, and then you create yourself. St Thomas' enables this. She helps us realize who we are, and what we can do. And through this, she has spread the light. Like her motto says, "Light to Lighten", she enlightened us, so that we can take it forward. 

There comes a pause. 

Through this post, I ask all of you - how many of you have spread the light it further? I can hear a lot of ayes. Feel proud of this fact. I can hear some "can't say/ don't know". Think about it again. You spread it in your profession and personal life, amidst family and friends, amongst colleagues and clients. So, now is it an "aye"? Excellent!! 

Read more. 

Woman in India are oppressed. There is no doubt about it. We are treated as second class citizens. The much talked about divide amongst rich and poor makes it worse. India is definitely a country of extremes. Indian woman faces challenges at every stage in her life. Be it professional, personal or social life. Gender inequality, female foeticide, illetracy, child marriage, sexual assault, non marital and marital rape, harassment at work, oppression at home within the family, and the list goes on. 

I do not know how to solve this ad sort this. But there definitely is a way to reduce this, to an extent possible. As a fellow Thomasite, I appeal to you all. If each of us pledge, to help a woman in need, a woman who cannot help herself, who doesn't have enough support, guidance or education: our country will be a better place. 

So, are you with me? How many "ayes"? 

Let's spread the zest, the zest of STS!! 

Oh yes, and all NRIs and PIOs (me included) - there are several ways to help Indian woman, especially in the virtual world. I have started to be a part of the MILAAP community, and trying to do my bit. I encourage you to do the same. Milaap helps woman, who are partially independent, and are in need. For more details visit - www.milaap.org, and be the change. 

My memories of my alma mater are evergreen. I thank fellow blogger Arlee Bird to seed the thought of this challenge, was back in 2010. And I thank indiblogeshwaris for giving the right push, and land me into this. Once I was in, there was no way out. And from April 1st, started the journey of my most cherished memories of my life, the memories of school days. 

This post is dedicated to the A-to-Z blogging challenge - the largest Blog Challenge in the history of Blogkind. My selected theme is "memories of St. Thomas' "- my Alma mater. This is the twenty sixth and the last post of the challenge 2014, and is linked to the letter Z: Zest of STS. 

Linking this post to UBC too.