Being a woman

Being a woman

MAY BE a woman is a mere housewife or dons dual caps of managing the house as well as office but she is a better manager than most of the managers out there in the world (here I limit the challenge to male managers only, because the additional skills which make her better come from being a woman only).

There exists an infinite list of items that are required and consumed by a household regularly, ranging from kitchen items to toiletries. As long as a woman is in-charge, I am sure a regular house never suffers from the absence or shortage of anything. Be it dal chawal- masale or soap-shampoo or washing powder or medicines or even gifts for specific occasions, a woman is capable of managing everything without even realising or getting under stress. Her inventory management is always perfect and optimum.

Be it preparing lunch boxes or putting ironed clothes on your bedside while you were in the bathroom bathing, she never misses any deadlines. Her time management runs by the clock.

Most of the times she works under severe time and resource constraints, striving to deliver above the quality expectations, trying  to please all the end consumers (read husband, kids, in-laws, guests, relatives, maids, neighbours, etc.)

Oh! did anyone mention those heavy-weights- specific project management, work life balance, job related stress.

Well she goes through them too. But she manages them just like we all manage the weight of atmosphere on our shoulders…..(hint...we are accustomed to it, so don’t even realise its presence.)

Tomorrow, before leaving for office/ college/ school/ wherever, just remember to take a mental picture of the condition of the house. Does not it resembles an area from where a cyclone has just passed through!! Now, compare it with the scenario that welcomes you when you come back. Spic and span, everything in place, a pleasant smell wafting from the kitchen, immediately relieving you of the whole day stress. Kids will be found well fed, well dressed and (depending on the time you come back)

doing their homework or in bed. (may be playing too, but in that case done with their homework).

Remember, this is the magic which only a wife or mom can create. Irrespective of the fact, that she herself goes to office or not, when she is at home, her house and its inhabitants remain her priority.

Ok, she has helps at hand. Depending on her and your affordability, she has a maid, a cook, tutor for kids, etc.; but who manages all these human resources. Isn’t it a thumb rule that the more people under your command, better is your pay. For a woman, this rule becomes a little altered- the more her husband’s income, more is the number of people she commands.

There is one more skill known to only working women. as soon as they exit the house, snap, they get into their office mode, this report has to be re-drafted, that data has to be checked, that presentation has to be submitted, this meeting and that client. They become a dedicated working woman giving any of their male colleague a stiff competition and sometimes outdoing them too.

And the moment they exit the office, snap, they become a mom, a wife, a lady of the house,again.What dinner is to be prepared, kids’ projects’ last date, mother-in law’s medicine and all. The second they enter the house, with their purse, they remove their office pressure from the face to the inner domains of their heart (to be pondered upon sometime later at night when alone), because they have to make up for the lost time with their kids, they have to listen to their tales from school, she has to wonder at the giggles of her toddler/infant who too is super excited at the return of her mother, she has to guide and check her maids and/or do some/all work herself.    

So, next time when you hear that the government is planning to impose some penalty on companies having less woman members on their boards, just don’t smirk. They have fair intentions in mind in demanding more of the fairer sex.