Tuesday, August 25, 2015

To all my #girlfriends





Before we are #women, wives, daughters, #mothers, daughters-in-law, employees and a hundred other designations, we are simply human beings. Sometimes, in a race to fulfil these roles, we forget to be with ourselves. We forget what it is like to be a human being without a designation. 

We are always racing to fulfil some responsibility. Men of course have their own set of mammoth responsibilities. But there is one small difference. A woman never gets a break, especially mothers. It’s a role we are happy with but it’s a role that takes a lot. 

Sometimes, there is an input-output imbalance. Sometimes, we have to make do with that imbalance, but sometimes there are miraculous opportunities wherein nine girlfriends somehow manage to enrol their families and their children to spend a day without them.

Such was that weekend. Nine of us decided to stay over at five-star resort (courtesy our respective husbands) for a night. Without children and husbands. We drove to the resort in groups with our favourite music blaring, banging our heads like teenage girls and giggling at the surrealness of that moment. 

Once we arrived, we headed for the lavish buffet. It seemed odd, to be able to relish each morsel and talk without a hundred interruptions and emergency exits to the loo.  Odd but refreshing. Back to our rooms overlooking the pine tree lawns, nine of got down to the job of chilling the evening refreshments and of course, taking selfies. 

I’m a disaster when it comes to selfies. But I was with the pros. By the end of the night, I knew how to pout and pose in my most flattering angle. In between the crazy selfie marathon, we got all dressed up for... the pool. Never thought one could dress up for the pool. But we did, sarongs and chunky neckpieces and some with even sported make-up. 


We raised quite a few eyebrows. People aren’t used to seeing women our age hanging out by ourselves at a resort. They expect to see children pulling at our hems and us tailing after our husbands. The green monster of envy spat at us from a few observation corners at the resort. It just made our getaway more memorable.

It is hilarious the amount of time we women took to get ready for an evening inside the room. It was like we were making up for all the hurried dress-ups in the past. Later, music, spirit, funky eye-masks and spin the bottle dominated the evening frivolities. 


We wished we could #party like we were in our teens, but alas, 2 am the ladies bid us three roomies adieu. Unwilling to end the night, one of us pinged all the sleeping beauties at 3 am just for the fun of it. Only to be hung up on. Girlfirends or not, no one is compromising on their beauty sleep. 

Come morning, we had breakfast and got ready to explore the grounds. And guess what... more selfies. An observer might have judged us to be self-absorbed, narcissistic birds. Far from it. 

We were women with enormous responsibilities #rejuvenating, taking care of ourselves so we could take care of our loved ones, better than before. We were women who do not believe in sacrificing their mind, body and soul for their loved ones. We were women who believe in strengthening ourselves so we could be better mothers, wives, daughters, daughters-in-law and human beings.


4 comments:

Spiraling Conundrum said...

I felt refreshed just reading that :)

Anu said...

Brought back some wonderful memories & lots of perspective (reading this beautifully written piece) 😀

aakriti said...

Nithya. Gud to hear from you. :) I think all mothers should do this once in a while. It is so liberating and as u said refreshing.

aakriti said...

Anu. When you get time to get away from the daily routine, that's when perspective creeps in. Thanks for reading through and commenting. :)