Greatness of Women
I know it is a bit of delayed post, the delay in the sense, the topic of inspiration which was based on Dinamalar Varamalar dated 9th July, 2006. And particularly, India has a rich heritage in giving enormous significance to womanhood, even putting them on par Godhood. Any river in India is normally named after a woman god like Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Narmada, Tapti, Sindhu, Kaveri. With these rich heritage in our possession, it is indeed a very sad thing that the current trend of westernization or fake westernization drives Indian society to cast our woman fraternity in a very obscene state. I am just talking about the most vulgar advertising hoardings, cine posters, flowups in all leading dailies, weeklies and all varied flavors of news clippings.
Nevertheless, there is a proverb in Tamil that you can not hide a lamp light that is hosted on top of a hillock. Actually it means the lighthouse, which serves as a valuable guidance for sailors in the sea. No one can hide the lighthouse, which is so tall. Is'nt it? Similarly, no one can actually suppress or oppress on a continuous basis the greatness and valor of the skilled. Making this statement true, there was a writeup on a 49 year old lady called Parpadi Paroova in Assam. She is appreciated to be a great record-breaker for her record-breaking daring adventures. Whatever herculean tasks that have been reserved hitherto as would be possible only male counterparts, like catching and training wild elephants, she has accomplished single handedly.
This woman just goes to school to give her examinations but most of her livelihood she loves to spend in the wild jungles to the tune of six to eight months. With her mother's pursuation, she has completed her graduation too. Her father, Prakritish Chandra Paroova, is an internationally accredited elephant trainer.
This woman has a great fame of having tamed more than one thousand elephants which include Jung Bahadur, Asia's second's biggest elephant. When she tamed the first elephant, she was in her tender age of fifteen, under most difficulty and risky circumstances. Taming a wild elephant is not an easy joke. You need to be seated in one elephant, have a strong knot of the rope weighing upto twenty kilograms and throw it on an elephant in the group of wild elephant. With the help of a tamed elephant and with other trainers, you need to then catch the wild one which has been so entrapped. The job of entrapping does not end her. The trainer has to spend days and nights with the elephant and train it to bring it under control. A wild elephant, at least in India, is given the foremost training of four commands that it needs to be trained for adherance:
- Stop
- Go Front
- Go Back
- Turn Back
A tamed elephant normally helps the trainer to train the wild elephant into its new leaf domesticated lifestyle. Catching a wild elephant does not have any guarantee of life for the trainer. Once Parpadi was almost on the edge of death but some of her tamed elephants rushed proactively to her rescue and saved her.
Parpadi also has a fame of having telecasted about her achievements in the following news channels:
- "Jumbo Jamboree" -- A documentary by National Geographic Channel.
- "Queen of Elephants" -- A documentary by Discovery Channel.
To add a feather to her crown, the Government of West Bengal, which has been erstwhile vesting the task of taming elephants to her father, has now earned confidence to give those tasks to her.
Source Courtesy (of Parpadi Story): Andhumani Pa Ka Pa Pages of Dinamalar
Well! I know this is quite a lengthy story. However, the bottomline is that the fame and name of a woman should be upheld. A woman is no way inferior to her male counterparts. Let us swear that if we have a movie screened that is picturising any woman in a obscene fashion, let us boycott it. The greatness of India, is still more tangibly visible from more such invincible warriors:
- Kalpana Chawla, Indian Astranaut, named in NASA Website
Here we also fondly recall our Kavimani Desiga Vinayagam Pillai's words' "Mangaiyaraga Pirappatharge Nalla Maadhavam Seidhita Vendummamma". Let us try to uphold the rich heritage and not succumb to short-run pleasures solicited and served by mundane creatures on the land. This way, we also, greatly serve our nation as our Indian Pledge too has a a lyric to this effect. Here goes our Indian Pledge for quick reference:
India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters.
I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.
I shall always strive to be worthy of it.
I shall give respect to my parents, teachers and elders and treat everyone with courtesy.
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion.
In their well being and prosperity alone lies my happiness.