Women are truly Gods creation of strength.   I had the pleasure of being introduced to a Woman of strength that reminded me of the importance of embracing our life’s journey.  

Freyaz Shroff reminds me of one of the most popular posts, Strong Women vs. Women of Strength, living the image of a woman with strength.  Below she shares her phenomenal journey which I would like to share with everyone.

Traveling Life’s Road!

I have always been a woman of faith, an intelligent woman, one who is kind, compassionate, respectful and above all filled with love for everyone.  However, January 3, 2006 began a journey in my life that would start to define exactly what it meant to be loving, responsible and above all faith-full.

Relationships I had counted on, betrayed me.  A career I had moved towards eluded me.  It didn’t matter in which direction I turned…my life as I knew it seemed to be crumbling.  I remember sitting with my prayer book open, just crying right into it.  Every part of me, the physical, mental, and emotional…had just dissolved. 

In December 2006, life led me to Mumbai, India for 10 days and those 10 days have now turned into 2 years.  Living in India brought its own set of challenges, but destiny had its own plans and I was provided all I needed to embrace each one of them, ultimately leading to work I could call my own.

This work pushed me beyond all boundaries of my comfort zone.  A beautiful 2 story home in America had been replaced with a comfortable 3 bedroom apartment, but in a building, where poor people can be found sleeping in the entrance corridor, smells of an overflowing public restroom can accompany you all four floors up in the elevator and the age of the building starting to show in the very evident cracks and slanting balconies. 

Hot water on demand had been replaced with remembering to turn on the geyser to warm the water at least 15 -20 minutes before hopping in the shower.  Everything from the way I dressed and spoke to the way I thought and worked saw changes.  However none more noticeable than the way I started to move around the city.  You see my luxury car had been replaced by walking, taxis and as my work took me further out…trains!

It is in the trains though that I learned the true definition of the words determination, grit and passion!  Please keep in mind that there are pluses and minuses to everything in life and I am choosing here to showcase the positive spirit of the average female Mumbai local train traveler.

Everyday 8 million people travel in the local trains of Mumbai.  Each train compartment is configured for 200, but inevitably during peak times we end up with 500 passengers. 

I am fortunate enough to be able to travel in the “ladies only” compartment; there are usually 2 per train.  Every morning I see women who get on the train with disheveled hair, an old chunni (shawl), and a couple of bags and in the forty minutes we travel together I see them completely transform themselves. 

The chunni is replaced with a clean one that matches their outfit, make-up, hair and the perfect bindi complete the transformation.  All this done amidst the hawkers on the train, the other passengers trying to get on and off at each station and some who have mastered the art can do this while they are standing. 

College going girls studying the last little bit before appearing for their exam, older women can be seen praying, some stand by the door to enjoy the breeze (that is the only time they have for their meditation), conversation flows easily amongst those who know one another.  Hawkers in the morning sell book bags, pencil boxes and make up items, to meet the shopping needs of the hour. 

Evenings on the train, see a different atmosphere.  Still the crowds, but this time the empty bags from the morning are filled with vegetables they have bought outside the train station, students are now doing the homework for the next day and hawkers are selling food stuffs, earrings and toys.  Since there are no doors on the compartments, women gather at the back of the compartment entrance to peel and cut their vegetables.  Each helps the other so that the work is done by the time they reach their destination.

The name of the game is to get it all done, the shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, the children’s’ homework, mealtime, bedtime and anything else that needs their attention.  And if you didn’t know any better each woman on that train would have you convinced that everything was abundant in their lives, because there is never a shortage of smiles to go around. 

If you really take the time to observe and get to know these amazing women, you will find, as I did, yourself in them and you will learn that you too have within you the amazing spirit so many of them carry within their souls.  You see, when all is said and done, you have to do, what you have to do and there is no way around it, so might as well step into the game called life and embrace each day. 

I wish each of them continued abundance and I wish for you travels which take you far enough so that you are able to reach deep within the distances allowing you to put life into a different perspective!

By Freyaz Shroff

Fred Sarkari

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