A Bundle Of Contradictions

Coming from a patriarchal country like India, one would expect that I was also raised with the ingrained belief that the female gender is worthless for everything except nurturing the family. 
But thankfully, I was raised in a progressive household, where women had an equal say in all the important decisions. 
My family, instead of moulding me into an ideal bhartiya naari, brought me up to be driven about whatever I do and stand up for my beliefs, no matter what the detractors said.
My role models weren’t the stereotypical bahus in the Indian soap operas, who would be perpetually wearing ten coatings of makeup, heavy clothes and jazzy jewellery and still managed to devote their entire day to the kitchen in a palatial house that ideally should have dozens of maids. 
Instead, they were strong women, who lead their lives successfully, regardless of the problems they had. Some were young mothers facing the challenges of raising many kids on their own in an unknown area, some were working…

I see you,
Feeling completely sad,
Overthinking about the day,
That went too bad;
I see you,
Snapping at your near and dear ones,
Breaking things around you,
Wreaking havoc all around;
I think you should stop,
Being so sad, so tearful, so morose;
Don’t have anger or remorse,
Towards the day that flew in the past;
I think you should leave,  Your self-belittling thoughts for a while;  I think you should,
Curve your lips into a smile;
Smiling is a treasure,
Which costs absolutely nothing,
The delight, the happiness it gives you,
Is way beyond measure;
So stop crying over what’s gone,
Keep negativity away from you for a long while,
Because, darling, you do look really lovely,
When you curve your lips into a bright, bright smile; 
***
On the eve of my eighteenth birthday, I've pledged to start taking genuine efforts to make people smile. There is too much depression and too much sadness around. I think everyone deserves to show their pearly/yellowy/chippy/no-matter-how-else…