"The Best Advice I ever Got"

When I was in New York my mentor, Joan Amble made sure that I got to go to a WNBA Inspiring Women's Luncheon. One of the best I had ever attended. Katie Couric was being awarded the Most Inspiring Woman award. In spite of the West claiming to be so progressive, or at least the US, in their 300 years of independence they have not had one woman as President. In India's independent 60 years we had our first woman PM 30 years ago. We have had various women leaders in the Govt. I understood why women's liberation was necessary in the west. Women still earn way less to the dollar compared to men there. Though India is still work in progress on several counts, women have rapidly come up the ladder.

Listening to Katie Couric on that day, the first solo female anchor of a weekday evening news program on one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, was an inspiration. I had a gist of the challenges she had to face. Those who went to the luncheon that day got her latest book - The Best Advice I ever Got - Lessons from Extraordinary Lives)

I get to read her input at the beginning of every new section and its almost as if everything is speaking to me. A lot of singers, musicians, songwriters, actors, head honchos, billionaires and the who's who that contributed to Katie Couric's book have excellent messages to share. 

At various points we think those who are successful have it easy. Or that they got there easily. But let me tell you, even those born with the proverbial silver spoon need to work their seats off to maintain the silver spoon. Only if they are smart enough, they ll turn it to gold. 

Today I get messages on Facebook that curse me anything ranging from a horrible accident to death to I will have a miserable life or anything on those lines, just because I don't accept a friend request. And this usually comes only from men. Sorry if it comes across as sexist, but I have to say it as is. No woman has cursed me because I didn't accept a friend request. Others think its OK to be profane on Twitter to a celebrity. And again this is men. I sometimes worry what sort of fathers these guys will make. So many spew venom at my mother because they know she's the reason why I got here and will go where I want to go. I get a range of other emails too but its unnecessary to talk about them and the really weird people behind those any further.  

As a female singer,  I face several challenges that I have to overcome with the able guidance of my mother. Not alone, thankfully. I am not going to be spelling them out. But I know the path I need to take to get to my goals. It might be a tad slower than most others, but if God is kind enough and if I have divine grace I might actually get there. 

Several men and women have had to go through terrible times, poverty, hunger, malpropagation and even worse experiences and finally end up triumphing. But someday I hope to stand as an example that someone who took the straightforward, righteous path can be at the pinnacle of success too.