Dear readers,

Welcome to the twelfth issue of Eyra!

The year is coming to an end! I have had quite an eventful year, with lots of happiness, an equal amount of stress and consequently a lot of learning. Eyra has grown to almost a year old. What started as a small initiative to exchange ideas with women on how to develop their own choices and lead their own lives their way, has become much more now. We have interviewed so many women and brought you inspiring stories about each and every one of them.

Though we bring you stories of certain women, I feel every woman out there is an achiever. Because being a woman is a challenge in itself. To put others in front of us, to balance work and household, to be able to live up to other people’s expectations everywhere is not an easy task. Sure, men have challenges too, but they have a certain privilege associated with them, which makes us women strive a wee bit harder to achieve our goals.

Well, I can go on and on about it. But this is the thought process on which our current issue is based. Before I lose your attention, let me quickly give you an overview of this issue’s articles.

We bring you a lovely book review of ‘The Liberation of Sita’ which talks about the story of Ramayana from the perspective of four lesser-known female characters. We bring you the journey of a makeup artist, Sharon S and her transition to this career from the IT field. We also bring you a young artist, Ankita Mehani, who specializes in 3D paintings and depicts women beautifully.

With constant news on violence against women these days, we are anguished about what kind of a society we are living in. We bring you a heart-wrenching poem which points out the responsibility of a mother in bringing up her son to be ‘not a monster’. Lastly, we talk about Cecelia Ahern, one of my favourite authors and how she has contributed in developing my thought process in women empowerment.

Hope you are all enjoying the cold holiday season with warmth of desserts, vacations and your loving family.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!

Jyoti Shekar

Founder Editor, Eyra