Dear Readers,

The winters are here finally. From south to north, the weather is getting pleasant. It is a season for greetings, warmth, laughter, cozy blankets, smart winter wear, a glass of tea with everyone you meet and some lovely food.

This weather is for the love and care of not only people around us, but also our own skin and hair. We bring your some useful and natural tips on how to get supple skin and rosy cheeks this winter in Glow well this winter!

Speaking of love, there are some eternal love stories like Romeo and Juliet who died for each other. I think a greater testimony to love is Veer Zara, who rather lived for each other. Dying is easy, but living for each other, to fulfil the loved one’s incomplete goals knowing for sure that they can never unite, is true love. One that the movie Veer Zara portrayed. We remind you of their amazing love story as the movie completes 15 years in Veer Zaara – An Ode to Love!

But it is not easy to find even compassion and empathy in this mercenary world, leave alone love. We bring you an interesting conversation with Madhuram Aparajita who dedicates her time to caring and mentoring persons with disabilities and talks about their difficulties with such compassion that it forces one to think what we are doing for people really deserving our love and attention. In fact, persons with disabilities (especially women) find it difficult to find love and that remains one of their biggest issues. Read more in The Abled – Madhuram Aparajita.

Society has some very clear standards for men and women and whom they can and cannot marry. They have set behavior standards and expectations (especially for women) who get married or reach motherhood. We bring you two thoughtful pieces, The Guilt Trap on how to analyse, distinguish and deal with your guilt and Break the Facade on how to let go of the obsession to be the perfect woman.

This brings me to just yesterday’s experience that I had online. There was a news article posted on a social medium about a study which revealed that women are happier before marriage and men are happier after marriage. To me, the reason is obvious, because there is a lot of burden on a woman after marriage in our Indian society, whereas it is relatively easier for a man as he gets someone to take care of his needs. Especially in today’s world where women work as well and earn enough money for themselves. Now, as soon as I commented this, I received a lot of different replies from ‘anti-feminist’ men who said that feminists are:

1. Fat and ugly.
2. Do not get attention from men, and hence they have turned anti-men.

And of course, that I should:

1. Live alone under a rock.
2. Am not fit to be a mother.

At Eyra, we do not much care about the definitions and varieties of feminism and masculinity. What we want to do is promote humanity, to tell women that they have a voice and a choice. And it pains me to see that we are far far away from it. When it doesn’t suit people or if they do not have a valid response, they resort to abusing. If I can, being the voice of women’s rights, be abused online; I can only imagine the pain of all the women out there associated with such men and suffering their physical and emotional abuse everyday without complaining about it, since they have been taught to be okay with it. After all, men will be men, eh?

With a heavy heart, I will sign off. Do let us know your thoughts and views. We look forward to hearing from you as always.

Jyoti Shekar

Founder Editor, Eyra

*All images used in this article are either Eyra’s own design or widely and freely available on the internet.*