Dazzle them all



Insignificant. 

What can someone like you even do, that so many others before you haven’t been able to? 

Do you really, truly think that YOU can make a difference? 

You’re the wrong colour for this country, girl. 

Don’t you think your dreams should be a bit more practical and realistic?

Words. Just words. Words that I’ve heard since I can remember. Spoken with a viciousness that wounded me, with a sharpness which felt like a very real knife. We’ve all been taught to never pay too much attention to some words like this. While it may be true that it may not affect everybody in the same way, the toll it takes on the mental health and well being of some people is very great. I was one such person. For a long time in my life, I let such words guide me and keep me down. I believed that it must be true if so many people felt it enough to talk about it to me. And along the way, I forgot something essential that I never should have, that it wasn’t up to them to decide my worth and my potential, that it was up to me and only me. It took a long time for me to come to this realisation. But I did eventually. And it changed my whole world. And somehow, it changed yours too. 

I do not begin my naming myself, because you already know who I am. Everyone does. They look up at me in awe and wonder, some in shock and disbelief. There will always be haters and plenty of people who doubt you, who will question you. Then there are those who exalt you, who see you as a role model, who worship the ground you walk on. And finally there are those who understand your journey, who have followed your progress for a long time, who see what all you’ve had to stand to get to where you are, who respect you and your ideals. I see them all before me and I smile at them, because I understand each of their thought processes. But the girl in me who needed to be accepted by everyone to fit in, she doesn’t live there anymore. She had moved on a long time ago.

I was an ordinary girl. I was born into an ordinary family, to ordinary but incredibly hard working parents. We lived in a place where we didn’t look like the majority of people around. In fact, we looked completely different. True, we spoke like the people there because it had been our home for a long time. But when people saw us, they judged us before we even uttered a single word. It was the colour of our skin that gave us away, a factor that no one can change. For a time, I must admit, I did think about how different things would have been had I been born into a white family. How I would have been immediately respected and loved! I desperately yearned for it, prayed for it, would have done anything for it, but it isn’t ever something you can change, is it? And as I grew up, I began to realize that it isn’t something you should ever change. Because it defines you. It makes you who you are. The way that you look has nothing to do with your abilities and your skillset. But learning to love yourself as who you are is so important. Because when you do, slowly, but surely people start noticing other things- your work and your values. You need to embrace your differences simply because it is that which sets you apart. It is that which makes you make history. As I am doing right now. 



It didn’t start out that way at all. Looking at the woman that I am now, looking at my confidence and my incredible achievements, you would never guess that I suffered from low self esteem in my younger ages resulting in a stutter. I could carry out a conversation relatively smoothly but the moment I started becoming tensed or nervous, I would start stumbling and it never let up. It reached a point where I stopped talking completely leading to many people assuming I was dumb and couldn’t speak at all. My schoolmates laughed at me, they mocked me near the lockers and anywhere else they saw me without even having the decency to try and hide it. I do not know how I lived through those times, when doubting myself became second nature. I even started to think that maybe this was the only way that I could live my life. Then one day, a guest speaker came to school for a function and she said these words which changed the course of my life forever. She said, “Use your voice. It is yours to say what you think and how you feel. Use it, even if it scares you. Make noise however you can. That is the only way that you will ever be heard. You can’t ever be afraid. Because you have more power in you than you realize.”. I’m sure she must have been speaking figuratively but I took the meaning literally and it saved my life. I stopped shying away. I started talking even though it was the hardest thing that I had ever done until then. People began to respect my attempts and it helped that I had a solid support system in the form of my family. My grandma and my mom alone were enough to rival any army. I stopped doubting myself, I vowed to study and to do what I had planned to, and to see where the road would take me. And as my confidence improved, my stutter decreased and eventually completely stopped. But I carry with me those times, always. They shaped me into who I am today. It was a tough time in my life but I have learnt to come to terms with it. I learnt to depend on my skills, I learnt to increase my knowledge, I learnt that the way that I look and speak must never affect the way that I feel. Because no matter what the world thinks, I am beautiful, powerful and strong! These words, they kept me going. Dark times and dark days were aplenty, but I kept focusing on the work. That’s all that mattered. 

And I rose in my ranks. I rose higher than anyone ever expected and I kept on rising. I learnt to listen only to myself and the people who wished me well, who truly wished me well, not just the ones who said the words because it wasn’t from their hearts. And that is another lesson which I learnt the hard way, to identify true well wishers and the fakers. I learnt to look at enemies as life lessons who had something to teach me and I stopped undermining myself. I learnt that true friends did indeed exist but they would always be few in number. One is all you needed to keep going, after all and I kept them close. 

And soon, the world began to notice me. It was discreet at first, and then it became like the sound of heavy thunder, like a signal of something strong and immovable coming and not going away. I was becoming something bigger that even I had dreamt of. A lot of people questioned it, a lot of people openly insulted me. That is a part of all of our journeys, and it never fades. It is always there but what it does now is remind me of all that I have achieved and all that I am. It reminds me that I am fierce, that I am a force to be reckoned with. 



Times got tougher and harder but I stayed calm and stood strong. And eventually, I got what I wanted and much beyond that. 



The year is 2030 and I stand at the side of the dias waiting for my name to be called, to be sworn in as the first ever Indian Woman President of the United States of America. In 2020, Kamala Harris redefined history as the very first Asian and African-American Vice President of the United States. And today, I advance it a little farther. The road that women such as herself and I have traveled has never been easy, but when is it ever when the destination is so rare? 

My name is now part of the history books. An ordinary girl with an extraordinary dream. And the people await. I see their doubting faces, I see the ones with confused expressions, I see their scowls and their frustration evident on their faces but then I also see my name on plaques, on posters, with men, women and children, shouting and cheering for me with tears on their cheeks. I smile and climb up the stairs to thunderous applause, paving the way behind me for a lot more people to make a difference to the world they live in and love. As I begin my speech, I am aware of the fact that I am being heard all around the world. A frightened girl who had decided to completely stop talking out of fear of being ridiculed was going to deliver a speech in front of millions. 

Because eventually, you decide whether you matter and it is only you who decides your worth. The world will place mantels on your shoulders and they can take it away just like that. It is never about the laurels and accolades that you’ll ever achieve. It is about inspiring young people such as you yourself were a long time ago, to let them know that if you can do this, they can too, that they should never stop trying. It is about giving people hope, hope for a better future, hope that no one can ever be made inferior without their consent. It is to show them that just one small girl with big hopes and dreams is enough to change history’s course. 



You are an incredible human being. Do not let anyone ever question that. And if they do, let them. You do the work. The rest will follow. Each and every one of us creates history every day by our actions. Time is formed up of people like you and me, who refused to back down, who raised their voices loud enough to be heard, who never stopped fighting for the things that mattered.

This is for all those children who are scared to find out who they really are because of who the world has told them. Raise your voices, make it louder and clearer, speak up for the things that matter and never let anyone look down on you. Shine bright, my darlings. Dazzle them all.