Kavita
Misra is a woman who lives life on her own terms. She is brave, bold and holds
herself fully responsible for her decisions and never regrets them. But her
present avatar has taken shape after a painful struggle that has transformed
her into an independent woman. She was born in a well-knit family consisting of
parents and two sisters. The first 19 years of her life were filled with
familial love and affection that can easily be termed as idyllic, till her
mother, with whom she had a special bond and was the healer of all her pains,
left for her heavenly abode. At this crucial juncture, her father donned the
double role of a father and mother and tried his best to fill the gap left by
her mother. Then she entered the most unpleasant phase of her life. Little did
she know that an event, her marriage, for which, like any other girl, she had
nurtured romantic notions of conjugal bliss, would turn out to be a nightmare.
After the birth of her daughter, she experienced the ugliest manifestations of
patriarchy: contempt for the girl child, domestic violence, humiliation and
mental torture. This was in sharp contrast to the ‘daughter is princess’
concept followed by her parents. Things came to such a pass that she had to
literally escape from there in view of life threat to her infant daughter. She
returned to her parental home and set about rebuilding her life as a single
mother. She did not lapse into despondency, but tapped all her inner resources
to stand on her own feet. Initially she took up a regular job for a few years
and after she had some savings for survival, she gave it up to provide quality
time to her daughter and father. But she did not sit idle. She worked as a
linguistics freelancer, both offline as well as online, and this added to her
experience. Bringing up her daughter, both as a mother and friend, has been the
most rewarding experience of her life, and it was a unique joy when she did
very well in her first Board examinations despite the death of Kavita’s elder
sister on the eve of her exams. That her daughter is brave and focused is a
matter of immense happiness for her. But all this was not possible without the
unflinching support of her sisters. Kavita is presently teaching senior classes
in a prestigious School in Lucknow. She is not only a New Woman, as defined in
current parlance, but a woman who has maintained ‘grace under pressure’ and has
emerged as a woman who takes on life as it comes and surmounts obstacles with
dignity in a male dominated society. You can get to know her from her website http://www.literallykavita.in/ She’s also there on Instagram as @literarykavita and on Facebook as
#Literary Kavita or Kavita- thinking aloud.
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Lifestyle