International Women’s Day Special
By Dr Munish Sabharwal
She is Everything
Before the first empire rose
Before the first scripture was written
Before time learned to count its own days
She was already there
Holding the fragile beginnings of humanity
Like a lamp cupped gently against the wind
From her silence came the first lullabies
From her patience came the first homes
From her courage came the first generation
That dared to hope for tomorrow
She is Everything
She is the mother
Whose arms become the first temple of safety
She is the quiet architect
Who builds peace in the petal walls of a home
The world may see bricks and doors
But inside those walls
She has planted love, discipline, compassion, and sanskar.
She feeds the body
And shapes the soul
She is Everything
She takes what the earth grows in distant fields
Grain trembling in the wind
Vegetables kissed by the monsoon
Milk drawn from patient cattle
And turns it into nourishment
On the plate of every home
The farmer may grow it
The trader may sell it
But it is she
Who transforms it into life
She is Everything
And like Mother Earth herself
She carries us
We walk upon her strength
Without even realising it
She supports us when we fall
Nourishes us when we hunger
Forgives us when we err
And one day, quietly
In her lap again
We find our final rest
She is Everything
But understand this too
Even her tears
Are sacred
When a woman cries
The world should pause
For those tears
Are not weaknesses
They are the silent rivers
That have carried pain
So that others may smile
They are prayers
Spoken without words
They are drops of love
That the heart could no longer hold
Even the Divine must listen
When a woman’s tears fall
For they are not ordinary drops
They are sacred
They are divine
She is Everything
Civilisations have risen upon her wisdom
Kings have ruled upon her counsel
Saints have learned compassion
From her example
When the world trembled with injustice
Women stood like mountains.
Like Joan of Arc
Who carried faith into battlefields
Like Rani Lakshmibai
Whose courage rode like thunder into history
Like Mother Teresa
Who turned compassion into a language the world understood
Like Marie Curie
who illuminated science with quiet brilliance
Like Savitribai Phule
Who opened the doors of learning for generations of daughters
Different lands
Different centuries
Different journeys
Yet one truth echoes through them all
She is Everything
Even the Divine has acknowledged it
When Krishna
Spoke of the boundless love of the Gopis of Vrindavan
He confessed something extraordinary
That their devotion was so pure
So limitless
That even the Almighty felt indebted to it always
And to truly experience that divine love
To taste the depth of devotion
That a woman’s heart could offer
He chose to return to the world
in another form
As Chaitanya Mahaprabhu… Where Radha & Krishna came in one form
To understand her love
To experience her devotion
Because even the Divine wished to know
The mystery of her heart
She is Everything
As mother
She gives us roots strong enough
To withstand the fiercest storms
As wife
She gives us love so unconditional
That tomorrow begins to feel possible
As sister
She stands beside us
With loyalty deeper than friendship itself
She lifts us
Long before the world notices, we have risen
She is Everything
Once, an emperor—
Shah Jahan…
Built the eternal Taj
In memory of a woman he loved
White marble rising like poetry in stone
Yet with every century past
It is she who daily has returned the greater gift
By making that monument
a symbol of love
for the entire world
She is Everything
And yet
Even in the year we speak
We still speak of justice for her
As if justice were a favour
And not a right
But understand this—
When we fail women
We do not fail them alone
We fail the very idea of our existence
For we forget the values
that made us human in the first place
Love
Care
Respect
Kindness
Compassion
She is Everything
And perhaps we must understand something deeper
We cannot truly give to her
For what can we give
to the very source from which everything came?
We cannot give
But we can restore
Restore the dignity she deserves
Restore the respect that history promised
Restore the fairness that humanity owes
For she is the source
Of love
Of life
Of wisdom
Of compassion
Of strength
Of hope itself
She is Everything
To rise for her
Is not charity
It is awakening
Because when we lift her
We lift families
When families rise
Communities rise
When communities rise
Nations rise
And when nations rise,
Civilisation itself begins to shine again
She is Everything.
She is Strength that does not shout
She is Wisdom that does not boast
She is Courage that does not demand applause
She is the quiet force
On which the entire world stands
She is Life
She is Hope
She is Compassion
She is Real Wealth
She is the Beginning
She is the Journey
She is the Home to which we return
She is Everything
So rise
Rise one
Rise all
Rise to stand always beside her
In dignity and respect
For just as the Earth beneath our feet
Carries every step we take
She has carried
the weight of humanity
since the dawn of time
And if we remember this truth
Honour this truth,
Live this truth
Perhaps one day
Our civilisation will become worthy
of the gift it was given
Because without her
There would be no cradle
No culture,
No civilisation
Only silence.
For truly
She is Everything.
