CHANGE IS IN the air. For one, spring has set in. In a few days, many of us will be celebrating the festival of Holi, the many colours representing the myriad shades of life. Colourful blossoms would soon jostle for space with newly-sprouted leaves.

To me, it is only more symbolic since March is also the month when International Women’s Day is celebrated. Women make an indelible impression on a family grows into. A sister in the family will ensure a more rounded-off, sensitive personality for a brother; a woman at work will make the workspace more dynamic and empathetic; and a woman moving about in a public space is a benchmark of how respectful, safe and responsible the society as a whole is.

It only made sense to have the dynamic Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Vice Chairperson of Kinetic Engineering Ltd, on the cover for this issue. Not only has she ridden the male-dominated two-wheeler market at an enviable pace, the Kinetic group has grown manifold under her able leadership. And she is ready for more.

It fills me with immense pride when I see women lead from the front. Something that my sister and I have tried to do in our own way. It comes from the way we were brought up; our father and mother never made us feel we were any less or different from a son.

It’s not the end of a woman’s struggle to ask for equal rights, however. After all, with most societies being patriarchal today, it is hardly a surprise that women are treated as second-class citizens. Most men, in general, not only feel more superior, asking for equal rights have ironically become a feminist issue, where it should only be a matter of human rights.

This needs to change. Let us not tell our women how to dress and behave. Instead, it is time to teach the men to treat women as their equal. For women to realise their full potential in a world that has always found ways to pull her down, there needs to be a shift in sensibilities and understanding of human rights.

At the same time, we need more women to come out and help each other. Like Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, has famously said in her book Lean In, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” A women-centric company, cosmetics major L’Oréal, is showing the way on how it’s done. It not only helps girls from disadvantaged sections of the society find livelihood, it also encourages them to explore the world of science by way of scholarships for graduate courses in the subject.

But what happens when you don’t get any help? Then you look up to our hero Arunima Sinha for inspiration, who has been featured in the Looking Back section. A national-level volleyball player who lost her leg when she was pushed off a train, summited Mount Everest with a prosthetic leg, in 2013.

We all are heroes. Let’s celebrate our power!