02 Jan How the Phoenix Rose – 21 Feathered Ones
From The Editor’s Desk…
From the bosom of Earth’s crust they travel for years to see daylight, only to realise their journey has just begun. Silently, they continue the arduous ride enduring the heat, dust and sharp cuts inflicted upon them, until one day they find mesmerized heads turn towards them…awed by their sheer glitter. That’s the journey of the precious gem – diamonds.
Experience the trips of 21 such gems (read women) in here, each different in its make, yet very similar. While a lucky few saw the end in one lap, others took a couple of rounds to see the proverbial light and yet a few are still at it. But their guiding force has been the same. They have all been led by one voice – the cries of their heart!
As a person who makes a living by correcting others’ words, I was only too eager to hammer and straighten out their outpourings and lay them out beautifully onto these pages so as to ensure a bump-free reading. But in each description I found hidden the character of its narrator. And the more I rubbed into the words the more clearly I saw in there the beauty of each one’s metamorphosis.
For instance, some started their lives with vigour only to be swept away by an undercurrent into a turbulent ocean of misfortune and later gradually learnt to breathe under water while battling the waves and swimming ashore. Their words showed how they let mistrust and lack of confidence replace innocence and beliefs and how in their helplessness grew the seed of determination that slowly guided them to safety.
With a few others I was itching to cut them short as they straddled in the waves of confusion a wee bit longer. And when my patience strapped, I even took to task a couple of them. But, on re-reading the corrected version, I found my tweaking had literally disfigured them. If one’s fair complexion was silhouetted another came across as a hardened personality. And so I let them be.
This is not a work of fiction. They are slices from 21 human beings. If you cannot smell their rush of blood and feel their throbbing of breath, then at least their expressions must help you sketch their contours in your heart.
So though you will find each story told in different undertones, with varied styles of sentence constructions, presentations and directions, which include even some haphazard logical order and choice of words, you will definitely be able to trace each of the protagonist’s growth – slowly sinking deep into their roots first, before carefully and labouriously branching out and ultimately blossoming.
Remember, there is no reality show stuff in here. Just real life stories. So don’t look for the unusual and the bizarre. Well, few may qualify a place on the periphery but most will hold a mirror to you.
In your rush to make a living or living life [I request practitioners of only the former to find time and read each story], if you have forgotten to look at your blessings or suffer from the ‘why me’ syndrome, then accompany these women on their journey. Towards…what?
That’s for you, the reader, to decide. You do not necessarily have to adopt any one of their so-called logical conclusion, there will be several others you could call your own.
However, this is not a self-help book. But it will, no doubt, help you discover yourself, especially if you have ignored the self for long that it has gone on its own trip…then rest assured you will find it wandering in any of these pages. Be sure to grab it.
But you have a minor task before you get started. Convince the little voice inside you to accompany you. Because each of these authors somewhere in between their so-called independent odysseys realised that had they not ignored their inner voices, then their suffering would not have been so immense because now they had the added task of first finding that gem hidden in some dark, invisible corner inside them.
And each of these authors was surprised to find the gem within already glittering, unlike the million-dollar diamonds we buy. It didn’t require to be processed at all. In fact, it shone so bright they just had to follow it blindly as it led them out through the dark and long-winding path until one day they found themselves standing under the bright sunshine smelling the roses.
In a nutshell, this is a book that will help you identify the gem within you, which will let you reflect its sheen as you make your way in this big bad world.
If you know you have one inside you, excellent! Those of you who do not know where yours is, one of these authors will share that secret place.
So happy treasure hunting!
This book comprises real-life stories of 21 awesome women
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