Celebrating International Women's Day

By Dr. Anupama Vaidya (hc)

It was truly heartening when Priyanka Karekar reached out to invite me to engage with the wonderful women fraternity of Aptech Limited as part of their celebrations for International Women’s Day. I deeply value such opportunities, not just because they allow me to share my experiences, but because they create spaces for mutual learning and reflection through the collective wisdom and energy that gatherings of women naturally generate. Conversations like these remind us that when women come together to reflect, support, and inspire one another, something powerful begins to unfold. Because when women rise with purpose, they do not merely transform their own journeys. They expand the possibilities for many others around them.

As we reflected on what theme might resonate most meaningfully, the idea of “Give to Gain” emerged. Last year, I had spoken about how women are natural givers. This year, I wanted to take that thought a step further, to explore the deeper dimension of giving in a woman’s life.

Because over time, I have experienced something profound: the act of giving, which is often seen as sacrifice, is in fact one of the greatest sources of growth in our lives.

This belief has shaped not only my personal journey, but also my professional one. In many ways, it was this very spirit of giving that inspired my endeavour through Los Aurigas — to create spaces where experiences, insights, and guidance could be shared in areas where such wisdom was not always easily accessible.

As I sat down this year to pen my reflections for International Women’s Day, I felt an especially deep sense of gratitude. My daughter, Ishita, was recently admitted as a Solicitor to the Senior Courts of England and Wales. A milestone that filled my heart with immense pride.

In that moment of celebration, I found myself reflecting not just on her journey, but on the quiet journey of giving that motherhood has been over the years, and the many ways in which life has given back far more than I could have imagined.

Here are a few reflections I shared during that International Women’s Day conversation -  insights that I hope will resonate with your own journeys as well.

Give to Gain: The Invisible Mathematics of a Woman’s Life 

There is a strange mathematics that governs a woman’s life.

In the world of numbers, when you give something away, you are left with less. But in the lived experiences of women, something very different happens. Every time we give: our time, our care, our patience, our energy, and so much more, life somehow returns it to us in another form.

Not as loss, but as growth.

More resilience. More strength. More wisdom.
And often, a deeper sense of purpose.

Giving isn’t depletion. It’s a quiet form of expansion. One that shapes who we become as human beings.

Giving is not subtraction. It’s a unconscious form of investment. One that quietly compounds into strength, wisdom, identity, and purpose.

Recently, as my daughter turned twenty-five, I found myself reflecting on my own journey of becoming through these twenty-five years of motherhood, what I’ve shared as my “25 lessons of becoming.” These lessons have shaped me deeply as a human being. In that reflection, I realised something profound: motherhood may well be the greatest masterclass in the power of giving and yet, it is also the most beautiful form of gaining.

This International Women’s Day, as I reflected on the theme “Give to Gain,” I found myself connecting my motherhood lessons to these reflections and penning down five quiet dimensions of giving that life has revealed to me over the years.

🌺We Give Life, We Gain Strength

Giving birth to a child, I would say, is perhaps the most profound act of giving in a woman’s life. We give of ourselves physically, emotionally, spiritually, and deeply from within. Offering a part of our very being to nurture a new life.

When my daughter Ishita was born, I stepped into motherhood with immense love… but also with a quiet uncertainty. No one, neither any book, truly prepares you for the moment when a tiny life begins to depend on you completely. Your time, your energy, your sleep, your priorities. Everything begins to rearrange itself around this new identity.

And yet, something remarkable happens in that journey.

In giving to that tiny life, I discovered a strength I did not know I carried within myself. Quietly hidden, steadily revealing itself. The strength to endure, to adapt, and to rise again each morning with renewed energy and commitment.

Because in truth, giving does not weaken me. It awakened capacities I never knew I possessed.

Through motherhood, I discovered a simple yet powerful truth: when we give life, our strength expands.

Strength is rarely something we are simply born with. More often, it is something that grows when responsibility expands.

And that is the first quiet truth of Give to Gain.

“When a woman gives life her courage, life quietly returns to her a strength she never knew she carried within.”

🌺We Give Trust, We Gain Resilience

As children grow, motherhood asks us for another form of giving. One that is far more difficult than time or effort.

It asks us to let go.

From that little seed in the womb, to the infant Ishita, to the growing little girl, she depended on me for everything. What she ate, what she wore, where she went, even how she saw the world around her. In those early years, as a mother, I naturally felt that comforting sense of being able to guide and protect every step.

But slowly, life began to shift.

The tiny hand that once held my finger tightly began to loosen its grip. She began to walk ahead, explore the world in her own way, and discover her own voice.

And in that moment, life demanded me to give something deeply challenging. Trust.

I still remember the day when Ishita left for her Rotary Youth Exchange Program at fifteen. For an entire year, she would be away. Every instinct within me wanted to protect her, to hold her close.

But I realised that the greatest gift I could give her was not protection, it was trust. Trusting her to step into the world. Trusting her to learn. Trusting her to discover herself.

And in that process, something quietly changed within me.

To deal with this phase, I need something deeper and that when I discovered resilience. The emotional strength to step back while still standing beside the one you love.

Because love is not always about holding tighter. Sometimes, it is about learning when to loosen our grip.

And that is the second quiet truth of Give to Gain.

"When we give trust, resilience quietly deepens within us”

 

🌺We Give Patience, We Gain Perspective and Wisdom

After life and trust, motherhood taught me another quiet act of giving. Patience.

I watched Ishita grow in her own rhythm. She stumbled, repeated mistakes, struggled with her maths, tested my boundaries, and sometimes asked the same question again and again.

And often I found myself wondering: Why is this taking so long?

But life slowly reveals something important. Growth cannot be rushed. Confidence does not appear overnight.

As I watched her move through phases of learning, struggling, discovering, succeeding, and sometimes stumbling again, I realised something powerful: as mothers, we cannot accelerate growth.

What we can do is stand beside it. Encouraging, guiding, and waiting. And in that waiting, something began to grow quietly within me. Perspective.

Giving patience opened my eyes to the deeper rhythm of life. It taught me that not everything requires immediate correction or quick solutions. Some things simply need time to unfold. And with that perspective came something even deeper. Wisdom.

The wisdom to know when to guide and when to step back… when to speak and when to listen… when to hold on and when to allow life to teach its own lessons.

And that is the third quiet truth of Give to Gain.

“When we give patience, life returns to us perspective and wisdom gently follows.”

 

🌺We Give Our Being, We Gain Self-Awareness and Integrity

One of the most humbling lessons motherhood teaches us is this: Children do not always listen to what we say. They watch who we are.

Long before Ishita understood my words, she understood my presence. She absorbed my moods, my pauses, my smiles, my responses to life.

And slowly I realised something deeply humbling. She was learning from the way I lived, not from the lessons I spoke.

When I chose calm over panic, she learned trust.

When I apologised, she learned humility.

When I stood up again after a difficult moment, she learned resilience.

In that realisation, motherhood became a mirror. It made me more conscious. Not of what I should teach, but of who I was becoming while she watched.

Because a child does not become what you tell her to be. She becomes what you show her to be. And in giving our example, something powerful happens within us.

We begin to live more consciously. We become more aware of our choices, our responses, our values.

And slowly, integrity begins to take root. The alignment between who we are, what we say, and how we live.

And that is the fourth quiet truth of Give to Gain.

“When we give our authentic being, we gain deeper awareness of the person we are becoming.”

 🌺We Give Love, We Discover Purpose

Perhaps the most beautiful act of giving is also the simplest. Love.

Motherhood is filled with countless acts of love that rarely receive recognition. Meals prepared quietly, sleepless nights that no one remembers, worries carried silently in the heart.

And yet, in the constant showering of that love, something extraordinary begins to unfold. What once felt like ordinary acts of care were quietly shaping another life. Ishita’s life.

And today, when I pause and look at the young woman she has become, something profound becomes visible. The little child I once nurtured now walks into the world with her own values, courage, and dreams.

In that moment, I realise that what seemed like simple acts of love were never small.

They were shaping a life.

And through that journey, something deeper revealed itself to me. Purpose.

Because love, when given consistently over time, begins to illuminate why we give. It shows us that our presence, our care, and our guidance have helped shape another human being.

And that is the fifth quiet truth of Give to Gain.

“When we give love, life gently reveals our purpose. ”

The Deeper Truth

As I reflected on these dimensions, one truth became increasingly clear — motherhood is not the only place where this law of Give to Gain unfolds.

Women give in every role we play.

As daughters. As professionals. As leaders. As friends, mentors, caregivers, and builders of families, teams, and communities. Adding that we all give in every role as a Human! 

And in each of these roles, the same quiet principle reveals itself.

I salute to the womanhood in each of our lives. I salute the very essence of Women as capital multipliers. Economic capital. Emotional capital. Social capital. Spiritual and above all Human capital. 

Where women give, life grows.

A Moment of Reflection

Pause for a moment and think of something you have given in life.

Your time. Your care. Your mentorship. Your courage. Your love.

Now ask yourself a simple question: What did that giving give back to you? More often than not, the answer is far greater than what you gave.

Because giving has a remarkable way of returning to us in ways we do not always immediately notice. 

When we pause and become aware, we realise that in the journey of giving we have also been receiving — strength, resilience, wisdom, character, and purpose.

The more we give with courage… the more life expands through us.

I sign off with a beautiful Sanskrit verse that deeply resonated with me during my reflections:

यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवताः

“Yatra nāryastu pūjyante ramante tatra devatāḥ”
Where women are honoured, the divine rejoices.

Celebrating all of us this International Women’s Day — women and men alike, who nurture and honour the feminine qualities that bring balance, care, and compassion into our world. 

Happy International Women's Day!!