TO ALL MY WOMEN FRIENDS ✨️❤️

I was sitting around aimlessly a few days ago; and a random thought just happened to cross my mind. 

I suddenly realised that most of the girls I used to know, during my school and college days; were now not a part of my immediate friend circle anymore, because most of them had moved away from their parent's homes, when they got married.😔

On the other hand, all the guys I've known over the years, are still very much a part of the group of people, that I meet and see around regularly. Their wives have now become good friends, and they've very easily and comfortably replaced all the girls, who used to be my friends in school.😊

Now while this isn't a very amazing discovery that would make me shout, 'Eureka', it definitely made me ponder on something, that is a reality in our country and probably in most parts of the world. 

A woman has to literally uproot herself, from the place she has grown up in; and move away from the people and friends, who have been her closest companions, in the first phase of her life, if and when she chooses to get married. 

Along with all the other changes, that marriage eventually brings to her life; she has to also adapt to a new set of friends. She has to foster new friendships, with the people in her husband's world. She has to blend into a world, that has been existing for a long time, before she popped in; and get used to a completely new set of people, with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies. 

In most cases, she does this completely effortlessly; and within no time, the new friendships that she develops, are as strong as the ones she had before, in the place where she grew up.🤷🏻‍♀️

In a way, these changes in a woman's life are what make life interesting; because she gets an opportunity to befriend new people, and have two sets of friends that she can fall back on, in times of need. 

However, I couldn't stop myself from thinking that these changes in her life, are actually thanks to the 'norms laid down by culture and society'. Now, while there isn't a rule that she 'has' to follow all these norms, almost all women do; which accounts for the steady change of the women in my world.😔 

I know this is going to make me sound like a real feminist; but I can't help saying that these societal norms, are very unfair on women. Not just for the women, who have to move into their husband's world and accept his friends as her own, or make new friends of her own in his world; but also for women like me, who haven't made that choice as yet. 

Even for people like me, these 'norms' are just as hard to digest; and my ever-changing circle of female friends, bears witness to my loss. Of course, I do have a steady set of women friends at my work-place; but even that, is in danger of being snatched away from me, by the big bad wolf called marriage, whenever it does come knocking at my door.

There are solutions of course. I mean, it's not that every norm has to be followed; but this is just something that I've been thinking about, over the past few days. So I decided to put down my thoughts. 

I just wonder about how much 'my world' is going to constantly evolve and change over time. I wonder, whether I will also have to adapt to a new world, and a new set of people that I am not familiar with at all.🤔

At the same time, I am also glad to be blest with so many new pals, in the wives of my male friends. Of course, I really miss all the girls I used to call friends, who are now far away in different places, making their husband's world their own. No doubt the internet helps us to stay connected; but in some strange way, my world in incomplete without all of them in it.

HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY to all my women friends, both old and new. Enjoy life wherever you are today.🤗❤️