Once a woman attains motherhood, she is revered by society. That becomes her principal role in life. But we rarely acknowledge the woman behind the layer. She could have been so many other things- a sister, a daughter, an artist, a friend, a buddy, a lover. But when she becomes a mom, there is no going back. At least not until the kids grow up, which is a long time. Sometime into the pod, Purnima aunty, Rytasha' mom and our guest for the pod, talks about how both her daughters have now grown up, built their individual lives and this is her time for herself where she can be found reading, cooking, pursuing a hobby, making the time for all that she might have left behind the day she held her child in her arms. And we say, you go girl! Along the way, they do talk about stuff that will make us thoughtful. She is someone who grew up in Singapore and got married into a small town in India. How many of us will choose to do this? She had a flying career but prioritized her kids first. Will we do the same? It's a generation gap, but our cohort was entitled to support and voices that led to being able to make a choice. And it is women like her who did not walk the path but opened the gates for us to find it and make it ours. As we close the Mother's day celebration for 2021, we are eternally grateful to all the mums out there who stood by their kids and paved the way for progress and empowerment. May we be them, May we raise them. We promise to incorporate your thoughts & queries. Do write to us on: [email protected] You can talk to our hosts Rytasha Rathore & Ayushi Amin on their Instagram handle: @rytash @ayushia9 You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com