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3 days(and nights) of labour duty was all it took to change my entire perspective of mothers and women in general.A little lengthy but have patience, it might change your perception too.I am currently studying to become a doctor and am presently in third year of MBBS. According to the curriculum a 3rd year medical student has to have a labour rotation compulsorily, and I had mine about a month back. It really left an impression on me.The labour room rotations are usually dreaded by students. For we have our first experience of spending sleepless nights in the labour ward witnessing the constant agony of ladies in labour. The first real dip into the pool of a lifelong journey. My batchmates returned exhausted after their 3 days and nights of rotation and I waited for mine. Finally, the day arrived.Of course, Mom had recounted the events of my birth; about how the pain started and the pure agony she had to go through. I also had enough exposure from media and movies about labour pains and deliveries. I mean how bad can it really get, right?Boy, was I wrong. After I put on my apron, stethoscope and shoe covers, the first thing I witnessed was a women in 2nd stage of labour. Crying and sweating profusely. Pleading to end the pain. To give her any medicine that will smoothen her ordeal. The resident on duty had nothing else to say but, “Ma’am please have patience and don't waste your energy screaming. You will need a lot of it during the delivery. Stay calm for your baby’s sake”. That was enough for the expecting mother to muffle her screams. The safety of her baby is clearly of more priority than her pain.The entire night was spent keeping an eye on the fetal heart monitor and assuring the ladies admitted there.“Stay calm. Just a few more hours”.“You have endured enough just a little more”.“9 months. You have spent 9 months nurturing the baby. Just hold on for a wee bit more”.The looks on their face were really heart wrenching. They were in pain and we could do nothing about it because this is the way nature works. That night I realized, Mothers are really the strongest human beings.One of the ladies was transferred to the delivery room in the early hours, next morning. I was supposed to be assisting the resident doctor during the delivery. The labour pain was now at it’s peak and her amniotic sac had already ruptured. I just looked on with a horrified expression. Everything was flowing in a haze. I was terrified. Lot of questions were floating in my mind.How could I possibly help this lady? Do all the mothers go through this!?How do they manage?Did my mother face all this?How do mothers still love their child after having such a horrendous experience?“Will you assist me or not!?” scolded the resident. Oops. I helped him with the gauze and sutures as he performed an episiotomy(incision given to widen the vaginal orifice to make it easier to deliver). The lady was screaming, “Doctor! Make it stop!! I can't take it anymore. Oh God!”, “No more babies! I am done with babies”.Finally after about 15 mins, a healthy girl was delivered. After the APGAR scoring and wrapping the baby she was handed to the mother. What I witnessed next almost brought tears to my eyes.Until now, the mother had an expression of anguish on her face, there were tear tracks across her cheeks, she was red and sweating profusely. She was exhausted. But, the moment she looked at her baby. Something changed. She started smiling, all her pain and exhaustion seemingly vanished. She delicately held her baby, beaming. She was a Mother now.Representative image.Then it hit me! So this is Motherhood. She forgot all her pain on seeing the baby. I thought of my mother. Damn. I thought of all the mothers. Unconditional love for their children. Something worth living for.The mother then remarked, “Well, I think I wouldn't mind another child”. We all had a good laugh.I spent my next 2 days in constant appreciation. I was humbled. I found a newfound respect for all the women in my life. Mother or not. My Mom, Grandma, Sister, Cousins, Aunts and the others.The first thing I did after I finished my rotation was call my mother and tell her about my experience and thank her for enduring me. Not only the labour pain but till now. For a Mother spends her life caring not only for the initial 9 months but the entirety of her life after the delivery. Just for her children.If someone underappreciates Mothers or Women in general, or underestimates their tenacity and endurance. Send them to the labour room. One night will be enough.Image Source: Google Images.

I honestly did not want to answer this question but I read the anonymous answer and I felt compelled to answer it because my experience was a complete contrast.I used to go to Sportive Cricket Academy for coaching when I was in school. This coaching was run at the famous Mahabob College in Secunderabad by Ganesh sir. Mitali Raj decided to start practicing at this place.I had a wonderful experience with her. I was one among the hundred odd people who came for coaching there. However, there was barely any participation from female players. There were only three or four female players out of which one was Mithali Raj.The schedule every day would begun with a warm up for half an hour followed by exercise and then nets on weekdays and matches on weekends or special occasions. Punctuality was paramount and the person late for warm up had to run an extra round. Trust me when I say most players hated that early in the morning.I saw the anonymous answer mentioning how Mithali never took part in warm up exercises. However, I remember clearly that on her first day at the camp, she tried to involve with us in warm up and exercises. However, most of us were too embarrassed to even talk to her and make her feel comfortable. During warm ups, you need some one to pump you up and talk to you. We all were very quiet and I think she felt that was because of her presence. She probably did not want us to feel uncomfortable and so she stopped warming up at the camp. There was also a massive stigma then about women playing sports. To be brutally honest, most of us did not even know her name or anything about her other than the fact that she played for India.She practiced hard at the camp and always wanted to improve. One of my finest memory is about one of her session before a tour. She was asked to face a barrage of bouncers from some of the best bowlers from the camp. Two of those people went on to play Ranji Trophy. To give a perspective of how good she was, she was not out for the entire period. The classy drives and the stylish stance were quite an inspiration for a young cricketer like me. Oops I forgot to mention, all the bowlers were men who bowled at terrifying speeds on matting wickets where the bounce was as predictable as the rain in Meghalaya.It was also mentioned in the Anonymous account that she had a diva like behavior. I would like to present a different perspective. Yes she was aloof and yes she came late to the camp and she did like to bat. But she came to the camp only because she was a batsman representing the country and wanting to get better and better. She came late because she avoided the warm ups and skipped to batting directly.She was aloof but she was always ready to discuss cricket and help youngsters like me. I have had many discussions about her regarding different drives. In fact she also helped me with shadow practice. To give another example, my camp always took part in the Paradise Persis Gold Cup, which was an extremely prestigious trophy in Hyderabad for under 12 cricket. The teams which qualified for the semi finals would get a family pack of Paradise biryani and also a jersey.It so happened that I was supposed to be my team captain for that year. However, due to a string of bad performances, Ganesh sir decided not to make me the captain. He made my rival the captain. This is something that burns me up till date because I was the better player.So, I was extremely inspired to perform well and prove him wrong. I ended up stumping a few people out and also took one extremely difficult catch. However, the highlight in that match was that I scored a fifty(my first half century! ) and took my team to the quarter finals. We had defeated the defending champions in quite an emphatic way!My coach decided to gift me a Britannia bat. This was quite a thing because Britannia bats were very expensive. She heard about my performance and congratulated me and the bat was handed to me by her. The way she encouraged the team was really good. It may be an exaggeration but her encouragement proved to be extremely important for some people in the camp. One of my team mates, got selected for Under 19 probables for our country. She also treated her colleagues very well. She used to speak to one of the woman cricketers named Mamta in the camp who played for Air India back then. Mamta had been selected to play for India but was not getting chances since she was a specialist spinner. Mithali would always motivate her and joke with her.So, I was personally very hurt to read the anonymous account because I have really fond memories about her presence in the Sportive Cricket Academy camp. I am really not sure about the current events in the Indian team. However, it would be unfair to judge her or even the coach based on half truths peddled by the so called fourth pillar of democracy!

I noticed that several of the answers to this question are about people’s individual economic well-being. That’s great for them. But the vast majority of working and poor people in America aren’t really benefiting from the policies Trump is currently pushing. Wages are not going up; the vast disparity between rich and poor grows.Personally, I am doing well financially, but I was doing well under Obama and all the presidents before him. I’m much more concerned about my fellow Americans and the future of my country than my own personal comfort. And one of the biggest “hurts” that I feel from these 500 days is the celebration of selfishness that Trump embodies.Donald Trump has legitimized knee-jerk thinking, confusing emotional outburst with rational thought, denigrating the values and people that I hold dear. He has made me embarrassed to be an American (I live overseas) and depressed about the prospects for liberal democracy in my nation.I am dumbstruck at his boorishness and ignorance, and his willingness to “lead” our nation from his feelings rather than thoughtful policy positions.In my 66 years on this earth, I have disliked some of our presidents, but I have never thought we were being led by a man who is amoral…until now (oops…sorry, I forgot Nixon!).Donald Trump is (with the help of Rush, Fox News, Infowars and their ilk) destroying many of my fellow Americans’ desire and ability to shape intelligently our shared future by changing the meaning of words and making facts open to debate.I realize that not all of these issues are caused by Mr. Trump, but they are certainly exacerbated by his mindless politicization of any and every issue for the sole purpose of benefiting himself and a small group of sycophants and, of course, his cultish base.Every president tries to benefit his constituents. But even Republican/right-wing leaders don’t refer to people that support Mr. Trump as his “constituents.” Rather, they refer to them as his “base.“ In other words, he’s not there to serve their needs; he’s there to manipulate there short term feelings and desires. It reminds me of the ancient Romans feeding the Christians to the lions: the entire spectacle is about emotional catharsis, blatant excess and making the audence member feel better than others.Lastly, I am depressed by the incessant denigration of our institutions (the press, the courts, etc.) and of groups and individuals he doesn’t favor.A great line by Bob Dylan comes to mind; “you’re better than them, you’ve been born with white skin, they explain. And the Negroes’ name is used, it is plain, in the politician’s game, but it ain’t him to blame, he’s only a pawn in their game.”What exactly is this game being orchestrated by Mr Trump? Or, perhaps, he’s being played by orhers (“Russia, if you’re listening…”). In either event, I am feeling pretty hopeless about the future of our once great and idealistic nation.