Folks, today it’s not about marriage, no, not even about love between two opposite sex, nothing about how to attract your partner or be strong for so and so situations… but today I am going to talk about Trupti Pandya! A girl I met in school and became friends with, like no less than a family member, forever! Today, it’s about my best friend, my soul mate whose courageous deeds I want you lovely ladies to know about!

Born into a spiritual family Trupti’s mother was a great devotee of lords and hence Trupti’s belief with the universe was special, something unique! I have often noticed her innocent demands from god that at times unquestionably forced me to smile! We both are poles apart… we never liked each other’s choices but were always on toes in those happy and sad moments of families. We were like every other best friends – Chit-chats, gossips, saving pocket money to order a plate of chaat and much more! Trupti – Nothing could stop her smiling, greeting every people she meets, being loved from huge number of friends and from doing all those notorious poses she posed, until a perfect click was shot! And most of all – Her obsessiveness for her hair- no one can touch, no one but mother can oil them! And excitement for her Birthdays? Don’t ask me!

Everything was smooth, until one day she was knocked down by a tragedy, a tragedy that changed her!

Trupti was no more the Chulbuli Ladki. She was 18, yet to learn the worldly matters from her mother, who suddenly succumbed to Cancer! Peaceful mind and calm stature, had accompanied her but it was her courage, when she stood first in the funeral and opted to give fire to her mother – In India, it’s a son only, who can follow the ritual but being one of the three daughters, Trupti courageously fulfilled the mortuary. It was difficult, at the age when a mother is more of a friend to her daughter, she had lost her! It took her years to accept the bitter reality of life, the void no one could ever fill up! But then, her elder sisters and father were her support and to love her always. They didn’t let her lose any hopes.

To calm her weeping heart, she decided a way to pamper herself! Travel alone, to the place which is close to the living god – the nature! Trupti decided to travel all the way from Gujarat to Himachal, alone! To divert her memories from the painful past, she hogged onto the solo trip to the East India. This gave her life a message – everything that exists has an end and there’s no way of taking a halt. This solo trip had changed Trupti, we were feared of her travelling alone but when she was back from the trip, she advised us and many other people – the importance of life!

Then came the Trupti – Beautiful, Independent, Bold,  Ambitious and Courageous! Recently, on her birthday she shocked her near and dear ones by going Bald! Yes, that’s correct, she went bald! Upon asked, it was gathered that, she had seen her mother’s pain when she lost her beautiful hair to Cancer. Trupti wanted to feel how her mother felt who gradually lost her beautiful, long black hair. And hence, Trupti decided to donate her hair for the cancer people’s wig, as she doesn’t want any cancer patient to lose their self-esteem and self-confidence by losing their hair.

Trupti is an ordinary woman with an extra-ordinary courage. Isn’t it? Tell me which women would not love their hair? She was the one who had a habit of keeping combs under the pillow, to comb the hair, whenever she is awake. One needs courage to go bald for a cause, and she has that. Giving Agni to her mother, travelling solo for peace, going bald for a cause… all these makes Trupti a bold, beautiful woman from whom we, ladies across the nations can learn the meaning of life, a part of this at-least?

I am so proud to have you as my best friend and a soul mate. We are proud of you! Let’s keep up the courage as Trupti did in bad times, and it will pass away unharmed! Trupti is a counselor and hypnotherapist and currently working with Khula Aasman NGO in Mumbai, India.