Why the Women's March struck a chord all over the world

I will not go back quietly to the 1950s

What Meryl Said

We are the popular vote

We shall overcomb

Coach once told me that I ran like a girl and I said if he ran a little faster he could too

We’re only going to get browner, witchier, queerer, nastier, stronger, louder, prouder

Hell hath no fury like a woman reborn

My arms are tired from holding this sign since the 1960s

Without Hermione, Harry would have died in book one

Vaginas brought you into this world and vaginas will vote you out

If one man can destroy everything why can’t one girl change it

A woman’s place is in the resistance

I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change; I am changing the things I cannot accept

I would not want to be the guy who pissed off all these women

Love Trumps Hate.

And that’s only some of the signs held aloft on a series of women’s marches yesterday all across US. We’ve had our own revolution in 2012 and contrary to cynics, I believe something came of it — a stronger law and a greater awareness about women’s rights even if Delhi December 2012 is mirrored in Bangalore December 2016.

It takes tragic events to spur an awakening of the sort that can cause coordinated outrage and yes that is tragedy. But nonetheless, when Ashley Judd read out that poem by 19-year-old Nina Donovan, she was speaking not only for Hillary Clinton’s game face on a day that should have rightfully belonged to her, or for Michelle Obama’s offended face as she was handed a Tiffany’s box by Melania Trump. She was speaking not only for white American women or for the women of many races who make America what it is. She was speaking for all women everywhere.

For us in India who have to endure unequal pay for more than equal work, who are unborn before they can be born, who are harassed in ways big and small at home and at work, who are molested and harassed and raped, who are demeaned on screen every day in the garb of being romanced, who are derided by politicians for wanting more, who are rendered powerless and cashless by the diktat of one man who has never seen what it is to have a family and take care of its needs.

For all of us who fight battles big and small every day, with the same game face that Hillary Clinton put up as Donald Trump talked of giving back power to the people, derided even in that moment of dignified grace for her "fake" smile. But then women have always been held to higher standards. Ask Sonia Gandhi. Or Mayawati. Or Mamata Banerjee. Or Vasundhara Raje. They may not be perfect leaders but which man is?

Which is why when Ashley Judd was reciting “I am a nasty woman”, it struck a chord with women all over the world, not merely those marching in Los Angeles or in Washington DC.

“I am not as nasty as racism, fraud, conflict of interest, homophobia, sexual assault, transphobia, white supremacy, misogyny, ignorance, white privilege, daughter being your favourite sex symbol

I am a loud vulgar proud woman...

Is the bloodstain on my jeans more embarrassing than the thinning of my hair..."

And finally triumphantly:

"And our p****** aint for grabbing

Our p****** are for birthing a new generation of filthy vulgar nasty proud women.’’

Or when Madonna said this, she struck a chord with everyone listening (except Donald Trumpists and Piers

"Good did not win this election but good will win in the end

Today marks the beginning of our story

The revolution starts here

The fight for the right to be free to be who we are to be equal

Let’s march together through this darkness

We are not afraid

We are not alone

We will not back down

To our detractors, f*** you... I am angry, I am outraged, I have thought a lot about blowing up the White House.’’

Also read: Why I got a '60s vibe from Trumps' Inauguration ceremony