India, Oct. 9 -- I was waiting to meet a school principal when the coordinator suggested I sit through the morning assembly. The topic for the day was the upcoming festivities of Navratri. I smiled to myself, expecting the routine-nine days, nine goddesses, familiar mythologies, and generic tributes to womanhood.

Then, a little girl walked onto the stage.

Shailputri, she said, is the woman who knows her roots but refuses to let them become her boundaries. She honours where she comes from while having the courage to choose where she is going.

Brahmacharini is perseverance personified-the woman who keeps walking when the road is long and applause is absent. She is the student chasing a dream, the woman returning to work, the mother study...