Yahoo! India Answers blog

On the auspicious month of the Navaratri that venerates the Goddess we celebrated womanhood in all its essence on Yahoo! India Answers. We dedicated this month to all the bright and beautiful women who use Answers.

And it was so heartening to see that women in India are revered and adored just as our old Sanskrit texts advised us to do. And before you say, where’s the proof, here I have it.

We posted four questions on Answers that did superbly well.

Our first question was intended to gauge the psychology of woman (if that were possible) by seeing what it is that makes a woman happy. This was also posted in the hope that more women could be inspired by this and find more things they could do to make themselves happy. While many spoke about a loving family, having an accomplished day at work, or seeing the smile of a loved one, the best answer to What makes a woman happy? was by our Top Contributor The gentle one who claims to have lived with a woman for close to 50 years and is still in love with the smell of his woman.
The smell of her lover– when newly married or living-in together.
The smell of her baby— when a new mother.
The joy of seeing success of her child at school– as a mother.
The happiness of her own achievements at home, at work, at parties— as a woman achiever.
The warm feeling that her lover / hubby CARES…. as a woman.
The warm memories of his love-making……….as a woman.
The satisfaction of feeling that ALL IS WELL………..despite hundreds of obstacles.

And a better gauge of happiness than that we can’t find!

Our next question was pertaining to the modern woman’s health: What are the health perils a woman faces in today’s world? What can she do to stay healthy?

Spiritual Seeker gave us the best answer by saying -

Yes! The clue is in the question itself! Changing life styles (additional portfolios), stressful relationships (lack of mutual trust, due to heavy contribution by situation), improper diet (no time to cook, pick the right kind of food), lack of exercise (multitasker mask snatching away precious time space for self)! The family that benefits from the woman who takes up these additional tasks, has to consciously share the task of minimizing health perils. The woman herself has to take into trust her family and extend the first step towards mutual sharing. Frank discussion must take place giving priority to seemingly small factors, which affect the health over a period of time. The woman must acknowledge the enormity of additional loads involved in terms of stress, health etc, and explore areas where there can be massive support from family members, colleagues at work, friends and relatives near and far too. The traditional outlook, viewpoint, opinion, inclination, etc has to become flexible to suit the needs around, without compromising the intrinsic values. Staying healthy for present day woman is not ‘just exclusively’ her own concern, her own task, her own responsibility. It has to be recognized as a family’s joint and team effort. The benefits are reciprocal, and always towards a win-win situation. Physiologically, the present day stressful situation targets the very strong point(traditionally held as strength) of a woman, emotions.

What tips would you give a woman that will enable her to save her money?
This, our third question, received 12 stars and 116 answers!
Clearly choosing the best answer for this one was a tough decision. But a tip by Seth Hunter that was both practical and extremely do-able decided us. Seth Hunter says, ‘Something that I always recommend to people trying to save some money is to start an excel spreadsheet and in it detail everything you purchase for 6 months and the purchase price. Break items down so you can see in your grocery receipt what you actually bought ie (junk food or veg). By doing this for 6 months you will be shocked as to where your money goes. Most people tell me they know how they spend their money until they do this and get their eyes opened. If you think about the small things such as a coffee a day, it costs you $3. After 6 months saying you buy one coffee a day you would spend $547.50.
I know this is a pain to do and most people I recommend it to will never do it but it is one of the best tools you have available. Hope this info helps. There is an abundance of business info avaliable at www.sensiblebusiness.ca’.

In the Beauty and Style section we’ve often seen women asking for tips to enhance their beauty. So this question was to ascertain what it was that made a woman truly beautiful. What makes a woman truly beautiful? How can a woman enhance her beauty?

Kerr! summed it up really well – Beauty is only on the inside. If a woman is beautiful on the inside, a woman is beautiful everywhere. Just keep yourself clean and healthy. You don’t need to overdo it with the make up, some people only do this to make themselves feel better about their insecurities, and sometimes they resort to making others feel worse about their insecurities. That proves the theory that beauty is only skin deep for some people.

And so we’d like to thank all the Answerers for their contribution and tips that helped us celebrate womanhood on Answers so well through the month of October.

Did you like the campaign? Do you have any advice to share? Leave us a comment.

- Bhumika Anand

Community Manager