BEING A career woman keeps me on my toes most days, but just occasionally, I manage to take out the time for my close group of friends. In these sessions, we revert to our teenage selves as we begin the goodold arguments about politics, society and inevitably, the role and status of women. With March being the month of International Women’s Day, the majority of us were vocal about the fact that keeping aside just one day or even a month dedicated to women didn’t really mean much. After all, women make up approximately 44.3 per cent of the world’s population. After debating the issue, we finally agreed that most women were simply too busy to care. They were working too hard in the homes, offices, fields and factories to quibble about which day in the year and how many days should be dedicated to them. However, we at DW do care—especially about women who have stood up to be counted and served as role models for others to follow. One such person is Mrinal Pande. Her first story was published when she was only 21 and today she is the author of several books and translations. But being a writer is just part of what she does. She was the first woman editor of Hindustan and later was anchor and editor with NDTV and Doordarshan. Today, she is the chairperson of Prasar Bharati. She also graces the cover of our magazine this month because of the ideals she stands for. A truly democratic person, her writing resonates with sensitivity to women, concern about the divide between small-town and big-town India and her sorrow at the slow erosion of vernacular languages. Once we managed to coax the exceedingly busy author onto our cover, we reached out to more women to send us their stories. Intrepid traveller Sudha Mahalingam shares her trip to Borneo and her wonderful images with us. Former editor of Femina, Sathya Saran, agreed to come on as a guest columnist, with a thought-provoking piece on motherhood. Sweta Srivastava Vikram is a US-based upcoming writer who shares her quest for identity and definition in the ‘Foreign Despatches’ section. A chance encounter with Kolkata-based Sunandini Banerjee brought us face-to-face with her stunning prints and collages. Before we knew it, we had very diverse and interesting voices speaking in our pages. Even this small list of women doing such interesting work is very heartening. It made me realise that it isn't a matter of dedicating a day or even a month to their achievements; the way I see it, history is being made every day.