While the world waits for March, India has its own date with destiny today, celebrating the original firebrand feminist who used poetry as a political weapon.

Look, March 8th is fine. It’s global, it’s corporate-friendly, and it gets the requisite hashtags trending every year. But if you are in India, and you really want to tap into the bedrock of homegrown female power, today - February 13th - is the actual date to circle in red ink.

It’s Sarojini Naidu’s birthday, officially recognized as National Women's Day in India. And honestly, she feels a lot more relevant to our specific historical context than a generic international observance ever could. 

History books, the older ones anyway, like to box her in as the "Nightingale of India" (Bharat Kokila). It sounds sweet, doesn’t it? A bit delicate. But don’t let the pretty moniker fool you for a second. Naidu was incredibly tough. She wasn't just sitting around writing rhymes about flowers in some ivory tower; she was right there in the trenches of the freedom struggle, shoulder-to-shoulder with giants, often being the most articulate voice in the room. She was a poet, yes, but her verses had teeth.

More Than Just a Muse 

What I personally love most about her - and perhaps this is just a bias towards people who don't take themselves too seriously - is that she refused to be awed by power.

Think about the sheer audacity it took back then. She was part of Mahatma Gandhi’s inner circle, yet she famously nicknamed him "Mickey Mouse" because of his large ears. It wasn't disrespect; it was a profound level of comfort and equality that was practically unheard of at the time. She humanized the movement, realizing early on that you could be serious revolutionaries and still have a laugh.

We often look westward for our feminism cues these days. It seems a bit easier sometimes to adopt pre-packaged ideology. But February 13th reminds us that we don’t really need to import icons.

Naidu became the President of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and later, after independence, the Governor of the United Provinces, making her the first woman to hold such a high office in the country. These weren't token appointments meant to placate anyone. They were hard-won positions in a deeply complicated, patriarchal era.

So today, maybe skip the generic flower emojis on WhatsApp. Read one of her poems instead - perhaps explore the vibrant imagery in "The Golden Threshold" - and realize that true strength isn't just about political maneuvering; it’s also about maintaining the soul of a poet when the world around you is chaotic. That is a legacy worth remembering.