Inside the fire is raging under the hot metal plate. Outside the sun is blazing over the endless green fields sown with rice. The temperature easily reaches 45°c everyday. Like clockwork they walk from their houses to work in this communal kitchen. Each one takes her place next to the fire. There is no complaining, only a resolve to do what needs to be done.

Everyday they come here. They are stronger than the men I know back home. I don't know why they love me and humor my mysterious ways. They encourage my attempts to keep pace with their toughened bodies. I prepare the dough for the roti's and am exhausted, but for them it is a minor task in a long work-filled day. Even though I am weak compared to them, they embrace me, my ideas and my desire to know them.

The rains fall endlessly and the streets are flooded. I see these women trudge through the mud to make it to the gurudwara to fulfill their obligation of selfless service. They will prepare the meal for close to 100 people. Some are young but most are old, grandmothers. Their bodies are hardened with the burden of their many children and the tough work of each woman in this village. They carry the hardships of their families gracefully, bearing the pains their children suffer and the maladies their husbands bring home. They are responsible for holding the family together in an environment that is slowly eroding their sense of identity.

I see a steadfast strength in these women. It is silent. They do not talk about the sacrifices they will willingly make for their family or community. It is visible in their entire being. I see it in their eyes. These eyes are not shaded by any grandiose misconceptions. They are eyes that have lived a harsh reality.

When I see them walk with heavy bundles on their heads or working along side the men in the fields I know that they are the center of progress in the village. Watching them work reminds me of the brave women I have heard about that exist in Sikh history. Those stories are from before my time. In them I see the leadership of one woman who told forty men to go back to the battlefield. She stood up to the husbands, brothers and sons in her village, during an archaic time when women weren't allowed to follow the spiritual path. There was no popular women's movement to stand behind her. However, she knew she had the truth at her side. The truth she learned and lived from Guru Nanak. Instead of embracing the weary men and consoling them after battle she got on a stead and marched them back to the battlefield, so that truth could be victorious. She is Mhai Bhago. Her story is just one of many that have gone unwritten, but lives in the Sikhs' collective memory.

When a woman twice my age sits to turn the heavy grinding stone (chakki) to make wheat flour, I see in her the same bravery of those mothers who endlessly sat at the grinding stone while their children were being hacked to death. The pieces were made into rosaries to put around their necks. The warm blood dripped over the same breasts that fed the young babes' just moments ago. What was their fault? It seems quite simple; they refused to renounce their faith, but willingly overcame their attachment to the children they nurtured in the womb for nine months.

These women of the village do not expect more than what they have. They know they come from mothers who willingly drenched themselves in the blood of innocence. They accept God's divine plan for them. This shows a remarkable strength in their faith and in doing what they know is right. Someone on the outside might confuse their silence and reverent ways as being submissive. They are wrong. In their faith feminism is understood differently. They are already equals. All that needs to be done is to act equal.

Harvind Kaur is a bachelors in Journalism, a bachelors in Philosophy and a Masters in Liberal Arts. She is currently a Graduate Student at the University of Chicago pursuing a Ph.D.

In between academic pursuits, as a television producer Harvind premiered two series in Chicago for WYCC-TV called 'Educate!' and 'Knowledge +', receiving an Emmy nomination for 'Educate!'.

She has spent time living in Punjab helping to establish Fellowship of Activists to Embrace Humanity, FATEH. This article stems from her experiences of life in the Sikh homeland of Punjab.

The author welcomes comment.