At a busy junction in Bengaluru, a bronze queen stands beside a cannon, pointing ahead. Most people don’t know her name. It’s Abbakka.

More than 450 years ago, she ruled Ullal, a small, rich port on the Karnataka coast that the Portuguese empire wanted for itself. They told her to pay tribute for the right to rule her own land. She refused. They sent a fleet. She sent it back.

Then one day, they broke through. They took her city and marched into her royal court.

Anyone else would have called it the end. Abbakka slipped away, took shelter in a mosque, and gathered the soldiers still loyal to her. That same night, she came back.

By morning, the general who had marched into her court had fallen, and the empire had learned her name. Her forces went on to drive the Portuguese out of the fort at Mangalore too.

More than four centuries later, Ullal still celebrates her every year and honours remarkable women with an award in her name. And at that junction in Bengaluru, she’s still pointing ahead.

Every year has its hard days. The deal that falls through. The promotion that goes to someone else. The plan that falls apart at the last minute.

Abbakka’s story says those days don’t get the final word. You do.

Know your worth, and never pay anyone for the right to be yourself. Know your strength, and come back for what’s yours.

So wear the studs to the year-end review. Wear the colour to the office party. And walk into the last night of the year like a queen who came back.

Abbakka by Moonelle. Rise to every occasion.