Rich country, poor country

While the festivities of Durga Puja or Navaratri is still afresh in our memories, somewhere for some people their worlds actually ended abruptly when this celebration was still on. The Datia district in Madhya Pradesh witnessed a pilgrimage gone horribly wrong when it turned into a life taking stampede swallowing over 100 lives and injuring equally in number. To add to this misfortune our nation is still battling the devastation caused by Phailin cyclone which has created turmoil in nearly a million lives.

Read more...

What did moving to Australia mean to me?

The world is what you see through your glasses and mine was certainly a rose tinted one. I spurned a kaleidoscopic view of what my life would be like down under whenever I got some time on hand while still being in India.

In the beginning it was all about freedom - the freedom of being able to wear what you want, when you want and where you want.

Read more...

I get nostalgic on Independence Day

An unexpressed feeling of patriotism silently starts engulfing my senses as the month of August kicks in. The Indian Independence Day is often that time of the year, every year in the past 3 years, when I inadvertently get transported back to India.
Read more...

Parenting and technology: Hand in glove?

So what's more quirky about this topic —technology or parenting? May be neither or maybe it's the new-fangled combination of these two words in the modern world, which is more befuddling than the two concepts standalone. If you have kids, then I don't need to explain anything further. However, if you fall in a category like me — no kids — and yet cannot escape the boons and banes of being surrounded by kids belonging to your colleagues, friends or relatives, then I would strongly urge you to continue reading this article to understand this amazing liaison.
Read more...

Do you also suffer from unconscious bias?

As human beings we are all prone to be biased in some way or other. We like certain films because it stars Katrina Kaif or Aamir Khan. Whether or not the film has any other element to hook our interest becomes immaterial for our liking. No matter how well a man cooks, we believe that it's a woman's job to cook at home because traditionally that has been a social paradigm.
Read more...

How Progressive are NRIs in Developed Nations?

It's a common notion amongst us (Indians) that those people who migrate to developed countries are more progressive in their thoughts and modern in their outlook towards society, as compared to their counterparts residing in India. It wouldn't be entirely wrong to believe so owing to the variety of cultural, social and political exposures the Indian diaspora gets outside India. Alas! The reality is far from this.

Read more....

Untold Predicament

Several eye shed big drops as I was born,

Few out of happiness but others for grief alone,

I curled and howled and wept without any tears,

Looked around with my wrinkled face sans any fear,

Tiny and clingy I came into this beautiful world,

Wrapped up in my mum’s arm, I was her baby girl.

Time went by and life started to jostle through,

I began seeing the world from my parents glowing view,

Things seemed perfect and people were nice,

Love, trust and laughter left no room for any vice,

Blossoming as a person I knitted my own dreams,

Thoughts of success, freedom & respect appeared supreme.

Crossing my adolescence as I stepped into adulthood,

I began cringing at the world’s abruptly changing mood,

My friends had to be girls because boys weren’t allowed,

Archaic rules dictated relationships while emotions were out,

Pubs were banned and jeans was frowned upon,

Having a mobile phone too became talk of the town.

My mind couldn’t fathom the cause for such mayhem,

As confidence and hope treaded slowly towards doldrums,

Right became wrong and wrong seemed to be right,

Fulfilling social dictums made dilemma my usual plight,

I could hear faint sobs of my trampled emotions,

Compromises marred my life from personal to professional.

My body draped in clothes provoked gentlemen,

Sari or shorts did not make any difference,

I was raped, assaulted and blatantly blamed too,

For turning on the beast with my immoral ado,

Fragile egos and false pride still remained unquenched,

They battered my soul to seek further revenge.

Limelight which I had sought dawns finally in my fate,

Media and politicians sting repeatedly to fire up debate,

Pity, sympathy and anger now stage vicious blame game,

Talking about my rape gives them their 15 seconds of fame,

They want me to voice and fight for my cause,

My lacerated soul wonders do we really have any laws?

Society, judiciary and patriarchs mock at my predicament,

They rip apart my pride and expect no abasement,

Which is this land where girls are considered booties?

Isn’t safeguarding my pride my country’s prime duty?