Stand Together

  It is true, we all live on nostalgia, and it has kept us going through this pandemic. From getting in touch with old school friends to listening to the music we grew up with, we have all taken advantage of our memories to deal with the difficulties of every day. There are two sides to every coin, and this one has a dark side. As much as I have enjoyed interacting and working with my former school mates during our Covid volunteering efforts, I have also been triggered by the many forwarded messages about going to school in India in the 1990s on WhatsApp. These have played on our nostalgia and have also made us rethink our experiences. Some of them made me go from “aww” to “eww, that’s not how it felt back then”. The common thread between them is that they have all retraumatised me. The below image (one of many such forwards) was sent to me by my mother who was a teacher in my school when I was a student. She even taught me Hindi for three continuous years! My response to her was t...

The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is #ChooseToChallenge and I would like to challenge the concept of the multitasking woman, as the image below shows. No, the multitasking woman is not a myth, she is a reality that exists in all our lives. We are her. On Women’s Day we send each other encouraging messages of love and kindness. A dear friend, Tarannum Ara , posted a picture of a multitasking woman on one of her social media platforms and said: “Let’s stop glorifying the everyday struggle of women on Women’s Day. We do not have a choice to opt out of these responsibilities unlike men. It’s exhausting to be a woman in the artwork here”. This rings very true. As women we are proud of all that we can do and accomplish but we fail to acknowledge or do not want to accept the toll this takes on us – because we always put others before us (or the society demands and expects this from us). Women are forced to play too many roles at home, such as the housemaid, the mother, the...

After all, we are Indians, jis thali mein khate hai usme ched nahi karte , which can be translated to – we do not make holes in the plate we eat or, for a better understanding, we don’t bite the hand that feeds us . Indian farmers know what they are doing. They have a right to choose how to work and who to sell their produce to, just like the rest of us. Farmers in countries, such as USA, UK, Australia, South Africa and much of Europe are prosperous and wealthy, whereas most Indian farmers and farm workers live Below the Poverty Line . We all eat well because they work hard and take risks. They deserve to put themselves first and chose how they want to function. If nothing else, they deserve to be heard and treated with respect. What they do not deserve is being called Khalistani, just because they are asking some tough questions. Farmers fully understand the new farm laws that the Modi government wants to implement, which is why they are unhappy and are protesting. There is nothi...

 I am aware that there are many people like me who have read most of the Bridgerton Books and watched season 1 of Netflix’s current favorite series . Let me say this up front – the series is better than the books and here is why. Main characters and supporting characters have depth and a role to play. Impeccable casting choices by the producers. Use of characters who are not part of the first book The Duke and I , such as that of Marina (who appears in book five  To Sir Phillip With Love ). Changes to the main plot to make the stories interesting and to introduce conflict, for example, there is no prince in The Duke and I. The addition of royalty among the supporting characters and Eloise’s quest to finding Lady Whistledown. Lady Whistledown being a real character with depth and layers. She exists only until halfway through book four Romancing Mister Bridergton and only serves as an introduction to each chapter (yes, she is Penelope Featherington). In subsequent books, the...

There are some books that are eagerly awaited for since they are officially announced, for me Ken Follett’s latest work The Evening And The Morning is one of such book - mainly because I love the Kingsbridge series and was excited to read the prequel to The Pillars Of The Earth . The Good The book is an intense read and has the typical Ken Follett brand characters, in whose stories you are invested emotionally right from the start. The main protagonists are larger than life and always on the side of the good and to match them, are villains who are powerful and always seem to win. If you are familiar with Ken Follett’s work, you will recognise the pattern of the long suffering and righteous heros and heroines, overcoming intensely hateful and hideous villains and everyone’s story ending with the villains being destroyed, sometimes because of Karma and not because the heros or heroines finally got a chance to vindicate themselves. (One villain dies naturally but in pain.) The sto...

  The sun shined bright red even in the dark, on her mother’s forehead. She loved the glow that came from it and how it calmed her during a stormy night, such as this one, especially, since the sea could swallow them all. The small room at the edge of the world that they lived in had its moments. There were times when the sea would blow a calming breeze towards them and there were times when the tide would enter their home, threatening to weaken the make-shift foundations. There were also times when she laughed, as a child would, and there were times when she would experience pain she didn’t understand or know where it came from. The moments of pain were strange but familiar, like an enemy who you knew well but you don’t know either. Even in those moments, the bright red sun on her mother’s forehead calmed her, but it was the worry on her father’s face that made her anxious. Her parents had named her Angel at birth, but a year later, they changed it to Banhi, an uncommon word f...

This article has information I may have missed in my previous post Repatriation to Hyderabad . I traveled to Hyderabad, India from Johannesburg, South Africa on a repatriation charter flight organised by the India Club in Johannesburg On the Day Travel All passengers will be asked to assemble at a designated location, where you will register. You will each be assigned to a bus and the bus number will be communicated to you before the day of travel. In the bus you may be provided with masks, gloves, sanitisers and lunch. You may also be given a Govt. of India form, please ask for three such forms per person as you will need to submit these at your destination airport. At O R Tambo International Airport When your bus reaches the airport, you will each be given a Department of Home Affairs  (DHA), South Africa, form to fill, before you get off the bus. All your luggage will the be lined up outside the airport and you will be asked to locate your luggage and leave your cabin ...