She sits by the river bearing the scars of a lifetime, Each scar reminding her of a struggle that she now embodies. She knew she has intuition and empathy that feeds into a collective intelligence pool to shift the world towards kindness and love. She learnt this wisdom from her ancestors, who visited her on some quiet and lonely moon[Read More…]
Last year, I had the opportunity to work with the youth from the indigenous/ tribal more aptly called the Adivasi communities in India in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve across the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in South India. In the months that followed, I was privileged to get a glimpse into their cultures, traditions and most importantly their sense[Read More…]
Billion-dollar disaster was the term used to describe the climate breakdown that rocked our world last year. Floods in Pakistan droughts in China and Europe and tropical cyclones in other parts of Asia and America. India in the month of October last year experienced extreme weather events on 30 out of 31 days according to India’s Atlas on the[Read More…]
“I always thought that we are the root cause of the pollution and climate change we are experiencing, now more than ever these days”, words of 17-year-old Poonam from Karauli district in Rajasthan. Poonam is one of the girl leaders of Rajasthan Rising, a young movement led by girls who primarily belong to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBC and minority[Read More…]
by Neha Saigal & Saumya Shrivastava Earlier this year, on a pleasant afternoon we made our way from the walled and very beautiful city of Jaipur to the narrow and uneven lanes of Karauli district. We were there to meet members of Rajasthan Rising, a relatively young movement led by girls, between the ages of 14-24 years, belonging to Bahujan[Read More…]
I am a wanderer and an explorer, I will travel to any corner of this planet if it intrigues me or catches my fancy. Somewhere in 2017, I decided that I must travel to Kashmir, maybe I was attracted to the place as it was a boiling cauldron of careless politics and tragic lives. It is strange to think about[Read More…]
A couple of weeks ago I was in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it was at the time when several news agencies were reporting the Rohingya crisis unfolding in Myanmar. There was social media frenzy around the atrocities by the Myanmar security forces and the radio silence from Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. This international uproar was a result of 100,000s[Read More…]
I grew up in one of the big cities of India and recall celebrating every festival with family and friends. To be honest my young eyes never really differentiated between Holi, Eid, Easter, Ramadan or Christmas. I should be grateful to the wonderful upbringing by my parents who probably believed that India is defined by so many religions, cultures and[Read More…]
The experience of violence that women face behind closed doors is a global disease. There are no boundaries, cultural or social, for this violence, as it is deeply ingrained in a society that is patriarchal. Domestic Violence is a phenomenon that is usually accepted within families and is brushed under the carpet as a matter that is personal, so others[Read More…]
Ever since the Rajasthan High Court judge made public, his suggestions on declaring the cow, the national animal of India solely based on his inner voice and also went a step further to enlighten us on his knowledge of the non-existence of sexual intercourse between peacocks and peahens, social media is in a frenzy with memes and jokes on the[Read More…]
If the great Urdu writer, Saadat Hasan Manto was alive today, he would have been 105 years old. I wonder whether his spectacled and now old eyes would be surprised at how the world had further degraded in values of humanism. On second thoughts I doubt todays India or Pakistan with its ever increasing intolerance, extremism and gender inequality would[Read More…]
http://www.amazon.in/Scattered-Souls-Shahnaz-Bashir/dp/9352641248 I recently finished reading Shahnaz Bashir’s “Scattered Souls”, which is a collection of powerful short stories depicting the price that ordinary citizens living in Kashmir are paying because of excessive militarization. The Indian Government may justify this as much needed policing against the Kashmiri insurgents, to maintain internal security. But with all due to respect to the National Security[Read More…]
As Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, I am convinced that many Indian citizens like myself saw an idea of India completely vanish before our eyes. This quite obviously has not happened overnight. The cries for help to save this idea of India have been visible in the protests across the country since the Lok[Read More…]
I had just finished reading Anita Nair’s recent novel, “ Chain of Custody” which gives a glimpse into the dark, convoluted business of child trafficking, when I also came across a video of Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher talking about the same issue at the US Senate. Kutcher talks about a horrifying video clipthat has been doing the rounds on the[Read More…]
A few kilometers outside Ahmedabad in Gujarat, I visited a Mahila Shakti Kendra about a year ago. I was amazed at what I saw and heard. In a community building, right in the center of a buzzing market, was a decent sized room. There were info graphics on the wall, a group of women of all ages having a charcha.[Read More…]
I stumbled upon a book about Alexander the Great and his strategies on the battlefield. I was not particularly keen to finish the book, instead my curiosity took me to research about his teacher Aristotle, who claimed by many, is the reason for Alexander’s success. The western philosopher who was highly influential in the middle ages (5th to 15th century)[Read More…]
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My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
