I cannot get to the point!!

The project objective said: “Get to the point”. Well, let’s be honest here. I tried. I insist, I tried, and tried and tried very hard. But yet, as you have it, I could not do it. I could not “get to the point.”

Often, when I am desperate, logic leaves me and philosophy takes over. It happened the same way this time too. After spending a clumsy confused hour in despair - thinking about how to, if at all, get to the point - I was very close to giving up. And then, just at that very moment, philosophy struck me. And I cried – Eureka! No, I assure you, I was not in my bathtub at that time!

And bingo!! I got my answer!

What? That, there is not, perhaps, any much point in the objective to get to the point.

About Gender Neutral Parenting

(This one, in terms of its contents, is particularly close to my heart as I had written it our a while back before Toastmasters happened to me, and also this was published in quite a few web-magazines. You can find my original article HERE!)

Dear Toastmasters and Guests –

Gender discrimination forms one of the most gruesome crises in our lives. While gender crimes are more objectively defined, they are only but the tip of the iceberg. Gender discrimination, which is the root-cause of this social evil, is however much common. We are so accustomed to gender disparities in our society that it often becomes a challenge to even identify them as a problem, leave alone combating them in a constructive manner.

Today I am going to talk about a specific area in parenting. I will talk about gender discrimination among children. I will argue that socio-cultural conditioning at young, formative ages form the foundation stone of gender discrimination. And, as a call to action, I’d offer a few handy tips which can help us develop a progressive parenting approach, to raise more gender neutral kids for the future.

Kya "Tamasha" hai!

This is going to be one hell of an insane rant, muse, or I don’t know what! Bear with me.


I’ve often been, rather almost always been, rather envious of those who author self-help books; it seemed they’ve always had a Sufi, a saint, a pathfinder, or even if it's just a tarrot-card reader by the roadside, they've had them there for themselves right on time, right at the very corner of the road where they stopped to find their way. The right message on the poster, the right picture, sermon, song, the right thing at the right moment, just what they needed and when! It always, unfailingly, made me feel very little, feel - incessantly - like not being the chosen one, perhaps!

The Ice Breaker!

Here is what I presented for my very first speech in the Competent Communications journey!

Who am I!!! Now, that does not really sound like an easy question to me. Am I an Actuary first, or a mother; a wife, or a daughter? Maybe I want to become a writer someday, or do I want to become a painter? Do I even know what I am or what I want to become?

However, for now, let me leave these introspections behind, and put in front of you a brief overview of myself.

A warrior who never killed a fly!

White locks of hair pulled into a tiny bun, often covered with a pallu that is but a vague white extension of the once white but now faded 5 metres stretch of cotton, perhaps with a hole here and there over its entire stretch but carefully tugged inside to not be spotted – that is how Dida has looked ever since I can remember. Dida - the common grandmother – in our small but complete world of the neighbourhood, the place we were born and grown up at.

Rajkahini...

I’ll submit at the very outset that this was one movie I was extremely apprehensive about. The raging reviews did it, of course. This film, clearly, seemed to have found itself a place in the niche club of things which they call “extremes” – with reviews (sorry, reactions!) of absolutely polar opposite views on the very same issues. Most of those who watched seemed to have either liked it so much that it disturbed their sleep, or disliked it so much that they could not sleep too!


I was pleasantly surprised that it was not. I found Rajkahini to be a rather brave, ambitious attempt at something that we needed to hear, watch and think about... 

The Little Light of My Life...

This post has also been published in World of Moms!

Menses - let it just be!

This post has also been published in The Huffington Post and Women's Web