There is something unsettling about that thought, to be that far from Earth, held up only by trust in science, in people, and in something you cannot fully control. What struck me was not just how far they were going, but how much time it must have taken to bring an idea into fulfillment, years of building, waiting, and choosing this over everything else. Perhaps space is not distance at all, but time stretched beyond what we have experienced.

And yet, while they were suspended in space, breaking barriers we once thought impossible, back on Earth, we continued as we always have, moving through another war within the same atmosphere that sustains us.

I found myself looking at both, and not knowing how to feel them at the same time.

That contrast stayed with me longer than I expected. Somewhere in it, I found myself thinking about human emotions, how we are capable of feeling so deeply, and yet remain unchanged in the present, justifying what we need to when we need to.

What stayed with me even more was how quickly we move past it, how something extraordinary, or even devastating, has become just another piece of information we scroll past. Somewhere along the way, we stopped having the time to fully feel anything, or perhaps we simply stopped staying with things long enough for them to be felt.

Somewhere along the way, we also began treating time like something we own, translating it into the language of money, something we can save, spend, and invest, as if it behaves like a resource that can be managed with enough discipline and intent. Time feels like an investment, where the way we choose to spend it carries its own risks and rewards, some of which can be measured, while most can only be felt.

This is not a new thought, as ancient texts long before we began measuring time in hours and calendars were already trying to understand what time was doing to us and what it meant to live within it.

I had been thinking about time in abstract ways until it showed up in a way I could not distance myself from.

Last Sunday, I went to sleep with these thoughts, only to be woken up the next morning with the news that a friend had lost her mother. A million thoughts were running through my head about what I should be doing, and I chose to go and meet her after finishing some work.

She was making the hardest decisions of her life.
And somewhere in between, so was I.

I told myself I had enough time to close things at work and still make it to the funeral.

I could not.
And now, that is what I will remember.

Some days feel like they belong more to my calendar than to me. Alarms decide when I wake up, calendars decide what matters, and I move from one scheduled block to another. By the end of it, every minute has been accounted for, and yet almost none of it feels fully lived.

I have caught myself checking the time without needing to, almost as if I am measuring my own life in hours, sitting with nothing immediate to do, and still feeling like I am running out of something I don’t know how much of I have.

We often say time is fair, that everyone gets the same 24 hours. Some people are healing, some are surviving, some are chasing, and some are simply waiting for something to change.

The hours are equal, but their weight is not.

I found that most solutions in modern life revolve around the idea that if time can be managed more effectively, life can be brought under control. The more I think about it, the more it feels like time was never meant to be controlled in the first place.

It was only meant to be observed.

Maybe what we call distance was never out there at all, but time we were yet to live through. And in living through it, something within us was always shifting, even when we did not pause long enough to notice.

Time was never passing us; it was quietly turning us into someone we did not notice becoming.

It is the day of the monthly baithak at Adi’s sitar learners’ community. A small, almost unassuming gathering of budding sitarists, musicians, aficionados, and a few like me, who come to listen. In that space, I am not performing or analysing, just present, learning in ways that do not always announce themselves.

I walked in today, and the setup was getting ready. Sir’s living room is transforming into an event venue. A lush carpet strewn across the floor, waiting to become a stage. The floor is being cleaned so that the audience can take their seats. Microphones are being positioned carefully, attempting to catch the detail of every note. The electronic tanpura hums softly from an iPad, its steady tone blending into the room. Adi is bent over his mixer, adjusting the tabla, turning tiny knobs until everything settles just right. I find myself a spot from where I can capture moments of today’s gathering in video and photos.

There is something about this space that resembles an event I get to attend. And yet these baithaks are not quite that. They are quieter, more honest. A space for students to present what they have learnt and practiced, because at some point, practice must leave the safety of repetition and aspire to become a performance.

As Adi takes the stage, he adjusts the frequency of the strings to Raga Jog Kauns, he nods to the percussionist, and begins his Alaap. The alaap unfolded slowly, almost like the room was being tuned along with the instrument. There was no rush, just a careful, deliberate exploration of each note, letting it settle before moving forward.

As the jod emerged, there was a quiet shift. The structure began to take form, the rhythm finding its way in, almost like a conversation gathering momentum. And then, somewhere along the way, came the taans. Quick, intricate, demanding, complex.

It was in one of those moments that it happened. You can see it happen in an instant. A slight hesitation, the mind catching up with the hand, and for a brief moment, the slip of the note feels louder than the music itself.

But what stayed with me is not the slip; it is what follows.

A brief falter, and then a return. Almost as if nothing happened. Not because it didn’t matter, but because he chose not to stay there.

There is a quiet kind of forgiveness in that moment, not the kind we speak about, but the kind we practice without naming. An acceptance that something went off, and it does not get to decide what comes next.

Sitting here now this evening, it begins to feel like this isn’t just about music at all.

The act of accepting a mistake does something to you. It steadies you. There is no scrambling to cover it up, no energy spent pretending it didn’t happen, no quiet panic trying to preserve an image. Just a simple acknowledgement and a return.

And in that return, there is power.

Because when you can meet yourself in that moment without turning away, you become harder to shake. There is less for the world to use against you when you are not hiding from yourself. You are not waiting to be exposed; you have already seen it.

Perhaps that is where humility comes from. Not from thinking less of yourself, but from seeing yourself clearly and being at ease with what you see.

It also makes you wonder how early we are taught something very different.

To avoid mistakes. To get it right. To not fail.

As children, so much of what we hear is caution. Don’t do this. Thats not how to do it. Don’t embarrass yourself. And slowly, without anyone intending harm, mistakes stop feeling like a part of learning and begin to feel like something to avoid altogether. A child hesitates, not because they cannot learn, but because they are unsure if they are allowed to.

Fear quietly replaces curiosity.

But sitting in that room, watching those performances, it feels unmistakably clear that learning has never existed without the possibility of getting it wrong. In fact, it depends on it. To know what not to do is often as important as knowing what to do.

And this is where teaching, in its truest sense, reveals itself. Not in how much we instruct, but in how we respond when something goes wrong. Because in that moment, we are not just correcting an action, we are shaping a person’s relationship with failure.

To correct without instilling fear, to guide without taking away dignity, to allow someone to stumble without making them feel like the fall defines them. Because the way we are held in our mistakes becomes the way we learn to hold ourselves.

When that space is given, something powerful begins to take root. A quiet strength.

The ability to take risks without the constant fear of failing. The ability to try, even when the outcome is uncertain, because somewhere along the way we learnt that if things fall apart, we can still return. We can recover.

And that changes how we move through the world. Risk begins to feel like a possibility instead of a danger. Confidence is no longer loud or performative; it is simply the willingness to engage, even when things may not go as planned.

Over time, that willingness shapes something deeper than skill. It shapes who we become. Our choices, our voice, our sense of self. All of it, quietly, begins with acceptance.

And in that sense, it almost doesn’t matter whether you are a world leader or a budding artist. The stage may change, the stakes may rise, but the moment remains the same.

A slip. A pause. A choice.

To stay there, or to return.

And maybe that is what stayed with me from that afternoon. Not the perfection of the performance, not the notes that landed exactly where they were meant to, but that one brief moment.

The slip.
The pause.

And the quiet decision… to continue.
Learning.

The contrast felt strange. A small act of planting life on my balcony, while somewhere far away, the world seemed to accept war as another ordinary headline.

As I looked at the plants, a quiet metaphor came to mind. Our generation has grown up to become like succulents. Plants that survive harsh climates adapt quietly. They store what they can. They endure long dry spells. They adjust to change without protest.

Perhaps that is what the last twenty-five years have done to us.

Growing Up in Crisis

For many of us millennials, adulthood began in a world already shaped by crisis. The century opened with the shock of the September 11 Attacks. The images from that day reshaped global politics and placed terrorism at the centre of international security. Soon after came the Iraq War, raising difficult questions about how quickly diplomacy could give way to force.

Before the world could absorb those consequences, another shock arrived. The Global Financial Crisis shook economies across continents. Markets collapsed. Jobs disappeared. Stability suddenly felt fragile.

My niece Treesha belongs to Gen Z. She stepped into adulthood during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Her generation entered adulthood at a moment when the entire planet paused together. Cities fell silent. Flights stopped. Schools closed. Fear travelled faster than the virus itself.

Yet there was something unusual about that moment. The enemy was common. A virus. Not a nation. Not an ideology. Not another person.

Hospitals replaced trenches. Scientists became generals. Vaccines became the ammunition. Borders closed. Economies halted. Millions across continents came together to fight an enemy that could not even be seen with the naked eye.

For a brief moment, humanity remembered what collective action could look like.

My generation learned resilience through uncertainty. Treesha’s generation seems to value empathy, mental well-being, and cooperation across borders. Our priorities may look different. Yet both generations carry a quiet hope for a more humane world.

The Return of an Older Script

But in recent years, the world has quietly returned to an older script. Conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza dominate global headlines. Tensions simmer across the Middle East. Diplomacy struggles to keep pace with escalating hostility. In its place, we hear the language of deterrence, retaliation, and military readiness.

At the same time, technology moves forward at an astonishing speed. Artificial intelligence evolves rapidly. Large language models reshape industries. Digital systems reorganize economies.

The contrast is striking. In the digital world, progress feels relentless. In the physical world, conflict feels stubbornly unchanged.

It raises an uncomfortable question. After centuries of war, two world wars, and even a shared battle against a pandemic, did humanity truly learn how to avoid conflict with itself?

When Technology Promised Something Else

When I stepped into adulthood in the early years of this century, I felt quietly armed with possibility. A cell phone in my hand. A laptop on my desk. The internet is unfolding around us like an endless library.

Technology seemed destined to reshape economies and solve problems that earlier generations had struggled with. Knowledge could move freely across borders. Collaboration could happen across continents. It felt possible that shared information might make the world more cooperative.

Yet somewhere along the way, the promise of technology outpaced the evolution of our politics. Military strength still defines influence. Nations compete fiercely for control over artificial intelligence, data, and digital infrastructure. The tools that once promised connection now deepen rivalry between states.

A Different Way of Thinking About War

Drawn by that thought, I walked toward the book cabinet in the living room. On one shelf sat George Orwell’s 1984. Right beside it rested a worn copy of Snippets from the Gita. The contrast felt almost deliberate. One book imagined a world shaped by power and control. The other reflected on duty, responsibility, and moral balance.

Standing there, I wondered how differently civilizations have tried to understand war.

The philosophy of the Gita approaches war through a moral lens. It does not celebrate violence. Instead, it asks when the use of force becomes morally unavoidable. The Gita frames war through the idea of dharma. The responsibility to uphold justice and protect the moral order of society. Violence is never presented as the first option. It emerges only when injustice persists, and every effort to restore balance fails.

The text also insists on restraint. The purpose of war is not conquest or revenge. It is the restoration of fairness and the protection of the innocent. In that sense, the Gita views war not as triumph but as a burden. A difficult duty is carried out only when all other paths have been exhausted.

Gandhiji drew from these traditions in his own way. He emphasised moral courage as a lesson of the Gita that was necessary in confronting injustice while exercising restraint. His philosophy acknowledged the complexity of human choices. Perhaps that is why our generation sometimes feels strangely numb to conflict. Crisis has become a familiar climate. News cycles move quickly from one war to another. Outrage fades faster than it once did.

Like the succulents on my balcony, we have learned to survive difficult climates. But survival alone cannot be the ambition of civilization.

A Quiet Hope

Later that morning, I stepped back onto the window to check on the tiny succulents. The soil was still damp from watering. The plants sat quietly in their pots, storing what they needed for harsher days.

Watching them, I wondered whether humanity, too, can learn how to endure difficult seasons without destroying the common fabric that sustains us.

On weekends, I like watching old Hindi movies. Since Aai passed, this has become a quiet way of feeling connected to her. It reminds me of good times with her. When the same roads I once walked with Aai and Baba appear in an old film, a waterfall of memories begins to flow, drenching me in moments where I perhaps felt the most honest love from my parents. Core memories unlock softly.

It is February 7, 2026. I am watching Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. The D’Mello Bridge in the film that stands at Clare Road junction has collapsed. Watching the movie is special. It takes me down memory lane to old Mumbai, and suddenly I saw myself walking with my mother to school. I went to school on Clare Road. Every year, we bought my school shoes from the Bata and Corona shops under that bridge. A part of me still stays back in that shop, coaxing my mother to buy the pink lace shoes.

And yet, I am pulled into a present-day conversation. We are already discussing plans for March 15. As if it isn’t surprising enough that it is February 2026, I find myself holding such concrete certainty about a future date, almost as if life can be predicted just by looking at my calendar. In a city like Mumbai, with its relentless pace, my work calendar and social calendar seem to be at war, each trying to prove which one is more overwhelming.

The fact that I am living in my present while already knowing what is in store at least forty-five days ahead begins to bother me. Just a day earlier, a work outing was announced for mid-March. On the same weekend, my former organisation invited its alumni for an event in Pune. Both are good things, yet the clash of dates slowly grows inside my head. I know I will have to make a difficult choice.

Knowing things in advance is not always bad. In a fast-moving world like ours, where families and friends are now global citizens, planning ensures that meetings happen with intention, not by chance. Yet I find myself uneasy with another phrase—taking out time; as if time were a physical object stored somewhere outside us.

It pulls me back to a different past, when a ringing phone carried complete mystery. You never knew who was calling or what news waited on the other side. I think again of Aai, who never used a smartphone and remembered important numbers by heart. I remember how her face lit up when someone called after a long time her laughter, that brief pause from the present. Those were happy years. Unpredictable years. Years full of small surprises, whether in travel or in life.

Watching the film, I realise that my restlessness is not really about clashing dates or missed events. It is about something quieter. About how differently time once moved. About how lightly the future sat on our shoulders then, and how heavily it sits now.

Somewhere between memory and planning, a question begins to form not just about the city, but about the way we live inside time itself.

What does it really mean to live in the future?

For many of us, it begins innocently. Planning feels responsible. Certainty feels comforting. A date on the calendar gives shape to days that might otherwise fall apart. In Mumbai’s restless rhythm, looking ahead feels like survival. We book joy the way we book travel. Even rest needs appointments.

Somewhere along the way, preparation quietly becomes pressure. Tomorrow stops being a direction and starts becoming a landmark. The future no longer waits at the horizon; it is asking to sit inside today, asking to be managed and controlled. I catch myself always arriving mentally before I arrive in person. Playing out situations, conversations in my head, long before they’re scheduled. In doing so, something small but sacred begins to thin out, the ability to be where we already are with our full body and mind.

Surprise that once felt like warmth is now ian nconvenience. Uncertainty once carried softness, not stress. We have started postponing the present, saving our attention for a better tomorrow that never fully arrives but certainly becomes a past we don’t recognise.

Vacations become the interest we pay to recover the lost time. We travel far just to meet a slower version of time, a place where mornings are determined not by alarms but the angle of light that falls on the ground, where afternoons stretch without apology, where doing nothing carries no guilt. For a few brief days, urgency loosens its grip.

I am amazed at how this softness lives more permanently in villages and small towns, in evenings that arrive gently, in tea poured without looking at the clock,
in lives measured by presence rather than productivity.

There, the future is not chased. It unfolds. Chance still has an opportunity. Perhaps sustainability is not only about land or resources. Perhaps it is also about the speed at which a heart can continue to feel without risking a burnout, physical and emotional.

So how do we hold the future without losing the present? It is simply by paying attention.

Taste the tea before it cools.
Finish a conversation without reaching for the phone.
Some days are ordinary, boring, and that is perfectly acceptable.
To trust that uncertainty is sometimes a space where life can still surprise.

When I think of Aai, this is what returns most strongly.
Not advice. Not instruction. Just a way of living inside time that did not feel hurried.
Even simple days felt complete.

Listen! There I go, typing listen as if time itself might pause to hear me.

Later that night, after the film ended and the house returned to silence, I opened my calendar again. March 15th was still there. So were the choices waiting around it. And in that small, ordinary moment:

Tomorrow had not been waiting for me at the horizon.
It had already crept into my present. I also feel something quieter than adjustment.
A small refusal to let the present disappear unnoticed.

One year from now, this present will already be a memory.
Maybe living well is nothing more complicated than this: to notice when tomorrow enters today, and still choose, gently, to remain. That is where the future you want truly begins.

I was on my way back from work, tired in that quiet, end-of-day way, when the rain hung in the air, pouring most dramatically, just persistently. Near the gate, half-soaked and entirely unimpressed by the weather and how a delivery guy had treated it, was a scrawny kitten. Too small to be fearless, too defiant to be afraid. The kitten looked at me like it was asking me to avenge the other human for this crime. While I save that encounter for another day, for now, you should be aware that the kitten is now part of our permanent clan.

We didn’t know the gender then.
What we noticed instead was the energy.

Mowgli was relentless. Leaping off furniture, chasing invisible enemies, knocking things over as if gravity were merely a suggestion. A feline dynamo, unpredictable, curious, and just wild. One look at that confidence and, without much thought, I assumed this kitten was a male, and named him Mowgli wild, unruly, impossible to contain.

A few weeks later, at a routine vet visit, the truth emerged.

Mowgli was a girl.

My immediate reaction, which utterly surprised me in retrospect, was “Wow, I thought, she has such boyish energy.”

Almost immediately, I caught myself.

Why had I equated boldness with masculinity? Why did chaos, curiosity, and confidence feel inherently male in my head? That small, passing thought lingered longer than it should have. It hit a nerve, not just about gender, but about how casually we assign meaning to behaviour, especially in love.

That’s when an old, almost throwaway line resurfaced in my mind:
Men are like dogs. Women are like cats.

I used to roll my eyes at this comparison. That was mostly because of how I’d heard it used. In Hindi movies, “kutte” is said with the kind of disgust only perfected by Dharmendra as the ultimate insult. Women became cats: moody, mysterious, sitting on compound walls, judging the world. Put like that, of course, I wanted nothing to do with the metaphor.

The problem wasn’t really the comparison. It was how carelessly it was handled. Completely missing the point that both are different personalities. I started seeing the dogs I actually know and began recognising their personality traits, the loyal street dogs outside my building, always present, always hopeful, always showing up. Having lived with Melody for 13 years now, I knew long ago that cats are not cold, as most people misinterpret, but they’re rather cautious, precise with affection, choosing their moments; it began to make sense.

Seen that way, the comparison was oddly familiar.

The difference wasn’t about man, woman, dog, or cat, but how we trust and how we love.

Men, I’ve noticed, often love out loud. They show up, check in, and constantly seek clarity. When something feels off, they want to address it immediately! Sometimes their affection is visible through their confusion. Their need for reassurance isn’t insecurity; it’s seeking connection.

I, on the other hand, love more like a cat.

I observe before I approach. I need time to feel my way into closeness. Too many questions at once make me retreat, not because I don’t care, but because I’m still listening. When I go quiet, it’s rarely punishment. It’s processing.

While neither is wrong,

Dogs want to be loved openly.
Cats want to be understood quietly.

There have been instances whereI’ve been misunderstood for my silence, just as I’ve misunderstood urgency for pressure. I’ve mistaken consistency for boring routine, while my need for space has been read as distance. More than once, trust didn’t break, and love didn’t actually fail; it just got lost in translation.

Dogs think love is presence.
Cats think love is attunement.

Dogs feel safe in routine.
Cats feel safe in emotional accuracy.

What I did realise was that the relationships that stayed with me over the years are actually the ones that felt real, and weren’t perfect. The moments that stayed with me, the ones that felt like real connection, were when we tried to learn each other’s language instead of defending our own.

When someone didn’t rush me, but waited.
When I didn’t retreat into my shell and pretend to disappear, but explained.
When reassurance and space stopped competing and started coexisting.

These days, watching Mowgli making space for herself in the house, claiming her territory from Melody, being bold yet affectionate, independent, and sometimes entirely uninterested in fitting a category. I smile at how right we were about her energy, but so wrong to root it in gender.

She didn’t need to be softer to be feminine.
She didn’t need to be louder to be strong.

I am hopeful that trust and love work the same way.
It’s about recognising the one in front of you, trusting them and choosing them, again and again, and agreeing to meet them where they are.

I go to bed on time now.
At least that’s what the alarm thinks.
Sleep shows up politely, diligently,
but my eyes pretend they didn’t get the memo.

I lie there, missing
an older version of myself.
Not the dramatic kind,
just the one who felt things
without worrying about what background music
would best explain the moment.

They said, look within.
I did.
It’s a bit quiet in there,
So occasionally I step outside,
stealing warmth from songs,
from people,
from strangers who don’t even know my middle name.

Everyone is full of advice.
They give me to-do lists
when I’m just looking for a listener.
Someone who doesn’t interrupt
with solutions in bullet points.
Someone who lets me ramble
and nods.

That’s enough to make me feel heard.
And then maybe,
My eyes will finally
close in calm slumber.

Thank you for listening :)

The kind of afternoon when the city hums softly under the drizzle, tea feels earned, and doom scrolling feels inevitable. Somewhere between raindrops and notifications from the Women’s World Cup, I stop at a post about Jemimah Rodrigues.

Not for her innings, but for the caption below her image. It read;

*It’s Jemimah Rodrigues, the face of belief, courage, and dreams fulfilled!*

Beautiful words, they made me think, it’s been a while, I haven’t seen them used for a male cricketer. Men are “explosive,” “dominant,” “fearless.” Women are “elegant.” The difference may seem small, but language has always carried weight in cricket. The way we describe the game often reveals what and who we value.

From Passion to Power

In the 1990s, cricket spoke the language of *craft*. We heard commentators and read sports columns that used phrases like “solid defence,” “gritty innings,” and “building partnerships.” Newspaper columns the day after the test matches got over unfolded like sagas; poetic, slow, deliberate, and full of emphatic pauses.

By the 2000s, as the game caught pace and ODI’s took over the TV screens, the lexicon grew sharper: *“powerplay,” “strike rate,” “death overs.”* Commentary became analytical, data replaced poetry, and players turned into “finishers” and their “impact” based on the “time spent in the middle” became dominant. Then came T20 cricket’s linguistic revolution, where “Bazball,” “match-ups,” and “power-hitters” redefined excitement itself. How well a ball is hit means how high it went or how far it went. How well a ball is bowled is measured according to the speed of the ball!

The elegance of Cricket’s vocabulary evolved with its tempo: from paragraphs to sound bytes, from adjectives that defined passion to those that verbalise power.

Where the Women’s Game Fits In

In the midst of this transition, I’m riddled with the question of where the women’s game stands today. The fact is, women’s game bridges both worlds. It has the classical base of the 1980s cricket, full of class, where the geometry of the cover drive makes the fielding at silly point look like modern art. For a long time, women have been wooing Indian cricket from the stands, but now, as they take a stance on the pitch along with the athleticism, the ambition is palpating. Over the years, the sport has created a generation unafraid to take risks, yet rooted in precision who do justice to the classical definition of cricket of 80s.

Women’s cricket is about *power through skill.*”

Smriti Mandhana’s placement, Shafali Verma’s balance, Richa Ghosh’s clean hitting: every shot is measured, intelligent, intentional. The power is quieter, but no less lethal. This is the reason commentary often can’t resist falling back on “grace” and “poise.” Women can’t just *hit hard*, they also *do it beautifully.*

A Mirror of Evolution

To everyone who is now catching up to Indian women’s cricket thanks to the team reaching finals of the World Cup, the women’s game isn’t behind; it’s *in translation.* It’s walking the same evolutionary arc men’s cricket did, only faster and more self-aware.

- If the 1980s were about patience and character.

- Then the 2000s brought strategy and control.

- Now 2020s thrive on data and entertainment.

Women’s cricket today carries all three: the passion of the past, the intelligence of the middle, and the energy of the now.

The Language of the Game is elegant, but biased

From *“occupying the crease”* to *“owning the moment,”* from *“crafting an innings”* to *“clearing the ropes,”* the words we use tell the story of where the game is going. But they also tell us how we still perceive women in sport, often through the lens of aesthetics rather than authority. It’s time we recognised that the women’s game isn’t softer cricket; it’s smarter cricket. It reminds us that timing is a strength, and subtlety can still dominate and win the game. While the perception of men’s cricket has become an arms race of muscle, the women’s game is like an art school; the emphasis is on skill.

The Final Word

Cricket has always told its story through language.

And right now, the women are rewriting the script, one clean shot, one new word at a time. Today it is Champions!

To make sure that this would become a learning opportunity, we created an 8 member organizing team of Grade 6 Girls. While I was in charge of getting the speakers, the organizing committee took care of planning the schedule, making the invites, designing the questionnaire, and conducting the interview with our speakers. I was fortunate enough to get four extraordinary, highly enthusiastic speakers who were more than happy to come and interact with the class. Our speakers represented four fields – Entrepreneurship, Academia, Leadership, and Sciences. The organizing team worked diligently throughout February, to make sure every detail of the program was perfect.

As the day of our first session dawned, excitement levels were at an all-time high! Grade 6 was determined to put their best behavior on display. We had Ms. Sayalee Marathe, Founder and Creative Director at Aadyaa, a jewelry start-up, as our first speaker. From what it takes to start a business to ensure it thrives, we truly had an opportunity to hear from the best. The discussion ranged from dealing with a competitive market to understanding the important character traits required to become a successful entrepreneur. The girls and boys were wonderstruck as she explained the intricacies of jewelry designing, choosing different materials, and making unique handmade pieces. The creative dimension associated with the profession resonated with several students and several boys from the class expressed an interest in becoming jewelry designers in the future!

What would it feel like to learn a college-level subject from a college professor (who also happens to be Didi’s teacher) as a Grade Six student? Day two, gave Grade Six an opportunity to find out. Our second speaker, was Ms. Saylee Jog, an Economics Professor at Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics, Pune.

The class explored the ideas of consumer behavior, producer behavior, demand prediction, and more. The interaction greatly motivated the class to develop an economic lens of looking at everything around them. Post the session, my co-Fellow and I were inundated with questions about getting into college and pursuing Economics!

Teach For India Didis and Bhaiyas are an integral part of our school. Day three, gave Grade Six a chance to immerse themselves in the world of Teach For India Pune, with Deepika Didi. Our third speaker, was Ms. Deepika Guleria, Senior Manager for Partnerships, at Teach For India, Pune. A former Teach For India Fellow herself, Deepika was able to introduce the development sector to the class, which was a completely new and fascinating concept for them. The session opened new doors for imagination, as the kids enjoyed learning about the different aspects of Fundraising and Development.

With most of the class aspiring to become a doctor in the future, our fourth and final session with Dr. Meenal Sohani was a huge success. A renowned Pune based doctor and counselor, Dr. Sohani helped the kids understand medicine as a career and introduced them to the importance of mental wellbeing. Hearing from a doctor and learning from her experiences was a hugely motivating experience for Grade Six.

Once our sessions were done, it was important to help the class synthesize their understanding. I gave them a few personal response reflection questions, to encourage them to think and articulate their learnings. I was amazed as I read their submissions – every student had perceived each session in a very different way. Students who generally took little interest in writing and expressing themselves had taken a lot of effort to submit their work. A lot of responses also spoke about how a certain speaker had inspired them to pursue a similar career. Most importantly, however, my students realised the importance of making opportunities available to every person, irrespective of their gender. Understanding the lives of these four speakers helped them visualize the idea of empowerment and how it might look like in real life. We also tried to collectively build an understanding of the importance of gender equality for everyone through classroom discussions and learning circles. We explored the idea of gender roles and how they set us all up with unfair, discriminatory expectations. Several students shared their experiences of gender roles and prejudices. Boys spoke at length about not being allowed to express themselves creatively while girls spoke about the unreasonable expectations put on them.

The sharing happened in a very organic way – every student in the room was respectful of the other. The question they were trying to grapple with, was far from simple. Yet, each one of them articulated with the conviction that this unfair system needs to change for it benefitted no one. The class values for my class are Liberty and Equality. A lot of their answers and opinions were shaped on these lines, and the sixth graders came to terms with the fact that the world outside doesn’t necessarily uphold these values. While the realisation can be daunting for a person (especially a twelve-year-old), my students chose to take it with a pinch of optimism. Their resolve to change things for themselves and those around them gave me hope that the status quo can change. These kids will go on to become citizens of this country and contribute to developing the societal conscience further.

Getting selected to teach 10^th standard was a bit of a curveball for me, I really wasn’t expecting to teach a class of kids only a few years younger than me. I had very little knowledge about how the state board syllabus works, and I didn’t really understand the context of the classroom I was going to be working in either. And I struggled. I really, really struggled. The struggle was of course, due to all the reasons I have already outlined, but a lot of it was due to my own perception that I had to be perfect.

I had this vision in my head of what my classroom would be like, and it took a very difficult conversation with my children and my co-fellows to realise that maybe the vision of the teacher I wanted to be really didn’t align with the type of teacher that was required to teach a class of 16-year-olds, months away from sitting for the first standardised board exam of their lives. Also, this notion that I had to be some sort of superhuman was really getting in the way of my interaction with the kids. I was too busy focusing on the classes and their outcomes, and not enough time getting to know the kids. Part of that was because my co-fellow and I had to finish our syllabus in time for the pre-board exams, and due to all the time I spent in the beginning just figuring stuff out, I only really hit my stride in October. The syllabus had to be completed by the second week of December.

Help is always there for those who ask for it

I sat down with a planner and all the lessons I hadn’t finished, and I made a schedule for myself and decided that enough was enough. I was going to make this work but I wasn’t going to do it alone. I started relying upon the students more. “Guys, can you read this before class?” “Hey guys, do this work before the next class.” “Hey guys, let’s all stay back for an hour today?” “Hey, I think this student didn’t understand the topic today. Could you explain it to them?”

Once the pre-boards started, my co-fellow and I completely shifted our focus to training the kids for exams. It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t creative work but it was engaging and it took a lot of commitment. I showed the kids each set of pre-board papers they sat for— 5 exams in total for the two subjects I taught, for 37 students—and asked them the same questions, “Where are you struggling? Pick out those questions, pick out those chapters. Work on them.” I made some students re-write their entire exams. And while all of this was happening at school, my co-fellow and I were making home visits to find out how our kids were preparing at home and what our kids would be doing after the 10^th. We found out that so many of our kids really had no idea of what they wanted to do and very little idea of the streams and options available to them. That’s when we started working with the Student Alumni Wing of iTeach, which works with kids from lower-income schools on post 10^th opportunities.

Our kids started their board exams on the 4^th of March. They were supposed to end them on the 23^rd but due to the coronavirus pandemic, they weren’t able to do so. The pandemic forced is to shift priorities and find out what the situation was for our community and families, most of them daily wage workers, and then reach out and fundraise to be able to support them during these times. Thankfully most parents are returning to work now, and the students, my co-fellow and I are just anticipating their results, coming out sometime in June, and I just got the good news that three of our girls were shortlisted for the Mahindra International School scholarship. Maybe they get in, maybe they don’t. But they tried anyway, and that’s what counts.

So really, if there’s anything that I learned it’s definitely this: teaching kids isn’t just about class. It’s about all the relationships you form outside that classroom-with kids, co-teachers, and co-fellows. Those relationships and the support you receive from them are the only things that get you through the dark days, the days you feel nobody has your back.

Because help is always there for those who ask for it.

Subscribe now

As Teach For India Fellows, many of us including me were Reading Comprehension teachers in municipality schools. As part of our teacher training, we learned the IDEEP practice for teaching kids how to get started with writing. By far this was the toughest ask of being a language teacher. It took a while to get used to the English my kids knew and for me to figure out what needed to be worked on to help us both get started. My kids were innocent little 5th graders studying in a government school in Yerwada, who would just as easily make a mistake between “it” and “eat”, “this” and “these” and “sit” and “seat”. While we were navigating English pronunciations, and punctuations while reading and speaking, writing was a new Monster to deal with and we all had a long way to go!

1. IDEATE

After 10 years of working, in 2018, I had a feeling that I was not investing in my efforts in the right place. Working in the managing committee of an international digital marketing company, a partner of the company on paper, and managing three different teams just didn’t feel good enough. It took a while to come to terms with the fact that I could take a risk and steer my life in another direction. While exploring other alternatives, I was kindly reminded of the Teach for India fellowship, by a dear friend (also known as my husband :-)) and I dove right in. Although my heart was in the right place, landing the fellowship meant I had to do a ton of reflection even before I made an application. This not only helped me answer the questions in the application form but also gave me the clarity to press the submit button. A vague IDEA to do something for society, leverage my potential to uplift those around me found my way to the sector I care about the most, education.2. What kind of community are you looking to build here

2. DRAFT

I love to learn, and given an opportunity, I don’t think I would want to stop, ever! So when fellowship offered me a chance to be back at a college campus for a whole 5 weeks, I was excited and petrified. The classrooms and sessions were super fun, but I ached to sleep in my bed. The first few days were tough, early mornings, long hours, learning concepts you’ve never heard before, teaching in summer school, and failing miserably. But the toughest part of it all was, keeping a straight face through it all, continuing to learn. The Institute challenged me to explore all dimensions of my emotional and mental strength. It helped me unlearn my biases and become more accepting of myself and others. Of course, it’s not an overnight process and I don’t always get it right, but today I accept myself with my flaws. As we concluded five weeks of Institute, singing, “We are the ones, we are waiting for”. Each one of us knew in our hearts of hearts, a new ‘YOU’ was taking shape

3. EDIT

Equipped with pedagogy, methodology, and the newly acquired title of “didi”, I made my way to my school. There is no training in the world that teaches you to deal with hostility. There is no secret superpower that helps you cope with the feeling of alienation except for the power of love and the power of reason. As a woman, it will be fair to say that I have had to work my way up the ladder to find my place and my voice in life, I had to deal with something similar in the school system. My kids were more considerate than the system. Coming face to face with some of the flaws in the Educational system and feeling completely helpless. I realized that I can’t fight them but only try to fix them with patience and virtue. So I started working on my fellowship, bringing in a more productive line of thought, focussing on things I can change and that led to two memorable events

4. ENHANCE

Immersing myself in the unpredictability and uncertainty of the outcome was a very conscious choice. In such situations, there is no way to know, just how much is enough. Most of the days, anything I did, didn’t work, sometimes I surprised myself with the most unexpected results. I struggled to find a normal, till I realized there isn’t supposed to be one. I found myself in the most extraordinary situation and if I chose to keep my lens focussed on the ordinary I would learn nothing from the Fellowship. When I was in school, I learned the most from being on the student council and participating in sports. If I have to attribute the never-give-up attitude to anything, it has to be to sports. Teaching as leadership is an important aspect of the Fellowship, it presents you with a unique challenge of being competitive and fair at the same time. It’s a fine balance of biases and beliefs.

We held the investiture ceremony for the student council and a sense of achievement came over me like never before. A realization that it is these small victories that will eventually win us the war. With a house system in place, after the student council invested, the school team got the much-needed ecosystem to execute other plans. The whole month of January was planned as a culture month on the theme of patriotism leading up to Republic Day. Every Saturday we held house competitions for poetry recitation, speech, singing, and dancing. It was decided that the winners of each will be performing on Republic Day. PMC teachers paired up with TFI fellows were the house mentors and it was the student leaders who got their teams together, practiced, participated, and led with a sense of belonging and accountability. Competitiveness was in the air and every house gave its best to win at everything. The school team put their back into making this successful and the result was a student performance to remember. I think we all felt our purpose was complete.

5. PUBLISH

Every fellowship story is incomplete without its characters! The school team played a huge role in all aspects of my story. From handling complex emotions to understanding each other’s problems. The weirdest of conversations at the Tapri, some unforgettable night-outs and birthday celebrations, the joy of finding Delhi-wale Chhole and panipuri in Pune, and spending 12 hours at TOIT, we did it all. Of course, occasionally, we took the kids for a climate protest march, talked to them about fundamental rights, explained the pre-amble, introduced them to rock music, Winnie the Pooh, The Wizard of Oz, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Chak De India and even attended the sit-in protest at Pune’s Shaheen Baug. I don’t know if it was the distance or the seriousness of the situation that got to us, but we became closer than ever before during the lockdown. I miss these crazy, funny, determined friends. Each one with unique qualities and a special place in my Fellowship story.

“If you get, give.If you learn, teach.If you have power, empower.”
-Maya Angelou

This quote often reminds me of how far I have come in this journey. I entered my class with this thought in mind and made conscious efforts to build it in the minds of my students. I always told them that opportunities will be provided, but making the best out of it is your choice and if you make that choice or not, make an effort to make that opportunity available for someone else who values it. Throughout the past year, I have been working with the module of independent learners and collaborative effort ie learning through self-awareness for self-transformation and growth and supporting each other to achieve that. This quote has come to life in the four walls of my class in various contexts.

My name is Arunima Sengupta and I am a proud Teach For India fellow. I am a didi to 66 loving 7th graders at Dixit Road MPS, Vile Parle East, Mumbai. From the starting of the year, I have been focusing on extra-curricular to fuel student growth and development. I have tried to expose my students to the best possible ways to gather knowledge and develop their skills and interests.
It has been my dream to make the best out of my capabilities and interests from the time I have begun my journey as a Fellow. A year into my classroom and I find myself discovering and merging my colors with the bounty of talents of my students.

When I entered my classroom in June I had realized that there was a considerably large amount of work to be done to channelize the varied energies I saw and felt in those four walls. I had made up my mind to look at the all-round development of my class as a whole. So I started with what has required the most ie discipline in these students and regard for each other. I then introduced them to social sciences which were not taught to them before in order to inculcate the values of curiosity and interest in learning and researching. As my classes went on from being disruptive to a class where time flew and students were waiting back from their break time, I knew I could take the next step.

I started a drama club (The Drama Llamas) in August 2019. I chose to start a drama club as I realized that these students struggled with expressing themselves and thus faced confidence and adjustment issues. With a group of 12 students, I started off by taking sessions thrice a week after school and realized that the students started enjoying it. I taught them the 9 emotions in acting and set 4 short plays. This is where I made use of my direction skills as I once directed plays in my school and college days. In the process of teaching, I was in turn learning and polishing my skill sets.

As these students gained confidence over talking on stage, an opportunity came up. Without thinking, we took it up. It was the Brihanmumbai Street Play Inter-school Competition. My 12 students participated and represented the school with 8 more students from our school. I got the chance of directing this play and we won the first prize for the regional and zonal levels for our play “Khoya Khoya Chand” based on digital India. We qualified for the all-Mumbai finals and stood 2nd. We were also featured in an Urdu newspaper on winning the zonal level. We also won the first prize in Play competition for our play “Darwaza” based on religious intolerance at Sangam 2019, a Teach For India inter-school cultural competition. We also won the first prize for the best science project working model at Sangam 2019. In addition to that, we won the first prize at BalJallosh 2019 for our drama “Sochna Zaroori hai” based on the topic: Save Earth. Five students from our drama club also participated in the essay writing competition on the topic: Nature awareness at BalJallosh and out of 343 entries, we bagged all the three prizes. The three students out of the five from our school stood 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. We were also invited to the KE Ward office to perform our play “Darwaza” at their Diwali celebrations. We also won 1st prize for best cultural drama for our play “Diya” based on culture, superstitious beliefs, and devotion through humanity at Balakotsav 2019.

Since January 2020, I have been consistent to provide these opportunities through dramatics, financial literacy workshops, and other opportunities to perform and to showcase their talents. The Drama Llamas, my drama club was invited to three separate events to perform: Rotary Club of Parleshwar’s event Kaladarpan where they performed “Darwaza”; at the Kids Education Revolution 2020 where they performed “Padhe ho? Yaa Badhe ho?”, a play based on the difference between knowledge and studying; and at Dramebaaz Chapter IV where they performed “Diya”. I have also been successful in establishing a girl’s football team and a boy’s cricket team recently giving importance to sports as a medium of instilling values like self-confidence, team-work, punctuality, etc with the help of Lantern Edusports. My co-fellows also started an art club (smART) and a literature club (Saug’s Totts) to facilitate learning through art and expression. 6 of our students put a craft stall at Kaladarpan. Two students have bagged the best actress award for their roles in two different events. One student has got the opportunity to go on a radio show for bagging the best actress award for her role in the play “Main Maut Bol Rahi Hu” based on tobacco awareness at Salaam Bombay’s all Mumbai drama competition.

As a school team, we started noticing considerable changes in these students. These extra-curricular have immensely helped students to focus on academics, gain confidence, present their views, and showed overall development in class. Many of them missed school regularly. But, the discipline that was created through these extra-curricular, especially through the Drama club which was carried on to class. We used to practice from 1 pm to 8 pm after school and noticed that these students who once used to miss school, came to school at sharp 7:30 am and attended school, paid attention, completed notes, and cheerfully and passionately pursued dramatics as their field of interest. We noticed a great shift in their behavior as well. They are well-mannered, show values of respect and empathy, show leadership qualities while working with teamwork as their core value. Their focus has increased and confidence has risen to achieve greater things in life. These extra-curricular have shown a boost in achieving academic excellence and increased participation in class.

I have always been determined to make learning possible through expression. It has shown great results in academics as well, in the answers I check and when my students go on platforms to perform and speak. They have a deepened understanding of their community and the world now. They can differentiate between what is wrong and right behavior. They prefer collaborative learning and understand the values of team-work and hard-work. The students themselves have come up with a lot of project ideas related to the context taught in class to present their learnings creatively. As for student behavior, I have noticed a considerable change in the students, the once rival students have started helping each other to solve doubts and worksheets. Some students who struggled with basics have started seeking help from other students who are good at the subject and they willingly give up their break-time and help too. They have started developing the regard for each other which will grow and strengthen with time.

As a class, we have promised ourselves the following guidelines or principles that we continue to strive for:
“As a class, we have and will always promise for performance over victory because our performance will determine how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves (a value of self-awareness).”
“As a class, we have and will always promise for progress over excellence because our growth determines how we excel (a value of self-worth).”
“As a class, we have and will always promise for perseverance over comfort because our grit and determination will pave the way for our dreams (a value of self-confidence).”

With the current Covid-19 lockdown situation, students have been actively responsive in terms of learning and sharing their artwork and extra-curricular activities through WhatsApp. We have been successful in helping their families with groceries and they have been supporting us with co-ordinating. Their grit, sense of possibility, and optimism in this situation inspire me every single day. This makes me realize that Maya Angelou’s words have successfully come alive beyond the four walls of my classroom.

After a year, I can say with pride that their ‘I WANT’, ‘I CAN’ AND ‘I WILL’ attitude has been built. As their didi, this makes me believe in the thought I entered my fellowship with and continue to believe in: ‘I WANT’, ‘I CAN’ and ‘I WILL TEACH FOR INDIA.’

Recommended to read: https://blawghh.com/in-which-trupz-says-travel-helps-builds-character/

What is so special about the Goecha la trek in Sikkim?

The Goecha La trek in Sikkim, India is known to be a picturesque trek through the Khangchendzonga National park.. The highlight of the trek being the grand views of Mount Kanchendzonga from Dzongri top and viewpoint 1 of the Goecha Pass. Apart from this, you get to walk in the Rhododendron forests of Phedang. The great Himalayan plains of Thansing and Lamuney. Another beautiful attraction on this trek is the Samiti lake which is a glacial lake. Let me break it here itself, the websites say Geocha La is a Moderate – Difficult level trek, for the most part, it is difficult, especially if you are going in the winter season like we did! This trek gets you closest you can to view Mount Kanchendzonga from the Indian side.

If you are loving the photos, you will love the video blawghh series of the Goecha la trek in Sikkim 2017 on Youtube

What are the essential things to pack for the Goecha la trek?

Goecha la trek in Sikkim| Essential things to pack for any Himalayan winter trek

1. Rain jacket

2. Poncho

3. Fleece jacket thin

4. 2 walking sticks

5. 1 pair of gloves

6. 1 Balaclava, very useful in protecting ears and neck from sun and wind!

7. 1 woolen cap

8. 3 pairs of quick dry trekking pants (full length)

9. 3 quick dry t-shirts (full sleeves)

10. 1 pair of thermals

11. Dry fruits

12. 6 energy bars

13. 2 rolls of tissue papers

14. UV protected sunglasses

15. Essential medicines

16. 2 pairs of cotton socks

17. 2 pairs of woolen socks

18. 1 torch

19. 1 headlamp ( i recommend this since it leaves your hands free for using walking sticks)

20. 2 one liter water bottles

21. 55-liter backpack

22. 15-liter daypack

23. Sunscreen, moisturizer, lip balm other toiletries

24. Good fitting trekking shoes

25. 1 pack of Wet wipes

There is a list compiled here by the good folks at IndiaHikes which I used as a reference packing for this trek

The idea is to travel light with basic and important necessities. Also you have to be comfortable with the fact that you may not get a chance to bathe, so carry wet wipes and use them frugally.

Goecha la trek day 0 – Pune – Delhi – Bagdogra – New Jalpaiguri

October 20th was the day, Diwali was just over and we set out for our first pitstop to New Jalpaiguri. Prajwalit, Adityo and I left from Pune to Delhi in the early hours of the morning. Bhargava would join us in Delhi from Hyderabad. He made it on time and after a quick lunch, it was time for our 2-hour flight to Bagdogra in West Bengal. Our stay for the night was in the city of New Jalpaiguri(NJP). The Kali Puja was just over, but some of the pandal decorations were still around. We didn’t have a lot of time to explore NJP and we were only there for one night. We walked around the street a bit to find some lunch. We had some “Aloo Panner” which was delicious along with some really hot chapati. Then we all napped a bit for some much-needed rest. The evening was uneventful, a small stroll down for some tea and we retired for the night. Before that, we got confirmation that the car, that was to take us to Yuksam will arrive the next day at 6.30 am.

Goecha la trek day 1 – NJP – Legship – Yuksam

Our sacks were packed up, day packs had now come out. The light cotton clothes were lined with thin fleeces. It was now time to cross over from the outskirts of West Bengal into the lush greenery of Sikkim with the Teesta river for the company for most of the way. We would be passing through the towns of Legship, Jorthang, Gyalshing. The total journey time would be about 7 – 8 hours not including breaks along the way, We had ordered some early breakfast but were surprised to find out that apart from tea not much can be available. So we decided to eat something along the way to Yuksam. The car arrived to pick us up on time, it wasn’t the most comfortable looking vehicle. It was an old jeep with no bucket seats. Assuming hilly and winding roads ahead, we all knew that it wasn’t our most preferred choice of transport but we had to make a start to the trip and getting to Yuksam was more important, so we took the risk.

New Jalpaiguri is very close to the border of West Bengal and Sikkim. We would be crossing over into Sikkim near a place called Melli. Our first halt was near Lohapul at Mama Hotel. “Luchi” which is Bengali means Puri and Aloo bhaji were devoured here, along with some yummy Aloo Parantha with pickle, and of course some much needed ‘Chai’.

Where can you have breakfast en route to Yuksam from NJP?

Breakfast at Mama Hotel, Loha Pul, Darjeeling, West Bengal 734008. Tel: 076024 36384

The happy trekkers with their tummies full, now made their way to Melli. The crossover at Melli was easy, the driver had the required papers and our backpacks did the remaining. As soon as we entered Sikkim, the landscape changed, the roads were winding and narrow with lush green forests all around. Although a very small state, it is important o know that 35% of Sikkim is covered by KhanchenDzonga National Park. Even though you are in a vehicle, you have to cross between valleys to get to Yuksam. There are single lane metal bridges that are built over the river that help you cross. The rattling of the bridge decks and the fact that you are about 500ft above a glacial river make it a very exciting drive. We could see the impact of an increase in tourism here, next to the single lane metal bridge a two-way concrete bridge is being built.

A couple of hours of driving and it was almost time for lunch. The driver recommended we should wait at Gurung, Hotel at Legship for lunch and took us to this lovely homely food place. the lady serving told us that they are serving organic food and even the chicken served there is organic! The boys continued their vegetarian streak and we got served with some piping hot dal, rice, vegetables and the red chilly pickle or the “Dalle”. The ambiance at the Gurung Hotel was homely and the food was delicious, Adityo surprised himself with the ‘Dalle” when he mistook that for a cherry tomato and attempted to eat the whole of it. We all teared up, the 3 of us thanks to how hilarious his situation was and Adityo because he seemed to have become a fire-spouting dragon!

Where can you have lunch en route to Yuksam from NJP?

Lunch at Gurung Hotel: Legship, Sikkim 737111. Tel: 081458 94311

The remaining journey was uneventful until we saw a road sign that said “Yuksam 10km”, we started making calls to Mr. Gurung who was a trek co-ordinator to locate the guest house. We had booked the Geocha la trek in Sikkim via Thrillophilia who then helped us find the Red Panda Tours and Travels, our local guides in Yuksam. Its only after reaching the village of Yuksam did we realize how big the village is! There is only 1 main road that runs through the entire village and all the hotels, homestays are all along this road. In the middle of the main road is the infamous main market area that has a couple of shops selling trekking gear and winter gear. “Gupta’s restaurant” is the most significant landmark on this road. It seems like in Yuksam, the world converges at Gupta’s. As Yuksam is the base village for many treks in this region, you get to meet and interact with a lot of other trekkers here. Also, Gupta’s serve amazing food and is open until late.

So after checking into our guest house, we made it to Gupta’s. The climate was beautiful, perfectly chilly and clean mountain air, we decided to walk around and explore the village. Our appetites were worked up so we ordered some Chowmein. We had 2 days in Yuksam, since we were informed that there will be another group of 4 people from Bangalore who would join us the next day. This meant that we could explore some more place in Yuksam.

More to come of the adventurous trek of Goecha la, which by the way has not even begun yet! In the meantime feast your eyes with some photos

What are the top 5 interesting places to visit in Yuksam?

1. Kartok Lake

Kartok lake

2.Coronation Throne Of Norbugang

Coronation Throne, Norbugang

3. Dubdi Monastery

PC Kothanda Srinivasan – Flickr, CC BY 2.0, Link

4. Khangchendzonga National park

Khangchendzonga National park

5. Gupta Restaurant

PC Nilabh Singh

Youtube | Goecha La Trek 2017 | Himalayan Trek | Video Blawghh Full HD Part 1

Youtube | Goecha La Trek 2017 | Himalayan Trek | Video Blawghh Full HD Part 2

A few weeks back there was an interesting post on Twitter by @IndiBlogger where they asked to share blogging tips with fellow bloggers.

There is so much content already on this topic and so much new that is being written with every new development in search engines and digital marketing it’s hard to come up with a single tip that would make a difference.

The initiative by Indiblogger got a lot of response from the Twitter community: MyBloggingTips

Learning from my own experiences, I decided to put together my top 10 tips that have helped me get back to blogging. I encountered the world of blogging since 2005, at that time it was more of a personal blog on Blogger (blogspot) which I somehow got bored of due to its limitations in UI and design. Around 2008 I started with my WordPress blog and that’s how the name ‘blawghh” originated. I did write regularly but a full-time job and growing work responsibilities kept me away from blogging for a long time. Finally, in 2018, I got my own domain and here we are today.

Top 10 blogging tips to grow a successful blog for newbies and beginners

Before you start writing a blog, go over these tips and work out your own regimen. By experience, I know that it is very easy to get stagnated and if your intention is earning money from your blog, then you have to treat this as work and be very professional in your approach. There are many enthusiastic folks, who wake up one day and decide “I want to write a blog” and then they directly jump to reading articles about “blogging for money”. What happens is that because you don’t have a clear direction, you end up not fulfilling both your desires of blogging and earning money through blogging. To succeed in blogging and then generating an income from it, I believe that these 10 tips are very crucial. In this post, I have touched upon SEO and digital marketing very briefly, a detailed post on digressing SEO for blogging better left for another day.

So summing up my top 10 blogging tips to grow a successful blog for beginners and newbies:

1. Define the purpose of your blog

2. Use tools to get organized

3. Create a blogging schedule

4. List down your blog topics

5. Study Basic SEO

6. Research about your topic

7. Keep your language simple

8. Use visual aids

9. Understand what your readers like to read

10. Be interesting, intriguing and informative

One of the reasons why I love blogging is because I get to learn so many new things, like creating this infographic! Do let me know how you liked it and share your own tips as well 🙂

Have you ever wondered how rumors spread? Rumors have some characteristics, that make them interesting and people get excited about them which why they spread so fast.

2 important characteristics of a rumor

1. A rumor should be informative:

A rumor is usually about something recent that people are interested in. so, if you are able to add more information to what is already true, you’ve just added that desired cherry on the cake.

2. A rumor cannot be verified

This is extremely important, because if the source of the rumor can be verified then point 1 automatically gets nullified. This makes it necessary for whatever (mis)information to have no source to trace it back to.

Now that we have these 2 points clear, lets look at why rumors spread?

4 reasons why rumors spread:

1. Uncertainty:

The explosion of information in the internet age, circular reporting, almost makes it impossible for people to know whether they know everything. Since people find the same information from all the common and well known sources, at times they are intentionally seeking an alternate view which satisfies their uncertainty.

2. Anxiety:

Uncertainty often leads to anxiety. Since we are looking for answers to come to us faster than the speed of light, there is a raging eagerness to know everything right now. People dont have the patience to wait for the right answer, they just need some answer now.

3. Negativity:

Have you ever heard of a positive rumor? A rumor that has been started for the benefit of people? I still haven’t found any such attempt. The intent of widespread of (mis)information or rumors is usually a negative one. They are used for sensationalism, creating a divide with a potential risk of playing with emotional psyche or sentiments of people often religiously motivated these days.

4. Sharing important (mis)information improves social status:

Lets not kid ourselves, we are all vying for those likes, retweets and comments on social media. However, at times we do fail to realize in that bargain of achieving social stardom, you are participating in falsehood of some kind. People do go to extreme length to achieve a social status.

As children, most of us have played the game of “Chinese whispers” and had a good laugh at the end of it. If you have to digest the above points more subtly then let me tell you spreading rumors is nothing different from playing Chinese whispers. Till the time this was all talk it seemed pretty harmless. People would talk behind others peoples backs and everything would seem quiet and hush-hush. The advent of the Internet and social media has now provided a means that now people can read, see and share everything they see and read. The rumor or (mis)information has escalated to the stature of “Fake news” and spreads like wildfire.

5 fake news messages I received on WhatsApp:

1. Indian national anthem declared the best in the world by UNESCO

TRUTH: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/unesco-india-national-anthem/

2. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared best PM by UNESCO (again)

TRUTH: https://www.hoaxorfact.com/politics/unesco-declared-modi-best-prime-minister.html

3. New notes of Rs. 2000/- have nano chips inside them which will enable tracking them!

TRUTH: https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/nope-rs-2000-note-does-not-have-a-gps-nano-chip-inside-it/

4. WhatsApp to start charging you money to send messages

TRUTH: https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/28030005/

5. Rare photograph of India Prime Minister as a sweeper

TRUTH: https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/01/21/modi-photoshopped_n_9035576.html

These very popular but false WhatsApp forwards satisfy all the criteria that define a rumor as well the reasons why rumors spread. As long as these Chinese whispers were non verifiable it was fine, but the good part about the Internet is that there are now websites which help identify fake news. More mainstream news websites are joining in to contain the situation and inform the people that these are fake news, just Google any of the above 5 and you can see the result for yourself.

In India, in the last couple of years there have been incidents which were incited due to such rumors or fake news. People lost lives. Angry mobs of people took law and order in their hands. This is not good for any city. state or country. Fake news must be contained. People need to educate themselves and those around them. But the question remains, how do you spot fake news? Here is a very helpful infographic by IFLA that teaches some basic fundamentals of how you can verify news as true or fake

Source: https://www.ifla.org/

There are no dedicated sites for India that help identify fake news, so here’s a video by Dhruv Rathee that explains how to spot fake news in India

Few steps you can follow before sharing any message you received on social media

1. Don’t believe everything on social media, Facebook and WhatsApp will not ask you to forward or share anything

2. Just Google IT: There is sufficient evidence if the news is true or fake, you can tell mostly from the 1st page results if you search some of the key terms of the message.

3. Check the source. Is the source creditable? If you have doubts simply don’t share or forward

4. Is the news helpful or positive? Or will it cause more sensationalism? Is it playing on your emotions? This is upon your logical reasoning where you can decide what you do next

5. Use social media responsibly: Evelyn Hall has said, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” It is not necessary for everyone to agree on a subject but it is important for everyone to be tolerant of others opinions, beliefs and sentiments.

6. Educate yourselves and those around you about spreading, sharing anything without verifying the authenticity.

Do share if you have any more instances when you received fake news on email or WhatsApp in the comments.

Some popular websites that bust fake news worldwide:

1. Hoax Slayer: https://hoax-slayer.com/

2. Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/

3. Hoax Fact: https://www.hoaxorfact.com

4. Urban Legend: http://urbanlegendsonline.com/

I was immediately taken to my younger years when knew him as the “funny man” in Marathi, and for some reason, my father had loads of tapes of him. It was much much later that I figured out what an icon of Marathi literature he was. Literature, music, acting, orating Pu La Deshpande has many facets to his body of work and one cannot argue that he excelled at all of them.

Many years after my father had passed away, I chanced upon those cassettes and the curiosity to know Pu La Deshpande better led me to read his books. My most favorite of his writings is called “Mhais”. The essay paints a picture of a State transport bus en route to Chiplun in Konkan, Maharashtra and the happenings of the travel journey which are dictated by the ‘Mhais” (buffalo)

The beauty of Pu La Deshpande’s writings is in his unique characterization. I distinctly remember how he had sketched the “Inspector” from a village arriving 0n the scene in a Jeep etc his mannerisms, how the people would react to the arrival of the Police. The dialogue “Diiiriver kone”, read by Pu La himself in a deep, husky voice has me as one of the people traveling on that bus with all those people. His description of the surrounding and the situation is so vivid that his words make the character and the scene come alive. Another one such essay I absolutely love is “Raosaheb”, or as I like to imagine Raosaheb as a gentle giant, whose innocence and love would melt your heart.

One of the greatest gifts Pu La Deshpande had was the ability to laugh at everyday problems. There was no huge plot or a climax that was revealed at the end, but it was a reassurance that if you take problems not too seriously, they are quite comical and easy to handle. Very few people have this talent, I believe through Pu La Deshpande’s works he intended to pass this on to his audiences.

Years later, when YouTube arrived, I was hooked to watching Pu La Deshpande’s ‘kathakathan’, an equivalent of stand up comedy in those days. The only difference being it was apolitical, devoid of using any expletives with clean content. The audiences also I believe were much tolerant, one of his humorous essays “Mumbaikar, Punekar Ka Nagpurkar?” I’m sure would have rubbed off otherwise in today’s day and age. I’m sure though that if someone would have protested to his views, Pu La would’ve converted that also into some more writing.

While I am writing this, I am listening to “Mi ani mazha shtrupaksha” and am left wondering what Pu La Deshpande would’ve written about the world today? In his birth centenary year, it only seems apt that a biopic commemorating his life is being made by Mahesh Majrekar. One can only hope that he does justice to the marvel that is Pu La Deshpande.

Pu La Deshpande books and other works I have read:

• Marathi Vangmayacha (Galeev) Itihas (मराठी वाङ्‌मयाचा (गाळीव) इतिहास)

• Hasavnuk (हसवणूक)

• Batatyachi Chaal (बटाट्याची चाळ)

• Khilli (खिल्ली)

• UralSural (उरलंसुरलं)

• Purchundi (पुरचुंडी)

• Vyakti Ani Valli (व्यक्ती आणि वल्ली)

• Batatyachi Chaal (बटाट्याची चाळ)

• Asa Mi Asami (असा मी असामी)

• Varyawarachi Varaat (वा-यावरची वरात)

• Ti Fulrani (ती फुलराणी) based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Pu La Deshpande: Raosaheb

Pu La Deshpande: Mhais

Pu La Deshpande: Mumbaikar, Punekar ka Nagpurkar?

Here is also a brilliant Marathi blog “Pu La Prem“

In the last decade, I have made so many friends who love to travel! Some of them travel often, some of them travel together as a couple, some solo and some travel not as frequently as they would like to. But, if there is one thing that is common among them, it is that they are ‘different’. No, they are normal human beings, but they choose to think different about LIFE and everything around them in general. This got me thinking, why? Why are they different and what makes people who travel stand out from the crowd? Eventually, I came to conclude that traveling and exploring new places helps develop your personality and adds to your character, here are some reasons why:

1. Travelling gets you to shake out of your comfort zone

Dalai Lama has said, “Once a year go someplace you’ve never been before.” Very few realize that traveling does not mean collecting travel stamps on your passport but it means to gain new experiences. There is a thrill in traveling to a new place. For me personally, right from taking the flight or train to reaching the actual place, every milestone is thrilling. Every journey has its own flavor and that’s what makes it special. When you travel to a new place, at first it is unknown, a couple of days spent in a new place and it all starts becoming familiar, the air, the surrounding, the people start feeling known and you begin to fit in. Learning to communicate with absolute strangers, walking in a lane you have never before, trying a new dish or even participating in some cultural activities in some way force you out of your comfort zone to do or try something different. You often find yourself in never before situations when you travel and that’s the true fun part.

2. Travel to learn something new

In school, I remember reading about Hsuen Tsang, a Chinese scholar who traveled extensively in India. Traveling teaches you much more than what you would learn from a classroom or your job. For some of us who are students of LIFE, traveling is our only EDUCATION. Thanks to the internet, you have all the information at your disposal. Until you don’t experience what you read first hand, you are still left wanting. Don’t get me wrong, when I say learn, I don’t only mean learn about the place, you learn more about yourself also.

There are so many beautiful places to see around the world! The ancient relics and monuments are the living remnants of history, as we know it. Travel makes you more open-minded to explore and experience new things. Learning about different cultures, food, history and the people. I’ve been amazed by some of the people I have met on my travels, their stories and the experiences they have shared have helped me realize a lot about myself.

3. Traveling is good to be able to disconnect and reflect

In our constant and relentless effort to be connected with everything and everyone, we have forgotten that we have the option to disconnect. Whether it is social media, television or other distractions, the need to know and keep up with everything is so strong that it has engulfed our personal space, time and become a routine.

Travel helps me break this routine. When I am traveling I like to imagine the world without cell phones and Internet. So my first instinct is to buy a map of the place I am going to then rely on Google maps. Traveling slows things down, giving you time for self-exploration and introspection. Travel helps to listen to your instincts and act on them. Away from crowds, familiar surroundings and away from distractions helps me put things into perspective.

Most of us living in cities are overwhelmed keeping up with the expectations of big city life! Being at 10000ft, in the cold winter of the Himalayas, having to wait for a good 30 minutes only to be able to drink a cup of warm water made me realize how taken for granted these luxuries are for us in cities. A sunset with splashing colors or viewing millions of stars under a clear sky, one realizes these are the rarities of life we have forgotten to appreciate in comparison to the man-made grandeur.

4. Traveling taught me to do the best with what I have

Even the best of plans can go awry in an instant! Traveling comes with its set of problems, missing flights, losing baggage or being lost yourself. How you handle them all while being in unprecedented territory helps you grow as a person. There is only so much one can plan and be careful about! Traveling though is not about certainty, its what you do and how you react to a given situation that differentiates a catastrophe from an adventure.

My trip to Ladakh a few years back was one such adventure where catastrophe turned into an adventure of a lifetime. The group was stuck in a village called Rumtse a few 100km before Leh. A small village, Rumtse had room for maybe 300 people, but because of a landslide, a huge part of the road was literally washed away and now close to 1000 people were stuck. We had to spend the night in someone’s kitchen. 6 people with our luggage in a room which was no more than 10ft x 10ft. Would you believe this is one the most famous travel story told and all 6 of us reminisce about the incident? That night we all learned a lot about each other, our tolerance, ability to adapt, our problem-solving skills and who snores the most :P. The positive that came out of it was that despite the slight roadblock in Rumtse, everyone wanted to carry on further to the trip and remaining 13 days were most memorable.

5. Travel and learn to manage your expectations

Someone has said, “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey!”. Each travel journey is different and extremely personal. In the very same place, on the very same path, at the same moment, different individuals have different experiences. At times you become aware of your own strengths and capabilities, and sometimes you have to come to terms with your limitations.

So where are you planning to travel next?

Book – Ramayana of Valmiki

Original Author – Maharashi Valmiki (Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith)

Date – Treta Yuga

Available – in various interpretations – ranging from a version of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas to a more modern take on it by various authors.

Those of you who know the characters and plot well, you may jump directly to the Critique

Characters

Dashratha – King of Ayodhya, husband of Kaushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra, father of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shatrughna

Kaushalya – Eldest wife of Dashratha and mother of Prince Rama

Kaikeyi – 2^nd wife of Dashratha and mother of Bharata

Sumitra – youngest wife of Dashratha and mother of Lakshmana and Shatrughna

Prince Rama – Eldest son of Dashratha, main protagonist

Sita – daughter of Janaka, king of Mithila – she is found by him in a hole, wife of Prince Rama

Lakshmana – younger brother of Rama, faithful follower and companion throughout the account

Bharata – younger brother of Rama, mother Kaikeyi’s tricky ways makes him eligible to be King of Ayodhya, but his righteousness gets the better of her jealousy and he remains a loyal first in command till the rightful heir Rama returns to his throne

Shatrughna – youngest brother of Rama

Shurpanakha – Rakshasi, sister of Ravana – the Lanka king

Sugriva – leader of the monkeys

Ravana – King of Lanka

Hanumana – disciple of Rama, his follower and co- warrior

The Plot

Ramayana is a story told in poem form, by memory (Smruti) about an Indian prince Rama, who is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and his presence on earth in human form was as the prince of Ayodhya. This story revolves around him, his exile from his kingdom, his survival with his wife Sita, and brother Lakshmana in the forests. The core of the account starts with Ravana, the Lanka king treacherously kidnapping Sita. This is because the Rakshasi Shurpanakha, who is Ravanas sister is luring the two brothers, her attempts do not heed and she tries to kill them. Lakshmana in rage cuts off her nose and ears. Rama’s search for his beloved leads him to Kishkinda, where he meets his trusted disciple Hanumana. Together with him, Sugriva and their army of ape soldiers they march to the Lankan lands, literally walking over the sea to recover Sita. A gruesome battle is fought, Ravana succumbs and our conqueror returns home victorious.

Critique

The story combines of all human attributes all engulfed into a single life, there is jealousy, there is drama, politics, there is love, there is devotion, suffering, war and killing, victory and elation, a bit of science fiction too (monkey people – anyone say Planet of the Apes, in Valmiki times) and modern architecture (built a bridge over water with floating rocks). They have also figured out complex genetics here, since the King Dashratha as the story opens has been childless for several years, but after a ‘Putra – kameshti Yagya’ and he has 4 sons!! Valmiki, one may concede was well aware of the subtleties of human tendencies and their implications. The temptations we give into, the emotional ball game and how women use it to their advantage, the power game and how one can yield it to manipulate people. In the entire account, there is mention of how those who were eligible for position of power were tricked by those close to them, whether it was Rama, Sugriva or one can even argue Ravana, he banished his brother Vibhishana since he opposed the kidnapping of pious Sita.

Rama the protagonist is the most complex character – he follows the path of ‘dharma’ which means doing the right thing no matter what the consequences are. When his parents ask him to relinquish the throne, he does so to maintain respect of elders. When he sees someone doing wrong, he gives them an opportunity to recover but if they do not, he does not hesitate from even killing them for their deed. For the ones who are closest to him and his most loyal followers, he is willing to go to any extent to protect them. His love for Sita is so true, that he over came all adversities and arduous circumstances to recover her, but his trust in her was as blind as the God of Justice, he abstained her as wife for lack of evidence to prove her sanctity for the time she spent as Ravana’s captive.

The character of Sita is most intriguing, she is found by Janaka, and considered daughter of Mother Earth, her eventual end also is defined as she succumbs into the Earth. She is brought up a warrior princess, pious and revered she follows he husband’s footsteps as he leads her into exile, giving up her princely possessions and living a hand to mouth existence. Even when she is kidnapped she does not give in to her temptations and remains a one man woman, yet her fidelity is challenged by society but she vehemently stands up to their questions, after being exiled by her own husband she raised 2 sons on her own. It could be argued that she started concept of single mother hood back then.

There is every reason for this work to be an EPIC as it is rightly termed so – Valmiki has encapsulated human qualities so vividly in the text, that every man walking face of the Earth is a Rama, or some shade of his, personifying his qualities as a son, a brother, a ruler, a warrior, a lover and a husband and above all as human. His depiction of society and system in those Treta Yuga times, are so relevant even now. We still depend on hero worship, we still want someone else to fight our battles, and we still believe that it will be someone else’s good deeds and sacrifices that will bring peace and harmony to our lives. We still believe (some of us do) it will take God in human form to resolve all evils and vices of the universe while we can only wait and watch for him to appear. Valmiki in his works has expressed the detailed outline of hurt, anger, pain and suffering of Rama’s life, yet we look at it and seek to get inspiration from this. Had he psycho analyzed our race to be such that feeds on the deplorable situation of others? I have often wondered how many actually empathize with character of Rama? For all that he has endeared through out this entire account of events has been full of deceit, mistrust, suffering and loneliness to some extent. What was the Ramayana then – a glorified account of a family dispute, co scripted with love, war and separation? The best thing about Valmiki’s Ramayana is that it his only work, which has revolved around many human generations and there are many unanswered questions about it, many theories and speculations circulate it. There are the staunch believers and the ardent atheists, but there are few such novella in history of mankind to have generated such interest and for that he does deserve a Nobel!!

Note – the satire in the critique is not intended to offend anyone’s personal or religious views.

Just take a look around you and you be the judge of what are the things I as a woman can be happy about? Let’s try to understand and answer a few questions

Celebration of womanhood

Limits have been set to what a woman can or cannot do even before she has had the chance to understand her own potential. As a little girl she has been told that she is different and therefore there is a set of different rules for her. She has to be careful about how she behaves, how she eats, how she sits, what she says and what she wears. And yet we are made to believe that we have the freedom to do whatever we want. Supposedly today is a day to celebrate womanhood, explore your feminity and more such colluded messages. But what is womanhood? What is feminity? Society has more colluded and confused explanations for these words. According to the dictionary

womanhood: the state or condition of being an adult woman and no longer a girl

So when we are told to celebrate Womanhood, we must rejoice no longer being a girl, which would mean that those restrictions that are posed on us as young girls would be gone? Sadly NO! Read the definition again, it says “adult woman”, which would mean any woman who is capable of making her own decisions. But is that the case? Yet on this day we are led to believe we can do whatever we please and we have complete freedom. Freedom, a big word again

freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants

The definition says freedom is power, but for women this freedom comes more as a courtesy from the society we live in. So yes women do have freedom but it comes with certain restrictions

• Of course you can party, but you have to be home before dark.

• Of course you can go out alone, but in broad daylight.

• You can hold hands with a boy, but only if you are married to / plan to marry him.

• You can be a working woman, but you must also cook.

• You can be a career woman, but you have to dress decently.

After the Nirbhaya – Delhi Gang Rape incident women have become only more insecure. Has this unfortunate incident changed anything? Has society learnt how to treat women? Has mentality of men evolved? Nope doesn’t look it. Rapes still happen. Women have to undergo assault, abuse, eve-teasing, most of the incidents are hushed up and women in many cases are left alone to deal with it. Safety of women now depends on time of the day and type of attire. Recently it was this video a female traveler took to defame a fellow traveler who wronged her by trying to inappropriately touch her during the flight.

Or this scene from the movie Highway, where Alia Bhat plays a girl who opens up about here sexual harassment as a child but is hushed up. There are so many of such cases where parents refuse to acknowledge such instances or girls are scared of bringing up such a dialogue with family fearing humiliation.

Think about it, we still live in a society where talking openly about sex is a taboo. But watching this scene was part of family entertainment on Sony’s Bade Acche Lagte Hain

As woman I am expected to survive in a society which is still coming to terms with concept of equality. Equal on grounds of religion and gender. Young boys need to be made aware of how to treat girls, and subsequently women. Our movies, TV shows have to stop objectifying women as damsels in distress and eye candy affair and truly talk about the brilliance of them. Stop patronising women for sacrificing, giving up their dreams and talents and instead be their support system and help them achieve those. I would be happy in a country we accept our issues and address them rather than simply impose bans. Where we feel proud of culture and heritage and in the name of the culture propagate atrocities against women. I want to live in a society where every woman has the freedom to act, express and voice on her opinion and not be subject to discretion by family, society and any one else. And it would be my appeal to all those who wished me and sent me the messages to wish me a Happy Women’s Day what they would be doing to change this situation. It would truly be a Happy Women’s Day when I won’t have to live through societal prejudice and hypocrisy, have to fear for my safety and feel the need to be protected.

Rabindranath’s verse would be a best quote for what I would have to say for women today should hope for in the near future.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Ram and Leia

I wanted a cat for a while. We’ve always had cats while I was growing up. Also with a small apartment, a house cat made more sense than a dog though I like both. I saw a flyer in E-square, Pune for stray cats for adoption. Went there, had a look at her and she climbed on my shoulder and started purring (much like she does in this photo). That’s all the convincing I needed.

Ashwami, Lucy, Tang and Daku

Lucy is the black and white one. She is the oldest. Ashwami says she adopted her four years ago. She had wanted to get a cat after her first cat ran away. She finally convinced her mother, asked a few people and got in touch with a lady who had rescued Lucy from the street and was fostering her at her parents’ house. She wasn’t a very young kitten when Ashwami adopted her, Lucy was around 5 months old. She was a little aloof for the first few weeks. Soon she warmed up to her family. She is still not a very affectionate cat. She likes her privacy and she only plays with Ashwami’s tabby, Tang.

Ashwami got Tang one year after she got Lucy. She wanted Lucy to have some company. Ashwami already has have two dogs but Lucy doesn’t play with them. She didn’t play a lot with her family either. Ashwami thought Lucy felt a bit lonely so she wanted to get her a friend.

Tang was found outside a salon in Bandra. My friend used to work there and I would visit her often. I always played with the cats outside. Tang was tiny and very affectionate. Basically he just wanted to sit on my lap all the time. Soon we decided to bring him home as well. Lucy and Tang used to play a lot but I think Lucy bullied Tang quiet a bit. He is a very shy cat. He is also quite nervous.If he is walking across the room and you exclaim, “Tang!”, he will get startled and look super guilty as if he is doing something very wrong. He is the most gorgeous of all my cats. He loves papayas and fish especially bombil bones. I always share my lunch with him if I have fish.

This is Daku. He is the youngest and her favorite. We didn’t intend on getting him. Ashwami’s half sister called one day and told her that she found a kitten under a car. She took it to the vet and the vet said that the kitten is weak and will need to be taken care of. She couldn’t take him home so Ashwami picked him up, walked around with him perched on my shoulder all day trying to figure out what to do with it. In the end she took him home. He really was quite weak. He refused to eat and had to be force fed with a syringe. At the time she was living in another apartment in her building so she took him there. She lived alone with him for a year and thats where they bonded. She had so much fun, Ashwami says, “Daku is a baby and a brat. He is naughty, curious, funny and very affectionate.”

Daku is the baby of the family. He loves cuddling. He sleeps very close to my face, sometimes of it, sometimes on my. I love it. He also sticks to my dogs and sleeps. He troubles my cats though. He chases them, jumps on them, fights with them. Usual cat masti. He used to follow me around like a dog earlier. He also licks people. Like dogs lick people. He is my baby and only mine. I still thank my half sister for finding him for me. He loves mangoes and likes papayas too. (My two dogs and two cats eat papaya almost every morning) But he has ADD I think because he has zero attention span. He will be eating and then he’ll see something move and he’ll leave his bowl and go to inspect what he saw. He does this all day. I got him a few days before my birthday in 2012. Best birthday gift ever.

Nayana and Patch

One fine afternoon in December 2010, Nayana noticed a friends post on Flickr.com with pictures of some puppies up for adoption. They were all non-pedigreed but super cute nevertheless. One of them in particular just melted her heart and without a second thought she wrote to the friend saying ,” I’d like to take one home.” It was a white pup with brown-black patches over her eyes, ears & a couple of them on her back. So she named her Patch. She came home to Nayana in a cardborad box & her life was changed forever. Overnight she transformed from a carefree girl to this Puppy nursing Momma. :). Since then, each morning she wakes up to a pair of sparkling eyes and a truckload of energy. Each time she returns home to a wagging tail & a happy jumping dog. No matter how bad Patch has been scolded in the morning because she chewed on her bedsheet or perhaps did not have her food, its the same boisterous wagging rocket of energy who waiting to play with her .

Having a dog demands a certain level of commitment. For example- Sunday ho ya Monday, a dogs got to do what a dogs got to do, human!…. 😀 And like the Budweiser advert goes, there’s someone waiting at home for you. And then you’ve got to play fetch irrespective of your workday has been.There’s dog hair all over the house and black coloured clothes are a nightmare. But there’s also an innocent soul who madly, grossly loves us all. 4years of mad love. 🙂 4 years of non-pedigreed love. And I won’t have it any other way.

It is an amazing feeling to be loved back by an animal, it is a bond like no other. Despite these beautiful and heartwarming stories, the fate of animals on the street is very grave. From suffering with diseases to being emaciated for lack of proper food, abuse and neglect. There are no proper laws in place that will ensure a safe place for strays. Until recently Municipality could pick up a ‘nuisance’ causing animal and put it to sleep if they received a complaint. After a lot of petitions the Supreme Court has promised to look into this law which is entirely unfair to animals – you can read the complete article here, I have met a lot of people who think stray animals are burden, they litter, they are flea infested etc but when rescue groups approach them for rehabilitating or spaying these animals they shy away from being part of the effort. I believe that every problem has a viable solution but we must have a constructive approach towards it – if the lives of stray animals has to be better first and foremost they need to have rights in our society. You would always most certainly go awwww seeing a Facebook photo of a cute cuddly puppy or a kitten or a YouTube video, but very few step up to the responsibility. At the same time strays do suffer from not being a ‘pure breed’ but that’s a topic for another day.

For now I have nothing but utter respect for my friends who have opened their hearts and homes for their furry paw-tners …..

How long has it been since you used a PCO for making a call? Have you even seen one of yellow or red boxes around you off late? How often in one day do you use the term Google It! I am told this is officially included in the dictionary too. How intrigued are you by that red dot on your Facebook app, like you can’t live without not knowing. The non availability of 3G network in remote areas reminds you of howIndiais still a developing country!

Sound familiar? With advent of Iphone’s, Android OS, Blackberry and various other smart phones, that are available as per your budget, so you have extremely powerful and sophisticated devices which guarantee smartness at all costs – as well as the budgeted and economical ones which means YOU don’t get all smartness. From phones that had 12 buttons, to phones which had joysticks, now we have phones with QWERTY keypads and touch screens. A simple mobile phone which was supposed to allow you to make a call from remote places, gave us the option of sending a text (SMS), listening to music (bye bye walkman and CD players), clicking photos (how many mega pixels can you fit in that small thing) and even watch movies (GB’s of data cards) and of course Surf the net (social media we can never be not connected). You have it with you all the time, you can SNAP IT and SHARE IT in a jiffy, the IT here is your discretion. Don’t know your way, sweat no more, Google Maps is here. Newspaper, think eco friendly baby, Twitter is the new news, things spread like wildfire on this channel even before the news has happened sometimes!!

Mobiles have obviously evolved into miniature computers and become smarter and more useful than we could have ever thought of.

While there are a zillion other valid reasons why Smart phones are really Smart, I find some people using them getting, now how do I say this nicely, STUPID.

• There could be an entire generation which could go without learning words, let alone spellings thanks to the auto-complete and the T9 dictionary.

• With all words snapped to their bare minimum senses, the so called SMS generation has striped the English language, Yes has become Ya. The has become D, You has become U, and in some cases its popular to remove of the vowels and yet be able to erad the words, fr xmpl dis is crrct sntnc. 🙂

• There will never be a need to remember anything, with almost every kind of information, most of it free, available Online.

• How many phone numbers can you memorise, no we aren’t talking about becoming a Savant, but in case you phone battery dies at least care enough to remember emergency numbers or have an extra charged phone battery!!

• There is compass app which is used by many folks, as scouts first thing many children are taught how to find the North direction and they do it without any visible aids, let alone smart phones. Try the DIY method of you can make a crude compass yourself.

• We want to be the most secluded of all places and yet be connected with the rest of the world.

There are some skills that make us smart as humans. Our survival skills are considered the most basic amongst them. For once you can forget about capturing/sharing the experience and actually experience it, really enjoy it, just a bit longer. For once you can give up your fear of getting lost and get lost – you never know what news things you can learn. For once you can disconnect with the rest of the world and try connecting with yourself again. For once you can try how man actually learnt to make fire, and not just read it in books. For once you can give up your fancy gadgets and rely on Mother Nature to assist you. For once you can remind yourself, you are human and learning is how we evolved.

Technology has been evolving on its own, growing by leaps and bounds. But is the over dependence stagnating us? Do you really want tools to do your thinking for you? There is no doubt devices are getting smart, the question is are we too?

NOTE

If you are texting / talking on phones when driving, you really bought some cheap phone, a lot more dumb than the cheapest smart phone.