• Writing

    Writers, Social Media, and The Trap of Late Recognition

    We are living in a world of social media. Any profession requires a social presence here. You must have at least an Instagram profile if you can’t have a TikTok or Snapchat account. Have you ever wondered how it influences the life of a writer? Not recently a few years ago, a friend of mine asked for a suggestion. She wanted to know how to build a blog as a side hustle. The first question I asked her was if she was interested in writing. She replied that she would be OK with writing if she could monetize it. It…

  • Mental Health

    Unlocking the Wonders of Stoicism to the Modern World

    The ultimate goal of most humans is to achieve happiness in life. Over time, false ideas of how to attain that happiness have remained. Many believe happiness is attainable through certain milestones,  such as building a career, owning a big house, getting married, having kids, or buying a new car. Though a fundamental need, the real meaning of joy eludes us, and the good Stoics would say that we are searching for it in the wrong places. The Stoics characterize happiness as “the end, for the sake of which everything is done, but which is not itself done for the…

  • Fiction - Writing

    Final Moments Of Justice, Mercy And Hope With Julie

    I have been thinking about where it all went south between me and my parents. My mind conjured up a long list that goes back thirty years. We don’t have what other families call “normal” conversations anymore. From the list made up in my mind, one name popped up so much that I couldn’t avoid it. Julie. After they confronted me with what was in the sack for Julie, I knew we couldn’t be a family any more. It wasn’t like we were a family before, anyway. One fine morning, when the Sun shone brightly through the broad windows of…

  • Mental Health - Relationships

    McRenett, my daughter, and Obel Tower in the City Centre

    Happiest memory, in my opinion, tends to be replaceable with every passing year. Fifteen years ago, my happiest memory was walking with my mum home from school. The delicious fragrance of cake from the McRenett bakery filled my senses. Later that evening, when my dad returned home after work, I hugged him, twining my arms around his neck. I smell the famous McRenett cake in his laptop bag. He was always good at surprises. Five years ago, my happiest memory was giving birth to my daughter. It was the best experience of my life, hands down! I knew she was…

  • Fiction

    I conquered life- if only it was as easy as that…

    I have walked through one of the darkest times of my life. I dreaded those couple of years when the cumulus clouds stuffed my sky, blocking clear thoughts and feelings. Unfortunately, the lockdown period of Covid-19 coincided with the years I felt imprisoned by my mind. It was when I felt utterly alone and upset. The clouds dissipated finally, letting the sun shine through the sky, and all was well in the end if only it were as simple as that… If a man survives for days in a stranded boat in the ocean, he doesn’t become alive and happy…

  • Books

    Dolores Claiborne- A victim, survivor and a great mother

    In all senses, Stephen King’s novel, Dolores Claiborne, published in 1992- the year I was born- is an unconventional horror story. The author did not follow any traditional route for this novel- from the writing style to the horror elements, everything was different and out of the box. First things first, the uncouth language… There is no King’s novel without a foul vocabulary. When asked why he uses it, King explained that he intends to keep it ‘real’. That’s how the people in those parts spoke. Perhaps, he was right. The words that I don’t use in everyday life, made…

  • Uncategorized

    Is A Degree REALLY Essential To Become An Author?

    I came across this podcast ‘Tiffin Inn’ where in the first episode, Tim and Art discussed about the importance of procuring a degree in writing. The gist revolved around the essentiality of the degree for a novelist (or any kind of writer). Here are my two cents, as a writer and a wanna-be novelist: On days like today, I procrastinate more and write less. Ask any writer, and they might tell you that their procrastination is not limited to Netflix or Instagram. If you must get a PhD in procrastination, sign up yourself under a writer’s program. We have a…

  • Parentsphere

    Screwing Up as a Parent is the Most Important Lesson

    I can’t believe I am writing this, but hear me out. Screwing up as a parent is an important lesson. Growing up, I saw my parents as two perfect humans who never made any mistake. The benchmark set by them was unattainable and unrealistic. Each one of us has a different definition of parenting. For me, parenting is similar to an orchestra. As a parent, I must orchestrate (carefully and consciously) the different stages of my kid’s life with a grand scheme in mind. Usually, people would say that journey is more important than the destination. Sometimes, the journey is…

  • Parentsphere

    Gentle parenting- the myths, facts, and everything you need to know

    When I usually speak about gentle parenting to my fellow mommy friends, I see a hint of disbelief in their eyes. Some even voice out their displeasure about gentle parenting. They all often ask the same question. ‘Do you not believe in disciplining a child?’ ‘I do. But there is no relation between a gentle parent and an undisciplined child.’ When the answer does not satisfy them, I ask about their methods or ways of disciplining the kid. It involves screaming, yelling, hitting or shaming a kid. As a society, we have problems believing that love is enough to teach…

  • Mental Health

    7 Easy Ways to Stop Procrastination and Dream Big

    Procrastination is not equivalent to laziness. While procrastination is an unconscious delaying of an activity, laziness is a conscious choice of avoiding a task at hand. Meet Neha. She sits in her office on a Friday evening with furrowed brows and tired eyes. Her project’s deadline ends in 30 minutes, and she worries about finishing it on time. Though she had two weeks to finish the project, she waited until the last minute to complete it. When you meet Neha, she might come across as a lazy person. But nothing is farther from the truth. She has big ambitions and…

  • Mental Health

    TATT (Tired All The Time)- How to fight it?

    If you feel tired and void of energy all day, you are not alone; this thing is more common and gets its acronym: TATT (Tired All The Time). It is when your body feels less energetic and less motivated to work or perform simple tasks. Tiredness after a long day is normal. However, prolonged exhaustion can affect productivity and stops you from enjoying life. Low energy levels impact our mental health, too, leading to a decline in daily functioning abilities. Why do we feel tired all the time? Tiredness or physical exhaustion can be due to a multitude of reasons.…

  • Mental Health

    10 Simple and Effective Methods for a Stress-Free Life

    When you deal with stress at work or in your personal life, the best way to deal with it is by finding the cause of it. Mostly, people try to indulge in quick and easy coping mechanisms like binge eating, alcohol or caffeine, which disrupts our well-being in the long run. Instead, we are here to give you 10 practical ways to handle stress in a healthy manner. 1. Get moving:     Work out at the gym, go for a long walk outdoors or join a Pilates session. Keeping your body active clears your thoughts and decreases emotional distress. 2. Socialize:…

  • Mental Health

    Could Sensitivity Sabotage Your Life? The Truth About High Sensitivity

    I recently moved places. Again. It has been like this for three years now. When January comes, it has almost become an unwritten rule for us to shift places- move within the city or change countries. Though I know how blessed it is to travel to the places I only dreamt of when I was a child- packing, moving, transitioning to the new place, weather and culture, house hunting, and settling is a nightmare. This time, we found a temporary home in a high-rise building. So, I am sitting here on the 19th floor, facing the entire city and Lilliput…

  • Mental Health - Parentsphere

    Healthy Boundaries 101: Stand up for yourself

    Healthy boundaries are set when the kids learn to say NO. To learn to say NO efficiently, the kids must start establishing healthy boundaries in the family. Creating healthy boundaries is like creating a wall around ourselves, and putting a door, so people can knock before walking in… Let me recall something that happened in my neighbourhood. In the apartment I live, a girl (of my daughter’s age) hit and disdained other kids. She was rude and unkind to everyone. The kids who felt bullied by her often came to me to talk about it. They wanted a solution. However,…

  • Feminism

    Laugh, Walk, Talk Like a Lady: The Ruthless Sexism

    Part 1: The 1950s Housewives Feminism is the movement to bring an end to sexism and oppression. It is an effort to make women liberal and empowered. Feminists believe that feminism means having a choice. Do you also know that people who make unconventional choices feel ashamed and embarrassed to talk about it? Choosing to be a Housewife: The choice that was once super-conventional and traditional is now becoming unconventional and outdated real fast. When the “empowered” women look at a housewife, they see her as a poor soul trapped within the four walls. It is not surprising to see…

  • Parentsphere

    Fred Andrews of Netflix’s Riverdale: Single Dad of the Year

    Writing this after watching the funeral service of Fred Andrews, the best father of the Netflix series ‘Riverdale’, makes it more emotional and sad. But, it was refreshing to see the positive aspects of gentle parenting in the series that I want to write about it. With a common misconception around Indian households that parenting is almost always the mother’s expertise, this series, and especially Fred Andrews, proved it otherwise. We normally believe that cooking, disciplining and supporting a kid emotionally and morally are a mother’s responsibilities. Sometimes, we go further by imagining that single fathers are terrible at parenting.…

  • Feminism - Parentsphere

    7 Lessons of Patriarchy I would Unteach My Daughter

    Last week, I asked my friends if they had anything they would like to unteach the girl children they know- of patriarchy and gender stereotypes. We think that we no longer follow patriarchy, and maybe we don’t consciously. But, there are small lessons imbibed and cultured into our day-to-day activities. We are not aware of them because we think it is normal, and that’s how it is supposed to be done. So, when I asked, I heard a lot of common practices that could be missed as normal routines but are ideas inherited from patriarchy. Some of them are easily…

  • Books

    Kahlil Gibran’s Life Hack: How to Move Forward Without Sorrow?

    Kahlil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’, an inspirational fiction, is a great reservoir of spiritual experiences. Gibran is notably the third-best-selling poet behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu of all time. Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American author of this beautiful life hack, is still a literary hero. The writer’s best-selling book ‘The Prophet’ is a deviation from the classic structure of the poem. His power came from some great reservoir of spiritual life else it could not have been so universal and so potent, but the majesty and beauty of the language with which he clothed it were all his own Claude Bragdon You can…

  • Mental Health

    Bottom line, does negativity make you a bad person?

    Are negative people necessarily bad? What sins are they committing to term them wrong? Let’s talk about something that no one talks about often. We always talk about positivity, positive people and the light that they share with others. We rarely think or speak about negativity or negative people. We are not talking about it, not because we don’t have an ounce of negativity in us. It is the other way around. We think by speaking about negativity or negative energy, we get succumbed to a black hole. It’s a common misbelief that thinking about negative energy could take you…