Feel Alive

When I started reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Meta aka Facebook), I presumed it to be another self-help book. However, in the very first chapter, Sandberg mentions her pregnancy when she asks Larry Page (Google co-founder) to reserve parking space for women near the entry gate so that she doesn’t have to walk from the very end of the Parking lot to the gate. Keep aside men, even women are not aware of some of the issues that women themselves go through until they face them. As Sandberg suggests, it is always better to ask than presume. There are so many incidents that are mentioned in the books, which make it very relatable for working women. In the first chapter of “ The Leadership Ambition Gap ” , the book mentions how female leaders are so minorly represented whether it be in world politics or corporate leadership roles. Even though women perform at par or better than their male counterparts in academics, the statistics on the gap at the leadership level acr...

अपने होने का भी क्या गुमान करना ओ साथी , अपने तो कल निशाँ भी नहीं बचेंग़े। कुछ होंगे जो याद करेंगे शायद कुछ दिन , बाक़ी तो आज भी परवाह नहीं करते होंगे।। तो बहने से पहले , थोड़ा अपने लिए जीना। और बाक़ी उनके लिए जो , होकर भी दुनिया में , नहीं हैं।। जो बहने से पहले , एक बार तो जीना चाहते होंगे।।

It has almost been a week and Achala couldn't decide the way forward. She has not stepped out of the house, her reservoir of tears kept getting replenished and nowhere near to get dried up. Girish tried to cheer her up with movies, his humor, his closeness, but she wasn't ready for the transition from demotivated space to feel motivated. It felt like a lot of work to feel good when nothing good was happening. And Ritvik called. "Where are you? been a month and we have not spoken." Before she could utter anything, he said, "Let's meet at our Tapari spot in the evening. You know that I don't like adarak wali chai without you." Ritvik laughed and she couldn't stop her smile. She had always liked his company. He was such a sober, genuine, family guy, so much sorted, uncomplicated. Achala took shower. She had to wash her hair but didn't feel like it. "Are you okay?" Ritvik asked her. She said, "Yeah, what will happen to me?" ...

Achala was restless, confused; thinking when all did go wrong. She could not believe the conversation that she had today. It was going over and over, still did not make sense. She has worked so hard, she always has. "Is this my fault?" rings in her head. "Am I not good enough? Just an average software professional who can never make it to the top. But I tried everything.", she screamed in her head.  Girish is home early today than his usual time. "What's wrong?" He senses her mood as he walks in. Seeing him gave her the courage to be weak and she broke down into tears.  "I'm going to get fired. I worked so hard." She kept crying and nothing else would come out. He holds her in his arm, "Tell me what has happened?"  "I don't know. They might fire me". "For what?" "Because it is not working out. And all the blame is on me. It had never worked in the first place." And her head is spinning thinking ...

As and when I read through the news of gender abuse or discrimination, I consider myself lucky to have such men or boys in my life where I had less resistance, more motivation. They prepared me to deal with any such incidences in life. On this International Mensday , this  blog is dedicated to all the men who are, were, and will come into my life. And I’m thankful that they have helped me grow and be what I'm. Love you all and thank you from the bottom of my heart... As everything starts with the family, m y Papa never differentiated between us sisters and our brother. Of course, he has his own set of prejudices, perceptions, and beliefs, but that applies to all of us in the very same way.  He gave me my first typing lessons when I was 9, only because I wanted to learn and we had a typewriter. I was kind of a typist for him after that. :) My brother has almost always been a pillar of support, even though we had our share of differences. I do have a lot of cousins. Even though ...