A humming word

  They stifle us with sections of caste.  They tighten the noose with a glorious past.  Then they make a dish of your choice.  And slowly hush your voice.  They give us things we don't need.  When we get accustomed they remind us of our greed.  We are stifled by their demands.  We are haunted by their commands.  Loosen the tie.  Let us fly.  We will come back.  With wings in our bagpack.

An early morning discussion with my family and friends about how life was took me back to the memory lane when our weekends was about events and adding value to life by doing some meaningful work or at least, we thought we did . We did not know of terms like "community building" "branding" and "coaching" but we were doing that, anyway.  One idea at a time.  In this blogpost, I am going to write about Ignite Hyderabad . We had done five volumes of it in Hyderabad. At NIFT, Madhapur, ISB Hyderabad, State Art Gallery (two volumes), and the then-newly born Lamakaan, Road no 1, Banjara Hills.  What is Ignite Hyderabad though? It was night of presentations where the heroes were people amidst you and me: yes, ordinary citizens who did extraordinary work.  Ignite started in Seattle and Ravi, my classmate from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavans, formed a team to pursue a chapter in Hyderabad in 2010 . The organising team was a bunch of nine, including me; each, an emerging sp...

Bachieanna was the model child for all of us in the family: good at studies, intelligent, kind, fun to be around and most importantly, humble with a strong moral compass. As we grew up, I still remember getting irked when he was compared to the actor Abbas of Prema Desam. Bachieanna even knew the lyrics of the famed song: Mustafa Mustafa. Argh!  My aunts and mother would circle around him in my Ammamma's home and ask him to sing and applaud, leaving the rest of us red-faced. Bachieanna enjoyed this adulation as much as he enjoyed fighting over the last bite when Ammamma fed us sambar rice and beans. Normally, none of us would eat it but when Ammamma fed it, it became sumptuous. However, I remained the undisputed champion of the last bite!  Growing up, often, we gyrated to Hrithik's dance numbers. Bachieanna watched Kaho Na Pyar Hai seventeen times. Back then, it was a huge rage to watch it more than thrice. We extended our madness for dance to even participating in Boogie Woog...

An excolleague had once neatly explained to me, how we are taking feminism in the wrong sense and how it began for a focus on equality and basic rights and now has its own sects, which is fine. But with the remake of Pink as Vakeel Saab, there is choice to focus on entitled feminism. Why entitled? Take the premise. Three women who go out late at night.... The entire sentence reeks with entitlement. Many women are not even allowed to step out. There itself lies in the entitlement.  Pink is a beautiful movie. It was also great for the careers of the women and the man involved.  But what about movies like Parched which ask for basic rights to still be looked at? The film neatly portrays the camaraderie of three battered women who are victims of Khap Panchayat in Rajasthan. In one scene a young bride, abused by the father-in-law, is asked to return only because that is the law for a married women. There are several such scenes like these which question the purpose and existence of...

Sita and Rama are the most unfortunate couple in the Hindu mythology. When I was growing up, my mother would often tell me, one must never name their daughters Sita or Janaki. Their fate and life was deplorable.  Volga, the pen name of Lalitha Kumari, is a noted feminist writer and is a stalwart in the Telugu Literature. And hence, this fictional account is written with its ink dipped in feminism. The right kind, ofcourse.  This book is set in Valmiki's ashram and Lava and Kusa are now grown up and explore the forest. Sita, along with the mothers in and around the ashram, performs the duties of a mother. However, nudged by fate, she begins her internal journey by meeting Ravana's disfigured sister, Surpanakha, who is now tending to a beautiful garden, Parsurama's abandoned mother, Renuka, the wronged Ahalya, and lastly Urmila. The book ends with the chapter on Rama, who was equally wronged, wrapped in the ethos and pathos of Arya Dharma. Also, my favourite chapter.  What ...

 I just put my mask on, now,  whenever I see a person it is a reflex that will never fade away.  "Hope is an obstacle" - Thich Nhat Hanh This is our doing anyway! we let things happen while sitting  in our cubicles watching the sunrise we remained mum as species became  extinct and animals became homeless  We chose indulgence over need  We never let empathy touch our greed  Today, we hope we have a better tomorrow  But we forget we burnt the bridges we polluted the Ganges  We did what we pleased  because we could  We have no longer the right to even feel hopeful or even sorry for us  rather we need to work together and  though it may seem useless   it is like saving a dead plant that you never watered in the first place  because you were busy scrolling some feed or  attending a course that seems irrelevant now  because your loved one's breath  is what is needed to make you feel alive...

 When Manohar Grandhi, an enthusiastic member of the Hyderabad Book Club , shared that his daughter wrote a book. It took me by a surprise. Writing a book is a difficult task. Writing, while managing school work must be difficult but the young author who also entered the India Book of Records did it. Meet Disa Grandhi, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing over email.   Hi Disa,  Why did you think of the book? I wrote many stories in my storytelling class. So when I wrote my own stories this story was one of them. My parents encouraged me to write it in a book. What resources did you go through while writing?  I did not go through any resources to write this book. It is completely my own story. How was writing benefitted you at school? Now everyone in my school knows that I am a young author. My Principal Anju Madam, Supriya Madam, and my Class Teacher congratulated me when I met them personally.   How many books do you read in a month?  I read ...