We chat for about ten-fifteen minutes before he takes his pre-workout snack and rushes off to the gym. Sometimes, I go with him to the gym, but more often than not, I avoid it. I know he feels disappointed when I don’t end my exhausting workday with a challenging workout. I do too. But it’s hard for me to explain that by the time the clock strikes four or five or especially six in the evening, I am somewhat of a mess.
When my Welsh friend who spent years teaching high school in Vietnam, suggested I Dreamed of Peace, I didn’t hesitate to pick it up. He spoke of it not just as a book but as an experience—a way to truly understand the Vietnam War from the inside out, through the eyes of someone who lived it every day. That someone was Đặng Thùy Trâm, a young North Vietnamese doctor whose diary survived long after she didn’t.
Clad in a pink georgette sari on the special request of her students, the Head Mistress of Government Middle School No. 51, Kulkarni Nagar, Indore, reluctantly agreed to celebrate Teacher’s Day this year. “The students should be celebrated”, Ms. Anulata Singh would say whenever accolades were bestowed upon her. Awarded with Rajya Stariya Shaikshik Samman (State level Education Trophy) and chosen among 100 inspirational educators in the book Meri Shaikshik Yatra (My Educational Journey) after 31 years of exemplary service, Anulata had never imagined being part of the teaching profession in her youth.
The recent Kolkata rape case has reignited discussions around the safety of public spaces, particularly for women and girls, in India. The brutal nature of the crime has left the nation grappling with the pervasive fear that drives families to confine their children indoors in the name of protection. But this confinement, while intended to keep them safe, may expose them to another set of dangers in the digital realm. I wonder what kind of future we are crafting for the next generation—a future where their access to physical spaces is restricted due to safety fears, and where their increasing reliance on digital spaces exposes them to the predatory practices of big tech?
Food has a magical effect on people. When we are having a terrible day, a good day, or celebrating, it has the power to change moods and make things better. It’s an important part of our life, from festive meals to simple soothing meals on bad days. Yet, in our country, individual or community food choices are frequently morally policed. Food has the capability to both unite and divide people across culture and societies. And this duality of food is a reflection of our societal complexity.
24 shots, that was all it took to make or break your dreams on a global platform. 24 shots, that was what it took for Indian Paralympic shooter Avani Lekhara to defend her Gold medal from Tokyo 2020 at the Paralympics, 2024, in Paris this week.
Her face shone with triumph as she watched the Indian tri-colour rise above, the national anthem played alongside, dedicated to her victorious country. Lekhara fulfilled the fervent hopes of 1.4 billion people who consoled themselves with silver and bronze in the Olympics this year.
As yet another body is discovered drenched in blood, the society pleads with me to consider, “What if she was your sister or mother”? Her virtues are listed, her values enshrined. Her very person-hood, cruelly dismissed in life, is placed on an unimpeachable pedestal in death. She is hailed as the embodiment of pristine femininity while simultaneously detached from their own reality. A week later, she transitions into a cold statistic. It is quickly forgotten that she was a real woman who led a real life which happened to include a real trauma. And so am I.
We have built a society where ‘the common man’ is the general applicable standard. In our society, the women and their voices are often invisibilised and unheard, at both individual and collective level, on an everyday basis.
So while women suffer in silence, there is no platform for them to stand in their own power and be heard. It is in the light of this, that ‘The Womb’ has decided to launch a new vertical – ‘The Common Woman’.
If you have a story that deserves to be told, shared and mulled over, write to us. Pain and joys when shared, multiplies. It is time, that we get over the taboo and talk about issues that matter, stories that women actually live, stories which are suffocating under the pressure of emotions such as guilt, shame, fear, vulnerabilities.
Police torture has been an issue in India since time immemorial. Legislators have always framed laws from an angle of curbing police torture. Yet, the reality presents a stark contrast, thereby, reaffirming that we are a nation paying no regard to the most vulnerable sections of our society!
The issue of police torture sparked discussions throughout our country when an old video, from October 2023, of a Dalit woman and her grandson being beaten by the railway police in Katni, Madhya Pradesh went viral on social media. Post this video going viral, the current scenario is that an investigation has been launched by the deputy superintendent of police, after the concerned police-in-charge had been removed.
यूपी के फर्रुखाबाद में दो दलित लड़कियों के शव पेड़ पर लटके मिलने की घटना ने एक बार फिर पूरे देश में डर का माहोल पैदा कर दिया है। कोलकाता में ट्रेनी डॉक्टर के साथ हुए दुष्कर्म की घटना पर पूरे देश में आक्रोश का माहौल अभी शांत ही नही हुआ कि यूपी से एक ओर दिल दहला देने वाला मामला सामने आया है। बीते 26 अगस्त की शाम को दो सहेलियां जिनकी उम्र 15 वर्ष और 18 वर्ष थी, पूरे उत्साह से जन्माष्टमी का कार्यक्रम देखने मंदिर गई परंतु फिर वापिस अपने घर नहीं लौट पाई।