Parenthood

Gehraiyaan: A Good Galentine’s Day Release & An Okay Solo Date Watch
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Gehraiyaan: A Good Galentine’s Day Release & An Okay Solo Date Watch

Hours Categories Body & Sex, Culture, Evolution, Examining Gender, Map Of Emotion, People & Relationships, Politics & Feminism
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Spoiler alert: This post talks about the film Gehraiyaan & references several key plot points. If you haven’t seen the film & plan to, please do not read further. Trigger warnings: Childhood neglect, self-harm, abuse, infidelity. ~O~O~O~O~O~O~ Yes, I said that. I know today is Valentine’s Day & this film…

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The Mother Box – Poetry & Acid

Hours Categories Creative Writing, Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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I wore a saree to a poetry event today. Unlike the last time, it was a rushed drape of an unstarched cotton. I look like an amma. But I was on my way to a new poetry event. And I thought it would be nice to do gentle romantic piece….

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On Motherhood, Discomfort & Poetry

Hours Categories Creative Writing, Culture, Examining Gender, Journal, People & Relationships, Politics & Feminism
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I’ve had a breather from work and life’s madness and I find myself able to write again. Surely you can’t have missed the volley of blogposts all of a sudden. Poetry is flowing again too. Here’s my scathing tribute to Mother’s Day. At all three places there were cautious claps…

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Why I Don’t Want To Be A Mother

Hours Categories Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships, Politics & Feminism
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Last year I went to see the gynacologist. I was 35, an age I’d heard was when precautionary tests would need to start being taken. I asked her what were all the things I needed to know from now on. She talked about breast examination, about cervical cancer vaccinations, about…

When Douchey Men Have Daughters
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When Douchey Men Have Daughters

Hours Categories Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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Once a guy broke my heart. Several years later, I learnt that he had had a daughter. And I thought it served him right. Divine justice, I called it. I’ll be the last person to say it’s a bad thing to have a daughter. But I can’t think of a…

‘Do You Want Kids?’ Is Not A Yes Or No Question
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‘Do You Want Kids?’ Is Not A Yes Or No Question

Hours Categories Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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Why is motherhood a decision taken by consensus, not my consent? Do I want kids? I don’t know.

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The Other Woman (The Real Other One In Every Relationship)

Hours Categories Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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I should probably re-word the title of this post. For an average Indian male at least, she’s the First Woman. Technically so for every single man, actually. Mama, Earth Mother, Ma Goddess. I saw the appalling Devdas (with SRK, Ashen-faced Rai and la Dixit) with someone who had read the…

Motherhood
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Motherhood

Hours Categories Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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I said I’d be a mother someday. He said I needed a man. I didn’t say I’d be pregnant. I said I’d be a mother. You don’t need anyone But a child for that. *Earlier posted here.

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How I Met Your Mother & Hated It

Hours Categories Culture, Humour & Satire, People & Relationships
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Yesterday I came upon a wonderful, if not depressing realisation. Human beings seek the same old social structures everywhere. We replicate the same relationship models, no matter what new social settings we are in. This realization came to me courtesy too many back-to-back episodes of How I Met Your Mother….

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Girlfriend Or Single Mum?

Hours Categories Evolution, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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I wonder if, at some point in the relationship, a woman feels more like a single mother than a girlfriend/wife. I know I certainly do. And I have one of the good ones. He’s not abusive, he doesn’t cheat, he’s not a male chauvinist. And yet, here I am. I’ve…

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Mother World: Aishwarya Rai’s Pregnant

Hours Categories Body & Sex, Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships, Politics & Feminism
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So India’s contribution to otherworldly beauties is pregnant. My first thought was that it wasn’t either parent who announced this news but the grandfather (and indisputably the more famous Bachchan). I wonder if someone were to ask the younger Bachchan how come he didn’t say anything, his reply would be,…

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Movie: Turning Thirty

Hours Categories Body & Sex, Culture, Evolution, Examining Gender, Home & Identity, People & Relationships, Politics & Feminism
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I saw the movie yesterday, five days after it was released and at the unlikely time of 3:30 p.m. It felt sort of appropriate considering that the movie seemed to showcase the absolute freedom of the urban Indian woman. The movie was strictly okay. The songs made me cringe, especially…

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Reverb10.6: The Creative Flow

Hours Categories Creative Writing, Culture, People & Relationships
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I actually like the Reverb 10 prompt on this one because I instantly had an answer and it also ties in to one of the most useful insights a friend brought my way earlier this year. December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did…

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Material Girl

Hours Categories Body & Sex, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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When I received a corporate pat-on-the-back (with a financial award), my mother suggested that I spend it on jewelery instead of frittering it away on clothes, books and shoes. Mum still believes in jewelery being a good investment. It took months but I finally agreed. I went diamond-shopping. It was…

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Tiny Tales: Playing Mommy

Hours Categories Creative Writing, Culture, Examining Gender, Map Of Emotion, People & Relationships
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Shaina Seth’s baby is eighteen months old today. Shaina is a successful executive with a leading business house. Shaina wears diamonds. In her ears, on her fingers and in her eyes. Sharp, cutting and forever bright. Of Ray, there is nothing more than a memory. His last words to Shaina are…

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Motherhood – The Great Indian Relationship & The Only One

Hours Categories Culture, Examining Gender, People & Relationships, Politics & Feminism
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I was watching ‘Wake Up Sid’ yesterday (ah, the joys of being master of your own time…a Monday afternoon movie with a friend!) when this thought occurred to me. I’ve complained long and hard about the Indian man being a perpetual mama’s boy. I also believe that this ingrained emasculated…

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Motherhood

Hours Categories Culture, Evolution, Examining Gender, Home & Identity, People & Relationships
Comments 8 Comments

I’ll be a mother some day, I said He said, You’ll need a man for that. I replied, I didn’t say I wanted to be pregnant. I said I wanted to be a mother. You don’t need anybody but a child for that.

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Meet The Parents & Their Expectations

Hours Categories Culture, People & Relationships
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A long while back, when love and such ideas were new to us and family was ‘those folks’, I had a discussion with a friend. He had decided that most women were cowards because they would not stand up to their families, not stand up for the men they wanted…

Writer’s block
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Writer’s block

Hours Categories Creative Writing, Examining Gender, People & Relationships
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I always imagined writer’s block would be about running out of things to write about. But the ideas are there.  They just don’t flow properly? Yeah…you know how it feels like pen and paper or keyboard and screen are one with your body and that the blood in your veins…

Mother Goose
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Mother Goose

Hours Categories Culture, Evolution, Examining Gender, Home & Identity, People & Relationships
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I saw this ‘Make your own teddy bear workshop’ and my first thought was “I wish I had someone to bring here…a little someone” and not “I wish they had those when I was a kid”. See here’s where you go in (irresistible kid-magnet, isn’t it?). Then you get to…