The Rebelle blog

"Let us try to open our minds to a new idea." I met so many amazing women this year and I wish to acknowledge them all. Some younger than me, a few older than my mother; all of them inspired me with their compassionate and kind demeanour. I believe I learned some great life lessons from all of them. I met some in movies and books and for me they are as real as the ones I met in flesh and blood. There are ideas and energies that keep me on the brim of unexplored territories and sharing them with all these encouraging women has resulted in a far better reality than I could have anticipated. Our power lies in our being and radiating that knowing to those beneath us and creating opportunities for their own exaltation. My being sketchy about the year gone by is just another example of how much we share happiness around us. Our constant whirlwind engages us in a stupor far more controlling our life's reins than we ought to permit it.  I became part of some conversatio...

While synchronising a book catalogue application with Goodreads today, I realised the huge number of unread books I possess in my collection. Why I never got around to reading them or why I left them unfinished will truly take a large share of my memory to remember! Some days I feel the fire burned & extinguished out of me, while some days it is so fierce that I feel a strong unstoppable force within me. These moments of introspection come not without their terrifying implications on my psyche. Even the festive season is not uplifting my mood. There is just so much going around us at the moment. I am at a cross section of journeys that I feel too stifled to endeavour upon. One would think ageing gives us enough power to confront our demons and demolish them. Not always happening. I am reading a lot of diverse material from Gender Studies to Polity and Social Structure of Economies but it leaves a gaping hole each time I dwell upon this utilitarian arrangement we are part of, ...

All my resistance to buying monsoon footwear landed me in a soup a few times in September. I ended up sitting through an entire day in wet sports shoes that made my skin itch horribly not to mention red rashes that made me throw away the shoes for good. So last Sunday upon my Mother's umpteenth persuasion to buy new shoes I landed up at a local shoe store to buy some workable comfortable monsoon footwear. I thought I was clear when I told the salesman to show me comfortable non-slid grip sole shoes or sandals when he kept showing me all the fancy strapped slick sandals that all the women were wearing and are popular in the market. Finally to get rid of all the glitter and strap, I chose ballerina flat sole shoes that I thought would be comfortable for walking and some running too. Imagine my horror when I wore the shoes for some 8 hours straight and nearly killed my feet from swelling. These are the worst kind of shoes designed for women-kind, I wonder why women tend to harm ...

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length' ~ Robert Frost Felt that happiness when things start falling into place? I never understood how things were in place the first time or how is it that they were being in the right place! Who decided which place was better? It is more out of cynicism that all of us decide to ignore the many signs that stress ourselves, filled with tiny anonymous stress pangs. Everything we work for ends up being categorised as having done for self, or others. The best part of this feeling is that it makes us feel in control of situations and events that otherwise as some would say are pre-defined. Enough of my cryptic talk here. Let me get to the happier part. I have had the most amazing, work-filled long week and I'm not complaining about it because I can't. It gives me immense happiness to be working for something I truly believe in. My design philosophy and inclinations have always been very clear and focused about inclu...

I was disturbed yesterday after a conversation I had on the internet with a new acquaintance over sexuality, roles of men & women in society, action and intention over using a term like Rapist. It all started rather weirdly after being asked by him if I would meet him for a conversation. Since he was a stranger I joked I would meet him if he's not a serial killer. To which, he responded, he is not a serial killer but a serial rapist which left me rather shocked. I asked him about his casual reference and usage of the term, and he replied saying he pitied me for my brooding over using a term about which he said he had no bad intention. I wonder if there is a good intention of ever using a term such as Rapist? What followed was a rather maligning attempt by him over my capabilities of lame justifications I would be doing in my life. This is how women are abused, silenced and tormented in internet world by men. If these statements made by men do not qualify as a potential ra...

केवळ काहीतरी रोज लिहायचं म्हणून लिहिणारे असे कितीक असतील आणि मनातलं कागदावर ओथंबून देण्यासाठी लिहिणारे किती असतील? नुसती उगाच आकडेमोड नकोच. हल्ली लोकांना फार लवकर राग येतो आणि तो लवकर व्यक्त सुद्धा होतो. तर्कावरून सुरु झालेला प्रवास तर्कशुद्ध विवेचनावरच थांबतो असं तर अजिबातच होत नाही. काल एका मराठी वृत्त वाहिनीवर हैदराबाद मध्ये कन्हैया कुमार वर चप्पल फेकली गेली त्यावर चर्चासत्र बघितलं. इतके खुजे लोक राजकारणात आहेत आणि असं विषारी राजकारण करतात हे बघून वाईट तर वाटलच पण आपल्या देशाच्या गौरवशाली परंपरेबद्दल ह्या लोकांच्या मनात किती भ्रामक समजुती आहेत, याचादेखील प्रत्यय आला.  मुळातच विद्यार्थी चळवळ हि काही आज किंवा काल सुरु झालेली चळवळ नाही. तिला देखील काही इतिहास आहेच. आजच्या राजकारणात मुरलेली मंडळी जेव्हा इतका विखारी विद्यार्थी द्वेष व्यक्त करतात तेव्हा आश्चर्यापेक्षा त्यांची मला कीवच जास्त येते. एका विद्यार्थ्याने तुम्हाला एवढं जेरीस आणलं आहे कि त्याच्यावर तुम्ही आता चप्पल देखील फेकतात, त्याला जीवे मारायची धमकी देतात, हात पाय तोडणे यासारख्या फुटकळ घोषणा करतात आणि त्याला तु...

Not sure if this is an under-statement but so many struggles through human life seem too irrelevant when seen through different tinted shades. In my country right now, there is a huge debate, newspapers filling their columns and eminent writers, public personalities moaning over political judgements and chaos ensuing in society over nationalism and anti-nationalism, sedition and loyalty to the religion major. It's sickening but true how students, writers, common people feel the brunt of black jacks but the bureaucracy fails to see the many-hued superficialities it lays on its billion citizens. Do we have to really wade through such deep, murky waters to reach to the bottom of what seemingly is utter trash? How do we fare in the eyes of the world? Perhaps, that we cannot be bothered to worry about since our nation in itself is a great entity that has survived for aeons and shall do so, with all the ancient rooted philosophies deemed oh-so-relevant in 21st century. Correct me i...