I bought and consumed Sheryl Sanberg’s “Lean In” yesterday in its entirety. For both male and female readers, Sheryl has launched the civil war of our generation, this is a quick and must read. Rather than sit back and hope for people to recognise our wins, Sheryl implores women to stand up and demand to…
Author: Shabnam Aggarwal
Educated
What does it mean to have a well educated country? When neither those residing in New Delhi nor those of New York City nor those of Helsinki know how to make a woman feel respected, valued, and unobjectified throughout the city; what is the value of calling ourselves educated? Just as the loving father states,…
Body
I’ve always loved the beginnings of things. Standing on the precipice of something old and mundane, gazing out into the blissful unknown, digging my toes into the ground and waiting for the right moment to take off. The beginnings of things. Where my heart is nervous, and excited, and challenged, and intrigued. Where my mind…
riches to rags
I wrote the following piece (with some minor edits for context) 1.5 years ago, at a low point in my life, to myself more than anything else. Recently, when I meet people and they ask me if they should give up their job to pursue work for the greater good, I find I have a…
move
4 weeks ago I did something stupid. The day started out relatively innocuously. I woke up on a lazy Sunday morning to my diligent, slightly aggressive agenda: breakfast at 9. run at 10. picnic at 12. tea at 5. dinner at 7. Nothing too earth shattering. What then proceeded to occur was also standard operating protocol. I…
choochoo
Enveloped in the still of a black night, we chug along through breathtaking beauty. Blindly. Sticky shoulders bumping, eyes darting, jumping, resting. The white of a tube light rolls in and out of my rectangular peep hole. A smell eludes my thoughts…oils. Masalas. I watch as a young woman banters with her friend. Inimitably, cleverly,…
rain
Tiny drops of baarish pitter patter on the floor beside me. The wind picks up and the trees rustle as if to sing a little chan chanaa chan chan ditty. The birds chirp on the windowsill while cars honk their way through the crowded streets. The beginnings of a perfectly staged Bollywood movie. I’m sick….
pivot
It’s time for me to pivot my life, once more. For me to jump into the unknown. To plunge with reckless abandon towards a beautiful mirage of change. In the past year of invisibility off of this blog, I’ve started three projects, two in education, one in failure. The Teach Tour began this exact time…