That a becam at 9 o'clock on Wednesday. I was going through the emails when our manager Poonam announced to gather in the meeting room. This was strange because our daily connect what supposed to be at 9:30. None of us could understand why another meeting was arranged.
We entered the meeting room. Poonam was with her supervisor Rakesh. That is when I suspected a client escalation. Others also looked confused and worried. The silence in the room appeared deafening.
Poonam looked at Rakesh and asked, "would you like to go ahead?" Rakesh nodded and began, "team we have gathered here to discuss a serious matter". Then he took a dramatic pause of 5 seconds.
When he said 'serious matter' I was almost sure that it was a client escalation and we were going to receive a basing from Rakesh.
He…
I was working on a document, when my phone rang. The call was from unknown number. I picked up the call.
"Hello ma'am" I heard a professional tone and polite voice of a man.
"Who is speaking?" I asked thinking that probably it was someone from work.
"I am Deepak," he said.
I was unable to understand the purpose of the call. I had no person called Deepak in my friend circle. Also, I did not know any person with that name at my workplace. I needed to understand why this person was calling, "Hi Deepak. What is the purpose of this call?" I spoke with my authoritative voice.
"Ma'am I am calling from ABC supermarket. Last week you and your dad visited our shop," he said.
I tried to remember. We had visited their shop. We were their regular customers. But what puzzled me was that I had never shar…
I was working yesterday per usual in my home office. My house help Usha had been dusting the home. While she was dusting next to me I noticed a bandage on her hands. Her hand looked swollen. Also from her slow and careful movements I could understand that the injury must have been painful.
I asked her, " what happened Usha? How did you get injured?"
Usha looked at me with surprise. Then she looked at her hand. She tried to hide her injury but it was no use. I had already seen her injury hence there was no use of trying to hide it. Hesitant but she replied, "I fell down while cleaning the bathroom".
I knew she was not telling me the truth. The injury was on her arms which could not have taken place by falling down. To me it looked like her hand was forcefully grabbed and pulled. Having wo…
I woke up in the morning. I checked the time. It was 7:30. I conclude it that my alarm did not go off on time. I should have woken up at 6 o'clock and I am already late. Too late.
I quickly get ready. Still somehow it is 8 o'clock. I need to reach my college by 9 o'clock. Because the exams are going to begin at that time. I do not have enough time and I have to rush.
I quickly pick up my bag and start running towards the train station. I arrive at the station at 8:10. I still have 50 minutes in my hands. There is still a possibility that I would reach on time. I am at the platform waiting for the train to arrive. Unfortunately I hear the announcement, "the train arriving at 8:11 has been delayed. We regret for the inconvenience".
That is a terrible news. There is no other way to reach…
It was a regular working day for me. I was working from my home office. My household help Sandhya came to sweep the floors. While sweeping the floor her hand hit against the chair. This resulted in breaking few of her green glass bangles.
I heard the sound of shattering of glass and immediately turned towards her to find out what had happened. I saw her staring at the broken bangles.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Please tell me so that I can give you bandage," I ask her out of concern.
Sandhya told me that she was okay and she was not hurt. She started picking up the bangles in her hands. I gave her a bag to throw the broken shards of glass. While picking up the broken ornaments I saw that Sandhya appeared visibly disturbed and worried. I asked her if there was a problem at her household…
It was a regular working day for me. I received a call from my friend, Seema who told me to immediately come to the cafeteria. I felt that something serious had happened so I rushed to the cafeteria and found my friend having her breakfast at ease. I asked her what had happened and she handed over her phone to me and asked me to read a post.
The anonymous post read, "my company has a manager called as Sudhakar. He favours a very specific group of people. He is in love with a girl from our team and he always favours her. Anybody who is in his good books gets promoted quickly while others spend years to chase it. I have been working here for 7 years but he is the worst manager I had seen".
I almost dropped Seema's phone from my hands. I was shocked to read the post because I knew Sudhaka…
I met Amar in my office. He was a young man, couple of years younger to me, new joiner who had just graduated from college and joined the organization as his first company. He was not with my team but his desk was next to mine, hence we would speak often.
Amar was from a small town. He used to live here alone and his family was back in his hometown. Amar often mentioned to me that he wanted to get a job back in his hometown so ge could stay with his family.
One morning, Amar asked me, "I want to transfer the whole amount from my account to a joint account I have with my mom. What should I do?" I was a little finance literate, so I asked him to approach his bank. I should have sensed this behavior to be suspicious, but I did not.
Then came Friday. This day Amar told me that the weekend w…
I was 10 years old when this incident happened. I was home because my school vacations had started. My dad was at the office. Me and my mom had been at the home. It was around the lunch time when the doorbell rang.
I opened the door. I saw a man, dressed up in formal shirt and trousers. He looked like a working professional. He smiled at me and asked, "I have come from your dad's office. Is your mother home?" That was believable because several times dad would send someone from the office to deliver or collect something. Yet, my instincts were pointing in the other direction.
I called my mother at the door. He spoke to my mother in an equally polite way, "Ma'am there is a medical emergency at my home. My wife was pregnant. She fell down and had a miscarriage. She has been hospitalized. …
Name the worry that is loudest right now. What is it really about, underneath?
Well... I feel ugly. Gaunt, bumpy, inspiring sadness in anyone glancing in my direction. It's only worse as I age. Milk v. vine... It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's underneath it... Is it because I crave desire? Probably yes. That's probably the most simple answer. Does my gender have anything to do with it? Potentially. So what am I to do? Change or accept? I don't know.
Sometimes I feel like everyone else received a secret instruction manual for life, and somehow mine got lost in the mail.
People around me seem to know what they're doing. Someone is getting a job, someone is travelling, someone is getting married,someone is building a career and someone is confidently announcing their five-year plan.
And then there's me, staring at my ceiling at 1 a.m., wondering whether I should be proud of myself for surviving the day.
I know comparison is pointless. I know everyone's timeline is different. I know social media only shows the polished version.
Still, some days, I feel behind.
Not necessarily unsuccessful. Just… late.
Late to figure myself out. Late to become confident. Late to know what I actually want. Late to stop caring so much about what other people…
Growing up, we all had ideas about what the future would be like. Would we have flying cars or technology that works with nature? Would we still need a job or could we keep doing our hobbies as a job?
The future is still uncertain. Especially during these times, when things keep changing. Our economy and tech have a direct effect on our environment. We have a choice to save either one of them as both cannot exist freely.
There are so many solutions that even I can come up with that will benefit us while still helping the environment. The problem is that people have already adapted and changing their ways again would cause unrest.
As a person in a creative field, my stance on Artificial Intelligence is pretty obvious. Apart from the environmental impacts, I can state a number of reason…
I wake up in the morning. I am really scared. I have an exam today of Biochemistry. I am completely not prepared.
Not that I hate it biochemistry. It had more to do with the professor. Our professor had gone on a maternity leave and a temporary lecturer was appointed. This new lecturer did not have much of knowledge and was unable to teach us. Her lectures were boring so much so that we used to call it a snooze fest. I would attend the lecture but the mind would wander somewhere else.
Practicals had been better because it did not require me to listen to her. I read the instructions from the book and performed the experiment successfully. I had scored well in my practical exams but now is the theory exam for which I am scared.
I had rarely opened the book of Biochemistry. Every time I…
Before I narrate the story let me set the context. I stay in the heart of the city. My residence is metres away from one of the biggest highways of the city which later connects to one of the biggest national highways. Anytime I have to travel anywhere I have to go to the highway by crossing one side and moving to the other side. Because of the traffic management it is not as risky as it sounds. Crossing the highway is very convenient for the pedestrians and appropriate safety measures are taken on the highway. Though I do not see a danger in crossing this highway, what happened with me told me that the danger is not only associated with high speed vehicles.
It was a regular working day for me. I had left my home at 7:30 to go to my office. I had been walking on the road so that I could …
It was a rainy morning. The rain and darkness was making it a lazy morning. I was sitting on my bed sipping up the coffee and reading news on my phone. I was taking slow sips of coffee so that I go to stay longer in the bed before starting of my work day. While I was reading through a news article about one of the new discoveries about the strain of amoeba, I was startled by a scream. It was a blood curdling scream. The scream came from my upstairs neighbour, I recognized her voive.
My upstairs neighbour stays with her two year old daughter. Her husband works with the merchant navy so he was away at the sea. The scream made me jump. I lept from my bed immediately. The adrenaline had rushed, making me ready for action. My first thought was to call her and ask her what had happened. I took …
I will be going all over the place, so please be kind.
I am from a traditional Hindu family. Every evening after sunset, we light oil lamps. We light up incense stick and take it around our home including the front door. Then we say our prayers in front of the god. For a last few days, I had noticed something strange. Each evening, after lighting the oil lamps, a sound would come from outside the front door. It felt like the sound heard after pressing the switch button halfway. It would come almost every day. I noticed the pattern. One evening I closed my eyes and prayed to the god, "I have been hearing this sound every day. I know it is an energy. Tell me in a dream if this is a good or bad energy. If it is a good energy I will wholeheartedly welcome it to my home". This was a couple of …
My sister had told me that at the mall one of the shops had their clearance sale and they had amazing collection. Since me and my mom both of us wanted to buy traditional outfits we decided to visit the mall. We decided to go on a Monday so that we can avoid the weekend crowds.
We went to the mall on Monday. As expected the mall was almost empty. The shops to did not have many visitors. We visited the shop and found that apart from us there were a couple of other shoppers. Me and my mom were browsing through the collection to see if we are liking anything.
While I was looking through the collection I saw that a woman probably in her late 20s or early 30s had been around me. She was with a man presumably her friend or husband. I noticed her because a couple of times I had seen her glanc…
I was working on my project. My phone buzzed. The text message was from my friend Kirti. She had sent a link of a YouTube video with me. Looking at the title I knew this was neither urgent nor important. Kirti and I had been friends for a very long time so I was in a position to send her a direct message, "working on a project. I will have a look at your research later". I knew Kirti will get my sarcasm.
Later in the evening when I was done with my work I decided to watch the video that I had received earlier in the afternoon. It was the video of a celebrity at an award function. She looked very different.
"Why does she look so different here?" I replied to Kirti.
"This is exactly what I wanted to tell you. She looks completely different. I cannot believe she is the child artist we had b…
Kira was my friend from office. Both of us had joined the team around the same time. Both of us had undergone the training and certification process for project joining at the same time. As we had been going through the same phases be had become really good friends. At least I used to think that Kira was a close friend of mine. For Kira the equation of friendship was something completely different.
Initially I did not note the red flags. One day around 4:30 Kira asked me if I would like to go to the cafeteria. I had work that day but I needed a cup of coffee. I agreed and both of us went for a quick coffee break. At the cafeteria Kira ordered a sandwich that would generally take 20 minutes to prepare. I told her that I am working on a deliverable and need to return quickly. She made a sa…
Last afternoon I was working. I was completely engrossed in the research study that I had been reviewing. I was startled by my phone. I checked the notification, it was a text from my friend Shubha, "did you see the news?"
I was completely clueless. I had read the news in the morning but after that I was completely unaware what had happened. I replied, "which news? I am occupied with my research work".
"Oh! Nothing urgent. We will speak later," texted me back.
Once my work was over in the evening I decided to text her back, "what did you want to tell me in the afternoon?"
10 minutes later, Shubha shared a news article with me "20 dead cats were found in Chembur area". Just the headline gave a lump in my throat. I swallowed hard and read the news. The news article mentioned that in Chemb…
Name the worry that is loudest right now. What is it really about, underneath?
‘’ I think my biggest worry write now is weather I am actually making the right choices for my future. I have lot of ideas and things I want to try, but sometimes I wonder if I am moving forward or just jumping from one thing to another . Maybe underneath it all , I’m just scared of wasting my potential and look back wishing I had taken myself more seriously.’’
We were in the cafeteria having lunch. My friend Sonia sat opposite me. She looked really pale that day.
"Sonia are you unwell?" I was worried so I asked her.
"I am feeling little tired today. Little drowsy too. Is it so obvious on my face?" Sonia asked. I nodded.
After lunch we got back to work. I was checking on her every now and then. I was really worried about her because definitely she looked really unwell. I told the colleagues who sat nearby to keep a close eye on her.
Around 4 I went to Sonia's desk to ask her if she wanted a cup of coffee. I saw that Sonia had closed her eyes tightly. Her hands were on her desk. I wanted to make sure that she was okay. I placed my hand on her shoulder. She quickly grabbed my hand in her hands. Her hands were cold. Too cold almost like she had …
It was that day of our friend's wedding. I along with three of my friends where going to attend it after our office. I booked a cab from my office to the wedding venue. It was supposed to be a fun ride but it resulted in a nightmare.
We boarded the cab and I realised that the driver was really glad to see young women in the cab. He was looking at each one of us. My instinct were telling me to stay careful. I started speaking in my authoritative voice. I believed it was sufficient for him to know that he also needed to be careful.
While I had sensed the danger my friends were completely carefree. Sitting in the back seat they had started singing. They had been singing really loudly. Unfortunately because of their behaviour the cab driver was getting entertained. I had kept my guard up …
Currently there are many raids being performed by the food and drug administration (FDA) especially in Maharashtra. Each day when we open the newspapers, we see that a new restaurant had been raided and the license has been report.
Today I opened the news paper. The news read 'Hotel ABC was raided by the FDA. It was found that several food safety laws were broken. The raw material was stored near the drain. The restaurant had been using unfiltered, tap water for preparation of food. Raw material was stored in unhygienic conditions. The restaurant had failed to maintain hygienic conditions in the kitchen area. The licence of the restaurant has been revoked'. When I read the news I was in complete disbelief. I had a lump in my throat reading that the restaurant was operating in unhygienic …
It was 8:55 in the morning. I entered the office and went straight to my desk. While I was settling down I saw that the conference room door opened. Ajay one of the project managers came out of the room and he walked straight up to me. He looked angry, "why have you not joined the meeting yet?"
I responded, " there is no meeting on my calendar. I have not received any invitation to the meeting which begins now," I was very clear with what I had to say. What I said was true.
" Everyone is waiting for you to join, now join quickly", he almost shouted at me.
"Send me the meeting invitation then. I will join," I reply it politely at the same time assertively.
He angrily walked back to the conference room. I waited to receive the meeting invitation. It was 9:05 and I had not received any meeti…
It was after 10 o'clock in the night. I was listening to a podcast on my phone. While my mother was watching her entertainment videos on YouTube. Suddenly my mother tapped on my shoulder. I turned around to see that my mother look bit worried and was looking at the phone. She said, "I just watched a news on a YouTube channel. There has been a road accident near where we used to stay. One person died and many have been injured. The name of accused has been given and it is someone we know".
After hearing that I had a lump in my throat. I read the name and definitely he was someone we knew. In fact he had been a family friend. He was a very skilled driver and used to travel a lot. He was not negligent as well. But he was old and had many health issues. My mind was trying to conclude that it…
That time I was 9 years old. It was the day of Ganesh Chaturthi. We had visited the town of Dadar because we had been attending our families Ganesh puja. In the evening dad informed us that we were going to visit his cousin Avi kaka's place. He to used to live in Dadar.
We had started walking towards Avi kaka's home. As soon as we reached his building I felt something was off. My stomach dropped. My heart started racing. All my instincts where telling me not to enter. But I had no control over where we would go. I had to follow my parents.
Avi kaka's building was a very old architecture. It was dark and dull. The vibe and energy of Ganesh Chaturthi was no longer being felt at that place. It felt as if the enthusiasm and positive energy has been sucked out by this dreaded building. It fe…
When I was in school carrying handkerchief was a mandate. In school it was a habit to carry the handkerchief. This habit even continued to college. As everything started to progress each and every place would also have paper towels. Because of the easy availability of paper towels I had stopped carrying handkerchief. However one incident changed everything.
I used to work at one of the biggest multinational companies. The office was glamorous. Everything was portrayed to be sophisticated. The restrooms were spacious and impeccable. The restrooms had high quality and gentle hand wash. The paper towels that were provided in the restrooms were of superior quality and from a well recognised brand. They even were anti bacterial. Looking at the maintenance of the restrooms and the quality of s…
I was in Grade 7 that time. This incident took place in the month of December when the days are shorter and the night is longer. It was a regular day at school. The lectures happened as they were supposed to. The recess happened as it was supposed to. But as the school day was about to end something unusual happened.
It was the lecture of science that was going on. Our teacher was teaching us about the commonly used chemicals in the school laboratory. The lecture had become very interesting because all students were intrigued by the school laboratory. The teacher wanted to show us how potassium permanganate changes the colour of water. Our teacher Mrs Kulkarni wanted a student to go to the school laboratory and issue a few milligrams of potassium permanganate on her name for class demon…
Imagine that you made a person who is popular among all your friends or colleagues. Everybody praises them a lot. You meet this person for the first time. You really wanted to like that person but after meeting them something feels off. Does that this sound relatable to you? Here is my experience.
While working with one of my organisations I was transferred from my old project to a new pilot project. Along with me my friend Kira had joined the new project. In this new project there were a few friends who belonged to other project. It was really a relieving experience because most people in the project where known to me. Our training for the new project started.
During the training period a lot of senior trainer is where introduced to us. One day our lead trainer informed us that Mohit …
The day I needed something to protect myself , he gave ne this. He is a man too, yet he never made me feel like I had to depend on a man for my safety.
Instead , he quietly made sure I could protect myself. maybe that’s what meant the most to me , not the thing that he gave me but the thought behind it. I’m not sure when can I say women are safe even many of the men out there know very well that how men are so they try to protect their loved ones at all cost. Such harsh truth but it’s the reality and we all women have to live with this even men are suffering from this now. The day when he gave me this I realized how worried he is because how unsafe it was for me and he is scared too. I got this after sharing what harsh things have happened with me to him, he is always there with me just i…
