Aruna Raghuram In the midst of the raging pandemic in April 2020, we experienced a loss of a family member — our Labrador Bliss. She was a little over 12 years old. Thankfully, her suffering was not prolonged. Bliss came to us when she was a few weeks old and…

I am a late bloomer as a gardener. It is one of the few positive effects of the pandemic for me. Realising how uncertain the future is brings the urge to make the most of the present. And, that’s why a keen interest in plants sprung up from nowhere. Now…

I saw the 2010 Egyptian movie 678, written and directed by Mohamed Diab, recently on Netflix. It was a throwback to my college years in Delhi. The controversial movie is about the sexual harassment faced by women in Egypt in public places. How can I forget the daily molestation that…

I knew a person who was sexually abused when she was six years old and carried the trauma to her grave. She passed away when she was 66 years old. …

Another Children’s Day will be celebrated in India on November 14, 2020. It is heartbreaking that so many children in India, and across the world, do not go to school and are engaged in work to support their poverty-stricken families. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), around 168 million…

When I got married into a conservative family, I was in for more than one shock. But the biggest one was being ostracized whenever I got my periods. My mother had brought me up liberally. The only thing she said was that when I had periods I should not touch…

The 55-acre campus of the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) in Vadodara is indeed green, wooded and beautiful. But the crowning glory of the campus is the Pratap Vilas Palace (also called Lalbaug Palace). Built in 1914, at a cost of around Rs. …

The 2017 film ‘The Shack’ is about forgiveness — how one of the most difficult things to do is to forgive someone who has wronged us. And, how it is even tougher to forgive oneself. The movie is based on a 2007 book penned by William P. Young. …

There is something about tea. The beverage lifts the spirits, and is rightly called the ‘cup that cheers’. An apology to coffee lovers, but this one is all about tea. Whether it is tea from Assam or Darjeeling, kahwa from Kashmir or strong tea from the Nilgiris, this is a…