My Poem, 'Daughter', published in Equiverse Space

Launched on September 18, 2018 at Title Waves bookstore in Bandra, Mumbai

It's always a matter of great pride and joy for me to see my works published in books and magazines. When Smeetha Bhoumik, the editor of EquiVerse Space, asked me to contribute a piece (poetry or prose), I asked her if she liked my poem, Daughter, which I had created three years ago using the #ThrowMeAWord challenge on Facebook. I had then compiled the poems that I made through this challenge where people came up with random words and I'd create a poem out of them, into an e-book by the name Throw Me A Word available on Amazon. She loved the concept and so I submitted it to make this anthology. This is also the first time my poem has been published in India. (I have previously published in the UK and US). Do grab a copy of EquiVerse Space here. 

Travel Surprise: A Fridge in a Mine

Jadugora (Jaduguda), Jharkhand, India, 2006: Name a mining company in the world and you are likely to find its presence directly or through a local partner in the 32Km stretch between Jamshedpur and Jadugora. The area is so rich in minerals that till a couple of decades ago, people with small baskets would sift through and strain the waters of the Subarnarekha river to find gold. We were on our way to see a mine and after the requisite permissions Uranium Corporation of India allowed us a visit. My idea of mines was primitive - dirty places, deep down, miners with lights, crawling and digging - so it came as a surprise when the official summoned a vehicle to drive us into the mine. At some point after 30 metres down under, I thought we might get into some kind of a lift to give us a 'feel' of going down somewhere, but, no, we drove all the way down to 100-odd metres to a spot marked 'x'. On the opposite wall was a refrigerator. A man in a helmet sipped a Coke next to it. The last place in the world I thought I'd see a fridge. Later, when we were back on the surface and I told the official that I didn't expect the mine to be so clean. He laughed, "This is uranium, not coal."

Travel Surprise: Looking for Stones in the Malaysian Rainforest

Juara Mutiara, Tioman, Malaysia, August 2009: Tioman is a tiny island off the eastern coast of the Malaysian peninsula accessible from Mersing by only a ferry. Juara beach is the only beach on the eastern coast of Tioman. It's remote and spectacular. It took us nine hours and different modes of transport - taxi, bus, ferry, 4x4WD - to get to Juara from Orchard Road in Singapore. Soon after we reached, the husband suggested we bike around the island through the lush rainforest. As a South Mumbai teenager, who never had to bike her way to college, my riding skills are less than average (give me a horse instead, anyday). I told my husband. He asked me to try. We hired two cycles from the hotel for RM40 for half day. I started riding and my confidence grew as  picked up speed. Soon there was a narrow bridge I had to cross. The husband shouted to slow down. I tried the brakes but couldn't slow down. Then, from the other side came a giant 4x4 with more tourists. I veered off the path and jumped off the bike. I scraped my thigh, but my bigger worry was the damage to the pedal of the bike. We needed something to hammer it in. The next 15 minutes went looking for something hard enough in a dense evergreen rainforest with such thick undergrowth that even coconut kernels don't dry up. There are few places in the world where finding a stone is a very hard task. This is one fact we missed in our geography classes in school. Since we couldn't do anything with the pedal, we carried the cycle back to our hotel. Lessons learned: 1. learn to ride. 2. Don't look for stones or rocks in equatorial rainforests.

#Cycling #BikingInTheForest #StonesInRainforests

#MeToo and Us

Too many of us know too many sexual harassers, predators and abusers in the media and entertainment industries. We've worked with them, under them, for them and talked about them in hushed voices, about those 'equations' and 'promotions' and those who were fired because they didn't toe the line. Somewhere we all started to believe that's how the industry works. #MeToo is a realisation that industries can work without abuse and exploitation, only if we could use our voices.

#MeToo and Media Education

A few years ago a journalism student asked me what she should do if  the person she interviewed hit on her. I asked her specifics. She said she had gone to meet a famous photographer who said he found her attractive. She was flattered. He wanted her to pose for a shoot. She told him she would do it only if she didn't have to 'expose'. He seemed upset, she said, and they did not meet after that. She asked me if I had been faced with a situation like that. "Many times," I said recalling instances tucked into corners of my mind where interviewees, celebrities and colleagues had 'dropped hints'. "What did you do?" "I gently told them my dad was a commissioner of police. They'd let it drop, right then." (My dad was a senior bureaucrat in the revenue service but there's nothing like talking police to those who are not in the force.) Her question made me think. In journalism courses we teach how to write, edit, report, but we often fail to address the issues of harassment, abuse, exploitation, monetary compensation and threats faced by male and female journalists in the classroom.

#MeTooAndJournalism #MediaEducation