The metamorphosis
Sucheta Das Mohapatra The quality of Neelanjana’s (name changed) work kept deteriorating. She wasn’t performing as per her manager’s expectation. The Human Resource (HR) Department of the company she served placed her in three Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) in six months. There was no change. No one could make out what was happening. She was […]
Breaking up with perfection
A love letter to my flawed, real self. Because flawless is exhausting, and freedom looks better on me by Anandmai Kumar A long-overdue breakup Perfection and I go way back. She was the invisible roommate, the unrelenting voice in my head, the imaginary gold star I kept chasing. She arrived quietly – through school […]
The Loneliness paradox
Prachi Raturi Would I be ok with my 16-year-old smoking 15 cigarettes a day? NO! Not one! And yet when this young lady, who like many children her age, became somewhat socially withdrawn, post Covid, and complained of being lonely, I didn’t realise it was a ‘health risk’ comparable to smoking more than 15 cigarettes […]
360° PARENTING – HEALTH & WELLNESS
C S Ojha A recent news story from Mumbai drew attention to an unsettling reality – children from private schools, despite access to better resources, were found to be in poorer health than those from government schools. On nearly every parameter – obesity, eyesight, strength, and overall fitness – private school students lagged behind. This […]
A charming cookbook from the hills
Seema Kumar Prachi’s book took me back to my childhood when I used to enjoy reading Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. The five children in the series were always on a picnic and the description of the food and the little nuggets, once in a while, behind those foods were very interesting. Prachi’s book […]
Bite by bite
Sukriti Taneja Have you ever found yourself in a picture-perfect place, only to realise your mood has completely soured, unprovoked, irrationally grumpy, a bit like a toddler in a tantrum? You try to push through, enjoy the sights, soak in the experience … until it hits you. You’re not sad. You’re just hungry. Or […]
Uplifting the mood sweetly
Sucheta Das Mohapatra A fortnight back as my full-body health check-up report landed on my WhatsApp, the AI assistant offered help to summarise the PDF? I thought, why not? The summary was scary! But I had no time and was in no mood to panic. I was in the office and in the midst of […]
Big plates, bigger hearts: The emotion that is the food of the Arabs
Sharad Kohli West Asia – or to be more precise, Kuwait – was home for the first 10 years and nine months of my existence, then for a couple more years between the ages of 13 and 15, before a short but all-too-knafah-sweet 22 months in Dubai brought an end to our Arabian adventure. […]
No paneer, just perspective
Neha Duseja Two weeks ago, I was finally living a dream. Vietnam had been on my mind for months – its postcard-perfect landscapes, YouTube vlogs with dreamy drone shots, and Instagram stories filled with lanterns, lakes, and laughter. As someone who romanticises travel in her head long before boarding the flight, I had imagined it […]
Your food mirrors your inner world
Bhavya Jain Have you ever judged a person, even in a small way, for how they eat? You may have a friend who devours their meals like a race, or an acquaintance who opts for the green sushi roll with the green stuff that is inherently questionable. There is actually psychology behind behaviours regarding food […]