Miss Malini is certainly a name you have heard of before. But I felt even more connected to this lovely lady, as she took me, the reader down memory lane – back to the good old days of ICQ and when asking someone “ASL?” was the norm. This was long before we became Insta-influencers and thought it perfectly sane to share advice about the various shades of baby poop and how to wash diapers. How far have we walked down the digital revolution lane! In her latest book ‘Under the Influence’ Miss Malini talks of the perils we all face when we choose to live digital lives and are faced with our dreaded TROLLS. Not a stranger to this phenomenon, Miss Malini offers practical solutions on ‘How to Survive and Thrive Online.’
Continue readingCategory: Society
2019 is a big year for me. Firstly, 2019 is the year my husband and I complete a decade of being married. I also turn a big milestone age. Most importantly 2019 marks the year I return to work. A return to the corporate world, which I thought i had left far behind and would never return to.
And in the midst of the #10YearChallenge that has been taking the internet by storm recently, my post today also puts into sharp contrast two periods – 2009 and 2019.
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This happened to me over a year ago. A friend who admins a popular group on Facebook messaged me saying that she saw a profile with the display picture of me and my son together. The profile was obviously not mine and the account was definitely not made by me. I went into panic mode and in tears called up my husband telling him the story. After hearing all his “I told you so” and “delete all the pics”, he helped me report the fake account and write to Facebook. The account was taken down in a few days.
Admit it, every one of us has at some point of time, wondered if photos and content that we share online are misused or stalked. For bloggers, social media influencers, and of course celebrities, models, film stars their lives are all out there. It gets them a lot of attention… many a times, unwarranted.
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The story of how I learnt Kannada is quite interesting. When I was a child my parents would speak in Kannada to each other whenever there was a need to say something which I was not supposed to understand. First I picked up a few words and soon the entire language. No more secrets were shared under my nose. They probably did that when I was away from earshot. Then I spent two years in the state of Karnataka which only sharpened my Kannada. It was here that my interest for Kannada television and movies blossomed. I started with cookery shows, then serials and even some Kannada movies. Since then, I am hooked to Kannada movies.
The Kannada film industry is the fifth largest in India after Hindi, Telugu, Tamil & Malayalam. It churns around 150 Kannada movies every year which is released not only in India but also abroad in countries like USA, UK, Europe, Singapore and the Middle East. Continue reading
In my circle of mommy friends, I am perhaps one of the oldest. Sometimes I feel like an old fogey and cannot make any sense of what the mommies are talking about. Other times I feel like the enlightened one who has had the privilege of seeing a few more (or decades) of summer than the gang. For the longest time I felt trapped and did not know if I was part of this cool gang. Nor did I feel comfortable with the older lot of mommies whose children were finishing school and exiting their teens. I thought something was wrong with me. Then I discovered I was not the only one.
1979. This was the problem. It was not me or you. It was the damn year that I was born in. Continue reading
November 19th is observed as Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED.) On this day the work of Women Entrepreneurs is observed, discussed and celebrated. Women’s Entrepreneurship Day was started by a private organization Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO), a philanthropic organization with a mission and movement to empower women and girls globally and impact poverty worldwide. The inaugural event for WED was held in 2014 at the United Nations in New York City and was also replicated in several countries across the world. Since then the WEDO has come a long way and this year launched a unique digital campaign called #ChooseWomen Reading about these efforts and events prompted me to think about my favourite women entrepreneurs and how they have arisen, grown and doing so much for the community and environment they live in.
It should come as no surprise then that some of my favourite products and the brands featured in this list. It is also so inspiring to think that it is a woman who primarily conceived and set up these businesses. Without further ado, let me introduce you to Meghna Norean from Shomota, Chinmayie Bhat from Soul, Pallavi Utagi from Superbottoms and Anjali Gulati from PeopleKonnect.
Do you remember the first time your child scribbled or drew something on paper? Have you saved that piece of paper like a great treasure? I am a very “sentimotional” person (that’s double the dose of sentimental and emotional.) I too had big plans of treasuring all the little creations by babyT. But mommying is hard and down the line, I just could not keep track of those pieces of paper. I tried taking pictures of them, but they were all over the place in my phone’s picture gallery. I then heard of Plowns – an online platform for parents ( and children) to share their creative works in picture format.
The Plowns tool works via an app on Android. Once you have registered, you can upload your child’s art or essays in picture format under various categories such as Paintings/ Drawings, Craft Works, Writings, Achievements and more. These pictures can be viewed by any other Plowns user and they can also “Star” them to show that they like it or leave a comment on the image. You can also share the images with your friends and family. It’s like a social media tool exclusively to showcase your child’s creative works. How cool is that?
What makes Plowns special is also their association with the Inclusive India initiative. The Inclusive India initiative has been launched by the current Government of India to include differently abled people in the fields of education, employment and wider society. Launched in June 2017, the “initiative is an attempt to facilitate the realization of equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities into the fabric of society. ” (ET: June 7, 2017)
The long term goal of such an initiative is that we will have a society where people with “Intellectual Disabilities and their families are valued and can participate equally and all persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (PwIDDs) can live an independent and dignified life with equal participation in all activities of the society.”
With this view in mind the Inclusive India initiative has these 3 pillars as its foundation:
- Inclusive Education
- Inclusive Employment
- Inclusive Community Life
What does Plowns do for the #InclusiveIndia initiative?
For starters, Plowns has been the web partner to the Inclusive India team and has helped set up their online presence. Plowns also is an initiative partner. Via their app, they organize monthly art competitions for all their subscribers. The topics are wide and give ample opportunities to the children to showcase their talents. The idea is to include all children irrespective of their physical and mental abilities.
A positive step has been taken by the government with the Inclusive India initiative. Slowly and surely with the help of businesses and organizations like Plowns, a change will come about in our society where people of all skills, abilities, and gifts will come together and work as one.
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