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With these average success rates, I have developed a sense of self-belief hoping to conquer most of life’s challenges.
In all my years that I have troubled mother Earth, I have managed to stay afloat in most, without crash-landing on anyone and thereby crushing them with my heaviness.
Some years have been with the able support of the near and dear who often steered me with their all-encompassing tough love – that is chiding me and guiding me at the same time.
Some of my years have been mostly shooting in the dark and finding my way. I fell but managed to survive and reach those small-destinations albeit bruised. With these average success rates, I have developed a sense of self-belief hoping to conquer most of life’s challenges.
But I tell you, still, nothing prepares one to handle those Well-Meaning-Dosts, who with all their good intentions manage to make us question our own existential parameters! ‘Being Nosey’ is their claim to fame!
What was I thinking really while I sported that swag RADly, when I couldn’t manage the tiniest detail of looking after my abode to their ‘I-will-not-tolerate-your-less-than-perfection’ standards? Or didn’t manage to raise my progeny to their exacting ideals? I cannot even begin to recount the writing advice or weight-gain-thrashings!
You would understand my predicament if ( and only if) you have been privy to that understandingly soft but, dripping with ‘You-poor-bloody-sloth’ smile that barely reaches to the corners of the lips of the aforesaid well-wisher who is currently playing the role of a coroner, bisecting your’s esteem with periodic tch-tch!
What would one do? Grin and bear it or grit teeth and bare it all. A no hold’s barred account of how all the forces of nature had been conspiring so far preventing you to achieve your full potential.
Or give it back with full ammo!
WTF – With Thundering Fury – But then one has to take into consideration, the loss of a fraand who could be counted upon, in times of crises like Pujas, Dosa doughs and more.
I have hit upon a winning formula, that has worked for me so far. Change immediately the conversation to NaMo, #370, Ayodhya, Metro free rides, roads-in-rainy-times, and that Brahmastra? pollution and climate change. Please be warned that talking about financial planning is a damper. Because eventually, everything is decided by Mister!
I tell you, the amount of FANaAmrit or Vitriol (depending upon which side of the spectrum you are) that flows is enough to flood the Thar desert!
After this missive that soft lands, I innocuously ask about the well-wisher’s family while I am on the lookout for an escape route.
If I am in a more deliciously vengeful mood, I touch upon the thorny issues (everyone has a secret! Trust me! Don’t ask mine though, ain’t telling you!) which the well-wisher would smartly feign complete ignorance of.
By then, you are safely off. Don’t try the last bit though, in case you don’t mind your good-bank deposits dwindling and bad-bank deposits soaring.
Surely, we gotta keep that forces-to-be on our side!
Because ultimately Karma is a bitch! Always bites you in the back.
Image is a still from the movie Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
Anupama Jain is the author of: * ’Kings Saviours & Scoundrels -Timeless Tales from Katha Sarita Sagara’, listed as one of the best books of 2022 by @Wordsopedia. Rooted in the traditional storytelling of Indian legends, warriors, read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
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Rajshri Deshpande, who played the fiery protagonist in Trial by Fire along with Abhay Deol speaks of her journey and her social work.
Rajshri Deshpande as the protagonist in ‘Trial by Fire’, the recent Netflix show has received raving reviews along with the show itself for its sensitive portrayal of the Uphaar Cinema Hall fire tragedy, 1997 and its aftermath.
The limited series is based on the book by the same name written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost both their children in the tragedy. We got an opportunity to interview Rajshri Deshpande who played Neelam Krishnamoorthy, the woman who has been relentlessly crusading in the court for holding the owners responsible for the sheer negligence.
Rajshri Deshpande is more than an actor. She is also a social warrior, the rare celebrity from the film industry who has also gone back to her roots to give to poverty struck farming villages in her native Marathwada, with her NGO Nabhangan Foundation. Of course a chance to speak with her one on one was a must!
“What is a woman’s job, Ramesh? Taking care of parents-in-law, husband, children, home and things at work—all at the same time? She isn’t God or a superhuman."
The arrays of workstations were occupied by people peering into their computer screens. The clicks of keyboard keys were punctuated by the occasional footsteps moving around to brainstorm or collaborate with colleagues in their cubicles. Most employees went about their tasks without looking at the person seated on either side of their workstation. Meenakshi was one of them.
The thirty-one-year-old marketing manager in a leading eCommerce company in India sat straight in her seat, her eyes on the screen, her fingers punching furiously into the keys. She was in a flow and wanted to finish the report while the thoughts and words were coming effortlessly into her mind.
Natu-Natu. The mellifluous ringtone interrupted her thoughts. She frowned at her mobile phone with half a mind to keep it ringing until she noticed the caller’s name on the screen, making her pick up the phone immediately.
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