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Short Stories & Poetry
April 22, 2020

Dear Soul Sister, Pause And Take A Slot With Self!

An ode to all working women jugglling between home and work from home.

Anjali G Sharma

An ode to all working women juggling between home and work from home.
The pandemic times are challenging for everyone. However, women have been pushed to take the responsibility of not just professional commitments but also tending to children, household chores and primary care giving responsibilities. In such a scenario, it is important to consciously and mindfully spend some time tending to self, just yourself.
 
 Her day started much before
the sun opened its doors;
And started its ascent.
The load on the mind
The queue of tasks
LIFO or FIFO is what she thought.
 
There were tasks paid and unpaid;
Responsibilities stated and unsaid.
#ShareTheLoad yes;
But it was each to their convenience.
The conditioning and mindsets played strong;
For the chromosome XX;
Nurturing was primary;
And home was above all.
 
Her identity in the outside world
The labels and designations;
Director or Manager or a Homemaker
But in the current scheme of things
And a missing support system,
Who brought more money to the table.
Only that mattered.
 
And so began the day,
Hopping between the spaces,
Virtual and real.
Sometimes the host other times an attendee.
Like an adept juggler,
she ensured both spaces were balanced
And well-taken care.
 
One day, as the sun ended its shift
And the moon took over,
Something tried to pause her;
And made her see the mirror.
A tiny straw from the broom,
The prick; the pain
Cracked heels; Blemished hands
But she dismissed and moved on
Instead; looking at the clock she said
“Oh! I better rush to the next zoom call”
 
 
But the pain was adamant
As it had come for a reason;
More than the surface,
The wounded child inside;
Needed attention.
The murkiness of self-doubt made it hard;
Self-love is being selfish, she had been taught.
 
The constant debate; the inner stifle
But ultimately the pain won,
And made her rendezvous with the inner self
Clearing the blue sky.
She realised –
“I owe it to myself,
before anything or anyone else”
And she put a big slot on her calendar
and labelled it “ME TIME”
Image Credits: Pixabay

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About the Author

Anjali G Sharma

Present - India Lead - Education, Charter for Compassion, Co-Author - Escape Velocity, Writer & Social Activist. Past - DU, Harvard, Telecoms-India and abroad read more...

58 Posts | 235,082 Views

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Feminist
April 23, 2024

There Is A Prachi In All Of Us! Why, As A Society, Can’t We Look Beyond Appearance?

UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.

Anjali Paul

Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.

While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.

Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.

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