When I started my career in Tech as a 20 something I was quite amused by all the women in tech initiatives. The number of women around me seemed “enough”. The dearth of women in leadership positions never dawned on me. To my young naïve eyes, everything seemed normal.

Here I was a girl in tech, a very good one at it. Why did I need an initiative like “Women In Tech”? Why did anyone need one? Wasn’t it up to each individual to carve out the space they want?

I had failed to recognize the privilege I was born…

All of us have those whimsical goals on our lists. Some of our goals are to make us feel good or at times they give us a sense of achievement or appease our wonder.

Being able to do a handstand, was one of them for me.

Picture of a handstand was on my vision board for years. I attempted it a few times inconsistently and got very easily disappointed. However, being able to do a handstand never lost its appeal.

Mid 2020, my brother motivated me to give it a go again.

Here is what I did and it worked.

YouTube It

Look up videos to understand the basics of…

As a kid, I devoured books. Tinkle and Champak comics bring back my earliest memories of books.

I read anything and everything I could find.

My brother on the other hand became a reader in his 20s. Propelled by my love for reading, our mother got subscriptions for all the comics I used to read as a kid.

Alas, my brother didn’t even look at them. Instead, I savored all those comics even in my teens.

My mother finally gave up on getting him to read.

Later in life, he found his love for personal development and found a common…

Flow State: Mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus

I have an affinity for self-improvement books. With the time at hand in 2020, I breezed through a handful. They all had one thing in common -Flow State. Or being in a flow state.

Flow state lights up the neural networks during and leads to a spiritual experience.

It made me ponder. It made me curious about if and when I enjoyed the privilege of being in the focus zone.

I curated the below list basis a superficial look at…

An Indian-Australian peacefully settled in Melbourne doesn’t need to be overly excited about the American election. The truth is the world was and is watching how the drama is playing out, including my 9-year-old.

My 9-year-old had walked up to me saying I really hope Trump doesn’t win. Her response to why do you care: Too many silly ads about Trump when I watch youtube and it needs to stop. It consumes my screen time.

We were convinced the logic was valid. It was impacting her life per se.

To me, the Biden-Harris win was more about Kamala than Biden.

…

Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul. -Joanne Harris

We go looking for books from our list, but some books come knocking at our soul. We only need to be aware of the knock.

I was listening to the Tim Ferris Podcast with Matthew McConaughey, where he narrates a story about how a book found him. The book The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino changed the course of his life. He had never read a book before and once he found this, he kept at it.

…

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.”-Eckhart Tolle

I read “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle and I wish I didn’t have. His book makes you think too much and I found that ironic.

One quick search on Medium itself and you will come across a bunch of people who have expressed their learnings from this masterpiece of a book.

I could not resist either. Because this book blows your mind.

Everyone gets something out of this.

The Power of Now

The book explains what it means to be conscious and to be present. …

1. Rape Culture
2. Eve Teasing
3. Catcalling
4. Victim Abuse
5. Heels
6. Corsets
7. Wage Gap
8. Female Genital Mutilation
9. Dowry System
10. Inequal Distribution of House Work
11. Sexualization of Female Body
12. Objectification of a woman
13. Lack of Education
14. Carrying the male Last Name -Patriarchial lineage
15. Family honor associated with a woman’s body
16. Female Foeticide
17. Abortion Rights
18. Family Planning Rights
19. Primary breadwinning responsibility on a man
20. Primary caregiving of family depends on a woman
21. Men don't cry
22. Cool girl syndrome
23. The bride leaves her parents to live with the groom’s parents (many cultures)
24. Child Marriage
25. Slut-Shaming
26. Lack of women in decision-making positions
27. A man needs to protect…