my life, my stories

Barrack Obama has been out making history, on twitter and otherwise, ever since he became the first Black American President. So when he announced “ Today is a big step in our march toward equality. Gay and lesbian couples now have the right to marry, just like anyone else” #lovewins , we applaud the move , but I wasn’t surprised that it should happen during his tenure. It just made me realise though, how far India needed to go to get to that tweet. 140 characters which defined the political paradigms of two democracies. So while American supreme court  legitimized Gay marriages across all 50 states of the US of A, the Indian Supreme court overturned a lower court’s decision, by stating that the colonial era ‘homosexuality law’ which made Gay sex a crime punishable to upto 10 years, was constitutional, and changing it should be left the parliament rather than the courts. You know where else I saw homosexual love being made a pawn of politics for personal...

mommy mood swings series 5: working out for two Somewhere at the end of my first trimester I heard the term “working out for two ” and the phrase really stayed with me, maybe for the simple reason that we Indians have an oft repeated phrase “ eating for two”. I had a rough first trimester, as I imagine most first time mothers have. I found out green tea was not good as it reduced absorption of folic acid which is essential for the baby, green smoothies were a no-no especially in India where one is never sure of the hygiene of raw veggies no matter how many times you wash them (better to cook the greens into sabji or soup rather than a non cooked smoothie), also that sprouts were a no as well because of all kinds of food borne organisms that could get ingested, fish was questionable due to mercury levels… the list kept right on. Now I may not have been the healthiest eater out there but suddenly all I deemed healthy was turning out to be harmful for growing foet...

A few days back a close friend of mine received a gift. A large box wrapped in purple gift wrapping, ribbons and all, with a note saying “thank you doctor, from the Martins family” * (name changed to protect privacy) A sweet gesture which a few patients still followed. A token of gratitude apart from the fees they paid and the medical bills. The medical profession has been subjected to major mud slinging in the past few years and small gestures of gratitude and appreciation mean a lot to us trying to do the best we possibly can. But this gift was different. “your patients must really like you .” I said, especially since I knew that many of his patients considered him family, and would get him fruits from their gardens, home made wines or cakes for Christmas, sweets on Diwali. “ the patient died. She had terminal cancer, there wasn’t much that I could do. I didn’t want to take the gift, but the family insisted…” he replied The doctor patient relationship is a tenuo...

mommy mood swings series: 4 pregnancy swag- maternity fashion When Keira knightley walked down the red carpet at the 2015 Oscars in a floral Valentino looking every bit a princess , my heart filled with joy “a small step by celebrity mom-to-be, a giant leap for maternity fashion for woman kind ‘ kind of moment. This Oscar nominee for best actress had been on my ‘pregnancy fashion’ radar ever since her purple lace Erdem gown dressing her burgeoning belly at the TNT screen actors guild awards. Why do I care what she wore you ask? Why does a ‘pro feminist’ ‘anti stereotype’ agitator like me want to ‘objectify women by their clothes, you ask? Because dressing your baby bump is one of the most ‘pro feminine’ ‘pro feminist ‘ thing to do. Keira knightley with her high cheek bones and flawless skin is otherwise so skinny that during the promos of her film”pirates of Caribbean” they had to digitally enhance her assets and’fill her up’ . In a world where we ar...