Authors Electric

After 19 months of facing the virus in India, I realized that apart from my 'blog posts', even my stray thoughts on social media have somewhere unwittingly added up to a COVID DIARY of sorts. Quite a few are reflections on/about my daughter, who has been my only constant companion through this period. The rest charts the covid-graph in my life & mind.  Thought of collating it for this month's post for AE. 24 March 2020 (immediately after the 1st lockdown was announced) May we all live through the coming 3 weeks with strength, patience & compassion. May good sense prevail. Stay safe!   21 April 2020 After 4 weeks of lockdown, I have nothing but admiration for those who are successfully harnessing their inner strength and resourcefulness & nothing but sympathy for those who are trying but failing. Meanwhile, doffs hat to the resilience of kids (at home for 5 weeks now), most of whom don't have siblings to play with, and are thus - beyond zoom classes a...

My winter reads with my daughter this year had very little to do with winter! Instead, we had a good dose of history, where we met a whole lot of gutsy women... 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls' The new year began for us with a huge surprise - the best there can be - with the gift of a book: 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls', by Elena Favilli. Fourth in the 'Rebel Girls' Series, the gift came from one of my dearies - Anurima Chanda. Srishti is blessed with a sizable army of aunts (sister-friends from different phases of my life) who spoil her every chance they get. But this is one of the most thoughtful gifts that she has ever received. “Srishti is both Indian and Dutch, a true citizen of the world. I wanted to gift her stories that would expand her horizon”, Anurima told me, when I called to thank her. It's true. Srishti was born in the Netherlands and spent the first five years of her life in Amsterdam. She is a Dutch citizen, born to Indian paren...