Confessions of a Tall Indian Woman

March 8th is around the corner. If you haven't still been invited to a panel discussion, debate or awards ceremony to felicitate women consider yourself lucky! Don't get me wrong but till date I have never understood what this fuss is all about.The level of celebration has been taken up a notch. Pink balloons and roses at work, thank you cards and what not. While I am not an anti-feminist each year I wonder if something meaningful can be done this day for the women it actually matters. Gender equality, pay gap issues are all great topics for panel discussion around like minded people in an environment that is doing almost everything right to be conducive to woman. I will say this aloud. I am happy in my current state of being a working woman and the only real issue I may want to discuss is how to empower women who aren't as lucky as me to get here. I understand the intentions around the hype surrounding this day. But can this be channeled to something meaningful? Even if i...

Follow your dreams. Channel your passion. Wake up and smell the coffee...  Words you hear often and with most Bollywood movies endorsing the mantra " You live only once. Follow your passion". Of course with a fancy BGM and even fancier locations, this seems close to reality and worth pursuing. Nothing wrong in this assumption but when you look at the larger 9-5 going regular office going people it's almost like you have assumed they are unhappy. The focus on alternative career paths is just such a eye opener and am glad that things are moving in the right direction. But what I am wary about is the exaggerated sense of finding your passion that doing a regular mundane job is dismissed without any credit. Working in a regular corporate set up for close to 15 years I can safely say the following just based on my experiences and people I have interacted. Of course there are exceptions. Here are a 10 reasons why 9 to 5 isn't passe and it can be interesting for a m...

Growing up the one major pull factor when we returned home was the extra ghee roast my Patti made for us. Or another vivid memory was visiting my maternal grandparents every weekend. Whether my parents joined us or not we will pack our bags and leave on Friday evening and get back home only on Sundays post dinner. No agenda except being fully pampered by grandparents through stories, yummy food and lots of fun. The unconditional bond between thatha, pattis and their grandkids is something that is so close to my heart. As I see my kids grow, I recollect these stories with pride and realize what an undeliable impression they have had on me.  Math and English became my first love thanks to my paternal grandfather. The strong importance to academics and it's advantages couldn't have been emphasized more and I still continue to do so thanks to him. Career growth emphasis for woman  in his generation was unheard of and that's why every time there is a milestone profession...

I had this extremely interesting conversation with my daughter. Sunday spent in the mall, inevitably means a quick darshan to Hamley's. While we entered we were shocked to see it packed to the brim and a hanuman tail queue to the billing counter. Was quite shocked but that motivated us to walk out as fast as we could. Then on the way back my daughter remarks, I am sure these sales are not true Amma. For example if the price is 100, then will make it a lot more like 150 and then offer a 50 percent discount. So we are paying the same price. So next time onwards note down the price when you like something so you can compare during discount sale. We almost stopped the car as this was a seven year old doling out P&L lessons to us and we had to think quickly and answer her in a convincing manner. Got me thinking, what's this about the word sale that makes one go berserk. Online and in shops all that you see these days is the word End of Season Sale? Which season is this? Summe...

This below mail from Swiggy is clearly my highlight this Valentine's day. Brilliant piece of marketing that has equal portions of analytics thrown in to ensure I order again. What's even more interesting is the fact that they also tell me what's my close second in terms of food preferences. While this is not a paid post for Ashvita Thai yellow curry, I am still smiling from this great idea to use this day creatively to ensure more sales. While I have seen so many ideas around these "special"days and am cynical about it all , this idea clearly stood out. It's simple, does the job and gets you thinking. We often continue in our daily routines and don't pause to reflect on our daily analytics. This is just one example right? Just imagine the world of opportunities it throws up and it's both scarry and interesting. Also made me wonder what are the opportunities I missed when I don't see or mine the data? Fascinating but that's for another post. ...

Girlfriends is a broad term I am using for most of the women in my life be it my sister, cousins,aunts to sister-in-laws to friends across different groups. One thing I strongly believe in is in the power of girlfriends and that its highly underrated. If you don't think so, then you are in a good space. Else read on.. This is age agnostic. Our parents or grandmothers have always had that one or more lady in the family who supported them on everything they did. My patti for example had her sister who was her pillar of strength and used to be her go to person. She also had a "bajana mandali" which encouraged a bunch of like minded religious women to meet regularly. No fancy words were used for this group but in hindsight I can imagine how much of "leaning in" used to happen. My mom is a different story as she had the opportunity to work and built a strong network of women around her who she's still in touch with or her school friends (maybe a few) but ha...

The title is quite self explanatory.Tamil movies have a conscious bias in the way they portray large corporate organizations and the employer/employee relations. There is black and white and typically if you see its always one point of view. The employer or the boss is irrational, stubborn, and just wants to make money. Profits anyone? You will always have a secretary or executive assistant and based on the budgets this will either be the heroine ( in older movies) to a "sexy siren" or bimbo in later ones. The only role of this person is to either fudge/steal data or help the hero break in to the CEO office. Anywhere close to reality, frankly this is such a difficult job to do and you need to be really organized to actually run a CEO's calendar. To an extent that graduates aspire for this job to jump start their career. The CEO is of two versions. The pro-employee version (far and few) just fights for the underdog (mostly the hero) and is just blinded to anything th...

No, not asking about the 101 WhatsApp group you are a part of , but asking about your "bloodgroup" on WhatsApp. Still wondering what I am talking about. Read on... The basic groups fall into broadly one of these categories  A,B,AB and O. A: All rounder and Active. Will be a part of every group, update , share, forward vehemently till fingers hurt and the blue tick gives you such a high. A can be admin too as folks with this blood group would love to create subgroups for further sharing of the same information. 1998 XYZ school 1998 XYZ School Section A 1998 XYZ School Section A Core group ......... and most probably you are the admin across all these groups. You should also be an active member of atleast 15+ such groups. B: Bindas Bragger Bandha. You are the center of attention across most whats app groups and comments/questions are all directed to you. You use this also as a medium to share regular status and updates and post pictures from your travel. Of course a...

Imagine this. Or maybe just read on. At work you are in a day long “strategy” workshop. This means you get more breaks than you deserve to clear your head . Breaks also mean ample supply of tea, coffee, snacks, lunch then repeat in the same order till dinner.   The most latest observation of mine include at least 50% in this group who are in some new fitness routine or diet. While I am a huge advocate for both and quite private when it comes to what I train and eat, its highly amusing at a large well educated group the lengths people will go to brag. Why I say brag is because it’s not just sticking to their plan , but digressing to a lengthy rigmarole of why a particular diet is the best thing on earth or spin cycling is the new cool thing. While it’s heartening to note the healthier way of living and its of course awesome to share information and discuss, there is a thin line that separates this from bragging. Even bragging I can tolerate till you just peel the layers and get...

This blog promises to be just that. For years, I have said to myself that I will be more organized around my writing so that I actually start putting pen to paper. Then life happens and you create excuses on why something shouldn't be done. What's interesting is that your brain always finds strange ways to justify these actions and you start believing that its true. Until now, as I have decided to be regular and post about the mundane and myriad events around me. Growing up as a Tall Indian Woman is just so interesting in retrospect. Sample this. Every function you go since you hit puberty, will have an aunt or uncle who is old or young come and ask you the exact same question" How will you find a mapillai(groom) for your height?" Clearly with raging hormones and academics to balance that is the only question on my mind. If you politely smile, it will be augmented with " Did you have a lot of Complan growing up?"In retrospect that's just such a win-...