bbchindi में छपा लेख

 पहली बार हिंदी में कुछ लिखा। किसी और ने अनुवाद नहीं किया, ख़ुद लिखा, तो अपनी ही पीठ थपथपाने का जी चाहता है।  पहले हिम्मत नहीं पड़ती थी।  आख़िर मेरी हिंदी हिंदुस्तानी है, न कि सरकारी दफ़्तरों की नई हिंदी जो सर पे संस्कृत का भारी बोझ लिए घूमती है, जिसे समझने के लिए आम जनता को किसी अनुवादक की ज़रुरत पड़ती है। लेकिन अब शुरुआत की है तो सोचा है कि हिंदी को फिर से अपनी ज़ुबान पे रखूँ, थोड़े और प्यार के साथ, बिना किसी संकोच के।  संकोच को झिझक कह दूँ। झिझक को हिचकिचाहट। कौन रोकेगा?

फ़िलहाल, bbchindi में छपा ये लेख:

http://www.bbc.com/hindi/india/2015/09/150919_women_writers_anie_zaidi_sr  

Port-Able?

Another graphic piece on what it means that state transport buses don't come right up to the departure gates at airports and even railway stations. Publihsed in the Mint (Sept 20, 2015):

http://mintonsunday.livemint.com/news/port-able/2.4.948020578.html

What reading Indian women's memoirs taught me

I have never seen a jail from inside, except in movies. In movies that did feature female protagonists in jail, they either silently submit to their incarceration or got tortured, often at the behest of men, or sexually exploited by men. If they were rescued or reformed, it was because some man came to their help.

Joya Mitra showed me a very different truth. She, along with a few other young women, saw themselves as political prisoners and they demanded that they be treated as such. They demanded better food. They clamoured for the right to read books... what happened to them was not the result of a sexual or emotional relationship with a man. If they suffered at the hands of men, they suffered at the hands of women too. They were subject to a brutal system (as were the men) and they lived to tell a tale that is not often told.

Read the rest of this short essay here: http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/indian-women-in-history-memoirs-sarojini-naidu-rani-lakshmibai-cornelia-sorabji-purdah-struggles-achievement/story/1/6207.html