At the click of a button

A decade back I was a confused teenager not sure about the choices I was supposed to make in life and where it would all lead me to. Adding onto it the fact that I was the only black sheep of the family who wanted to go the unconventional way rather than try venturing onto the tried and tested methods.

Before you kill me for beating around the bush some background – I belong to a very conservative South Indian family where every second person is either a doctor (Not the medicine wala doctor but a Ph D holder) or an engineer. And here I was a mediocre student who detested the alphabet S purely for it spelt science. They all are either are in government jobs or are professionals having their own practice. So now tell me what kind of advice will they give to a 17 year old who has opted for commerce (while she wanted to do BCA) and is wondering what kind of job to take?

Source: Google Images

Bank jobs, government sector etc were the obvious options that came my way. And all I could do as frown and say BORING! I wanted a job which would make me look forward to it each day and not something that would make feel dreary. I could not picture myself being pushed to work just like I had been to the school all these years.

I started working at a call centre; exciting, thrilling and completely my kinda job with all the jabbering that I was supposed to do. Very soon I was handling 600 calls a day and that too with highest quality – call it inborn talent ;)

It is there when I realized that only a graduation degree won’t suffice for further growth and my dreams of proving myself to everyone would end up being stifled. That is when distance education came to my rescue. I pursued my masters through distance education from one of the premier institutes and attended evening classes. It not only widened my learning but also helped me meet many like-minded people there helping me evolve more.

Today there are more options available and when I look back I feel we had very limited choices to make from. As the options are varied I am spoilt for choices. Today we have Edukart, Coursera , Khan Academy , FLIP academy and I am constantly undergoing a course at any one of these for they have such wonderful options available. And I strongly believe learning as a process is constant in life for that helps us keep evolving from time to time and stay abreast about the developments in the world. At the click of a button the whole world with its plethora of opportunities seems to come at my doorstep beckoning me with open arms to come and explore all that it has in store for me.

Luckily for me I have finally found a job I am immensely in love with (touchwood!!) and would not trade it for anything. They also encourage learning constantly through various trainings and courses for us. But yes nothing beats the On-the-job learning. I love it so much that a leave is a pain for me!!

Movie Review: If by Tathagata Ghosh – A Tender Portrait of Love, Loss, and Possibility

If , a 26-minute short film by acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Tathagata Ghosh, is a sensitive, evocative piece of storytelling that lingers long after the credits roll. Set against the everyday rhythm of life in Kolkata, the film delicately unpacks the story of a lesbian couple torn apart by the weight of societal expectations and dares to imagine a different future, one where a mother's love might just change everything. What struck me first was the film’s raw, grounded realism. The characters feel like people we know, middle-class families navigating a complex world with quiet resilience. The world of If is filled with silences, glances, and stills, rather than heavy dialogue. Ghosh masterfully uses these moments to speak volumes, allowing viewers to sit with discomfort, interpret the unspoken, and feel deeply.

Book Review: The Story of Eve: Selected Poems by Zehra Nigah

Few voices in Urdu poetry have carried the weight of history, resistance, and deep personal introspection quite like Zehra Nigah. One of the first women to break into the traditionally male-dominated world of Urdu poetry, Nigah’s work stands as a testament to the power of words to illuminate, question, and challenge. The Story of Eve: Selected Poems, translated by Rakshanda Jalil, brings together some of her most powerful nazms and ghazals, showcasing both her literary elegance and her unflinching gaze at the human condition, particularly through the lens of gender, social injustice, and political turmoil.

The Urban Gaze : Reimagining the Village in Contemporary Indian Cinema

Indian cinema has long been fascinated with the village. From the earthy, socialist realism of Do Bigha Zamin (1953) to the melodramatic lament of Mother India (1957), the village once stood as both heartland and hinterland — a space of moral clarity, rustic struggle, and often unyielding fate. But as the urban middle class began to dominate cinematic production and consumption, the depiction of the village increasingly came to reflect an urban gaze, that is, a perspective shaped by distance, nostalgia, condescension, or even outright fantasy. In recent years, this urban gaze has taken on new shades, evident in the way mainstream and indie filmmakers alike have re-engaged with rural India. While some have tried to explore the village as a site of resistance, authenticity, or even horror, others continue to reproduce sanitized or exaggerated versions of village life that serve urban sensibilities more than rural realities.

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