Mother Archives

World Post Day: How My Mother Lost Her Voice as Emails Replaced Letters

Sometimes, when I miss my mother’s younger, healthier, happier self, all I need to do is close my eyes and think of the beautiful letters she wrote me – letters as distinct as the way she drapes her saree. But the realisation that my life was going to be forever lacking in the salt of her written words dawned on me when her memory began to fade.

Chandrima Pal July 24, 2016

POV

Why Do We Inherit the Worst Traits of Our Parents?

Growing up, I wanted to be nothing like my parents. I spent a significant part of my teenage years defining myself in opposition to my parents. Yet, over time, the very traits that I disliked about them slowly became my own – and that’s when I truly understood them.

Poulomi Das July 24, 2016

Modern Family

Believe Your Mother When She Says “You’ll Know When You Become a Parent”

There was a point in our lives as a couple when we had the exact certitude you feel about someone’s parenting skills – when we were sure a toddler could be handled, managed, and disciplined better. That point was before we became parents.

Tony Sebastian July 19, 2016

POV

How choosing not to be a mother brought me closer to my father

Motherhood is so often expected to come as a natural choice to women. Almost a year into the pandemic, I realised it is not for me. Here's how I revealed my choice to my father. It only brought us closer.

Divya Unny July 18, 2016

Pop Culture

Jalsa review: Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah in top form

Suresh Triveni’s Jalsa is an unsettling story about two mothers who though miles apart in class, caste and social standing, speak the same language of motherhood.

Divya Unny July 18, 2016

Modern Family

My Runaway Mother

After my parents parted ways, my mother moved to Spain. The world around me erupted in the sound of an angry sizzle. How could she abandon a teenage daughter?

Tia Basu July 16, 2016

Modern Family

Raising My Alcoholic Mother

Mama became an alcoholic before I was born and drank every evening through my childhood. Growing up around someone like that, you tend to become shrewd early on. You invent dry days at the snap of your fingers and dismiss suicide wishes as pointless drama.

Maya Palit July 14, 2016

Health

PCOS, the Condition Every Other Indian Woman Experiences But Doesn’t Talk About

When Sara Ali Khan spoke about PCOS on a Koffee with Karan episode, I screamed, “Go girl”. I’d had the disorder – which affects one in 10 Indian women – for years before I sought help for it. But if it is so common, why are we so afraid and ashamed to talk about it?

Mavis D'Silva July 8, 2016

Gender

No Baby, No Cry: What it Means to be Childfree by Choice

Society finds it hard to respect a woman’s choice in several matters of sex and marriage, but the decision to not have children is beyond the pale. How can you not be a mother? Isn’t it going against your DNA as a woman and your purpose on this planet?

Alka Shukla July 8, 2016

Gender

Despite Bollywood Influences, I am Raising Two Feminist Sons. Here’s How To Do It

My sons and I love watching Bollywood movies together, but finding a film devoid of misogyny, objectification of women, and innuendo is a task. How do I explain to my kids what is wrong with “6 din, Ladki in” when SRK is mouthing it as if it’s the most chivalrous way to woo a girl in Kal Ho Naa Ho?

Aarti Pathak July 1, 2016