Womankind May 2019

It’s interesting that India, one of the noisiest places in the world, is also the mecca of inner peace - a place where western seekers flock to yoga and meditation retreats, and spend time in ashrams for that much sought-after “Om”. Even ashrams in India rattle to the sound of steel on steel as India builds outwards and upwards - a modernisation project with no end in sight. However, if you delve into ancient Indian texts, peace and tranquility are not found ‘out there’, but inside us. “The same fire that cooks your meal burns the child. Is it the fault of the fire?” asks Swami Vivekananda in The Science of Breathing. “Blessed be the fire!” he exclaims. “The world is neither good nor bad; the world is the world.…

Womankindmag.com is our online portal for articles, back issues, subscriptions, and merchandise. Want to stock Womankind magazine in your shop? We have generous terms - please contact us via subscribe@womankindmag.com Facebook (womankindmag) Instagram (#womankindmag) Twitter (@womankindmag) If you like Womankind and support our ethos, we’d be delighted if you spread the word about us.…

Antonia Case:  Antonia Case is the Editor-in-Chief of Womankind and the Editorial Director of New Philosopher. In 2016 she was awarded the AAP Media Professionals’ Award for excellence in the presentation of philosophy in the media, and was shortlisted for Editor of the Year in the Stack Awards in 2016 and 2017. Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore: Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore writes for New Philosopher, Monocle, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Statesman, New Internationalist, The Huffington Post, and Time magazine. Jacqueline Winspear: Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestselling Maisie Dobbs series, which includes In This Grave Hour, Journey to Munich, A Dangerous Place, and eight other novels. Her standalone novel, The Care and Management of Lies, was also a New York Times bestseller and a…

“Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” — St. Francis of Assisi A smooth sea never made a skilful mariner. — English proverb KIRAN BEDI Indian politician “The focus is what is right before you - to give it your best. It sows the seeds of tomorrow.” APURVA PUROHIT Businesswoman “Priorities need to change at different stages of our life if we want to grow and evolve.” INDU JAIN Media chairperson “My inner growth must match my material growth and achievements.” HOW TO BUY JOYFULLY Japanese decluttering expert Maria Kondo advises discarding all items in your life that don’t “spark joy”. She recommends individually picking up each item in your home and staring at it closely, before asking yourself whether…

Virali Modi The day I swallowed a bottle of pills, it was winter and my mother was in the shower. She had left my medications by my bedside table. I was under psychological treatment and my mother did everything she could to help me, but my friends were enjoying their lives while I was left in a wheelchair. I reached for the bottle of pills on the table and swallowed the contents. My ears started ringing and soon I couldn’t feel my face any longer. I thought the world would be better off without me: without a disabled child, my parents could follow their dreams, and I could be reborn into a body without any faults. But when the ringing started, I couldn’t hear anything. I panicked. I couldn’t feel…

Ganesh, one of Hinduism’s most identifiable deities thanks to his distinctive elephant head, is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of the arts and sciences, and the god of intellect and wisdom. While female elephants tend to group together in matriarchal family herds, male elephants tend to live fairly solitary lives or in loose-knit groups of other males. In his 1936 essay Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell describes a British police officer working in Burma, who is forced, against his better judgement and moral feelings, to shoot an escaped elephant that had become aggressive and destructive. The essay is widely considered a metaphor for British imperialism. According to the Hindu cosmology of ancient India, the Earth is supported on the backs of mythical world-elephants. Earthquakes are attributed…