Innehållsförteckning för May 2019 från Womankind

“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…

When Australian schoolteacher Jane Stork arrived in an ashram in Pune, India, it was, as she said in the 2018 documentary series Wild Wild Country, “as though a door burst open”. She felt liberated and free. Little did she know that, in the end, that door would lead to places she never wanted to go: deceit, attempted murder, sexual abuse and chemical warfare. Stork - by then known as Ma Shanti B and a committed ‘Rajneeshee’ or ‘sannyasin’, as the followers of controversial guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh called themselves - found herself standing in a heaving room. In her hands she clutched a syringe filled with poison. The syringe was not for herself but for Rajneesh’s physician Swami Devaraj. Stork had orders from Ma Anand Sheela, Rajneesh’s personal secretary, to…

Describe growing up as a blind person in India? In school in south India, I was once asked to go out of the class when I answered a question. It was not because my answer was wrong, but because I was blind and I should not be answering the question. My father was in the military and I changed schools a lot. At another school they sat me in the back row, and made me sharpen other children’s pencils because they didn’t think schooling was important for me. When I went to the blind school, the condition was worse because they wouldn’t teach us how to use a white cane, or how to comb our hair, or wear our clothes. We’d sometimes wear our clothes inside out so the stitching…

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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…

“Hua,” Indira’s grandmother said to relatives awaiting news of the birth. “It has happened.” She didn’t have the heart to announce the sex; the baby wasn’t a boy. Indira Nehru’s earliest memory was of velvets, satins, silks, chiffons, and Savile Row suits piled upon the veranda of their family mansion, ready to feed bonfires. From this moment on, the family would wear only traditional handwoven cloth, khadi. It was early 20th century India, and activist Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas had come into their lives: their whole way of living was changing overnight. Indira’s wealthy parents, Jawaharlal and Kamala Nehru, were getting rid of their crystal, china, silver, carpets, and carriages. By 1920, Indian nationalists had launched a non-cooperation campaign against British institutions and laws. 30,000 people were jailed, including Jawaharlal Nehru,…

Day one: I set my yoga mat down next to my bed on the carpeted apartment floor. Today my yoga self-practice has to be inside. I live on the ninth floor, on a hill overlooking Wellington Harbour. The wind is howling at the windows, as it does so frequently in this city. The sea is choppy and the limbs of the Pohutukawa trees dance madly. My mind is already restless, even at 6:30am. I want to move off my mat to start daily jobs, even before my first sun salutation. I’ve learned to ignore my nagging mind and just bend into a pose. I resigned from my job two months ago to travel and explore the far north of New Zealand with my boyfriend in a van. One of my…

Details Closing date: 31 August 2019 Format: One photograph per entry. Applicants: Open to all amateur and professional photographers. Entries must also include a separate photo of an edition of Womankind. File size: Please send large file sizes (larger than 3,000 pixels wide, 300dpi). Entries must be provided in file sizes suitable for publishing. The theme of this quarter’s award is consumerism, which may include consumer items, shopping malls and districts, as well as the display of consumer items to convey status. Win $500 and get published in the next issue of Womankind. OPEN TO ALL READERS. For full details visit: womankindmag.com/award Send to: award@womankindmag.com…

One of the toughest to judge due to the sheer number of exceptional entries to this competition, Womankind’s Photographers’ Award XVIII was themed ‘Water’. Photographers were asked to focus on a large expanse of water such as an ocean, river, or lake, or smaller water sources including water droplets, or rain. In first place is Water World by Elizabeth Greenwood, a photograph taken on an autumn morning at Fiordland National Park, New Zealand. As the sun peeped over the mountains, Greenwood focused her lens upon droplets on the spider’s web and sandflies enlivened by the morning sun. In second place is Sea Foam by Staci Kleinmaier. Finalists include Surfer Girl by Ella Mitchell, Kerrie Brewer’s glorious photograph of a deserted beach in Tasmania, Ganges River, Rishikesh by Jo Yeldham, and…

Ingredients: For the kadhai masala: 1 tbsp coriander seeds 3/4 tsp cumin seeds 1 – 2 Kashmiri dried chillies (these are mild, if you don’t have them, use 1 red chilli, or leave out altogether) 8 black peppercorns For the sauce: 4 tbsp vegetable oil 1 large onion, finely chopped 1 tsp finely grated root ginger (peeled) 3 large garlic cloves, finely grated 3 medium-large tomatoes, blended until smooth 1/2 tsp ground turmeric Salt 1/2 tsp garam masala 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves, crushed between your fingers 2 – 3 tbsp single (light) cream 3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves, to serve For the vegetables (this is the classic version, but vary them as you like): 1 potato, cut into 2cm pieces 1 small carrot, cut into half moons 100g 3…

The literature of Indian women writing in English has been described as a “literary juggernaut” - an international publishing industry “powerhouse”. With a reputation for lyrical language and innovative storytelling, Indian women writers have become significant contributors not only to Indian feminist thought, but to a broader understanding of the more damaging legacy of a patriarchal society. Writers Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Arundhati Roy have continued to walk a path cleared by earlier writers such as Nayantara Sahgal and Shasi Deshpande. Now women writers from India and those of Indian heritage are at the top of their game in literary fiction, non-fiction, mystery, chick-lit, and young adult fiction. “Indian women writers represent the complexity and staggering diversity of thought and story in India,” says author Sonora Jha, professor…

Wild Wild Country A six-part documentary series about controversial Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, his powerful personal assistant Ma Anand Sheela, and their community of followers who built a utopian city in the Oregon desert, resulting in conflict with the locals that escalated into a national scandal. Powerless 28-year-old electrician Loha Singh lives in Kanpur, India. A Robin Hood figure who steals electricity from the rich to provide free connections in impoverished neighbourhoods, Loha’s story is intimately entwined with that of Ritu Maheshwari - the first female chief of the Kanpur Electricity Supply Company (KESCO), who is on a fierce mission to crack down on illegal power theft and to eliminate powerlessness in her own right. The World Before Her Ruhi Singh is a small-town girl who dreams of winning…

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…

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…

In early December 2005, I boarded a plane in Toronto with a ticket to Delhi, India, in my hand. Reeling from the death of my parents, I’d turned to yoga and teacher-training classes taught in Toronto by Yogrishi Vishvketu who was in the process of opening an ashram in Rishikesh, India. After a class, I walked directly up to him and declared: “I am going to study with you in India.” Today, I live in a spacious apartment in Rishikesh with views of the Himalayan mountains, in what’s commonly known as the yoga capital of the world. Anand Prakash ashram is a saffron-coloured, three-story building in the heart of Tapovan, the north end of Rishikesh. When Yogrishi Vishvketu built it over a decade ago, the area around the ashram was…

Laurie and I meet on the banks of the Ganges River in Rishikesh in front of Parmarth Niketan ashram. It’s a cloudy day in late winter. “India was never a place that I felt, ‘I have to go there before I die.’ I’m not one of those people who felt a calling to India,” Laurie says. “And I never thought in my wildest imagination that I would live in an ashram in India. Never. It wasn’t on ‘my dream sheet’ as they say in the military.” Born Maria Cha in Korea in 1953 to a Korean mother and an American GI father, Laurie Larson was adopted by an American couple from a small town in South Dakota. Her adopted father was a blind Methodist minister who died just four years…

Most humans can withstand about 85 decibels of noise during an eight-hour day. Beyond that, we need at least ten hours to recuperate in a quiet place measuring 70 decibels or less to fully recover. At 100 decibels, damage to our ears can occur within 15 minutes of exposure; at 112 decibels, damage can be inflicted in little over a minute; 140 decibels can damage ear nerves almost instantly. Constant exposure to loud noise elevates the production of cortisol and stress hormones in the body and can lead to hypertension, psychological disorders such as personality changes, violent outbursts, even post-traumatic stress disorder. Sumaira Abdulali grew up in one of the noisiest cities in the world, Mumbai, a place where noise levels sit at about 12.85 decibels above global averages. City…

When were you first introduced to the principles of Ayurveda, and why did it appeal to you? I was introduced to Ayurveda in my late 20s. I went through a phase of not feeling well, with many digestive issues. I went to a handful of doctors to get a diagnosis but aside from treating some of the symptoms, they all kept saying I was in good health. But I knew I wasn’t. About 18 months into this phase, I joined my parents on a holiday to Ker-ala, three days of which were spent in an Ayurvedic resort. I remember sitting in front of the doctor and explaining my history and my symptoms and without skipping a beat, he told me I had a prolonged Vata imbalance which had come about…

“Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” Jane Smiley In Other Words By Jhumpa Lahiri In Other Words is at heart a love story - for Italian, which first captivated the writer during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterwards, true mastery always eluded her. Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire” into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write - initially in her journal - solely in Italian. In Other Words describes the process of learning another language, and seeking a new voice.   In Custody By Anita Desai Deven, a Hindi lecturer in a small town in India,…

THE ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Sydney, Australia In one drop of water JUNE 2019 – DECEMBER 2020 Drawing on a rich and diverse array of works, this exhibition explores the deep poetic, symbolic, and social significance of water in Asian art. Whether it is the art of tea, the mixing of ink for calligraphy, depictions of the sacred river Ganges, the dyeing of cloth, the bloom of lotus blossoms from stagnant ponds or the creation of porcelain, all are dependent, as we are as human beings, on water. THE MET New York City, USA Seeing the divine: Pahari painting of North India UNTIL 21 JULY 2019 Focusing on early painting styles that emerged in the regional courts of the Punjab hills of North India during the 17th and…