Saturdays With Shivani Wherever I look, there is talk of Olympics and I have to confess that I don’t watch or follow the games at all. Sports has never been my area of interest but that’s not the reason because Olympics is more about celebrating the human spirit than just the games. As an Indian there is a certain futility that I associate with being glued to the TV screen. We’ve grown up with wise adages like boye ped babul

Saturdays With Shivani Learning as an adult is very different from how we learn in our younger days. I am the unabashed, unapologetic, self-styled expert on praudh shiksha; old age learning. In the last four years, after I turned forty, I have gone back to university to pursue a full-time writing course, started dabbling in art and lately I am testing waters with strength training.  As varied as these skills might be, the journey of their acquisition is riddled with

Saturdays With Shivani Two posts doing rounds on social media caught my attention last week. One was on the ‘scientific basis’ behind the alphabet of Indian languages that went on and on about how sounds are produced from different areas of our mouth and throat. It was interesting until the point it exhorted us to take pride in our languages and ‘let the world know’ of our superiority. The second post had the Mona Lisa juxtaposed with an alleged Raja

Saturdays With Shivani The biggest reason for me to begin my fitness journey is my daughter. Not only do I want to be fitter for her, but she inspires me with her own enthusiasm for exercise. I often have conversations with her as to what motivates her and what I write today is a gist of those conversations with a huge input from her. Get your reasons right Like for everything else, for exercise too do it for the right

Saturdays With Shivani I had thought of writing something else last week and since my mind hasn’t processed it yet, it continues to stay on the back burner. Instead, I’m taking the liberty of using this space to journal one of my toughest journey that I have just begun— one towards my fitness. For almost half of my life I have battled weight gain. I’ve been chided, coaxed and fat-shamed into losing, often unsuccessfully, until six weeks ago I decided