The first time when someone confronted me about my belief in God was when I had just started medical school. “So, you don’t believe in God?” she’d asked. “Of course, I do believe,” I replied almost indignantly but I still remember being taken aback at the question and the point-blank manner in which it was put forth. Well, she was a senior so she thought she could. “There’s no temple, no deity in your room, so I assumed,” she said

I recently read an interview, of an aerospace engineer, Amrita Mahale, who gave up her job to become a writer and has just published a book. She spoke about ‘venturing into unfamiliar territory’, fear of ‘starting too late’ or ‘looking ridiculous’ and the rejections she encountered in her journey. I felt a sense of kinship with the lady since I have embarked, in my own humble way, on a similar journey. I am a doctor and that means years of

Saturdays With Shivani In a recent conversation with one of my cousins, the talk veered towards children and she mentioned how this generation wants to work for the pleasure of it and not just for money. While I concurred with her statement, I also noted that it’s an evolutionary process. If I speak from my own experience, my grandparents started their life from scratch after partition uprooted them. For them survival took precedence over everything else. No job was too

Saturdays With Shivani Writing changed a lot of things for me. As one blog led to another, then a book followed and now art; my relationship with social media also underwent a metamorphosis. An erstwhile private profile became public and I stopped sharing my family pictures, especially my daughter’s. I took leaps of faith and there was an immense amount of courage that had to be summoned to reach out and interact with strangers whose profiles I liked. “You’re an extrovert.

Saturdays With Shivani When asked about my religion, I have never had an easy answer. My equation with God is an ever evolving one. I have looked up to the supreme power, submitted to it and relied on it, building my belief as I grew up. If I were to declare my relationship status with God, it would read— It’s complicated. When I entered parenthood, I wasn’t sure what I shall tell my daughter about religion and God so like

Saturdays With Shivani Someone recently introduced me as a doctor and writer AND a Mandala artist. The first identity, I embrace with a lot of pride, the second with trepidation but the third I refuse to, for now atleast. If I have to, I shall call myself a passionate student of the art form. Mandalas have always fascinated me and I had always wanted to learn how to draw them. The pandemic and lockdown intensified the urge and when I

My timeline is flooded with two kinds of posts from India- the farmer protests and the vaccination drive. I have been losing sleep over the former and pray that sanity wins eventually and peace prevails. Rab raakha, in God’s hands, as I often say is the only thought that keeps me calm. Posts of the latter kind however bring me hope and joy. While here we wait for the vaccine to arrive, in India, my friends, colleagues and other healthcare

As our family of three hugged and wish each other a happy new year at midnight, my daughter’s first words were, “Hum bach gaye. We survived. We made it.” Three simple words but they carry the gist of this year in them. This can be interpreted on so many levels. Going by the tone and emotion in her voice, this is what I concluded. There was a huge sigh of relief tinged with a bit of sadness. Was it survivor’s

I have often proclaimed that I have a huge respect for children and a big reason for that is; they are not people pleasers and that they have a conscience they heed to. As we grow older, we often struggle with both these concepts. The idea of being alone and unpopular is not a palatable one, so to an extent that struggle is justified. When I was in third standard, I remember a moral science lesson that centred around conscience.

I’m not the one you would find wallowing in regrets but not having played too many sports is something that does prick me. I loved skipping and badminton and did indulge in free play with friends and cousins but I was essentially a homebody happy with my books, art and crafts and connecting with friends who had similar tastes. I am not lazy. In fact, it’s quite the opposite because I like to keep busy. Just that my idea of