Aswini Ashok

Recently Serena Williams announced that her countdown to retirement has started and had she been a man, she would not have to think about it now. Honestly, even I felt this to be an exaggerated tantrum since she is the most decorated athlete with more grand slams than her male counterparts. I went on to read what made her say this. Seems like she had been planning her second baby for a while now unsuccessfully and she had to give up Tennis to plan her family. So obviously had she been a man, her wife must be taking care of expanding the family while she goes on to win tournaments. Suddenly the ground below me seems shaky. As much as any woman would want to pursue her dreams after marriage and childbirth, the uncertainties around us are beyond our comprehension. Made me think of the time an interviewer blatantly abused me assuming that I would not be a good fit, since I am a woman who may require baby breaks at some point that he cannot afford. It took me a lot of effort to grind my tee...

Like every other day in India, a gang-rape was reported, this time in Mysore, and, the events that follow are painfully similar to every other rape case that remain in my memory. A Mysuru university student was gang-raped last week. Neither she nor her family had made a statement to the police yet, understandably because of the shock and trauma they are being through. But every Tom, Dick, and Harry are out with their 2 cents. The minister said the girl should not have gone to that place at all in the first place. He withdrew his statements later, which doesn’t change a thing. Next, the police, who are incapable of making any arrests yet (until I started writing this), have asusual started their moral policing. They have asked the university to curb the movement of women students after 6.30 p.m. This makes me wonder whether the men and women in this country are ruled by the same laws or is there a separate sub-minimal constitution in India that applies only to women. Last I checked, the...

As the elections draw closer, we get multiple calls from political enthusiasts to check the background of each candidate contesting in our constituency and cast our vote for the deserving candidate rather than our favourite party. There are multiple apps available to ‘know our candidate’ at the snap of a button, which compile the data available in the affidavits submitted by the candidates to the election commission. While this is extremely useful to evaluate the candidates, one step forward would be to evaluate our sitting MLAs for their actual performance. Here, such an attempt has been made to evaluate the performance of my MLA of the infamous Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency, Mr. TTV. Dinakaran. We may all remember RK nagar and TTV. Dinakaran for one of the most interesting political episodes that followed after the demise of the CM Jayalalitha. First, he contested under AIADMK banner in the by-election that was called off by ECI for cash-for-vote scam and the next election w...

If you are someone who prefers to be away from the city for a while, but also wants to explore how the ancient cities used to be, you might find the ancient temples of medieval times interesting. Here is one such place where ancient architecture meets scientific mysteries. Lepakshi is a village in Andhra Pradesh, secluded from the hustle and bustle of the cities, but, well connected with them. First things first. What is Lepakshi: Legend has it that, this is the place where Jatayu fell after a failed mission to rescue Sita from Ravana’s clutches. Rama saw the mighty eagle lying on the ground miserably and said “Le Pakshi” which translates in English as “Rise, bird”. The main attractions in Lepakshi are the Veerabadraswamy temple and the world’s biggest monolithic Nandi which were all built during Vijayanagara empire times between 13 & 15 th century A.D. What to see in Lepakshi:     1. Veerabadraswamy Temple.      a. Kalyana Mandap A ma...

The Chennai vs Bangalore debate is as old as civilisation. I, for one, believe we should ditch this debate and learn good things from both the sides, like Siddharammaiah, the former CM of Karnataka, who got inspired by “Amma Unavagams” and introduced his flagship project, “Indira Canteens” across Karnataka. Here, I enlist a few (Bengaluru) policies, which shall make Chennai more citizen-friendly. Link to this article featured in  chennai.citizenmatters Citizen–prioritised approach in public transportation: A lot of people would argue Bengaluru has the worst traffic, which is evidently true too. But, what is notable is the citizen-friendly approaches in the existing policies. GPS tracking of buses: With the MyBMTC app, real-time bus tracking has come handy. The app shows the nearest bus stops and the expectancy time for buses arriving at any stop. One can track buses and plan trips using the app. The government had roped in Nihar Thakkar, a teen who first introduced it privately. Th...

Anna Vetticad says in her review of Gunjan Saxena, that it is a story of one remarkable woman, but also a story of every remarkable woman that ever lived. This one line summarises everything the movie aims to portray. It is not about patriotism, not about ‘dushman-desh’ or not even about the IAF. It is just about an innocent girl aiming to soar high but put down by the society that leaves no stone unturned to say that she is not worth her dreams. But, who are they to say anyways? The Kargil girl disproves them in style. It is the story of every woman. Misogyny spares no woman. We all sail through it on a daily basis. It may be adrenaline charging to see women giving savage comebacks and dismantling patriarchy through powerful monologues on screen. But, honestly, we never do that on a regular basis. Sometimes yes. But, definitely not always. Most of the time we suck up and carry on with our work, believing our actions would speak up for itself. Gunjan Saxena is that kind. That doesn’t...