The Word Route

Today's Menstrual Hygiene Day. It is observed on May 28 every year to create awareness in public about good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) at a global level. A Germany based NGO called WASH United started observing this day in 2014 and it has been going on ever since. Developing countries are often faced with a shortage of materials for good menstrual hygiene. Women often get low standard sanitary napkins that may cause rashes in their private parts, leading to serious infections. The day provides an opportunity to actively advocate for the integration of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) into global, national and local policies and programmes. India observed its first MHM summit organized on 26th and 27th September 2019 in New Delhi by Gramalaya, an NGO. The summit saw the participation of 180 plus delegates including 46 speakers, other stakeholders and allies of the Menstrual Hygiene Management Movement. The second MHM summit was organized on 22nd and 23rd March 2022 by Gra

September 10 marks World Suicide Prevention day every year! This day began to be observed in 2003. Every individual has either undergone some trauma or been undergoing a bad experience over a period of time.  The pandemic has worsened the situation, isolating people more. Work-from-home jobs, no-socializing, and no-human touch have increased cases of depression, and suicide has become a common buzzword now. Counselling centres are buzzing with ever ringing telephone lines and more people reaching out to counsellors, parenting coaches and life coaches for help. Everyone has been affected - celebs to commoners - none have been spared of depression. Social media is abuzz with videos of experts giving tips on happiness and gurus conducting wellness sessions. Motivational groups have mushroomed on Whatsapp, Telegram and other chat group apps. Motivational quotes are shared daily on Whatsapp statuses and Facebook as a morning and evening ritual. A sense of stagnancy and feeling of being stuc

My emotional moment during my breastfeeding journey came when my child stopped feeding at 4.8 years. All these years, he suffered a lot of health issues, mostly respiratory issues. He was diagnosed with childhood asthma (considered common among babies these days). I was advised by my first paediatrician to continue feeding him till he turned 2. Extended breastfeeding helped me tide over his asthma over a period of time, including his dry skin problem. So I can vouch that if you can continue feeding your baby till he/she is two years old, it’s the best health gift for them. My Journey Breastfeeding came naturally to me after my son’s birth. I did not have any particular struggles while breastfeeding him – no medical issues/latching problems. In the beginning, my answers to my friends’ queries as to when am I going to wean him, were quite vague. I had started initially by saying that I would feed him until he turned 2. After he turned two, I changed my answer to 3 years. It was so natu

From the moment I conceived, it was my fantasy to have a super tactile bond with my child after he/she would be born (for the longest possible time, I felt it would be a girl!). After my son was born, things became different and the first three months were extremely painful feeding him or holding him thanks to my C-section stitches. So, all maternal feelings vanished into thin air and all I could think was sleep or having “me-time”. There was hardly a chance to cuddle up with him! Post-partum depression had hit me big time and me not being able to calm down a screaming infant had dipped my morale too. Motherhood was nothing like I had imagined it would be! Besides I was terrified that my son would not accept me if I didn’t develop a bond early on. Of course, that did not happen. It was a mom’s fear that had spoken. After he entered the infamous toddler phase, I became the quintessential “villain” for my son – the usual “don’t do this and that”. Yet again, my dreams of becoming my son’s

I have borrowed the above statement from a famous adage: "The early bird gets the worm". We all learned this proverb in school. It applies to every walk of life. In the case of children, this adage gains more significance as they cross various milestones in life.    There are some habits or values which we want our kids to imbibe early. These are called modelled habits. This is the main reason why we introduce certain habits and values early. For instance, right from brushing teeth twice a day to eating three meals a day (differs in every culture and community) to having a bath and doing household chores, we should have book reading sessions of short duration daily so that it becomes a part of their routine too.   Books are great to enhance imagination and also engage a child constructively. Most of the time kids these days would prefer the screen. But what a visual medium does, is to kill the imagination of a child. Whilst reading a book, the same child will be force

Tribhanga: Tedhi Medhi Crazy Cast: Tanvi Azmi, Kajol, Mithila Palkar, Kunaal Roy Kapoor, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi, Kanwaljeet Singh, Maanav Gohil, Shweta Mehendale Writer/Director: Renuka Shahane Rating: ****/5 Read the review at:  https://topleadindia.com/2021/01/16/tribhanga-review-celebration-of-the-flawed-real-beautiful-pieces-of-life/   The word "Tribhaṅga" denotes the standing pose of the body curved in an S shape, found in traditional Indian sculpture and classical dance forms like Odissi. In the Netflix movie, it symbolizes the imperfections reflected in the lives of three generations of women. Director Renuka Shahane has beautifully sculpted each character in the movie while depicting that it’s often the flaws that make us what we are and the same need to be accepted in order to love unconditionally. Each frame of the movie unravels the myriad shades of each of the three characters, right from the writer protagonist Tanvi Azmi to her Bollywood actress daughter Kajol, and