Shilpa's

Navratri ReDefined!

India, the land of mystic, magic, and myth. It’s perpetually impossible to talk about India and not mention the 32 crore gods or maybe more the country worships and the for many that God is Goddess Durga and Navratri is a celebration of and for her.

Navratri literally translates to “nine nights. The mythological stories behind Navratri are nothing short of amazing. India has the holy trinity or as Hindu’s cal it Trimurti. Brahma is the creator of the Universe, Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva is responsible for the change, both as in the form of the destroyer of evil or death and also as in the destroyer of ego. It just so happened that a long time ago, amongst all the good and bliss, there lived a demon called Mahishasur. He wanted to be eternal, so he started praying to Lord Shiva, did penance for years, and finally was granted the boon, that no man or god will ever be able to kill him. Upon receiving the boon, his cruelty knew no limits, he conquered Earth and in his blind arrogance then set his eyes on “Indralok,” the home of the Gods. The Gods were now worried and as you can imagine were furious at Lord Shiva for granting him such a boon. Shiva is also the angry yogi, the one who meditates and when his mediation is broken, is awakened with rage that has no control. From his rage came a bright light that merged with the rays from Vishnu and Brahma, to create this beautiful and absolutely amazing woman. Woman, yes, because remember the boon was “no man or god. The woman came to be called, Shakti meaning strength or power. She possessed the power of all the deities in the heavenly abode. She had one mission, to save the Universe and destroy Mahishasur and all demons.

Goddess Durga — Shakti destroys evil to restore peace on Earth

Gods, all men, created this woman to do the task that they could not. They gave her their strength to save the Earth and the Universe. In a sense, Shakti is the essence of the lords, it is the cosmic energy. She is merciful, knowledgeable, powerful, and bestows her disciples with materialistic grandeur and spiritual freedom. She sits on a lion and has ten weapons. Over time Shakti took nine forms, and every day of Navratri celebrates each manifestation, with the most popular being Goddess Durga. Shakti got the name Durga after she destroyed the demon Durg.

Navratri is mythological India’s Woman’s day celebration.

Personally, for me, my favorite is the 8th day. The eighth day is called Ashtami. It is the day when we celebrate the girl child. Little girls, pure and innocent mortal forms of The Goddesses are welcomed into loving homes. They are pampered with gifts galore and in turn, the little angels shower their giggly blessings and love on the family. Soon these angels grow up and cross the threshold into womanhood. Tradition says they are no longer innocent.

Today, let’s talk about it. The Period.

The Period makes us a woman and yet we choose to shun the very essence of us. The Period is nothing more than pain and discomfort that the female body goes through the majority of her life. Every month she bleeds so when the moment is right she can bring a new life into this world. That’s pretty amazing! It’s a supernatural wondrous quality.

A few years ago, I reinvented Ashtami and chose to celebrate the daughters in my life and not their bodies. My relationship with the Goddess Durga gives me the strength to believe that the Goddess will not punish me for pampering the daughters in my life. She is a woman and she knows the Period gives birth and so it cannot be taboo.

I choose to celebrate their strength, their smile, their giggles, and their hugs.

It is time we the women reinvent faith and beliefs.

It’s time we understand that – The Period is a part of every woman and we all exist because of The Period.

So rightfully, Navratri to me has become the celebration of women. And this year, I did exactly that… Invited my girlfriends and celebrated them with the same glory as I celebrate the daughters. These girlfriends are the Goddesses in my life who make it possible every single day.

As Bhavani, we give birth for if there was no “garbha” or womb, there would be no world. As Parvati, we stand next to our consort through all times, like Annapurna, we feed our family before feeding ourselves, as Saraswati we teach our kids the value of knowledge, as Kali, we fiercely protect all we love, as Laxmi we use the wealth wisely, as Sati and Sita we prove our loyalty in every era.

Navratri celebrates all forms of Shakti, the beautiful one and the scary Kali too, thus telling us women that irrespective of what the world says, YOU are beautiful in your own special way. Every woman has a quality that the other does not have, and when we unite, we are a Shakti that can change the world.

Let us remember that we as women come in all shapes are sizes. We are not born to compete with each other but rather to complement each other and make the world possible.

Be YOU, Be BEAUTIFUL!

I cannot end this post, without showing you a glimpse of the Navratri celebrations in the Indian state of Gujarat. Enjoy!

The sheer numbers are nothing like you have seen in the US. It looks crazy, but trust me there is a beautiful method to the madness here.
A Glimpse of Navratri celebrations in Gujarat.

Goddess Durga on the lion Navratri Celebrations — The Goddess is within the Woman

Dear Student – Hit that Reset Button.

A year of zooming went by fast and yet was excruciatingly slow. If you are feeling tired, then you are not alone. Though tired, you got up every day, turned on your device, and logged into school. You showed up and that’s your success this school year.

2021 was supposed to be a year of hope and yet the sadness of lost ones surrounds them. Every day, gratitude becomes the reason we move forward. Vaccines are now available for 12 years and above. The questions stay but we don’t see any other options so with continued apprehension, we slowly take the first step to get ourselves and our loved ones vaccinated.

2020-2021, will be an excellent school year. We the grown ups, don’t know much, but here’s what we know:

You woke up and did your thing… with resilience and respect. That “thing” was different for all of us, which is okay. As long as you took a step forward every day, you did well. So before you think of the last year as a waste, think about how YOU, showed resilience and weathered a year unlike any other.

Today, you are excited about the possibility of playing in the park with your friends, and we the parents worry about learning loss. Learning loss, you ask quizzically? And you are right. No one knows what this learning loss looks like. For some students, it’ll be missing out on learning pre-algebra, for some it will be the loss of words, for some the loss of muscle strength and for many it will be the loss of social and emotional skills.

Dear Student, talk to your parents, remind them that your brain needs to breathe again. It needs to learn to walk again, run again, talk again, and go crazy again.. once the brain learns to redo these, the academics will come again.

Remind your parents, the best way to reset a device is to shut it down, let it rest, and then turn it on. This summer make the choice to get bored, make pillow forts, hang out with grandma, bake cookies and make a mess, run in the park wild or go for a picnic in the park.

The academic learning loss is an easy fix, the social-emotional grid takes a long time to fix, so this summer, make it about your mental well-being with academics sprinkled in between.

Image about being calm and pressing the reset button

Who is The Empowered Woman?

The Empowered Woman… Who is She? Is there a definition? It’s a question that I think about often. Why? Because I think as women we work hard to mimic empowerment. We are only now learning to approve more than disapprove.

Without much further ado, let us find the perfect woman so we can be her.

Empowered woman; Is she my grandma who woke up at 5.00, went for her walk, bathed, prayed, cooked, and was off to her social work all before 10.00 am? Or maybe she is like my mom, who did all of the above and tutored her and neighboring kids too, or maybe like my mother in law, who though in her 70’s, can devour the WSJ and can hold a conversation on any topic in the world, or maybe she’s like me, who does all of the above and then manages to paint, write blogs, coach, and .. but oh wait… I. know, she has to be the tech woman who left the corporate world to fulfill her dream to be an artist, or the one who chose to follow her dream and become a movie director, maybe she is like my friend, who has a stellar job, a demanding career, and yet does all of what I do? Or maybe the entrepreneur who sells the amazing sarees through FB live and continues to build a sisterhood? Or is the one who is raising a village from scratch by reforming education? No wait, I know she is Z, the lady who comes to my mom’s home and helps her with the household chores, supports a hearing-impaired child, and smiles through life, irrespective of the lemons she keeps catching. What do you think, Is Z the one? Is she the empowered woman?

This blogpost is not about empowering you because you are your own being. In 2019, I was introduced to the beautiful religion of Buddhism by an empowered woman who refused to give in to my sulkiness.

We were four women of very different age groups discussing life and through the discourse, The Buddha is within us. This is a strong and redundant truth, it struck me as one of the most powerful conversations I have had. It also made me realize that the women found this faith through their own sorrows. There were struggles and there were tears, but they didn’t give up. They were seekers and they found a solution for themselves. To me they were putting their life stories in front of a stranger, their courage to be vulnerable was inspiring and their show of vulnerability healed me. They were healers.

From the Suffragette movement to the modern day, there are countless examples of women building each other up through the most dire times. Case in point, a Facebook group called Saree Speak. The women there are phenomenal. Through the shared love and passion for the Indian attire Saree, the women uplift each other, unlike any group I know. It’s a sisterhood of 155K+ women. Complete strangers that compliment each other, uplift each other in hundreds of comments.

There are also many examples of when we the women do everything in our capacity to bring another woman down. When we refuse to see the pain and honesty of another because it conflicts with our own pride and ego. It is also true, that as a woman we come in different strokes for different folks.

It is a choice we make.

I am blessed with not one but multiple villages in my Imperfectly Perfect World. Multiple women and not two alike and yet every one of them empowered in their own might.

To find the empowered woman, all you have to do is, Look at the mirror and you will find her standing there in front of you. YOU are empowered within yourself. You are the seeker, the healer, the applier, the campaigner, the contender, the spoiler, the hearer, the hauler, sometimes even the yeller (and it’s okay,) and you are the giver. So this woman’s day, give yourself permission to just be.

Stand in front of the mirror and smile, because YOU are enough.

Happy Woman’s Day!

This post was inspired by the beautiful truth from Vidya Balan. and the many women I have learned from. Do visit their links above.

Quarantined Cupid wants US to Communicate.

Ahhh… the smiling cherub holding its golden arrow struggles home alone. The arrows lay gathering dust for the wary souls sit quietly in their home, in their corners typing away, buzzing away, and zooming away. A sole child gets up to play and wanders only to find emptiness. The Cupid wonders why?

From the heavens above, there opens a window and the cupid takes a peak down. The bustling Earth is quiet, the cupid wonders why? Curious and naughty as he is, he flies down, window to the window it peaks to find families living together – grandparents, big kids, small kids all living together in silence. In silence, wonders cupid why? Curious as he is, he continues to jump from window to window, he sees families living together, but now he also sees the boxes with them… some small, some big but all bright and shiny. They type, they look down and they continue to type. He now knows the silence.

Cupid knows but does not know what to do. He sees the families smile, eat together and yet there is silence. He struggles for his golden arrow is useless. It is a love arrow. He needs, break the silence arrow. He knows the Earth loves each other, but in silence.

And today 14th February 2021, the Cupid urges us to break the silence. He wants us the people to communicate again. Pick up that little box in our hands and call a friend, a loved one. Put down the phone and actually talk to the loved ones again.

Communicate, the Cupid wants us to communicate and not text a lot more.

2020, a year of isolation, and amidst all the luxuries, the only luxury we craved for was the human contact. Families were homebound, it was fun initially and then the quarantine started taking a toll on ALL of us. Kids struggled, parents were frustrated and while the Earth was healing, we the people were struggling. The one thing that got us through the pandemic was communication. WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage, and the like kept it alive for many many of us. We were grateful for the little things… and then as the Earth allowed us to come back slowly, we started getting busy again.

We are falling, back into the trap of busyness. If there is one thing 2020 has taught me, is to talk and keep the communication alive with family, loved ones, and your friends. I know, it’s hard to pause and find time in this busy world. But we have to. I read this article yesterday and it really made me think.. we keep waiting for that perfect moment but why? If we count our lives by events as the article does, there really isn’t much left. It’s quite interesting when the events of a lifetime fit into an A4 page.

An 8.5 x 11 page is all the time we have left. Make every event dot on your page meaningful. You could argue silence is golden, however, it is in the noise that silence becomes golden, today the Earth is silent, there is no noise.

The Universe created the silence so we could hear ourselves again, so we could start communicating again.

This Valentine’s Day, give your loved ones the gift of real, live, and unadulterated talk time.

Happy Valentines Day to All of You!

O Mother Mine!

Hello, Namastey, Hola:
Hope you are having a wonderful summer and making the best of it. The blog returns this week and just in time for January 26th – India’s Republic Day. Yes I am biased, love the poet, but the poem is also very apt for India. It was written in 1993 and today on the 72nd Republic Day … One can clearly see the poet’s vision coming true. Enjoy.

Happy Republic Day India.

Oh, Mother Mine – Avinash Verma.

Oh, Mother mine,
Land of Ancient skies
I remember the days of your gay full abundance
When you danced with joy in the company of your sons
Oh, how pretty you looked, magnificently decked in gold
Your silken robes fluttered to caress your skin
And beautiful diamonds shone from every place.

Oh, Mother mine, Now those days are gone
Armies from far away foreign lands
Hearing the tales of your beauty and wealth
Came to plunder your precious wealth
But Mother mine; your heart was pure gold
You gave away your treasures galore
Some came and left, some came and stayed
But you welcomed them all with open arms
Some ridiculed your ways; some loved you dear
But you treated them all with your endless love.

But Mother mine, now you lay in gross neglect,
Your robes are tarnished, your diamonds gone
Your health is foul; your skin is dead
Your sons have abandoned you, for they have seen newer lands
Every day millions leave your shore
In search of lands far galore
The ones, who stay, build houses on your grave
They have forgotten the things you said of love, of honesty and of honor and all.
The land that gave birth to civilization, is today forgotten by all

Oh, Mother, they have removed your name from the halls of fame
No longer do travelers flock to your shore
I know you long for your sons in foreign lands
They come to visit you, but only for a while
You rush to embrace them with tears in your eyes, but they turn away
I guess they have seen better lands,

You are too foul for them Mother, you hold no charm
They say you are too old, now, its time to move on

But Mother mine, as now I sit in tears by your side,
I realize since when has a mother been bad for her child
Is she not but a reflection of her child
This world is strange Mother; I sit here in a daze
As your children blame you for their woes and despair

Oh, Mother mine, cry but do not despair
The lone live child at the end of the warfare gave birth to a new nation
In the midst of despair, there was hope
Thy tears are not wasted; there are some who love you still

You will again see glory days; you will again be alive
The world that mocks you now, will revere you then
Your ways will be understood, your sons will return home
Your love is supreme; it will win everyone again
When we play again, in gay full abundance,
That day my Mother: I long to see.

– Avinash Verma (1993)

A Year when we all became our very own Superhero.

I hesitate as I write this blogpost because 2020 to me is not the worst year. It is the year that forced us to pause and rethink. I know as everyone reads this, there will be eye rolls, and some of you might even stop after reading the first sentence, but I hope you give this post a chance and read through.

The year started with all of us hearing the news of Wuhan shutting down and while we all acknowledged the horror of it, we continued to be merry in our lives. We were comfortable and the routine of life continued, until one day we realized our world across the globe was in lockdown. All humans but a microscopic organism that magically found its way across oceans and desserts. It had baffled the most brilliant minds and its audacity to keep moving forward was scaring our souls.

And then it happened. The young couple knocked on their old neighbor’s door and offered to buy groceries, the mom who was always rushing against the clock stopped her car to give a hand to the homeless, the parent found empathy for the teacher, and the teacher extended the learnings beyond the four walls of a classroom.

We stood up as ONE human race.

2020, you are the ghost of the human past. You brought forward the scars, sorrows, and despair of our past actions. To heal the scars, we were forced to pause ourselves and find our internal wellsprings of strength and kindness.

COVID doesn’t differentiate, it attacks anyone it can. COVID leveled the playing field forcing us to UNITE and work together and look beyond the color, race, and gender of our beings.

Breathing safely is now a privilege and not something we can take for granted. Online communication while distant is breaking barriers and creating new bridges. As humans stay home in lockdown, animals move freely and reclaim their forests, lakes, and oceans. Companies are thinking beyond the box. Offices gather dust, while homes came alive as families found new ways to work together. The concept of “my space” takes a new meaning. Schools close, and teachers find new ways to reach out to their students. Parents are learning to learn with their kids.

We are learning that patriotism is more than fighting and protecting borders. It is about being one and working together to build a better community. The grocery store cashier, the nurse, the doctor, the delivery person, the teacher, the soldier, the neighbor next door who work together to support and thrive through the chaos are all patriotic. The heroes of today wear masks, deliver our groceries, nurse the sick to health, and simply watch out for the neighbor.

For all the wars that have been fought for religion, today ALL the faiths of the world are praying together for the safety and well-being of the human race. Doesn’t this amaze you?

I am personally blown away by how a minuscule organism forced us to think differently, act differently, and do differently. Today we are kinder, more empathetic, more united, and more aware of ourselves and the beautiful world we live in.

We found our inner strength and thrived through all obstacles. Wearing our own cape of courage we became our very own Superheroes.

Simply Shilpa

The Shy little girl continues to muse of another birthday, and it’s another year over…

Today, it’s my birthday. I am a happy 49-year-old.

The end of a decade demands a pause and I take a moment to look at the woman in the mirror. The mirror never lies. I see the dark circles, the grey hair, the many extra pounds, the sunspots, the fading eyesight, and I am proud of the woman in the mirror for she embraced them all because every wrinkle, every grey hair, and every pound has a story to tell… stories that I hold close to my heart and moments that make me who I am.

The world today demands growing up and yet makes it so hard to grow old. it takes nerves of steel to stay true to ourselves and grow old without aging our mind. In a world empowered by filters, it takes courage to feel comfortable in our own skin. In a world full of imperfections, it takes audacity to feel perfectly me.

I thought a lot today about what do I want for my birthday… and I realized, I want nothing. It’s that weird feeling of contentedness.. you know when you like a lot of pretty things and yet, you have no urge to add them to your cart or save them for a later spree. This weird feeling made me happy.

I am happy to be at the point where materialism doesn’t excite me, I am happy to be at the point where I can confidently say I am 90% Unfuckwithable, and I am at the point where I KNOW for a fact that Pronoia is 100% true. The combination has allowed me to be the woman I want to be… Simply Shilpa. Nothing more and nothing less.

Every birthday there are musings, lessons learned and more lessons learned. This year, inspired by the Internet, I decided to challenge myself. Somewhere between 16th Nov 2020 and 16th Nov 2021… I will give back to the world in 50 different ways. This is to honor the upcoming half-century 🙂 I don’t know what I am going to do, but I do know I will find 50 ways to give back to the world I live in. 50 ways, that go beyond donating money, 50 ways that will hopefully bring a smile on 50 faces.

I was the shy little girl in the mirror, who always saw the world with a looking glass. Today, I am the woman in the mirror who knows there is no looking glass, and yet I continue to believe I will find one. Maybe this fabulous journey of giving back will lead me to the looking glass.. Pronoia, it’s real. Believe!

Happy Birthday to Me!

The Epitome of Feminism!

India the cradle of human civilization, the country of mystic and spices, is also the country of myths and more myths. . Myths, legends, and folk tales is how we transfer our culture and value to the next generations and India has a myth for every moment in life 🙂 These myths as unscientific as they may be, are at the core of Indian culture. They ground us, and ensure we stay true to our uniqueness. India is an oxymoron. We have MOM who sends a satellite to Mars and then we have the MoM who continues to follow centuries-old myths. One such unique myth that brings forward the blend of a woman’s sensuality and strength is Karwachauth

Karwachauth – simply explained is the Indian festival of absolute fasting by a wife for the long and healthy life of her husband. In ancient India, girls got married at a very young age, there was no time to enjoy childhood or flaunt the youth, so where does one go when one misses their family; you find a fellow sister and share your thoughts. Soon this became a day when the women in the village congregated in one place and celebrated each other through prayer and worship. They fasted for their husbands not because they were submissive, but more because the myth of Savitri and Sati has taught them the power of a wife’s faith. A faith so strong that it defies the Gods themselves. A faith that teaches them to believe in their strength and become the strength of their husbands. They celebrated the strength of womanhood and gifted each other trinkets to remind each other that there is always a friend somewhere. If this is not feminism at its best, then I don’t know what is. It’s ancient India’s modern Lean In movement.

It’s all about perspectives.

Modern India calls it being servile and submitting to a regressive culture where the wife is nothing but a thing of beauty. I respectfully disagree with all my fellow feminists who feel this way. India is one of the few countries that celebrates women’s power and if that power comes with curves and glamor, more power to the women of India for they know how to ride a bicycle wearing a saree.

I fast, because not everything in life is about equality and men bashing. Men put a smile on our faces too, they just don’t fast. I am sure you have heard the age-old adage, way to a man’s heart is through his stomach 😉

Karwachauth is about a wife’s faith. The wife, who knows that she is the foundation of her home. The wife who knows that fasting is just one more way to continue to make her will power stronger. It’s about the wife who doesn’t care about being labeled, the wife who is only interested in the continued companionship and love in her life.

Karwachauth – it is about celebrating womanhood and sisterhood. It is about celebrating all women and reminding ourselves of how remarkable we are.

Karwachauth, It’s the epitome of feminism.

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The epitome of Feminism!

It’s all about perspectives.

Karwachauth, It’s the epitome of feminism.

The Girl, The Woman, The Goddess.

Once upon a time in the heavens above lived The Trinity – Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, The Perpetuator; and Shiva, The Destroyer. Shiva though the one who gets angry quickly is also the innocent one, the generous one who bestows his blessings in abundance to all who worship him. The demons knew of his strength and they worship him and worship him more, they get blessed with immortality, when no man could destroy them. Lo and behold Mother Earth bore the pain of this blessing, and then when the pain was unbearable, the Trinity created her – The Goddess. They called upon her to save them for she was valor, strength and knowledge living in harmony with her surroundings. The harmony gave her the freedom to be who she chose to be. The Goddess restored peace on Earth and all was well in the heavens.

Mythological India, is a goddess worshipping culture considers their women, the giver of life. The men had their own roles, they were the providers. In essence, humans had found their balance and there was a man in every woman and a woman in every man. There was no room for competition. Then we discovered the fire, the wheel, the industry and here we are in 2020, still struggling with the fundamentals.

The Indian festival of Navratri celebrates the Goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. It is nine days of fasting, dancing and celebration. Consider it the mythological India’s Woman’s day celebration. Personally for me, my favorite is the 8th day. The eighth day is called Ashtami. It is the day when we celebrate the girl child.

Little girls, pure and innocent mortal forms of The Goddesses are welcomed into loving homes. They are pampered with gifts galore and in turn the little angels shower their giggly blessings and love on the family. Soon these angels grow up and cross the threshold into woman hood. Tradition says they are no longer innocent.

Today, let’s talk about it.The Period.

Is it the girls fault that she grew up? Is it her fault that she was blessed with the gift of bearing the next generation? Is it her fault that she has no control of the when and where of The Period? If your answer to all these questions was no, then I ask you again, why do you stop worshipping her?

The Period, makes us a woman and yet we choose to shun the very essence of us. The Period is nothing more than pain and discomfort that the female body goes through majority of her life. Every month she bleeds so when the moment is right she can bring a new life into this world. That’s pretty amazing! It’s a supernatural wondrous quality.

The Period does not kill the sacred Tulsi plant. The Period does not curse a temple and The Period definitely does not ruin Navratri. We are worshiping the Goddesses, they are women too. Their mortal forms probably had gone through the same pain. They get it. The Goddesses are not going to punish if we choose to worship them with The Period. The Goddesses will not curse, should we choose to celebrate the young woman in your life. We call them “Mata”, which means Mother. Do we really believe that a mom will punish her daughters for stopping by to say hello?

This Navratri, I reinvented my celebrations by choosing to celebrate the daughters in my life. This Navratri I reinvented my celebrations and promised my self to continue Ashtami well into the adolescent years, and beyond of all the daughters I hold close to my heart. I choose to celebrate their strength, their smile, their giggles and their hugs.