Dear Readers,

Glad to release our March edition!

March has been an exciting month with International Women’s Day celebrations. I am particularly happy not only for the celebration but for the associated work we have done in terms of panel discussions, chats, webinars, and conferences addressing women issues.

We, as knowledge partners of Lean In India, organized an event on ‘Women Negotiating for Better Lives and Salaries.’ You can read more about it in Power of Negotiation where we have given a detailed report of how the event went.

As I analyze all the discussions that took place around this, I realized that the focus is on work-life balance for women. But what about men? Because let’s face it, unless they have work-life balance, they cannot pitch in at home, making it impossible for women to achieve the work-life balance we are discussing so strenuously. Read more about it in Empowering the Other Half.

We were fortunate enough to speak to the great artist, Indira Kadambi, who gives us her perspective on life and art in Queen of Abhinaya – Indira Kadambi.

That gets me thinking of how people, especially women, are judged on the basis of their looks, despite all the talents and achievements they may have. And our confidence stems a lot from how we are dressed or look. In Dark is Beautiful, we address this thought relating to skin colour and how it affects people.

And that brings me to a very special article in this issue, by one of my close friends Priyadarshini Natarajan, about this wonderful woman, Miriam Batliwala, whose spirit could not be smothered even by blindness. We discuss her book, InSight, which takes us through her journey and struggles. Do read Who says one needs Eyes to see the world?

As always, we hope to hear from you – thoughts, praises, criticisms or a simple ‘hey’.

Cheers.

Jyoti Shekar

Founding Editor, Eyra