Dear Readers,

Life caught us unawares. All of us. All the countries, the entire medical fraternity, the leading Pharma companies, the top business magnates. One and all. And turned out to be a great leveller. No demarcation of a first world and a third world country. No difference between the life of a household help, an Uber driver and you. Life is precious. And death is at our doorstep. Not something you would have thought you would experience in the 21st century in the world of AI, robotic surgeries, face recognition systems etc.

But then, life happens. And we have devised our own ways to find some semblance in this chaos. The show is still on.

In this issue, we bring to you some unique perspectives and stories that hopefully show you a perspective, make you ponder on life and bring you some cheer in these times of lockdown.

We all know that if one wants to make a change, the change has to begin within. However, we do acknowledge that invariably, it takes some time for anybody to realise that there is a need for change. Busy with the usual rigmarole of life, lost in its repetitiveness, most of us tend to get complacent and end up inactive.

Our first piece is on positivity – a must-need, yet oft misunderstood word. In Positivity Always Wins! we get some smart cues to erase the negativity that tends to seep in, and handle it with a strong sense of positivity. Striving towards a healthier life, we bring another piece on the aspect of mental health – Are you on a Mental Lockdown? which raises some pertinent questions and draws a parallel between how men are finding it claustrophobic to be in some form of a house arrest during this lockdown, while women have been doing it for ages.

Talking about lockdown and women, there has been a significant increase in the cases of domestic violence across the globe during these times. We bring you a piece on Domestic Violence in Lockdown that discourages you from facing any kind of abuse, and guides you to speak up. Abuse can be physical, sexual, economic/monetary, mental and psychological, and help is around the corner with some WA helplines set up by some authorities.

The power of the sisterly network is immense. In Fuzia – the Melting Pot of Sisterhood, we showcase how this portal is making a big difference in the lives of women across the world by giving them a pedestal to be their best and shine further in it.

So how are you handling this life without maids and cooks? In Children and Chores, we give you some tips on how you can use this lockdown to truly make your children independent, strong and confident.

Marching on towards our primary vision of an equal world, we bring to you a lovely piece by a young design student who softly questions the gender fluid approach that is adopted by visual designers and nudges us towards going gender rich. In Can Design be Gender Rich?, she brings out the power of visual communication and with some excellent examples of gender richness, tells us that when you can wear something so elegantly, no one questions why, but only notices how beautiful it looks.

On that cheerful note of looking good, let me sign off and get you on to read the issue.

For better times ahead!

Happy Reading!

Regards

Swapna Narayanan

Chief Editor, Eyra