Dear Readers,

2020 has been a challenging year in every way for all of us. The epidemic, cyclones, floods, natural causes have made us lose a lot of people. If we just see Bollywood, we have lost so many really talented artists.

A depressing thought. But they say we should always ‘count our blessings’, ‘look at the bright side’, ‘be positive’ etc.

Let us give that a shot now.

We take inspiration from Saroj Khan, the late choreographer we lost earlier this month. But we decided to take inspiration from her life and present you with a piece on how women are dedicated, yet pre-judged as not being so at workplace. Read Sincerely Yours? to delve deeper into this angle.

We have seen a spike in domestic violence as well recently. We bring you an inspiring and soul searching poem Respect by Bindiya Bedi Charan Noronha portraying the journey of a woman to freedom.

With so much disturbance around us, we need to bring peace within ourselves and heal our souls. With this in mind, The Hindu columnist Lakshmi Anand started Quarantunes to bring us soothing music. As they say, art is the food for the soul; any form of art. But music is the best way to relax and clear out our minds. Read all about it in Up and Close with Artists – Lakshmi Anand.

On the topic of mind, let us cleanse ours and achieve that balance we are so much in need of today. We bring you a very informative article on Building a Balanced Mind to understand how to keep our minds balanced and objective to deal with difficult situations, with the 5R mantra.

Let’s forget these frustrating times and focus our minds on the pleasanter topic of hobbies and movies. At least that is how I keep my mind busy – with painting and watching movies. There is one particular 2017 movie I stumbled upon recently, Angrezi Mein Kehte Hai which really presented the main problem faced by modern day couples – of love and expression. Read more about it in Two Sides of Love.

As always we hope you enjoy the issue this time. We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Have a happy time, have a peaceful mind. More importantly, please do share with us how you are coping with the scenario today. Let us all help each other in this time of need.

Yours truly,

Jyoti Shekar

Founder Editor, Eyra