Kalpana Sharma in H C U
Kalpana Sharma, veteran journalist and writer, delivered a lecture on the topic " Journalism as if Gender Matters" at the Dept of Communications yesterday. Me being a regular follower of her column 'The Other Half'  in 'The Hindu', was absolutely thrilled to finally see her in flesh and blood. It was almost as if someone very near to you had come to town! ( Well, I had the same feeling when Paul Krugman won the Nobel for Economics last year, courtesy the 'Paul Krugman column' in the same newspaper!)

She talked in length about how developing a gender sensitive approach is crucial in contemporary journalism. The talk was followed by an interactive session with the audience. Crucially, the 'inside view' that she as a journalist of immense experience could bring was clearly visible throughout the talk

To top it all, I also managed to have a little chat with Ms.Sharma after the session. It was a delightful evening, indeed.

N.B:  to know more about Kalpana Sharma, please check out this website- http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/kalpana/

Portrait

Cycling, as always on the wrong side of the road
to the campus,
as unsuspecting as on
any Monday morning,
I  confront winter :
a tree all alone
with branches forlorn
and leaves stripped off;
yet, rides away, only faster,
no turning back
no second look.

Winter, I don't want to write about you.

The way you devour the colours and 
turn everything into a grey,
the way your every image
manifest loneliness,
oh winter, putting it down on paper,
I always end up
doing something i would never want to do,
a self portrait.