Mithra

Two Strangers… One Lockdown!  {1} I let out a long-drawn sigh and looked at the receptionist. He kept staring at his desktop screen while tapping his fingers over the counter. He looked more frustrated and worried. Finally, after two whole minutes he turned his eyes on me. He did not have to say anything, the helplessness of his gaze said it all. ‘I am extremely sorry, madam. But we have received orders to vacate all the guests from the hotel. I checked with all our other properties and some other allies too, but the response has been the same. The management does not want to take chances. You have till tomorrow afternoon to vacate your room.’ I felt anger and pity at the same time for the receptionist. This was the same man who had welcomed me with a smile three days ago. Taking a look at his badge, I nodded my head. ‘Thank you Sooraj.’ I had almost turned to leave, but I stopped. ‘I really appreciate your concern and efforts for me.’ I could not help giv...

Women’s Education – Not just a criteria for Matrimonial Ads! 99.5 years! 99.5 years! 99.5 years! According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020, it will take 99.5 years to close the global gender gap between men and women. There is another interesting piece of information which we as Indians would be fascinated to know. India tops the world in producing female graduates in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), nearly 43% of the STEM graduates in India are women. Ironically, women constitute only 14% (United Nations) of the total 280,000 scientists, engineers and technologists in research development institutions in India. Despite the economic growth in our country, the labour force participation rate of women is declining and less than 26% of the women above the age of 15 participate in the workforce. For urban citizens, this could be shocking because we do see many career-driven women around us. But let us just pause for a momen...