Yasmin Kidwai the Documentary Filmmaker and Delhi Municipal Councillor on Governance and Politics in the World’S Largest Democracy
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August 2020 Vol 4 Issue 8 Yasmin Kidwai The documentary filmmaker and Delhi municipal councillor on governance and politics in the world’s largest democracy THE REINVENTION DESTINY’S WOMEN INDIA IN FOCUS Self-employed women Dancer and author Global youth speak who adapted and broke Gitanjali Kolanad on up about their India new paths in the lockdown the devadasi system experience contents Menu of Love 13 Gifted cooks and their new home kitchens India on Her Mind 26 Documentary filmmaker Yasmin Kidwai Outsider View 32 Global trainees share their India experience The Horror We Live With 38 Meet Anvita Dutt, director of Bulbbul Lockdown Baby 46 Giving birth during the COVID pandemic Youth Brigade 59 Girls who are out to change the world Miniature Delights! 66 Clay models of India’s favourite foods Destiny’s Women 70 Gitanjali Kolanad on the devadasi system 06 Let’s Get Digital These talented women took their Paradise Lost work online during lockdown 74 A Kashmiri Pandit on loss, survival and hope AUGUST 2020 4 | EDITOR’S NOTE THE REINVENTION Lockdown aced with crisis, the woman of character falls back on herself. She imposes her own stamp of action, F takes responsibility for it, makes it her own. Those Relationships words, paraphrasing Charles de Gaulle, define the women in the pages of this issue. These are women who – when faced with crises and choices – have Survey been unafraid to reinvent themselves and even start from scratch if need be. Cover personality Yasmin Kidwai (p.26) went from being a documentary filmmaker to an elected representative of the people because she wanted to counter the narrative of hate so prevalent in our times. Poet and reality TV star Priya Malik took her poetry workshops online during the lockdown, as did other entrepreneurs who could not just still and watch their self-made businesses come to a halt (p.06). Talented cooks turned into entrepreneurs running home kitchens to keep their family income going during the pandemic crisis (p.13). Aekta Kapoor Whether forced by a crisis or not, there is a point Editor and Publisher in all our lives when we choose reinvention. Like [email protected] the two marketing professionals who turned into tarot readers (p.56), and an engineer who became a science fiction writer (p.78) for the sheer love of it. Maybe you went through a transformation too. Write to me about it. There’s nothing I respect more than a woman who fearlessly lives her truth. Has your relationship become more equal during the lockdown? : Aekta Kapoor : Kul Bhushan Editor and Publisher Mentor eShe magazine is conducting a survey on how marriages and long-term relationships fared during Business Director: Kaveri Jain All rights reserved throughout the world. the COVID lockdown in 2020, especially in terms of gender division of household responsibilities. Social Media: Manasvi Jerath Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Please fill the survey form (link below) and share your thoughts and experience! Contributors: Dr Farah Adam Published by Aekta Kapoor from Coral Content, Survey ends on August 20, 2020. Results will be published in September. Mukadam, Isha Jerath, Kay Newton, C3/1 GF, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi 110057, India. Maya Lalchandani, Neha Kirpal, Shweta Phone: +91 9971116621. For queries, write to Bhandral, Varsha Khandelwal [email protected], or visit eShe.in Survey link: https://forms.gle/SVnQpviDNVrXVSbJ8 AUGUST 2020 Lockdown Relationships Survey Has your relationship become more equal during the lockdown? eShe magazine is conducting a survey on how marriages and long-term relationships fared during the COVID lockdown in 2020, especially in terms of gender division of household responsibilities. Please fill the survey form (link below) and share your thoughts and experience! Survey ends on August 20, 2020. Results will be published in September. Survey link: https://forms.gle/SVnQpviDNVrXVSbJ8 6 | REINVENTION LET’S GET DIGITAL AUGUST 2020 REINVENTION | 7 These three talented women took their work online during the COVID lockdown even if it meant unlearning, relearning, and starting afresh By Shweta Bhandral PRIYA MALIK er personality leaves a lasting impression on you – Priya H Malik is poetry in action. The 33-year-old actor, poet and model started her career journey as a high-school teacher in Australia, who shot to fame after participating in reality show Big Brother Australia. It was followed by Big Boss in India, which gave the Dehradun-born girl an opportunity to be back home in her country. “I was yearning to come back to India since long,” she says. She admits that while reality TV stars are Priya Malik performing spoken word poetry stereotyped and it’s not an ideal way for a performing artist to make her modelling and acting assignments, debut in the entertainment industry, Priya did not give up on her poetry. the show did give her a large fan In the past few years, she has put following and a financial footing to spoken word on the centre-stage set up base in Mumbai. of performing arts events all over A poet since the age of 12, Priya India. “I find my life creatively more had participated in standup comedy fulfilling in India,” she says. gigs and poetry readings at various Her hands where full when India events in Australia since 2014 when went into lockdown. “Initially, I she won her first Australian Poetry was relieved at getting a chance to slam heat for her work When he slow down. Some of my events and told me, he doesn’t love me anymore. shoots got postponed. However, as This recognition acted as an time went by, I realised the impact impetus for her to pursue spoken- would last longer than anticipated, word performances in India too. and it began to worry me.” Even while taking up TV shows, Two months into the lockdown, AUGUST 2020 8 | REINVENTION performing artists began doing on- Soon, Priya was comfortable with line performances on Zoom, selling the routine. Priya Ki Pathshaala is tickets on Book My Show. Just a a two-day, six-hour workshop that few days before the lockdown, Pri- costs `999 per person, and can ac- ya had conducted an online work- commodate about 50 participants. shop on poetry, which had sold out. “In one way, COVID has taken That workshop became the base the world apart, but digitally, it has for her new launch. She learnt how also brought us together,” says Pri- Zoom works, put togeher her mod- ya. “Participants in my workshop ules, and conducted her first Priya are poetry lovers from all over the Ki Pathshaala workshop in May world – from Kerala to Kashmir 2020. “I thought it would be hard and Canada to Dubai and Germany. to feel connected with students, but It has been amazing to be able to I guess my passion helped me over- connect with an audience I proba- come that awkwardness. I decided bly wouldn’t have been able to con- to not worry about making it per- nect with in non-COVID times.” fect; my main concern was keeping After having successfully con- it real, and I allowed them to do the ducted several workshops in the past same. My cat jumped at me during two months, Priya – who also col- one of the events, and we all just laborates with other poets – intends laughed it out.” to keep them going post-lockdown. AUGUST 2020 REINVENTION | 9 SHALINI BHARGAVA t 45, Shalini Bhargava is a immediately decided to take JG’s powerhouse of energy. For online. After a lot of hits and misses A 21 years, this fitness trainer, for two weeks, JG’s team was finally nutrition expert and entrepreneur ready with their online plan. has been running JG’s fitness centre Leading by example, Shalini was in Santacruz, Mumbai. In the past the first of her trainers to start classes. few years, they expanded from a She explains, “Using the Zoom app group exercise centre to a state-of- and Instagram live feature, I go live the-art gym, Pilates facility, and a at a set time every day for about rehabilitation centre. 40 minutes. Any individual of any Her workplace went quiet and age group can follow the class from empty with the lockdown; the home.” booming fitness industry is one Thousands of fitness videos of the worst hit. Shalini, whose are available on the internet for husband is a doctor, understood free, but having a live trainer-led that the COVID situation would session has its own benefits. Shalini not end any time soon. The mother had to make sure that she did not of two – her 25-year-old son is a lose the personal touch with her celebrity nutritionist and 22-year- clients even if she was online. JG’s old daughter is a law student – livestream fitness sessions, which are AUGUST 2020 10 | REINVENTION pre-booked, take in only a limited helped JG’s fitness centre maintain number of participants. In these its clientele but has also helped sessions, Shalini personally watches the brand create a robust name over and corrects postures. JG’s also for itself on the digital platform. share pre-recorded online classes Approximately 60 people join in with instructions for members to each session every day, many from perform their routine at home outside Mumbai. with no equipment. These tutorials As the city is in an unlock phase, encompass a wide range of physical Shalini is hopeful that she will be training like strength-training able to open doors of her centre by workouts, mat Pilates, cardio mid-August. “It will not be easy,” Pilates, masala bhangra, bootcamp she admits.