I choose to write because it's perfect for me. It's an escape, a place I can go to hide. It's a friend, when I feel outcast from everyone else. It's a journal, when the only story I can tell is my own. It's a book, when I need to be somewhere else. It's control, when I feel so out of control. It's healing, when everything seems pretty messed up. And it's fun, when life is just flat-out boring.
― Alysha Speer
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| Mental Health: A Primer |
Buy, read my English translation of Manav Kaul's collection of short stories titled A Night in The Hills
I wrote the foreword for this poetry collection by Jaibala Rao titled Songs of a broken Heart.
![Songs of A Broken Heart: A Collection of poems by [Rao, Jaibala]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41I0FwtOq4L.jpg)
Finalist in Two Categories at the Orange Flower Awards 2019
7 nominations at the Orange Flower Festival
We were
RUNNER UP at the Orange flower awards 2017 in POETRY
and
Finalist for HINDI blogging
WINNERS at the Orange Flower Awards 2016 in POETRY category for
this blog and HINDI writing for my other blog.
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I was featured here https://fortyplus.fashion.blog/2019/03/10/pooja-priyamvada-on-flexi-dressing-chiffon-and-black/
https://myemotionalhealthin.com/2019/01/03/my-tryst-with-invisible-illnesses-is-almost-lifetime-long-ms-pooja-priyamvada/
Translations of Nizar Qabbani's selected poems published here on SADANEERA
You will be shocked by how "normal" these 30 signs of Intimate Partner Abuse are
A girl who lit her father's pyre was published at ShethePeople
Why Sholay's Basanti was my first Bollywood feminist icon was published at Women's Web
I was featured here along with other single moms https://www.womensweb.in/2018/07/five-women-share-their-stories-of-being-single-moms-in-india-july18wk4sr/
The Woman Behind Dr. Ambedkar – Why Are Our Women Denied Their Rightful Place In History?https://www.womensweb.in/2018/05/savita-ambedkar-discredited-caste-woman-may18wk3/
My Interview with Sophia Naz at Women's web
Tell me little Girl, Tell me your pain was published at the Womens Web here
An Intimate Untouchability was published here at the Mentsrupedia blog
When you Lose yourself to Grief published at The Mighty (Depression and Suicide Awareness) and was also featured at The Grief toolbox's Facebook page here
Learn Together : 3 lessons from Co-learning a guest post at the reputed parenting blog Diary of a Doting Mom
Mirabai a tale of simultaneous devotion and subversion was published at Feminism in India.
What It's Like Living With Fibromyalgia in India was published here at was published at The Mighty.Short story ACID was published here as the winner of Muse of the month November @ Womens Web
A video version of the story ACID
A tribute to GAURI LANKESH was published at Womens web
The Goddess and Her sculptor was published here @ Womens web
I was part of this e-book, paperback.
You can buy it here:
Kunti's confession and other stories
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| http://www.womensweb.in/2017/07/10-indian-women-bloggers-you-must-follow/ We are a part of this illustrious list of Indian Women Bloggers !! |
Featured at Mums and stories as an Inspirational Mum
Pooja Sharma Rao on being a mum, dealing with fibromyalgia and more
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| from: Mum and stories |
Living with an Invisible Abuser : Fibromyalgia has appeared
at Women's Web here
/http://www.womensweb.in/2017/06/living-invisible-illness-fibromyalgia/
and
at Feminism in India
https://feminisminindia.com/2017/08/17/27364/
Sex (Actuality) was winner of Museof The Month at women's web here
Dilliwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge: Love stories from India's capital city
How my gay brother was driven to his death by our parents
7 phrases commonly used in Indian matrimonial ads that will make you ROFL
Why her mother never left her father but committed suicide instead was published at Bonobology
Vendetta Winner of #MuseoftheMonth at Women's Web here.
She : The Revolution - a poem based on the Hindi film ENGLISH VINGLISH . Winner of the #MuseOfTheMonth at Women's Web here.
Razia Sultan : The first and last Woman Ruler of Delhi Sultante was part of the #IndianWomenInHistory at Feminism in India
Amrita Pritam : Not just a poet, but revolution personified was part of the #IndianWomenInHistory at Feminism in India
The Journey - a poem based on the Hindi film QUEEN, Winner of the #MuseOfTheMonth at Women's Web here.
In the Quest of Liberation is published in the month of November Muse of the Month of November at Women's Web here.
The Revolutionary is part of the Women's web Anthology Kunti's Confessions and other Short Stories here and was also published in the month of September Muse of the month at Women's Web here
Nothing is Forever is another short story that was winner of Muse of the month, August 2016 at Women's Web here.
Freedom is my short story which was a winner of Muse of the month , April 2016 at Women's Web here.
Aide de memoire was chosen in a contest to be published on Women's Web as Saying Goodbye to my father.
BREAK THE SILENCE won the Second Prize here at #Momsforabetterworld Contest at women's web.
This post was also published at Women's Web as How Long Will We Lock Up Girls To Keep Them “Safe” From Harassment? as part of the Breakthrough India initiative #AskingForIt.
My hindi poem MAA-BETI-MAA is part of a trilingual anthology Resonating Strings by the group Poets & Artists Unplugged.
HERstory is winner at the Muse of the Month (November) at the Women's Web
Finding Myself - my short story found a place in the prestigious Muse of the Month at the Womens Web site.
My Voice Is My Feminism won Pay It forward Blogathon @ Women's Web.
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| Photo courtesy Contest page Women's Web |
A FEMINIST DREAM is published in the anthology titled AATISH by Onfire in
My short story KASTURI appeared in the Second Anniversary Issue of the e-zine THE BROWSING CORNER here.
A SILENT BOND won the FIRST PRIZE @ THE SOUL SISTERS CONTEST @ WOMEN'S WEB.
Beyond Stereotypes was my guest post here at the Parle-G parenting genius blog.
Three of the many lessons from my daughter was my guest post at the PARLE-G PARENTING BLOG
My short story SUPERSTAR appeared in FABLERY NEWSLETTER ISSUE 1
My works can be found at:
HAIKUS ,Hindi poem NIRVASAN and English poem DECEMBER in various issues of the e-zine THE BROWSING CORNER
SHIMLA in CELEBRATING INDIA - a compilation of the works of over 50 authors including those by Deepti Naval, Shashi Tharoor and Gulzar by NIVASINI PUBLISHERS
BITTER CHOCOLATE pg. 246 in the anthology WORDS ON THE WINGS OF CHANGE, BRIAN WRIXON BOOKS,ONTARIO,CANADA
HAIKUS in antholgies by POETS INTERNATIONAL BANGALORE
SEVERAL POEMS in the following paperback and e-book anthologies by DESTINY TO WRITE PUBLICATIONS UK
Posts from my blog can also be read here at haaram.com.
An extract about my poetry from an academic paper titled BURYING THE GHOST OF SYLVIA PLATH: EMERGING ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ENGLISH WOMEN’S POETRY by Professor Dr.Manju Jaidka presented at the Srinagar university .(© 2012 Manju Jaidka)
“There are other poets who have been writing but have not come into the limelight.Pooja Sharma Rao, an upcoming poet, says that writing poetry despite all the talk about emancipation and empowerment for a woman is an act of rebellion, to let her voice be heard in some way. “Unlike the Bronte sisters we don’t have to take male names to get published alright or hide poetry in our kitchens like Dickinson but there is still a bias where all that is really virtuous, brave or intelligent like discussing politics,fighting wars or writing poetry-it is just considered a bit too much for women.”
In Rao’s short pieces the strain is heavily feminist but the images are from contemporary life and its appendages like Facebook, laptops etc. Most of the issues she deals with are either hot topics of the day or culture specific issues like female foeticide:
.let's kill the girls
and with them shame and honour
what equality?
She experiments with old themes, Revisioning the Cinderella story (in a poem published in an anthology entitled Once Upon A Time where the theme was fairy tales revisited:
I could sit and cry
about step-mom misfortune
or heave long sighs
for step-sisters impune
but sitting by the cinders
alone every eve
I decided with
Fairy good luck
My fortune
I’ll weave.
So mice-eaten books
became horses for my dreams
and a pumpkin-pie recipe
my sustenance means:
Whereas redemption in the traditional tale comes only by marrying a prince, in Rao’s poem although most of the original elements are retained (like the step-mom, step-sisters, mice, horses, fairy godmother glass slipper) Cinderella is presented as an enterprising girl whose prince comes looking for her not for her beauty but because of her skill of baking and eventually she owns the bakery with him. So the working–girl Cinderella it is who lives happily ever after with the prince.”
Hello di,
ReplyDeleteI am loving the new look of your blog ( perhaps old by now!). Reading ur poems while sipping my masala chai in the severe winters (first time in the last 15 years) of São Paulo.
Enjoying every bit of your blog...
Shelly
Hey Shelly these comments were invisible due to google plus. Good to hear from you and respond almost 6 years late.
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