Lockdown Diaries

Our series of articles all about how people are making the best of the situations caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

SHEROES and UK government launch “Women Go Digital” programme to power digital growth for women entrepreneurs and professionals

100 women entrepreneurs to get access to digital transformation training and tools, mentorship and community The UK-India Tech Hub has partnered with SHEROES to launch the “Women Go Digital” programme. The programme offers access to digital tools and skills, mentorship and community to women looking to transform their entrepreneurial and professional outcomes. The Women Go Digital programme is offered for free...

Lockdown Diaries: The importance of exercise during lockdown and beyond

When compared to the spectre of death and global economic collapse, gym closures seem pretty low on the list of calamities caused by the pandemic, but exercise is particularly important now because it boosts us physically and mentally. Physical activity helps to keep our immune systems working effectively as it flushes bacteria from the lungs and airways, increases white blood...

Lockdown diaries: Think local, think community, support small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic

I live in London and have done all my life. It’s a bustling and busy City with a population of 8 million. You see people everywhere. Hustling. Shuffling. Rushing from here to there. This year, we became accustomed to phrases like lock down, self-isolate, global pandemic, social distancing, wash your hands, wear a mask, Zoom, ‘You’re on mute’, and...

A personal plea for generations to co-operate in saving the planet and our children’s futures

As far back as I can remember, I loved animals, plants, and trees — really anything that was outdoors and wild. Simply put, I was fascinated by the natural world. My interest was magnified when I spent a summer holiday in the Midlands with my grandparents. Even though I was only four years old, I remember so vividly the...

Ketan Dattani speaks on how to rebuild in the post Covid economy

No event in recent history has affected us as profoundly and pervasively as the pandemic. It signifies a completely unprecedented circumstance, as novel as it is life-changing. The virus has not only infected thousands, but has thrust us into an economic recession. How long, how deep and how many are impacted by the recession will be influenced not just by the...

Kumartuli saga 2020: the hands that shape the Gods

The word ‘unprecedented times’ perhaps has found a new definition, since the Coronavirus pandemic hit different parts of the world since December last year. Among all the turmoil caused, the pandemic has changed the Durga Puja festival, the biggest celebrations for Hindu Bengalis around the world, where they gather for five days to seek the powerful matriarchal blessings of...

Open Oven: Baking it Even!

With the world witnessing a paradigm shift, food still holds fort as a constant source of relief. Entrepreneurial ventures stocking on comfort and utility food has become the need of the hour. One such immensely popular bakery in Kolkata, India is the Open Oven Bakery. Instituted by Reshma Sengupta, Open Oven has been supplying tasty and healthy baked food...

Lockdown Diaries: The diary of a boy with an extraordinary disease

Robby Khullar will be writing a series of articles for us on Multiple Sclerosis, a condition that he has been suffering from for 35 years. Robby, with his positivity and wit, has been spreading awareness among the South Asian diasporas in the UK, actively taking part in MS research and helping provide answers that will prove critical for the generations...

KASHISH 2020 to screen India’s first gay film ‘Badnam Basti’, lost and found after 49 years

Register for KASHISH 2020 at http://mumbaiqueerfest.com/attend/ Director Prem Kapoor's 'Badnam Basti', India's first gay film released in 1971, only to be lost to obscurity for around five decades, and found in a Berlin archive, will be screened at KASHISH 2020. Considered as one of first Indian films to explore same-sex relationship, Badnam Basti was made in 1971 and features a...

Not Namaste Trump but Phir Milengey: H-1B visas suspended, what now?

It looked like things were getting as close as could be between US President Donald Trump and Narendra Modi but a worldwide pandemic and a scourge of resulting unemployment in the States has put a spanner in the works of ‘Namaste Trump’, as an executive order signed this past week will suspend new visas for foreign workers, including the...