Sometimes when we struggle to fit in, it may be because we deserve better. We don’t always need to change. We owe it to ourselves to do justice to the self.
“Mamma, it’s our birthday tomorrow,” our firstborn told me the night before she turned 20 this week. “My birthday is also your birthday of becoming a mother.”
“Yes,” I said, hugging her softly. “It is.”
The pandemic years have been extra disruptive for the April-born. Sahar turned 17 when the first lockdown had paralyzed the country in April 2020, creating an unprecedented hunger crisis for India’s working poor. The next year she was sick in bed as the second wave of COVID-19 struck, bringing in a tsunami of death and trauma. We were still reeling as a family and a …
Natasha is a writer, filmmaker and communications coach. She is the author of the popular memoirs My Daughters’ Mum and Immortal for a Moment. Her columns have appeared in publications such as Mint Lounge, The Hindu, Outlook, The Globe and Mail, The Indian Express, the Hindustan Times and Quint.
newsletters+natasha.badhwar@themorningcontext.com