A letter to all girls and women. This is for women who inspire. This is for women who have had a heartbreaking past but get up everyday to conquer their dreams. This is for women who have been through all kinds of Gender based violence, be it physical or emotional, but smile with stardust in their eyes, this is for women who deserve better. This is for women who were rejected, shamed, and disrespected by the society. This is for women who love deeply, who hold on tight to people they love and their children, this is for women who have been through hell, but have shown immense courage. This is...

Disclaimer: This post depicts the socio-realities of some women & men in an indo-asian society, using a dash of sarcasm and the pronoun "I" is an amalgamation of many voices. Not intended to hurt any feelings, but tried to portray a mirror of the society, using a different style of writing, to send the message across. I feel so privileged to be able to walk on silk sandy beaches, wind in my hair, wet feet in the deep blue sea, with dreamy weather, the sun sending bright rays to my fairy tale life, while I sip my tea, sunbathing, and watching the beautiful sunset. Yes, the Paradise Island, but...

“Our youth are not failing the system; the system is failing our youth. Ironically, the very youth who are being treated the worst are the young people who are going to lead us out of this nightmare.” — Rachel Jackson I can now proudly say that Mauritius launched it's first Youth Parliament, and I'm really humbled to be a part of this amazing initiative. Most people do not realize that if youth are part of the problem, they are also part of the solution. If we want to promote change, we cannot leave the voices of more than 1 billion young people behind. I think that it's finally time to drop...

Children are the generation of tomorrow and they see the world differently from adults. Fauna and Flora play an important role in our ecosystem because without them, the blue planet will be no more livable.

The manuscript represents the importance of knowledge throughout time. The glass of water represents its importance as a basic need and actions should be taken globally for its conversation. And live is the strongest value and feeling all human beings should possess❤️😌

It's new, isn't it? New school, new class, new subjects, new uniform, new teachers, new classmates. You are working hard, aren't you? You're trying to be a friend, aren't you? You're trying to be a good student, aren't you? You're trying to be funny, aren't you? You're trying to fit in with the popular, aren't you? But you messed up, didn't you? From having many friends, being crazy, friendly, funny, caring, and warm, how did you end up there? There, in that deserted school playground, on the last day of the 2nd Semester, all alone, crying out loud, on your knees, seeing your "friends" walk...

When I joined VOY years ago, I was 17, and still in High School. I had a very regular life: I used to wake up, go to school, come back home, study, sleep and repeat. I used to live in my own shell focused on my own life problems, like how to have a good social life or get better grades at school. On weekends, I would spend time with my family and then go back to that routine on Monday. Then gradually everything changed. I got back the voice I lost, the light that faded, and since then there has been no stopping. I broke the walls I built around myself. I started to write, then speak out about...

16 Days of Activism is an international campaign that runs from 25 November to 10 December to address violence against women and girls around the world. This year, Dr Shruti Kapoor, Founder of Sayfty in partnership with UN Women, The United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality and other key partnering organizations organized 16 self-defense workshops in 16 countries for young women to empower them with basic self-defense skills to keep them safer from gender-based violence. “For young women, sexual abuse and harassment/eve teasing is...

The #16DaysofActivism starts on 25 Nov and the theme is Gender Based Violence. Recently I got a chance to interact with Sunny Angel, a survivor, finalist for the Heroine of the Year Award 2017, and author of WINGS. Sunny sent me the book WINGS and I loved it, and I think that it's a very interesting book for young people. The book is a memoir, a true story, which explores different aspects of gender-based violence, from marital rape, to stalking, to emotional abuse, to honor abuse, to drugs and suicide, to forced marriage, to domestic violence, to victim blaming and a lot more. It's a very...

I woke up to Twitter yesterday to many tweets on #MeToo from people I know, and all of them were sharing their assault stories. The #MeToo movement was started by actress Alyssa Milano, and the #MeToo hashtag has been used over 200,00 times, according to the BBC. It also went viral on other social media, like Facebook and Instagram. People have used it as a social microphone to voice their sexual harassment stories, rape stories, stories about cat calls and violence at work, and even abuse stories. The thing is that so many people tweeting about it, gives us an idea how sexual assault is...

I missed this place so much, and it's been so long since I've written a post, and even though I used to come, read, and comment, this feeling of typing your thoughts in a post is so refreshing. I have been writing a lot lately - drafts, law articles and doing some projects, and also taking this break to recharge a bit. College is back in full swing, and every time we talk about college, or schools, there is this issue called bullying, which sticks to our skins, and accompanies us everywhere. Bullies, labels, bringing other people down, and throwing insecurities on people – it's like a never...

I remember one of my first posts here on VOY was on periods: #HappyToBleed which I will link here. At that time, around one and half year ago, I was not really sure whether I should write that post or not. I did not know what to expect and how people would react to it. There were very few posts on menstruation on VOY and to be very honest, I was so nervous when I pressed 'Submit'. When the post got published, I was so happy with the outcome and the positive comments I got especially from Kate (thank you so much!) and since then, I did not have any second thoughts. I also posted a second...

I am going to start this post very directly by saying that mental Illness is not something to joke about. Mental Illness affects many people daily and there is absolutely no humor in it. It's not funny at all to throw insensitive jokes around and hurt people in so many ways. It is not funny either to reject people suffering from mental illness. Everyone can have mental issues, whether it is chronic stress/depression or complex things like bipolar disorder. I don't know if you have seen in some old movies where when a person suffers from any mental illness, they send that person to some strange...

#ConsentBeforeColors is a hashtag which talks about the perils of being forced to play Holi and soon people used it to talk about sexual harassment that women face on this day. Holi is the festival of colors celebrated in India, Nepal, Mauritius and while I don't really know the religious belief behind this festival but on this day, it is a free-for-all carnival of colors where we play, chase and color each other with dry powder and colored water, with some carrying water guns and colored water-filled balloons for a friendly water fight. Holi is a great, beautiful, and happy festival where...

This post is a collaboration between Destiny and Yeshna How often do we look at ourselves in the mirror and wish we had different bodies, different personalities, different lives? How often do we look at others and ask ourselves, “Why can’t I be like them?” How often do we break ourselves down because we simply don’t measure up to the ‘success’ of those around us? Maybe it’s time we ask the question… Do we accept who we are? Self-acceptance is a key concept in our lives. So many things are dependent on our contentedness with who we are. Our relationship with ourselves is reflected through our...

Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate - These are the words of Tiny Buddha I feel like the internet is our second home, social media is now a way of life. I check my social media right after waking up and going to sleep at night. Social media is quite interesting, we get to post everything and anything, it's like holding a switch button in our hands. Just like a switch has two buttons: on and off, life on social media is more or less the same thing. You have people who will try to throw negativity and people who will inspire with their positivity. Lame, loser, coward, useless...

I just realized that in 2016 I wrote many posts about women, about issues that women go through on a daily basis and in my posts I have always addressed to some boys saying that it's time to change our mentality in order to promote gender equality. I know we hate that guy who harassed us on streets or the one in the news who raped a girl or those who do honor killings and many more. It's totally fine. But today I do not want to talk about those who do not respect women, I want to talk about those who are with us in this battle. Those who are totally against injustice towards women and are...

Books. My parents say that I have a special relationship with books. I love to read them, 'eat' them, 'digest' them and collect them. Someone rightly said that the only way to get into a person's mind is to read his books. It's really amazing and fascinating to see how books can transform our lives, push us into another world, feed our brains and give us the possibility to fight dragons. Books are so powerful and I will proudly say that - yes they are magical too! I love to read from science books/magazines to fan fiction, I read a lot. I read many fiction books, and autobiographies, as well...

Last week, there was a power cut in my street and all the houses were without electricity for some time. Without electricity, I mean no internet, no TV, no computer, no air conditioner, no fan and the list goes endless. After barely an hour, people were suddenly going out of their houses to get fresh air because it was too hot. You could hear people complaining that the heat is too much and they can no longer tolerate it. Why were they not complaining all these days? Well, they had their air conditioner. Have you ever heard of air conditioner and the amount of pollution it leads to? I recently...

If I have to be honest, I would say that I have so many negative thoughts in one day. My negative thoughts accompany me all the time wherever I go and I really can’t help it. Stress= 90% negative thoughts which makes me a very stressed person. Google told me to relax, exercise, meditate, sleep, and chill, but those negative thoughts are like waves, they come and go and there is little you can do about it. People say that negative thoughts are due to fear of failure, poor self-esteem and lack of positivity in life. You see I’m not a pessimist but I tend to be realistic and prepare myself for...