Self isolation

One solitary April evening. As the sun prepared to dip down the elm and the streets remained eerily deserted, Fouzia Dastango rolled in on my Macbook. Dressed in white, her hair pulled in a loose coil, her eye lined with kohl, she was narrating an incident in the life of Hasan Jahan Begum - her gestures animated and her inflexions perfect in Begamati zuban, a dialect once specifically used by women in 19th century zenanas (women’s quarters) of Urdu-speaking cities. Accompanying Fouzia was Saneya, a professor of English literature who is writing her doctoral dissertation on Begamati. As the two storytellers dropped typical zenana proverbs and repeated anecdotes, viewers across five continents stayed glued to their flat screens to beat their quarantine blues through Rekhta Live —Unheard and Unplugged. … [Read more...] about Beat lockdown blues: Set 8 pm reminder for RekhtaLive music and poetry

Monáe and her Wondaland team have been exploring other ways to give back during the pandemic, including education initiatives to help parents keep their kids engaged while teaching them at home. But #WondaLunch has been Monáe’s main focus—even taking precedence over her creative endeavors. … [Read more...] about Janelle Monáe fights COVID-19 food insecurity with #WondaLunch

The good news is our expenses are down. No parties to be hosted, no foreign holidays, not even a birthday gift to be purchased. We realise how frugal our meals are, how affordable, especially when lobster and avocado go missing from the market shelves and our diet. We won’t have to eat our family members out of sheer hunger in the foreseeable future. … [Read more...] about Someone do the costing

When you’re focused on tracking output, that is, the big milestones that really move your business forward, it often requires no more than a weekly check-in to allow teams to touch base on what’s been completed and what’s on the schedule moving forward. For areas such as product development that may require monitoring at a more granular level, a daily stand-up in Slack can be a digitally transparent way to communicate what’s being worked on and any impediments in the way. This allows leaders detailed vision as needed, while still putting trust in the managers they’ve hired to oversee key areas of the business. … [Read more...] about The case for autonomous leadership in the remote workplace

In 2016, we were introduced to a line of “curvy,” “tall,” and “petite” Barbies. Earlier this year, we got an even more diverse squad that had vitiligo and no hair and were differently abled. Incorporating varying complexions and body sizes is great, but one woman is taking the realism up a notch with her self-made line of “Quarantine Barbies.” … [Read more...] about A woman wondered what Barbies would look like in quarantine. Her answer is amazing