Writing about one’s life can be a healing, joyful and transformative journey — both for the writer as well as readers. The Ochre Sky Memoir writing online workshops are back! I don’t remember doing anything else that given me so much joy and peace. The Memoir workshops facilitated by Natasha Badhwar and Raju Tai offer an empathetic space for writers to practice their unique voice and craft personal narratives that are…

Transform teenage experiences into compelling writing Writing is not just for those with perfect grammar and great spelling. Writing belongs to all of us. Teenagers who dislike rules, love learning, and dream of better worlds will gather in a cozy online space to activate their inner writer. Develop confidence, calm…

A writing workshop where our stories heal us. The Memoir 101 workshop with Natasha Badhwar is designed to enable participants to imagine and craft personal narratives that are resonant and evocative. This workshop offers an empathetic, safe space with tips, prompts, exercises, readings and analysis to develop one’s unique voice and write compelling essays that are intimate, thought-provoking…

When I died that day, I didn’t die. I broke many parts but I survived. All of me didn’t live either. I carried the dead weight of grief with me for years. That’s also why I cry. At funerals where everyone else is dry-eyed. At weddings, When the bride begins to walk…

These days I call myself a Love Jihadi. It amuses me no end. My husband was at the local electricity supply office a few days ago, trying to inspire the officers to restore the electricity connection to a factory space he is in charge of. “We cannot come in the…

“Dear Natasha,” I read as I clicked on an email whose subject line had the headline of one of my recent columns in Lounge. I expected to read feedback on the column. IT WAS A BAD START THAT BECAME WORSE “I am 45 years old and I have been married…

I hate attending weddings. They are phony, wasteful and irrelevant affairs and I don’t understand why people work so hard to get rid of their money overnight. The only wedding I didn’t mind so much was my own. It had its moments. My friend Reena was still fixing the last…

“Bhaisahab, hum aapko bewakoof lagte hain? (Do I look like a fool to you),” I asked the conman trying to sell me a sealed iPhone box at Shanghai airport. He quivered in fear. Travelling in China for the first time, I spoke to everyone in Hindi. After a stressful first…

“Priya is going to re-invent herself so magnificently, you just wait and watch,” I texted a friend on whatsapp. She was worrying for you. I’m not worrying for you. Priya Ramani has ruined my life. I’m sure she has done this to many others, but my story is the only…