Shweta R Manian

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President, and eight others, including Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, died in a helicopter crash on May 19. As Iran mourns its President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials killed in a helicopter crash, the world, particularly the middle east and the west is closely watching the aftermath and the implications on geopolitics in and around Iran. The timing : It was obvious from the get go given the nature of the accident, endless speculations are bound to fly across all over the internet. Especially at the time of an ongoing war between Israel- Gaza with Raisi openly expressing his support to Hamas and its brutal attacks. Any consequences outside of Iran will depend entirely on who Iran  blames  for the crash, rightly or wrongly.  Domestically, Iran wasn’t doing much well either. There had been a significant increase in protests and rebellion against the regime for its treatment of women, amongst other huma...

This observation/analysis is something I made while on my recovery path and trying to understand the reason behind my constant digestion related issues and sudden increase in extreme frustration and aggravation and one thing that I realized is that accepting and coming to terms with the fact that you may have been impacted by this since childhood is a tough one to process. Before you make an assumption , by no means this is a "western influence" or a "youth" problem that became a trend in the recent. It is very well a proven fact that all of this could be a result of generational trauma. For further analysis and references kindly visit "www.psychologytoday.com" where I went through several articles regarding this. Also a kind reminder that critical thinking is important, no matter how assuring all those beliefs are . Feel free to express your views and thoughts regarding this: When a child observes their parents going over board to please others, they also...

        INVESTIGATIVE  REPORT    Aug 8 – Maui officials report a brush fire  Olinda Road area of Kula , an area in central Maui at 3:47 am. Area contains power lines run by state and U.S. electric companies.   With a result of high winds, all U.S electric companies cut off their power to the lines, except Hawaiian electric (considered largest in the state). Video evidence is present from a resident recording these earlier moments. Firefighters said to have responded immediately and contained the fire within hours.   At around 11 am, an elderly couple observe near their house, try to put out the fire, only to fail and eventually evacuate their burning house. 3 pm – explosions heard by a resident in Lahaina, posting the video to Instagram. 3:30 pm – Fire rises further, forcing closure of Lahaina bypass, one of the main exits of the town.    Shortly after, video evidences show smoke turning dark as it furthers down the hill...

  captured by - @shwetarmanian It was January 2017. The year had started off quite well; at least  until that month. It was just after the new year craze had slowly started to tone down and now everyone was waiting for the Pongal holidays. Unlike my school in Delhi where we would barely get a day of holiday, Pongal here is an extravaganza so you can expect people to disappear for almost a whole week. Everyone was packing their stuff (and by stuff, I mean all the laundry that they were too lazy to wash) with the contentment of not having to look at the campus for the next few days. I was as usual seriously planning to get new movies and series to binge watch even though I was sure I would end up watching the same stuff on repeat. Even though none of us morons are good with expressing emotions, I definitely do miss my family and home, especially at these times. Not that I am that much of help anyways but still some part of me wanted to be home because of how much I used to ann...

 PAZHANI After we were enjoying the cold weather and mountains of Kodaikanal we headed off to Pazhani. The bus ride from kodai to Pazhani is very blissful. We could see the fog and clouds slowly disappearing as we headed downwards from the hills. The driver for our bus was surprisingly patient and cautious with the roads as it were rocky and also slippery due to the water descending from the hills. The bus took a 10 minute break which was a small tea shop located at one of the roads curves with the backdrop of the shop being an amazing viewpoint of the hills covered in trees and villages and fields beneath those hills. captured by - @shwetarmanian After few hours of more bumpy rides we finally reached Pazhani. Even after visiting this place numerous times, it still feels special everytime. Right from being surrounded by lush greenery and hills to friendly people and vibrant streets , it just enhances our spiritual journey. After a little bit of rest at our hotel which was a modif...

  KODAIKANAL In between this all round pilgrimage visit, we decided to visit someplace different. No matter how many hill stations you have been to, nature always has a way to fascinate. And that’s how kodaikanal came to our minds as it was nearer to Pazhani. We had to wait for nearly 8 and a half hours at the Madurai bus stop, which adds to one of the worst experiences we had. Staring at everyone leaving for their buses early and desperately looking at the bus stand entrance at midnight only to see nothing, by the time the bus finally came, add on top of that non-stop rains, I could merely remember anything and pretty sure was literally looking like a drug addict. Even though the bus probably traveled through some pretty steep roads, filled with rocks, I didn’t give a single damn about anything and dozed off the minute after the bus started travelling upwards. The only thing I remember waking me up was the cold winds passing through and me hitting into the window glass. ...

Travelling with Asian families is a whole different experience which in my opinion,   everyone needs to go through. Especially if the ‘family’ is Indian.  Travelling with Indian families will really help you know your survival skills and patience. Also, none of the family trips are complete without having at least one religious place in the ‘must visit’ list. In fact, religious places are the only trips most of us ever got to have as children and teenagers (even, as adults sometimes).  As exaggerating and dramatic as it sounds, it’s still a memorable experience depending upon the perspective you see it from, especially if you are more into exploring the diverse culture of devotees, streets and history of the place rather than “oh! Ok now that I have fulfilled my religious duty , let’s keep moving.” Kind.  And trust me, this happens; every time.  So I am sharing a few of my throwback trips which I really got to enjoy and cherish.  But the starting of th...

  source: google images During our teenage years, we would have come across this phrase a lot and most of us actually would have actually felt good hearing this; even I did at some point. But once we got a taste of the real world in our adulthood, a lot of us realized how toxic and cringe this is. To put it in simple words, this phenomenon goes against the stereotypes that are considered feminine by the society (mostly heterosexual men) - makeup, fashion, fitness and so on. Some of us girls who don’t fit into this so called stereotype try to separate ourselves from the rest of the female population and hence consider ourselves “Not Like Other Girls”. Nowadays, this is what you call being ‘quirky’. As much as we loved this trend in the beginning and used to think we were cool for not being ‘girly’, this trend has hidden internalized misogyny all over it. Considering yourself more cool and 'swag' for not putting on make-up while attacking other women for doing the same and th...