Page 3 - Here and Now – Apr 2024

Editorial - April 2024

By the time this issue of Here & Now comes to your email on desktop or laptop – or perhaps
mobile phone – you would be still talking to others about the sudden sharp summer that seems
to have hit all of us. This is the situation across India and people we talk to are sharing how they
cope with the heat which persists long into the night. El Nino effect, climate change, the effect
of the Anthropocene – or maybe all three?

This being said, summer is also a time to look forward to mangoes,
watermelons and cooling drinks to beat the heat. It can also be the

time when you open the pages of this issue of Here & Now to look
at our new offerings. Here & Now was dormant for a whole year
because of many internal changes in ISABS. But we are nothing, if not
resilient.

And so, dear readers, enjoy Here & Now and the new perspectives, ideas and experiences it
brings. Our contributors to this issue have sent in articles on a range of experiences and
thoughts.

Amit Saraf’s brief poem highlights the mirror’s dilemma. Mukta’s tiny haiku-like poems
delicately explore the dynamics between her and him and a woman finding herself in life.
Indrani muses on what she would do if she had only today – perhaps experience all the

thoughts, feelings and sensations that she usually given short shrift to otherwise in the busyness
of existence?

Other treats that await you inside this issue of Here & Now are some movie reviews. The word
‘movie’ once North American slang for ‘cinema’ is now part of our vocabulary and we don’t
blanch at the usage. Well, dive into the review of Laapataa Ladies by Rajeshwari Lakshmanan,
which combines humor along with some insights into the shifts in gendering in Indian society.

Saurabh Ghosh offers a new take on the movie Three Idiots which is 15 years old but continues

to be popular. His review offers insights into fundamental life lessons of integrity, the spirit of
inquiry, the pursuit of excellence (not success), and living every moment in the flow, the here
and now, which has always been the message of ISABS and this newsletter. Mukta Kamplikar
has reviewed a more recent English film, Perfect Strangers which highlights the social ‘shoulds’
and ‘should nots’ under which we generally operate and the role played by our mobile phones
(yes, these have a place in the movie) in issues of love and trust in relationships.

Some of Here & Now offerings this time are articles on various themes. Ila Sharma bats for a
coherent leadership approach in the changing world of today. In their article on pigmentocracy

pg. 2