“When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing.” ― Vern McLellan The COVID 19 pandemic has undoubtly caused a massive disruption and chaos in everyone’s lives worldwide. The silver lining to which has been the humongous cohesion among the people of this great nation. CREDAI has been one such example to lead from the front. Established in 1999, The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India, is the apex body for private real estate developers in India, representing over 20,000 developers through 21 states and 220 city chapters across the country. CREDAI has always supported the nation in times of unforeseen crises. To name a few- Apartments were donated to the families of nine CRPF personnel martyred in terror attack at Pulwama to recognize their contribution and sacrifices. Aid was provided to the Kerala flood victims and many other social initiatives have been undertaken regularly and this is a testimony to the fact that CREDAI stands committed to

Mashal, which means Torch, has been named rightly so. Not only for brightening up places that have struggled to come out of the darkness and see some light, but also for lighting up the path which commoners like us can follow. Incepted nearly 30 years ago, Mashal, founded by Sharad Mahajan, is an NGO that is dedicated to better lives of slum dwellers across cities. The team of Mashal, under the expert guidance of Sharad Mahajan and Board Members, Ashok Kulkarni and Neeta Chalke, has remained devoted to their journey of making the cities free of slums by improving the lives of those living in them. It takes great courage and optimism, to step out of a comfortable world, to step in to a world filled with underprivileged lives and to work with them, so that they can turn their lives into something better for good. The saying, “Give a man fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime” defines Mashal’s actions. Going beyond putting food on the plates

  Passion is a weird thing. Obsession is weirder. Passion makes you do things that go beyond your job and obsession makes sure you cannot see beyond your passion. This is a story about two headstrong women, nestling a common love for food. And it might be hard to say when their love for food took to a whole new level, but they got to the crux of it all and created a Community of thinkers. CoCo- a name for Conscious Community of consumers who are offered options so that they can make small, responsible changes to their buying patterns of essentials, to be able to aid the concept of sustainability through supporting local businesses and consuming clean, organic produce. Founded by Tanya Kane and Surbhi Ganguly, CoCo Market, Pune started their fortnightly markets in June 2017. These markets were an effort to bring together the COnscious COmmunity, where customers, small businesses, products, and individuals could meet and support each other. Moving on to the next level, they established GOODbynature- A br

  In a world where humans find it difficult to feel empathetic towards other humans, there is this tribe, led by a fearless woman, who have dedicated their entire lives to the betterment of the lives of animals. Imagine waking up each day, going out in the world, finding animals who are in pain; and in pain meaning, hit by running vehicles, stuck in the oddest of the places, tortured by humans, injured in inexplainable manners, broken limbs, oozing organs, victims of gory violent minds, or simply abandoned with nowhere to go. Basically, sights that can make us sick in our stomachs. To find such animals, irrespective of whether they are domestic, wild, reptiles, venomous etc, comfort them, treat them right there or by bringing them back to the RESQ facility, where they are fed, cared for, operated upon if necessary, loved, healed, seen to it that they recover, only to, release them back into their natural habitat or to give them up for adoption so that they find the love they are worthy of. All this and

“You know what? Teenage is such an interesting phase of life! When we were in our teens, our minds were pure and hearts innocent. Our life was like a random stone from which we would try and carve out a beautiful sculpture. We had no responsibilities to shoulder. We didn’t have to think before we spoke. We were like free birds, wild, strong, and fearless.” I was talking to one of my dearest school friends. Thanks to the lock down and Facebook, we were able to get in touch after thirteen long years. We spoke about our respective lives after school, our perceptions about life, and about our ambitions. We also discussed about our respective marriages. “Anyway, tell me, what is the one thing you would want to do if you could go back to your school days?” She asked. “Confess my feelings to my first love - my school crush.” I replied without any hesitation. “You liked someone in school! I did not expect that!” She was surprised. “You know, during our

    Dev and Naina were celebrating their ninth anniversary today. This one, for a change, they had decided to be on their own and not take their in-laws and their seven year old daughter, Tara along with them for dinner. Every year they were surrounded by family and friends on every ‘special’ occasions be it birthdays or anniversary.  It was Naina who insisted on going with Dev alone even though he wasn’t too keen about it. They had made it through the “seven year itch’ phase of their marriage and he thought it’s going to be all smooth sail now. He felt their relation had reached a cozy comfort zone. By now he sensed everything about her with ease, even her reaction to different situations, what she thought and how she felt. He lived his life on an autopilot mode as far as the marriage was concerned. There wasn’t much thinking or newness about it. But for her, she had started to feel a pinch of monotony settling in, if not absolute boredom. Sh

When her dad passed away I helped her get back on track with studies and all of her things and when I told her that her boyfriend is cheating her she broke the friendship with me! Six months later she also broked up with her boyfriend saying "you never loved me!". Women are not always the victim!

She hugged him tight and cried. It was a dark stormy night. The clouds were intensely close, waiting to squeeze tight together and burst out. Nature was mimicking human emotions virtually. Zara didn’t want to leave him; not now at least. She was in love. The kind of love wherein you don’t know if you are better together in a cuddly embrace for some time or lost in each other's thoughts all day. But this was the deciding time of her life. Amit stayed just one block ahead of Zara. She was visiting her parent’s house those days and so was he. She made it a point to see him every time he came around. They loved meeting up for coffees. It always struck me hard when I saw men keep themselves free for other women so easily. I never found the time for my own, forget any other. Probably that explains the whole chaos around me now. Oh well, I still haven't introduced myself. I am Rahul, Zara’s husband and this is my story. She used to mention about Amit a lot. They were childhood friends. Thei

She hugged him tight and cried. It was a dark stormy night. The clouds were intensely close, waiting to squeeze tight together and burst out. Nature was mimicking human emotions virtually. Zara didn’t want to leave him; not now at least. She was in love. The kind of love wherein you don’t know if you are better together in a cuddly embrace for some time or lost in each other's thoughts all day. But this was the deciding time of her life. Amit stayed just one block ahead of Zara. She was visiting her parent’s house those days and so was he. She made it a point to see him every time he came around. They loved meeting up for coffees. It always struck me hard when I saw men keep themselves free for other women so easily. I never found the time for my own, forget any other. Probably that explains the whole chaos around me now. Oh well, I still haven't introduced myself. I am Rahul, Zara’s husband and this is my story. She used to mention about Amit a lot. They were childhood friends. Thei

Rekha was a curious 16 year old girl from a rusty little coastal town in the Prakasam district of Andra Pradesh.She had been packed off to Mumbai by her parents to earn some extra bucks for the family before being married off a few years down the line.For Rekha, Mumbai was her passport to the intriguing world of internet. She had attended the Girls Development and Skilling Camp in her school and had had the opportunity to witness the the power of Search engines. She had not been able to fathom how it could give any information needed, at a click. In MUMBAI, Rekha took up the job of a live in maid and care giver at Kenneth Carvalho's.More than her monthly pay check, she was excited about having a phone and Wifi accessibility!!Somewhere over this unseen network, Rekha and Baapamma's lives intersected.Baapamma was easily 80 years old.When Savio,her husband kicked the bucket a few months back, she drowned herself in Feni to drown her grief and had accidentally tripped and hit her head against the balustrade

Farida grew up on the foundation of differences.Her brother Javed was mollycoddled while her fate was resigned to strict instructions.He got to go to school while she was forced to help with the household.He could play outdoors with his friends while she had to sit huddled with the women in the central courtyard of their house.She could not raise a voice, nor her eyes.Once, in the darkness of a dreaded night, Farida got groped.Javed’s lascivious face in the flickering light was something she just could not cope.Her pain, her anger, her suppression, her humiliation all snowballed into deliverance.Every stab into Javed’s heart was met by her grave indifference.

I chanced upon him at a subway station in New York. It had been a few years since I had heard anyone speak with that nasal stalwart Puneri twang which I so detested while growing up in our very typical "Koknastha Brahmin" household. However, on that very cold January morning, in a country which still felt somewhat foreign, the Marathi falling on my ears was like wisps of sunshine warming the cockles of nostalgia.My tapping on his shoulder was almost involuntary."Namaskar!Me Vidya Joglekar, Kasba Peth, Pune" "Namaste, Me Shrirang Datey, Sadashiv Peth" he replied with the most magnanimous smile and kind eyes I had ever seen. We met almost every day after that, sometimes for coffee, sometimes over lazy lunches but most of the time for long walks at the Central Park. All we ever did was speak. In a way, it was therapeutic. I emptied all those emotions so deeply buried within me. I wept, he offered me his shoulder.I vented out all my frustrations and helplessness and he gave me a patient hearing.He was a man of

Miraya had just turned thirteen and Mohit, nine.They were like any other pair of siblings, at that age.Goofing around, quarrelling, pulling each other’s legs. Basically, annoying the life out of each other.A straight forward dialogue exchange was nearly extinct, in their relationship.With both parents being celebrated surgeons in the city, the children had tasted independence at a young age and had grown accustomed to solving problems, by themselves.      It was a Wednesday and Miraya was irritable since morning.She decided to drag her self to school as she had a Physics test.Her stomach was cramping, her head was throbbing and her energy sapping with every passing minute.For a reason unknown to her, she wanted to just bawl.The school nurse asked her to have some water and use the toilet.To her horror, right inside the stinky school loo, she met with her first period, head on!!Although she had heard stories from friends and had attended the “Puberty and Hygiene” workshop, noth

Stress by it self is a huge topic to deal with so I have decided to break it into fragments.For every fragment of Stress,I will carve a short story based on my perception and analysis.Here goes the first one:)Once upon a time there was a beautiful scarlet rose bush.When the first dazzling bud appeared on the shrub, the gardener became overjoyed.He spread the word across the county and invited people to see the beauty in her  blossomed glory.      Deviating from his experience, the innocent bud was taking longer than expected to bloom.The gardener checked on her every hour.There was no progress.He added extra nutrition, yet no progress.Fed up, he decided to carefully peel the delicate petals to propel the process.The tiny scarlet bud could not cope with this stress.Unrealistic expectations is a type of external stress which can burden the bearer. This can very well be intrinsic,in a scenario of you Vs YOU.When I studied engineering, Stress applied to a material was defined as force per

Nine year old Arjun was an avid reader.One look at his book shelf and you had Marvel the avengers, kid Krish, He-Man, Super hero Max, Hercules and many such flamboyantly dressed, brawny action  icons staring at you, head-on.        Arjun lived in an apartment complex in an upcoming suburb, with his mother Anjali and their pet mongrel, Spidey. Two years back, after her painful separation from Vikas, Anjali was granted sole custody of Arjun.For anyone who knew her, she was this live, breathing, pulsating energy on the move.Anjali was the life of any place she went to, she often had people in spilts with her wit and humour and she guffawed through most challenges in her life.        She was a brilliant multitasker and handled her deadlines at work, her household responsibilities, her pet and parental duties with the spirit of a fierce tigress.However, an underlying fear that silently gnawed within her was whether she did enough for Arjun. She did not seek va

Vasu worked as a nanny at the Mirchandani household.Her husband Dheeraj started off as a handyman of the house and over time had risen to the post of the most trusted driver of Mr.Akash Mirchandani,founder and MD of the biggest auto manufacturing company in the city.Akash was married to Ria for 8 years and they had a happy,energy bunny,Om who was all of 6.Ria was a fitness enthusiast and a celebrated socialite.          On the morning of December 21st,Dheeraj came on duty in his crisp white uniform,polished black shoes,his oiled hair neatly combed with a side parting.He requested the housekeeper to see Ria.Ria stepped into the Sun Porch,dressed in her gym clothes,ready to hit the Pilates studio.She greeted Dheeraj with a Good Morning."Good morning Madam,ek request thi.Aaj Vasu aur muzhe jaldi chutti mil sakti hai?6 baje tak nikal sake, to bhi chalega.Aaj thoda special din hai."Ria chuckled,"Kya special hai?""Aaj hamari shadi ko 2 saal hue Madam.Aur ek baat puchni thi,kya aaj office me