Rozebud Gonsalves

  A country as populated as India is bound to experience some Human-Animal conflict. In the small town of Mysore, Karnataka many years ago, a man saw a little girl crying. There was a cobra. That’s when Shyam (or Snakes Shyam) rescued his first snake. Three decades later, SnakesShyam is known all over the country for rescuing well over 50,000 snakes, mostly in Mysore. His son, Surya, now following his fathers’ footsteps, a conservationist, a naturalist ready at a moment’s notice to rescue snakes from people’s kitchens, bedrooms, water tanks,  basically anywhere. “It is not snakes that enter into our homes, humans have captured their habitat,” says Surya. Snakes were killed at sight about a decade earlier. But now, It is because of people like Surya who are trying to change that by educating and bringing awareness to people. Now, people call in a professional when they see a snake and don’t kill the animal. Surya rescues about 7 snakes per day on an average. What is your earlie...

Being born in a strict catholic household, waking up for church on a Sunday morning after having spent Saturday night out would be a task. One day, to get out of going to church, I told my mom I didn’t believe in God, and hence going to church was not a thing for me. To this, my mom replied, "don’t say this, it is this faith that will pull you up when you are at your lowest and will guide you. You may not understand this now, and that’s ok." I went to church that Sunday anyway, but somewhere at the back of my mind, I didn’t forget what my mom said to me that day. I keep thinking, how did rituals develop? And not just religious rituals, any rituals for that matter. Somewhere, years ago, someone did something and liked it, and kept doing it for years and we call them rituals. The person who did it for the first time may have died after some years, then his friends/families might have continued it as his memory. Continuing that ritual might give them peace. Maybe this is how ...

Every day we hear stories about women getting raped, molested, eve teased. Every day, we pick up the newspaper, read the story in horror, maybe talk a little, and forget about it. Then one day, suddenly, something similar happens to you, or to a woman you know. And this time, you can’t forget it easily. It is worse when a man you know has done this to a woman. Stories like this kept happening around me and I didn’t know what to do, or how to make a difference. But if we come together and educate young boys of our house, we will be able to stop the abuse. We have no say in how the man walking across the street is brought up. But we do have the ability to change the minds of the boys in our own house. At this point some of you will wonder, how do I start? this is awkward. Well, you’re not alone.

The first time I heard of “menstruation stigma” I didn’t know how deep-rooted it was in our society. I live in a city where menstruation is not much of an issue. I experienced it for the first time when I visited my friends’ native place. I saw a girl sitting in a corner, waiting for food. The food was served in a different way too, then the plate was pushed from one corner of the room to another, to reach the girl. I was so confused! I didn’t know what was happening, that’s when my friend nudged me to let it go, she said she’ll explain it later. That incident occupied my mind for the rest of the day. And then my friend said, “that girl is on her period”. I couldn’t comprehend, my first reflexive reply was “So?” That’s when the whole social stigma related to periods came to life for me and I understood the gravity of the situation. “Women in rural India are treated as impure when they are bleeding, they’re not allowed to talk or touch anyone, their utensils are different, they are ke...

10th July 2019, 6:30 pm, every Indian is hooked on to the TV waiting for a miracle to happen. The world cup 2019 semi-finals of India verses Newzeland. The match that was supposed to happen a day ago was taking place that because 9th July ‘19 was blessed with rains. The team carried the dreams of 1.37 billion people. Indian households take cricket very seriously. My family is one of those. Not only the men, but the ladies also go crazy over the game too. I was in college when the game started. We had a different college tournament going on. While we were focusing on the match that was happening in front of us, we were also checking the scores online. India, 5 for 3. On my way to the station, every electronics shop I glanced into had match playing on their TVs. with a bunch of passerbys waiting to check the scores. Hope in their eyes. Every single person was discussing the match. From the ladies in the train to the auto driver, to the shop I went in to buy milk on my way back ho...

If you are an Indian, you probably know what the Nirbhaya Case is. If not, let me tell you a little bit about it. In December 2012, there took place an incident which shook the living conscience out of the citizens of India. An incident that took place in the capital city of India, after which the city was not only the Indian Capital but also a rape capital. A girl in her early 20s was gang-raped and assaulted. Ghastly, inhuman, words like these do not give justice to how heinous that crime was. Delhi crime is a Netflix series that premiered in March 2019. Six years after the incident because the situation is still the same. I saw all the seven episodes in April 2019, and I knew I was going to take a while to get over the series. The fact that such a thing has happened shook me. It didn’t make an impact on me back in 2012 because I was just a 12-year-old girl, not knowing the actual details of what had happened. After I saw the whole series, weeks passed by and when I was alone my mi...

From a spark, to an actual fire. there will be times when things might go haywire. hang in there oh child, For you will smile, when you walk through the chaos, And say, "you loose, I am stronger".

It was a week before my birthday, dad had just come home from work and was talking to my mom about a trek. Dad discovered his love for the mountains, especially Himalayas at the age of 35 and he has been trekking since then. He took me to my first Himalayan trek after my 10th exams. So that day when he was talking about a trek I thought he was planning to go for it. But after a while, he called me and asked if I would like to do the chaddar trek. I jumped in excitement. Doing the chaddar trek is on the list of all Himalayan trekkers. Yes! I wanted to do the chaddar trek. A week later dad told me all the bookings were done and said I should start preparing myself physically and mentally. December passed in the blink of an eye. And soon it was January. I leave in 18 days. All the trek gear was on my room floor for the next two weeks to come. I was going to go from 27 to -27 degrees in some days and when you are packing your bag for such a survival trip you have to keep in mind a lot o...

That day the weather forecast showed a storm was approaching. I was in college, and since my college is next to the sea, strong winds were coming my way, strong enough to knock a bicycle down. I booked a cab and waited for it to come. I was alone. I got into the cab and I figured the driver was Muslim. He looked fairly good, and was polite enough to greet me with a ‘good evening, ma’am’. I was taken aback. This was the first time someone at least twice my age had called me ma’am. I chuckled and said please don’t call me ma’am. The traffic was way too much because everyone wanted to get home before the storm. The 10-minute route was going to take way longer than expected.  After some time he asks me, “so, where do you come from?” I normally wouldn’t give away the details but something said okay, this man is safe enough. I told him where I stay, he was very curious about the fact that he picked me up from an engineering college.  That day, the 35-minute cab ride was ...