ideasmithy

[ideasmithy]

A Non-Medical View Of The Heart: Angiography & Angioplasty

A family member had an emergency heart procedure. I had to place overnight trust in strangers, make blind assumptions, examined conflicting information & many emotions. We were lucky. Yet, it was life-changing. This is that story of heart health care.

2023 closed with a family member needing an unexpected heart procedure. My family & I found ourselves in the chaotic world of emergency healthcare. In a short span, we had to make sense of information from unknown sources as we grappled with difficult decisions. I’m only starting to make sense of it – overnight trust in strangers, blind assumptions, conflicting information and many, many…

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#Caregiving #Family #Health #Worry

[ideasmithy]

REVIEW:<i>Honour</i>- Elif Shafak: Trauma Love Of Brown Women

'Honour' by Elif Shafak examines Turkish patriarchy mingling with Western traditions & values. It addresses gendered violence, racism & economic exploitation.

HONOUR replaces The Bastard of Istanbul as my favourite book by Elif Shafak. Once again, this story is about Turkish women navigating the changing faces of patriarchy between Western notions and their traditional values. But this time, we also see the journeys of the men through these same paths. The Turkish characters originate from poor remote villages rather than the bustling city of…

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#Brown culture #Feminism #Gender #Honour killing #Islamophobia #Race politics #Religion #Turkey

[ideasmithy]

Hello, AI World: Jetpack AI, ChatGPT For A Blogger

Is Artificial Intelligence really going to replace me? A blogger explores ChatGPT, Jetpack AI and a few other AI content tools.

I wrote this post last year. Unfortunately, a series of things in my personal and medical life made it difficult for me to publish. This post has sat in my Drafts for months, complete (as far as a WIP prediction of a new kind of technology can be). But I started my journey as a blogger, as IdeaSmith as a work in progress, allowing myself all the freedom of delays, errors and vulnerability. So…

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#AI #ChatGPT #JetPack #Jetpack AI #OpenAI

[ideasmithy]

Notes From The Newly Diagnosed - Depressed & Anxious

I was diagnosed. I'm still the same person. Or am I? I have new words. And as I lose the ones that were longtime mine, I grasp them to cope.

I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. The simplest way to say it is the only way. Like ripping off a bandage. That is how I have powered through life, head-on, shedding dead weight. Powerful. Fearless. Strong. And I feel like none of those things anymore. It might have been caused by the double dose of COVID I had in a short span of time Or the coronavirus may just have been the last…

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#Anxiety #Depression #Health #Mental health #Pandemic Life

[ideasmithy]

Mad Men: THE JET SET Was About Unwanted Children

Mad Men S2E11 episode THE JET SET offers a deeper look into the show's underlying theme by exploring the choice between hedonism and domesticity.

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#California #Childhood #Mad Men #Neglect

[ideasmithy]

Thank God: Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid & Bombay Riots

Over three decades ago, an agnostic city called BOMBAY experienced the might of GOD. I was a child when religion met politics in a thunderclap of violence. This is my story of the Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid riots and how they affected my city.

This month, a temple will be inaugurated in Ayodhya, thought to be the birthplace of Ram. It happens the same week as the 75th Republic Day of India. This is not a coincidence. 32 years ago, a mosque stood at that same place. It was believed to have been built by Babar and was the focus of communal disputes for centuries. On 6 December 1992, a political mob demolished the masjid, triggering…

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#Ayodhya #Communal tensions #MeMumbaiker #Mumbai #Nostalgia #Performance #Religion #Riots #Saffron politics

[ideasmithy]

Thank God 🛕🕌 - 1993 Bombay Riots

Over three decades ago, an agnostic city called BOMBAY experienced the might of GOD. I was a child when religion met politics in a thunderclap of violence. Listen to the story 'Thank God  - 1993 Bombay Riots' here.

Over three decades ago, an agnostic city called BOMBAY experienced the might of GOD. I was a child when religion met politics in a thunderclap of violence. Read the story ‘Thank God‘ here. Babri masjid demolition – 1992

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#MeMumbaiker #Mumbai #Politics #Religion

[ideasmithy]

Annapoorani: What The Film & Right-Wing Got Wrong On Caste

ANNAPOORANI promised a caste discourse but served up a Brahimin fantasy. Right-wing backlash to the film only furthers saffron politics via Brahmin propaganda.

Making a big splash in pop culture reportage is the news that Netflix took down the Tamil film ANNAPOORANI (TheQuint, EconomicTimes). This is supposedly in response to agitation by right-wing groups claiming that the film hurts Hindu sentiments. There is a specific reference to the scene of Annapoorani doing namaaz as being a form of love jihad. I have filed complain against #AntiHinduZee and…

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#Caste #Film #Netflix #Religion

[ideasmithy]

Mad Men: THE SUITCASE Is Full Of Peggy's Baggage

Peggy Olsen contends with her choices of relationships, desire & work in the fan favorite MAD MEN episode 'The Suitcase' through three men Mark, Duck & Don. #MadMen #PeggyOlsen #DonDraper

One of the best stories I’ve ever watched on screen has been Mad Men. At the peak of prestige television, this show nimbly trod the fine balance between authenticity and morality by viewing the 1960s through a post-millennium gaze. It didn’t hurt that everyone looked good. The set and costumes were as instrumental in moving the story as were its dialogues and scenes. Its detailed plots and…

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#Boyfriend #Careerwomen #Ex-factor #Mad Men #Singledom

[ideasmithy]

I Have A New Home!

I Have A New Home!

I have a new website! It’s still a work in progress. But if you’re reading this, it’s likely you know that describes my entire journey as IdeaSmith. Maybe you’ve been part of this journey since 2004, when I begin as a twenty-something on the internet, my curiosity about new tools overcoming my conditioning as a woman to fear everything and venture nothing. Maybe you came my way via my first…

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[ideasmithy]

I Have A New Home!

I Have A New Home!

I have a new website! It’s still a work in progress. But if you’re reading this, it’s likely you know that describes my entire journey as IdeaSmith. Maybe you’ve been part of this journey since 2004, when I begin as a twenty-something on the internet, my curiosity about new tools overcoming my conditioning as a woman to fear everything and venture nothing. Maybe you came my way via my first…

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[ideasmithy]

Seeking Sincerity

Does anybody remember Sincerity? She hasn’t been seen in a long time. We read about her in Moral Science textbooks. We co-opted her name in the style of the (insincere) British as we learnt to sign letters. Sincerely, Yours.Sincerity was never in vogue. He’s come in under attack by Popularity who really got a leg up when it partnered with Charm. And when Diplomacy came to beautify their union,…

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#Saree Style

[ideasmithy]

🅷🅰🆁🅳 🆃🅾 🅻🅾🆅🅴

I am hard to love. This is not news to me. This has been expressed in a range of ways, covert & overt, verbal & otherwise. The revelation is that it has only partly to do with who & how I am. The rest has to do with who & how the people who consider loving me, are. Love, after all, is an interaction, a living, flowing thing. It is easier to love in contexts that we’ve been taught. People who…

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#Acceptance #Love #Loving other people

[ideasmithy]

░▒▓█ 🅱🆁🆄🆃🅰🅻 🄱🄸🄽🄰🅁🅈 █▓▒░

░▒▓█ 🅱🆁🆄🆃🅰🅻 🄱🄸🄽🄰🅁🅈 █▓▒░

I looked up the meaning of ‘brutalise’. I discovered it means two things.1. To make brutal2. To be brutalAnd everywhere I looked, the first came with more explanation. We assume the quality of brutality is not inherent in people, that it is caused by having experienced such behaviour oneself. I don’t like to think there are no monsters, only victims.When you have been treated with brutality, you…

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[ideasmithy]

ཧᜰ꙰ꦿ➢ 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗦 ༒

ཧᜰ꙰ꦿ➢ 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗦 ༒

I don’t think I grasped that a new normal would have to be a new idea of normal. I don’t know if I’ll ever travel by junta public transport again, the second class compartments, the trains & metros. By the time it may be safe to, I may not physically & emotionally be as blase about it as I have been. Public transport has been my life connection to the city that has defined me. It had also been a…

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#Joanna Lobo #Lockdown #New normal #Pandemic insights #Saree Style

[ideasmithy]

Read The Room

Clubhouse has really brought home the meaning of this phrase. The ability to read a room is a fundamental social skill involving waiting, watching & listening. Any adult who doesn’t display this is choosing not to. People wander into rooms with clear titles, raise their hands to be called up to stage only to interrupt the conversation. A staggering majority of these are men whose first instinct…

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#Boundaries #Clubhouse #Manterrupting #Read the room

[ideasmithy]

Sculptors of Emotion

We are raw from sharp experienceCarrying knives of words& chisels of painMy jealousy is smoothly curvedAnd you stick pinpoints of insight into itLeaving them to harden overnightThen, as I ripple its edgeswith vulnerabilityYou fill the holes with trustI chip away at your craggy, unformed notionsAnd sand-blast the flinty surfacesleft behind, with airy politicsYou let residual memory wash it overAnd…

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#Makeup art #Piet Mondrian