"I write for you and me and for a gentler, more just world." Catharsis is a word I avoid using in any context. Even when friends, well-wishers and experts offer it an explanation for what they see happening with me. Or suggest it as a necessary step to deal with an issue. It is not because I don't like the word or don't believe in the process. Just the opposite, in fact. I treat catharsis as a sacred precious gift; the word carries so much value for me that I don't want it made trite in the world of easy sound bytes and trending catch phrases.

So it is with a lot of thought that I call Natasha Badhwar's debut book a cathartic read. My Daughters' Mum is an extraordinary book in its candour. The author writes with such self-reflexive vulnerability that you forget you are reading another person's writing. You feel your heart spill out on the page. Through tears and smiles, and a heaving and sinking heart the book embraces the reader, cleansing many heartaches and allowing one to celebrate unspoken joys. You recognise memories you had dumped away, you reclaim parts you had been too ashamed to include in your narrative of self. You examine what you have known; you let yourself be drawn into speculating on the unknown.

No motherhoods preached, no rules that are claimed as fail proof. Just a brave and honest sharing of personal experiences, insights and revelations.

The theme of coming home to a place in this world, and a place inside yourself is the big story of this marvellously loving collection of deeply personal essays. The theme holds together carefully curated sections from Natasha's long running Mint Lounge column. As a regular reader, it makes me happy that the stories of the column, with their message of love, hope, inclusion and the vision of a different, kinder world now have another home with an even wider accessibility. The editor and writer have skilfully structured the collection in a way that feels like a seamless narration of an ongoing conversation.

Part memoir, part essay, part record of our times, there is nothing the book does not touch. Birth family, mothers and daughter, parents, nation, others, love, work, interfaith marriage, friends, grief, death, births, self-love, identity, nationality, changing times, family, in-laws, maids, working from home, road trips, childhood, college, siblings, it is all there, in Natasha's warm and smart prose.

Part memoir, part essay, part record of our times, there is nothing the book does not touch.

No motherhoods preached, no rules that are claimed as fail proof. Just brave and honest sharing of personal experiences, insights and revelations. Sample this, on parenting: "I had never really felt so lonely. Clearly, I had spread myself too thin; the urban myth of the supermom had trapped me. I looked good, but I felt terrible. All at once, parenting proved to be a test of loyalty. Was I willing to be loyal to myself? I didn't have much practice in this area. It had always been much easier to be loyal to friends, trends and gadgets. I had to come to terms with a few grand truths. For one, I would be able to raise our kids well only if I first raised myself well...I had also to learn to pamper the child in me – love her, appreciate her, make her happy."

In the chapter titled 'A Technology Chowkidar At Home', Natasha takes head on the issue many young and not so young parents mention all too often as an obstacle to stay away from negative media. "Despite my intense love for gadgets... I am the self-appointed watchman who moderates access to technology in family spaces... We barely listen to each other. We are often way behind in keeping track of each other's creative milestones... we all need some time to share our experiences with each other So we do things that may seem odd to other families. ...I do not want us to be a family of Western-consumerist-culture-addicted-Anglophones. We do not want to find ourselves scavenging for comfort amid the clutter of shallow, raucous media content with limited shelf life. I want variety in our lives. Slowness. Pauses. Daydreaming and imaginary friends. I don't want to prepare our children for the 'real world'. I want us and them to have the confidence that we can create the world we want to live in. We don't have to fit into pre-fabricated moulds. We are free to discover and relate to our inner and outer worlds at our own pace. We can pick and chose. This is real life."

Natasha's writing is always crisp, the chapters short and sentences light.

Natasha's writing is always crisp, the chapters short and sentences light. Such nimble handling of weighty and gut wrenchingly loaded topics is a feat this slim book achieves with élan. I have a feeling that the author's experience as a TV newsperson and filmmaker, and then coach has definitely helped her create this light as air feel for this warm as pashmina coziness of a book.

If like me, you are a dreamer who wants to persist on this path despite an often broken heart and habitually weary feet, go get yourself this dose of solidarity and encouragement. Keep the tissues on hand, and start reading. You will go on a journey of your life, I promise you. In Natasha's words reflecting on the wreckage of a riot she watched as a young girl: "our heart breaks and somehow we keep working. Lives are wrecked and people get back to building homes again. We lose hope and then we find a way to believe once more. We often despair that we are too cynical but we are all constantly creating, restoring, healing, trying to reassemble broken pieces." I like to believe she speaks for a lot of us.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

Nearly 590,00 Rohingya refugees have been admitted to camps in Bangladesh and 320,00 refugee children among them are threatened by water-borne diseases and desperate living conditions, a United Nations spokesman said Friday.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 589,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar's northern Rakhine State since alleged retaliation following a deadly rebel militia attack on 25 August against police posts, said Farhan Haq, the UN spokesman.

Just over half of the new arrivals in Bangladesh are staying in Kutupalong Expansion, he said. It was described as a single large site where aid partners are working with authorities to improve road access, infrastructure and basic services.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said nearly 7,000 of the refugees had been admitted to Bangladesh after spending up to four days stranded near the border. "Thousands more are believed to be on their way from Myanmar."

The most vulnerable among the new arrivals are taken by bus from the border to a transit centre, where the UNHCR and its partners provide food, water, medical checks and temporary shelter, Haq said.

The UN Children's Agency (UNICEF) said that desperate living conditions and water-borne diseases are threatening more than 320,000 Rohingya refugee children, he said.

A new report by the agency said most of the refugees are living in overcrowded and unsanitary makeshift settlements.

Despite an expanding international aid effort led by the government of Bangladesh, the report said that the essential needs of many children are not being met, the spokesman said. "UNICEF is also calling for an end to the atrocities targeting civilians in Rakhine State, as well as for humanitarian actors to be given immediate and unfettered access."

A pledging conference for donors next Monday in Geneva was announced earlier this week. Officials said they hope to raise $434 million to aid Rohingya refugees and their hosts, some 11.2 million people in all. So far it is only 26% funded.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu is flustered by scenes in a movie criticising several policies introduced by its government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

All hell broke loose over the release of Mersal, a drama featuring popular actor Vijay, for Diwali. Already a major hit with the masses, the movie deals with corruption in the medical profession, among other themes of social justice.

On Wednesday, BJP's Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundararajan demanded several scenes from the film to be excised because they criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a number of policies implemented by his administration.

One of the offending bits is in this snippet from Mersal, with English subtitles, posted by a Twitter user.

Complete English translation in subtitles: RT to share#MersalVsModipic.twitter.com/gDDiuSzLzF

— Shashikant (@Maasum_Bacha) October 21, 2017

The speech made by the character played by Vijay highlights the Modi government's mismanagement of the infamous move to demonetise high-value currency in November 2016. Another actor in Mersal shows off his empty wallet to prove that Modi government's financial sleight of hand has forced him to go cashless.

Before the public had fully recovered from the aftermath of the noteban, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and its shoddy imposition unleashed a fresh round of havoc to the economy, especially small- and medium-size businesses.

Add to the economic woes, the general mishandling of healthcare, exemplified by the scores of children who allegedly died due to lack of oxygen supply in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, in August this year.

The character played by Vijay not only highlights these damages wreaked by the government at the Centre but also compares similar policies in places like Singapore, which have, he claims, applied such strategies with more success.

Matters went downhill from there.

On Friday BJP national secretary H Raja attacked Vijay on Twitter, saying that his lines in Mersal exposed the actor's ignorance on economic matters. But that wasn't all. He decided to drag in the actor's religion, by dredging up his Christian name, Joseph, which he scarcely uses. All this to put an ugly communal angle to the alleged slurs a character played by him makes in a movie.

Raja also said he was "trying to confirm" whether the producer Hema Rukmani of Thenandal Studios Ltd "may also be a Christian".

In 2014, Modi had met Vijay while campaigning for the general elections, which propelled him to power by a landslide victory, and sought to seek the support of his fan base for the polls. Vijay is followed by over 3 million people on Twitter and is revered as a superstar.

In 2015, Vijay faced raids on suspicions of tax evasion, which Raja also brought into his counter-attack. He also pointed out that the claims made about Singapore's healthcare and public policies in the movie by the actor are incorrect.

Be that as it may, the government has no business asking for cuts from a movie after it has been cleared for release, simply because the latter is critical of its performance.

Such a demand exposes the BJP's lack of respect to the principle of freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution and guaranteed to every citizen. Worse still, it reveals the depths of insecurity in the rank and file of the party that it is compelled to behave like an autocratic at the slightest hint of disagreement.

As of now, titans of Tamil cinema, such as Pa Ranjith, who directed Rajinikanth's Kabali, are supporting Vijay, as are the fans of his rival superstar Ajith. Actor Kamal Haasan also tweeted his support to Mersal and Vijay.

"Don't silence critics. India will shine when it speaks. Mersal was certified. Don't re-censor it. Counter criticism with logical response," he said.

The overwhelming reaction to Mersal from the public so far also perhaps shows that, like any successful cinema, it has been able to appeal to the people's sentiment by speaking of their grievances and for them.

As for the BJP, its desperation to get a toe-hold in the southern states will not be favourably served by its penchant for banning, if the earlier attempt to ban beef consumption in Kerala is any indication.

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New Delhi — Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the BJP's demand for removal of dialogues critical of the GST in Tamil movie Mersal, asking him not to "demon-etise Tamil pride" by such interference.

"Mr. Modi, Cinema is a deep expression of Tamil culture and language. Don't try to demon-etise Tamil pride by interfering in Mersal," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Mr. Modi, Cinema is a deep expression of Tamil culture and language. Don't try to demon-etise Tamil pride by interfering in Mersal

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 21, 2017

Gandhi's counter-attack came after Tamil actor Vijay's Diwali release Mersal came under attack from BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu, one of whom also sought to give a communal twist by raking up the actor's religion.

The actor has been panned for his dialogues in the film that takes a dig at GST and Digital India. Vijay, who had met Narendra Modi during electioneering ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, had even lauded demonetisation last year.

BJP's National Secretary H Raja in a tweet on Friday raked up the actor's Christian origins.

"Joseph Vijay's hatred for Modi is 'Mersal'."

Referring to the actor's dialogue in the movie, Raja tweeted that in the last 20 years, 17,500 churches, 9,700 mosques and 370 temples were built. Out of these what should be avoided to build hospitals, Raja posted.

Raja even said Mersal shows Vijay's ignorance in economic matters as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is not a new tax and the tax on liquor is over 58%.

Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan demanded removal of the dialogues relating to GST, digital payments and temples from the movie as they spread a wrong message.

Earlier on Saturday, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram also attacked the BJP over its demand for removal of dialogues critical of GST in Mersal.

"Notice to film makers: Law is coming, you can only make documentaries praising government's policies," Chidambaram tweeted.

Notice to film makers: Law is coming, you can only make documentaries praising government's policies.

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) October 21, 2017

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People know not to use Comic Sans and maybe Papyrus ― those are things you just shouldn’t do. But very rarely do people understand why they should use a typeface. Douglas Thomas

Mumbai, Oct 21 (PTI) — A 16-year-old girl was left with a fractured nose after a man allegedly repeatedly hit her for asking him and his friends not to indulge in loud arguments at Kurla-Nehrunagar here, police said today.

A video purportedly showing the man, identified as Imran Shahid Shaikh, attacking the girl, has gone viral in the social and mainstream media. The incident, which took place on Tuesday, was captured in a CCTV camera.

The accused was arrested on the day of the incident, but was later grated bail by a local court, police said.

According to a police official, the incident took place on 17 October near SRA Building in Shramjeevi Nagar, Chembur at 7 pm, when the victim was going to her class with a friend at Adarsh Nagar in Thakkar Bappa Colony in Chembur.

"When she was near her building, a group of youths, who were seated inside a parked autorickshaw, were arguing loudly. The victim asked them not to make noise and then walked some distance with her friend," the official said.

However, enraged at being reprimanded by her, Shaikh, whom she knew, came out of the rickshaw and thrashed her repeatedly.

#WATCH#CCTVVisuals: Minor girl allegedly molested in #Mumbai on Oct 17, beaten up as she protested. Case registered by Nehru Nagar Police pic.twitter.com/Qo2T8VZCN4

— ANI (@ANI) October 20, 2017

"Shaikh hit her on the nose with a metal object, after which she collapsed on the ground, with her nose bleeding profusely," he said.

After the incident, Shaikh also threatened her and fled from the spot, the official said.

"The people, who witnessed the incident, did not stop Imran from beating her," the official said.

The victim was taken to a hospital, where she was found to have suffered a nose fracture, he said.

Based on the complaint by the victim Nehrunagar Police registered an offence against Shaikh under sections 324, 326 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

He was arrested on the same day. He was produced in a court, which granted bail to him, investigating officer Deepak Pawra said.

Further investigation is underway.

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No political event, big or small, exists in isolation. Every speech and gesture by a leader of consequence has a context, a subtext, a message(s) and portents that linger long after the dust raised by his chopper or motor cavalcade has settled. These elements often acquire a life of their own and augment the basic purpose of an event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Kedarnath shrine and his address to a gathering there on October 20 and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's presence at the Ayodhya "Deeputsav" celebration on Diwali on October 19 have resonances that transcend the boundaries of the small towns and the states in which they are located. Both the occasions have to be contextualised in the backdrop of the elections in Gujarat and the BJP's resurrection of its tried, tested and trusted Hindutva card that may not carry its original potency this time.

Gujarat is beset with woes arising from the arrival of a Goods and Services Tax regime. It has compounded the problems faced by textile and diamond traders who are up against an overall economic downturn that slackened business, caused job losses and shutdowns. The state's caste fault lines, camouflaged by a sense of "Hindu identity" in the years that the BJP has ruled, have surfaced as the dominant Patels or Patidars and the Thakores (divided into upper castes and backward castes) vie for a larger share of the power pie.

Gujarat is beset with woes arising from the arrival of a Goods and Services Tax regime.

After Modi's relocation to the Centre, the BJP does not have a credible or charismatic face, capable of leading the party to another victory, independent of Modi's persona and legacy. Modi's immediate successor Anandiben Patel announced she will not contest the election. The incumbent chief minister Vijay Rupani, though not a hot-button, was regarded as "uninspiring" by the Gujarat BJP. Therefore, this circumstance increases the BJP's dependency on Modi to deliver another victory with the party president Amit Shah as the back-up.

Modi was Gujarat's "Hindu hriday ka samrat" (monarch of the Hindu heart), an appellation he earned in 2002 on the back of the Godhra train carnage and the ensuing communal violence. He tried to balance the Hindutva tag with "vikas" (development), accounting for every little "accomplishment" of his government in his campaign trails.

Modi was Gujarat's "Hindu hriday ka samrat" (monarch of the Hindu heart), an appellation he earned in 2002 on the back of the Godhra train carnage and the ensuing communal violence.

Modi has reasons to play the Hindu card with greater intensity this time. The Patels are upset with the BJP but the community's also susceptible to faith-based political rhetoric and may not root with alacrity for the Congress. The traders must be retained, the upper caste Thakores have to be weaned from the Congress while the OBCs, a constituency the BJP has assiduously tapped into since 2012, may not vote for it as a solid block because the Congress is also making a play for their votes by co-opting non-state actors like Alpesh Thakore. The Dalits and the tribals vote differently in the different regions.

Second, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), that have a vast network, have to be assured that Modi's heart is with the Hindus. In the past, as the chief minister, he had run-ins with the VHP and made no secret of his dislike for its state leader, the outspoken Praveen Togadia. Because Modi's pro-Hindu credentials were above board, the VHP could do nothing to damage him and the BJP.

Kedarnath, high up on Uttarakhand's hills, was where Modi played to the Hindu gallery. His forehead covered with sandalwood paste and "rudraksha" beads strung around his neck, he invoked Shiva, enshrined in the temple's sanctum sanctorum, seeking "Baba Kedar's" blessings. He sent his greetings to Gujarat on its new year in Hindi and Gujarati several times.

I am happy to be in Kedarnath, a day after Diwali. Today, Gujaratis are celebrating the start of a New Year. I convey my greetings to everyone around the world who mark the start of Nutan Varsh: PM @narendramodi in Kedarnath

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) October 20, 2017

Modi claimed his political career was the outcome of a call from "Baba Kedar" to dedicate his life to the country's 125 crore "Babas". But the political underpinnings were unmistakeable. He wanted to remind people that in his youth, he had turned a monk and was wandering in the hills of Uttarakhand until he chanced upon an unnamed "ascetic" who counselled him to return to worldly life and "serve" people. This is mentioned in an early biography on Modi called "Narendra Modi: The Architect of a Modern State" by MV Kamath and Kalindi Randeri. It is a story that many Gujaratis swear by.

Modi harked back to the flash floods of June 2013 that had flattened out the hills, alleging that as the Gujarat CM, he had wanted to help out the state but the Uttarakhand government (then helmed by Vijay Bahuguna who has since joined the BJP) had rebuffed his offer.

Kedarnath, part of the "char dham" or four abodes of god, is a must on a devout Hindu's pilgrimage. More so for Gujaratis who account for the bulk of the tourists with those from Tamil Nadu, Andhra and West Bengal. In 2013, several pilgrims from Gujarat were trapped in the deluge. The Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board website, specifically mentions Gujarati among the three languages spoken in Kedarnath with Hindi and English.

The Congress's attempts to punch holes in Modi's rhetoric with the contention that while he landed at Kedarnath in a chopper, Rahul Gandhi had trekked 18 kms like any faithful, cut no ice because Modi's videos have reportedly been snapped up like hot cakes in Gujarat.

To do a balancing act, he promised to use a holistic approach to develop Kedarnath into a "model" pilgrim centre.

Through the work we are doing in Kedarnath, we want to show how an ideal 'Tirth Kshetra' should be, how it should be pilgrim friendly and the wellbeing of the priests should be given importance: PM @narendramodi

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) October 20, 2017

Concealed in the folds of messaging was an important one meant for another state, Karnataka, that polls in early 2018. The head priest (Raval) of Kedarnath temple belongs to the Veerashaiva Lingayat community of Karnataka and chants the "mantras" in Kannada and not Sanskrit. The Veerashaiva Lingayats have demanded a religious status, independent of the Hindus, causing a problem for the Congress and the BJP. Modi may be telling the community that by heading one of the most important Hindu shrines, it is an integral part of Hinduism.

Modi may not have been physically present when a lakh lamps were lit on the banks of Ayodhya's Saryu river. But Yogi Adityanath, another "avatar" of Hindutva, presided over the jamboree laden as much with symbolism as substance for Gujarat.

Think of February 2002 and the VHP-BJP's aborted efforts to lay claim on the "disputed" land in Ayodhya to start the construction of a "grand" Ram temple. Most of the agitators were from Gujarat. Some of those who went back in a train were gutted down at the Godhra station. The unfortunate occurrence triggered a chain of violence against the Muslims who were held culpable for the train-burning and established a sense of strong religious identity among Gujarat's Hindus. Modi never looked back since then because he owes his political supremacy to Ayodhya.

"How old are you? What is your age?" I asked Babita (name changed), a young girl breastfeeding her two-month-old daughter.

"What do you mean by age?", her sunken eyes looked puzzled.

Realising we don't share the same references to time, I reword my question, "How many years ago did you start menstruating?"

"Two-three years ago," she tells us.

She is approximately 15-16 years old, I surmise.

During the interview, Babita told me that she was married off a year after she started menstruating. At the time of interview, she was staying with her mother as her husband had gone to Punjab for six months to work as an agricultural labourer. There are no functional schools in her village since the headmaster seldom shows up, so she stopped going to school early on. Added to this was the fact that she had to help her parents by cutting dhaan (paddy) in the field all day. To escape that drudgery, she agreed to get married. Why did she conceive a child so soon after marriage, I ask? "Baanj bulayenge warna sab" (otherwise they will call me infertile)," she exclaims!

This is a typical example of my conversations with young girls I had met in Araria, Bihar during field work for a formative study on adolescent reproductive and sexual health (ARSH). For this population, child marriage and early pregnancy are a stark reality; according to NFHS-4 survey (2015-16), 26.8 percent of women in India between the ages of 20 and 24 years are married before they turn 18 years old.

For rural Bihar, this number is more alarming – 2 out of 5 women aged 20-24 years were married before 18 years of age (NFHS-4). Similarly, 42.6 percent of men aged 25-29 years in rural Bihar were married before they turned 21 years.

Adolescent pregnancy remains underreported in India

It is important to point out here that these numbers do not reflect ground realities. Even though NFHS survey questionnaires undergo extensive pre-testing, they do not account for two things: the cognitive and conceptual gaps in understanding and reporting age in rural areas, and the impact of messaging and government's Information Education and Communication (IEC) material on mis-reporting or over-reporting one's age. Young boy and girls, especially when under-age, and their parents, either fear adverse consequences if they have been exposed to messaging on child marriage or fester false hopes of receiving benefits during survey exercises.

Babita's mother for example vehemently insisted that her daughter got married when she turned 18 years old, which our probing and triangulation of information revealed was not true. Adolescents as well as their parents frequently misreported their age either because they did not know their actual age and miscalculated years, or because they knew they cannot report being married if they are less than 18 or 21 years old. For similar reasons, the data on adolescent pregnancy also remains underreported in India, indicating a need to re-look standardised data collection practices.

ARSH Status Quo and Unmet Needs

Around 12.8 percent of women aged 15-19 years in rural Bihar were already mothers or were pregnant at the time of the NFHS-4 survey, which in real terms is a significant number. India in fact ranks as one of the highest in the number of reported adolescent pregnancies – the actual numbers are probably higher.

Yet, awareness and use of contraceptive methods as well as sexual rights remain limited in rural India. Babita, who upon some probing acknowledged that while she has heard about some contraceptive methods, argued that she will not use Copper-T or oral pills for delaying her next pregnancy as, it will "make her infertile". Such myths and misconceptions associated with IUD, pills and condoms are a commonplace in rural areas and are a significant reason behind lack of uptake of contraceptive methods in spite of rudimentary awareness. This is compounded by limited use of male-dependent methods, high discontinuation rates, and lack of support from family as well as service providers.

Studies show that the unmet need for contraceptives, especially for spacing pregnancies, in rural Bihar is as high as 21% (NFHS-4). The use of short-term contraceptives among adolescent women to delay pregnancy is even lower as they are expected to establish their fertility right after marriage to avoid stigmatization by the society.

Consequently, female sterilisation after bearing a few children has become the most widely accepted contraceptive method. "do ladka hone ke baad operation karvaungi" (I will undergo an operation after delivering two sons)," Babita told us when we asked her how will she prevent pregnancy after she has had the number of children she wants. The success of female sterilisation is explained by the penetration of Accredited Social Health Workers (ASHAs) in rural areas under the National Rural Health Mission, an increase in number of institutional deliveries, and the compensation offered in public health facilities for sterilisation.

Unmarried adolescents are simply discouraged from seeking reproductive and sexual healthcare and their problems are dismissed as trivial.

However, our field experience suggests that the problem with sterilisation is that it is viewed as a permanent contraception method which is adopted only after the couple has had multiple children, preferably sons. The onus of this adversely falls on women and their health who are in turn pushed towards early pregnancy and consecutive child births.

This social pressure on adolescent and young women is coupled by lack of alternative life choices, limited mobility and lack of control over their own sexual and reproductive rights. Further, while married adolescents still enjoy certain social legitimacy while accessing reproductive health services, unmarried adolescents are simply discouraged from seeking reproductive and sexual healthcare and their problems are dismissed as trivial.

This is bolstered by the population control and family centric approach in our policy environment which primarily focuses on improving access to contraceptives for married couples, and an overall development of the 'family'. Such a discourse fails to take into account the overall quality of life that young women in rural areas are leading, the social costs associated with delaying or limiting pregnancies and the lack of decision making power in the hands of women.

The movie Parched (2015), set in the landscape of rural Rajasthan about four women navigating the patriarchal society, drives home this point really well. When Lajjo, a young woman in an abusive marriage fails to conceive due to her husband's impotency, she is mocked for infertility, and when Janki, a child bride, chops off her hair to stop her marriage, she is forced into it nonetheless. The movie ends on a positive note: the three characters escape their village in search for a better life. But it leaves a crucial question unanswered, what is the life that awaits them?

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

The issue of reproductive health and sexual rights of adolescent boys and girls, under-age marriage, and adolescent pregnancy within and outside marriage remains a policy blind-spot in India. This is in spite of the fact that multiple surveys have highlighted the prevalence of child marriage and early pregnancy in India (Hyperlink Part 1 of the article here). Ironically, women's issues have been consistently reduced to the lens of health, family and violence in the development discourse since independence. Yet, attention to adolescent girls in particular, and their sexual and reproductive rights has been almost absent until recently.

The unmet need for reproductive and sexual health services and counselling is propounded by studies that suggest that adolescents and youth have not received relevant information on sexual matters from frontline workers and healthcare providers and are largely uncomfortable in obtaining contraceptive supplies from them, even when it is available (International Institute for Population Sciences and Population Council, 2010). In fact, reports suggest that adolescent girls rank the lowest in terms of awareness about sexual health, family planning methods, risky sexual behavior and their rights (RKSK Strategy Handbook, Government of India, 2014).

The unmet need for reproductive and sexual health services and counselling is propounded by studies that suggest that adolescents and youth have not received relevant information on sexual matters from frontline workers and healthcare providers.

During our field work for example, while adolescent boys, who seasonally migrated to Punjab and Delhi in search of work, were familiar with contraceptive methods such as condom and emergency pills, and STDs such as HIV/AIDS, adolescent girls would often plead ignorance during the interviews.

Until the National Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) strategy released in 2006, there was no policy that directly addressed adolescent SRH. The National ARSH strategy mandated setting up of Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHC) to provide preventive, curative and referral health services to adolescents in a safe and respectful environment. However, a number of evaluations of AFHCs over the past decade has revealed its policy failure: uneven implementation, limited awareness, inadequate training and sensitisation of health care providers, lack of utilisation by adolescents, insufferably poor quality, and unavailability of supporting infrastructure. These clinics have failed to operate regularly and provide services with respect and privacy to adolescents (Santhya et al 2014).

Our recent field work on ARSH suggests that often AFHCs exists only on paper,with no dedicated staff, training or infrastructure to meet the needs of adolescents in rural Bihar. None of the adolescent boys and girls we spoke to had ever heard of an AFHC, or a clinic with corresponding description, but only about the block level Primary Health Centre (PHC), which they hardly ever visited. Unmarried boys and girls in fact told us that they prefer availing private health care facilities for common ailments instead of consulting ASHAs or visiting Anganwadi Centres and PHCs, the latter is meant for married women or severe ailments, they added.

ASHAs themselves acknowledged that they hardly ever interact with unmarried girls.

The National ARSH strategy also mandated training of ASHAs to interact with unmarried adolescent females in order to capitalise on the success of their access to the community. This goal, however, remains unfulfilled. In cases where ASHAs have been trained to address adolescent SRH needs, their focus in practice has remained on facilitating the incentive system based institutional delivery scheme for married women or facilitating female sterilization (Planning Commission 2011; Santhya et al 2011). During our field work, ASHAs themselves acknowledged that they hardly ever interact with unmarried girls, except when the latter themselves approach them during VHSND (Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition days), most often with issues related to irregular menstruation.

Policy efforts have not been accompanied with infrastructural support, adequate trainings of frontline workers and awareness generation among the community. ASHAs, ANMs and Staff nurses have in most cases received very rudimentary training and sensitisation on adolescent SRH, their needs and unique challenges with regard to imparting information to adolescents and mitigating their own inhibitions (Santhya et al 2014).

Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakarm (RKSK), one of the recent government programs aimed at improving ARSH seeks to address some of these challenges, and builds upon the National Adolescent Health Strategy released by Government of India in 2013. RKSK seeks to further strengthen ASHAs and mobilise community leaders such as peer educators to raise awareness and access to contraceptives and reproductive health supplies such as sanitary napkins within the community. It seeks to strengthen and extend AFHCs, by setting up daily AFHC at Community Health Centre level and weekly AFHC at PHC level and complementing it with referral services. While these two components are a continuation of the earlier policy, and need improvement in terms of implementation, the operational framework of RKSK focuses on overall health and well-being of adolescents including nutrition, SRH, menstrual hygiene management, mental health, violence and substance abuse by converging various stakeholders.

Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakarm (RKSK), one of the recent government programs aimed at improving ARSH seeks to address some of these challenges, and builds upon the National Adolescent Health Strategy released by Government of India in 2013.

An ambitious and well-intentioned scheme, RKSK's biggest challenge remains implementation in terms of awareness generation, community mobilisation and uptake, successful convergence, sensitised and tailored trainings of frontline workers and peer educators, and timely and appropriate infrastructural and resource availability and support. While RKSK focuses on overall well-being of adolescents, in the absence of a supporting environment with alternative life-choices, decision making autonomy and capacity building to enable adolescent women to lead a fruitful life if they delay marriage and pregnancy, its aims will remain severely curtailed.

The aim to achieve overall development of adolescents should not mask more specific and severe challenges existing in the countryside: underage brides, adolescent pregnancies, social pressures to conceive which conflict with ARSH messaging, and absence of awareness and sensitisation among married and unmarried young men to name a few. It is important to converge policies on ARSH with life skill training, awareness generation, and behavior change campaigns in the absence of which young women will have little option.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

Sex was an audacious thesis statement, calculated enough to piss people off but seemly enough to maintain artistic integrity.

That the BJP has been running the AIADMK show from behind the curtains is probably Tamil Nadu's worst-kept secret at the moment. A day ago, Tamil Nadu's dairy development minister Rajender Balaji admitted, unabashedly, that AIADMK has to fear nothing and no one because the party has the support of Prime Minister Modi. Anyone familiar with Tamil Nadu's politics will agree that this 'mere paas Modi hai' sentiment defines AIADMK, post Jayalalithaa.

On the face of it, it may seem that having control over the AIADMK would make BJP a force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu. However, what the party did not factor in, in its quest to gain power over Tamil Nadu's politics, is the resistance it faced from the film industry. It may have been prepared for a battle with the Congress-DMK alliance, but Kollywood? Not something they had a defence plan for.

The past week hasn't been the best of the party in Tamil Nadu. First, Kamal Haasan, who isn't anyway a great fan of the saffron brigade, retracted his statement supporting demonetisation. In a column, he not only apologised for supporting demonetisation but also demanded that Prime Minister Modi admit that the decision to demonetize was not an erroneous one, or at least, the way it was implemented was a mistake.

This Diwali, the release of Mersal, starring Tamil superstar Vijay left the BJP stunned. The film pulls no punches in its criticism of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), one of NDA government's trophy projects. It did not help that the BJP leaders didn't let the film take it's natural course and disappear from public memory -- the early reviews of the film were not encouraging with critics pointing out that that it was a rehash of several old Tamil films. Instead, they went at the film hammer and tongs, giving it a new lease of life at the box office.

Sources say that the BJP sees the two developments as potentially threatening to all the work they had done to gain mileage in the state. Considering that both Vijay and Kamal Hasaan have considerable influence of thousands of Tamilians, open criticism against the Centre could make an impression on the electorate.

It didn't also help that Vijay's supporters made #MersalvsModi trend on Twitter, throwing a challenge at the Prime Minister himself. As a result, BJP's attempts to point out what they called was an inaccurate portrayal of the GST, sank.

Kamal was the first to tweet in Mersal's support articulating that once it has passed the scrutiny of the Censor Board, no one can ask a filmmaker to cut his movie again. The South Indian Artistes Association too has spoken in support of the film now.

But the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP sees a political motive behind Vijay's character criticising the GST in Mersal. Most of them argued that Vijay has done this to further his own political ambitions. In what was a crude, below the belt remark, H Raja, the national secretary of the BJP sought to emphasize Vijay's full name -- Joseph Vijay -- in what seemed like a bid to suggest that his Christian roots has something to do with him critiquing the BJP. One was reminded how Prime Minister Modi, back in 2002, used a similar strategy to question his critics. Irked by chief election commissioner JM Lyngdoh's directives, Modi had sought to spell out his full name -- James Michael Lyngdoh -- not in a matter-of-fact manner, but as a suggestion that he may be close to Congress since he is a Christian.

The narrative around BJP's move to re-censor Mersal has been cast in a way that suggests that the party has hurt Tamil pride. That can't be good news for the party.

The feeling on the street already is how despite the BJP's best attempts to push O Panneerselvam tp capture the AIADMK's top leadership, he could not muster enough support and therefore Plan B of effecting a merger with the Edappadi Palaniswami group had to be kicked in. BJP secured less than 3 per cent vote share and zero seats in the 2016 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. No wonder several people feel that the party is punching way above its weight in trying to dictate what the state can watch in movie theatres and what they cannot.

While Mersal's GST scene has gone viral, the next movie that is likely to cause a similar or bigger storm would be Kamal Haasan's 'Indian 2'. Given the actor's political inclinations, it's fair to assume that his role as an anti-corruption vigilante, will be a loaded one.

Demonetisation is likely to go down as one of landmark decisions in history of Independent India. It will serve as a useful guide to countries across the globe in their monetary experiments to counter black money. It also poses few questions pertinent to the policy discourse of the country. The Indian government apparently had not taken everyone into confidence while announcing the demonetization policy.

The decision was kept under wraps until 8 PM on 8th November, 2016 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement public. The intent was to catch the corrupt off-guard. Let us discuss two lessons from this epic experiment: one pertaining to policy formulation and the other pertaining to policy evaluation.

Stakeholder Consultation

The process followed to arrive at the demonetisation policy is intriguing. Unlike Goods and Services Tax (GST), demonetisation hardly solicited inputs of stakeholders to assess its likely impact. Most legislators were not privy to this decision until moments before the announcement.

At the same time, one of the biggest problems pointed out by critics of demonetisation was the lack of preparedness and foresight of the government. This can be attributed partly to lack of stakeholder involvement in decision making process. The reason for not involving the elected representatives need to be examined further.

A friend of mine pointed out that when legislators take oath to office and secrecy and are yet kept out of loop, the Prime Minister is openly acknowledging their corruption. Even when the Cabinet was informed about the decision moments before making the announcement public, an additional precaution was taken. Members of the Cabinet were specifically instructed not to carry their mobile phones.

The very fact that the inputs of elected representatives cannot be solicited due to concerns of 'trust', should perturb us, yet, strangely it does not. We have grown accustomed to it and we are understanding that the Prime Minister has very few he can trust and involve while making such a momentous decision. It is even more disturbing that there was hardly any dissent from those kept out of loop, that they should have been consulted in the decision making process. Is it an acknowledgement from their end that they are not trustworthy?

How can the trustworthiness of elected representatives be ensured? This calls for examining how they stand to benefit if they help those holding black money.

Arguably, such a huge decision would have benefitted from perspectives of diverse stakeholders so that its repercussions could be foreseen to a greater extent and adequate preparation could be taken. It may have also helped the government identify and prevent ways in which black money could be converted to white money. How can the trustworthiness of elected representatives be ensured? This calls for examining how they stand to benefit if they help those holding black money.

Some elected representatives might have black money or could have close ties with those possessing it which could prompt them to protect their vested interests if they are involved in decision making process. Measures to ensure transparency in election financing and stringent monitoring of wealth accumulated by those in power are few steps that can be taken to address this issue.

Policy Evaluation

The evaluation of the demonetisation policy is another interesting area, given that its intended objectives are modified to stay in sync with any intended or unintended positive consequences reported to arise from it. If the initial intent as per the announcement of the honourable Prime Minister was to curb black money and financing of terrorism, it has metamorphosed into increasing digitisation, formalisation and widening of tax base. Given its continuously evolving objectives, how would one evaluate such a policy?

The reason why the government is able to play this game is because of a deeper underlying issue in policy formulation: the lack of a systematic and structured approach to policymaking.

It should be made mandatory that government initiates mechanisms for evaluating a policy or a law as part of its design. This would compel policymakers to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound) objectives, as management theorists would call it.

Would the public have voted the Bharatiya janata Party to power had they known that the move did not yield its initial intended objectives?

Presently, there seems to be a blind-faith in policy making due to which there is a lack of emphasis on validating the underlying assumptions or its intended impact through data.

It is important to gather data to evaluate whether policies created with good intent such as rail travel subsidy, caste-based reservation are effective as envisioned. Evaluation of success of policies or programs should not be left to one's beliefs. The outcome matters as much as the intent.

Lack of a timely policy evaluation mechanism leads to policy makers exploiting the policy intent. While data might have been available with Reserve Bank of India at least till April 2017 that 98.8% of the notes had returned to the system by 13 January 2017, it did not make this information public until August 2017. It seems reasonable that the government would have kept track of the currency that returns to the system, given the intent and magnitude of the decision.

Perhaps, if they admitted that much of the withdrawn currency had returned to the system sooner, it may not have been able to capitalise on the perceived gains of the demonetisation policy in elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and get elected to power. Would the public have voted the Bharatiya janata Party to power had they known that the move did not yield its initial intended objectives? The general public might have considered demonetisation policy to be successful when they went to vote.

'DeMon' will go down as a reminder of how effective a policy could have been, had relevant stakeholders been engaged. It would also serve as a guide on how policymakers can afford to carry out any experiment, but still claim and exploit its perceived success due to lack of a systematic and structured approach to policymaking. Absence of a sound evaluation mechanism rewards the intent over outcome of a policy.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

Jonathan, a 186-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise, met the love of his life way back in 1991.

His carers decided he needed a special someone after the active 150-ish-year-old became irritable and difficult to deal with.

The tortoise partner they introduced him to worked wonders. Jonathan and his partner enjoyed doing almost everything together -- sleeping, eating, and their frequent mating sessions.

For years though, Jonathan's owners had been confused as to why the two -- her name was Frederica -- weren't producing any offspring.

But one day when Frederica required medical care for a lesion on her shell, they realised the reason why. Frederica was male.

That's how it was recently discovered that Jonathan, probably the oldest known living creature, was a little bit gay.

What's even sweeter -- in a St Helena Government press release it was noted that "Jonathan came over and would not leave our side the whole way through" the treatment of his companion.

Jonathan was given as a gift to the remote island of St Helena back in the 1882, along with three other tortoises. While he has since lost his sense of smell and capacity to see, Jonathan retains good hearing.

The exact date of his birth is unknown, but a photograph of Jonathan taken around 1886 suggests that he is around 185 years old.

The news comes as St Helena, a tropical island in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, faces a debate on legalising same-sex marriage. The tiny British territory which is one of the most remote islands in the world has a population of just 4,534. The Legislative Council is currently taking submissions on the matter, and a full Supreme Court hearing will most likely occur in January of next year.

Around a year ago one of the richest business conglomerates in the world, Sweetie Pie*, called me for a discussion about Sexual Harassment at the workplace. Although the text of the discussions was great and all the right words, "women must feel safe", "It's our primary duty to ensure their safety", were being officiously articulated, yet I left the office knowing that nothing concrete would materialise out of the discussion. About two months after the meeting, Sweetie Pie was in the news because they were murmurs of a sexual harassment case that one of the employees had filed against the company. After this incident, they called me frantically to be a part of their Internal Complaint Committee at the workplace, as mandated by law.

According to The Sexual Harassment Of Women At Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, Chapter II Constitution of Internal complaints committee:

4. Constitution of Internal Complaints Committee. — (1) Every employer of a workplace shall, by an order in writing, constitute a Committee to be known as the "Internal Complaints Committee":

Provided that where the offices or administrative units of the workplace are located at different places or divisional or sub-divisional level, the Internal Committee shall be constituted at all administrative units or offices.

(2) The Internal Committees shall consist of the following members to be nominated by the employer, namely:

(a) a Presiding Officer who shall be a woman employed at a senior level at workplace from amongst the employees: Provided that in case a senior level woman employee is not available, the Presiding Officer shall be nominated from other offices or administrative units of the workplace referred to in sub-section(1):

Provided further that in case the other offices or administrative units of the workplace do not have a senior level woman employee, the Presiding Officer shall be nominated from any other workplace of the same employer or other department or organisation;

(b) not less than two Members from amongst employees preferably committed to the cause of women or who have had experience in social work or have legal knowledge;

(c) one member from amongst non-governmental organisations or associations committed to the cause of women or a person familiar with the issues relating to sexual harassment: Provided that at least one-half of the total Members so nominated shall be women.

(3) The Presiding Officer and every Member of the Internal Committee shall hold office for such period, not exceeding three years, from the date of their nomination as may be specified by the employer.

(4) The Member appointed from amongst the non-governmental organisations or associations shall be paid such fees or allowances for holding the proceedings of the Internal Committee, by the employer, as may be prescribed.

(5) Where the Presiding Officer or any Member of the Internal Committee, —

(a) contravenes the provisions of section 16; or

(b) has been convicted for an offence or an inquiry into an offence under any law for the time being in force is pending against him; or

(c) he has been found guilty in any disciplinary proceedings or a disciplinary proceeding is pending against him; or

(d) has so abused his position as to render his continuance in office prejudicial to the public interest, such Presiding Officer or Member, as the case may be, shall be removed from the Committee and the vacancy so created or any casual vacancy shall be filled by fresh nomination in accordance with the provisions of this section.

If we read the section carefully, we will understand that the law has left no loopholes in protecting women at their workplace, including laying down the composition of the ICC to review complaints about sexual harassment. I was excited to be a part of the committee and to share my expertise on a subject that I am passionate about. But yet again, nothing materialised out of these discussions because of a huge disparity in their words and their actions. Either the timing wasn't right, or the salary offered was a pittance, or their bosses who were the decision makers were unavailable. Basically, all the reasons proffered had a 'dog ate my homework quality' to them, but the underlying subtext was clear: Prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace just isn't a priority.

That's the real issue with Sexual Harassment at workplace-everyone believes that it doesn't exist, except the woman who is at the receiving end. So not only does she have to battle through the scepticism each time she even dares to bring it up, she also has to go through the entire journey of recounting the horrific experience only to face the aftermath of the negative repercussions in most cases. Dealing with sexual harassment is tough.

Even when extremely powerful women like Angelina Jolie who, besides being an A List Hollywood actress is also a UNHCR special envoy, found it hard to speak up against sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein, think of the challenges faced by an average career woman to speak out. We tend to forget that it takes a lot of guts for a woman to come forward and even take the first tiny step towards even speaking about being sexually harassed and how do we react? Usually by punishing her with either loss of face or ridicule. Or as in Rosanna Arquette's case who got passed over by Harvey Weinstein for roles in his movies because she didn't succumb to his advances.

We tend to forget that it takes a lot of guts for a woman to come forward and even take the first tiny step towards even speaking about being sexually harassed.

Although we don't need a definition of sexual harassment because we all know what exactly it is, yet when it happen we turn a blind eye to it and pretend all is hunky dory and men take it for granted that it's part of the women's job to service them and the company. If her skill sets are better than yours and she has succeeded in life it doesn't mean that she has slept her way to the top and if sleeping around was the way to the top then the poor helpless sex workers would perhaps have been the President of the United States (maybe they would have done a better job than Trump).

It's not the laws that are insufficient but our mindset that makes the laws against sexual harassment at the workplace fail miserably. When companies like Sweetie Pie, amongst many others, take responsibility and don't shove the issues related to sexual harassment on the back burner only then there will be a socio-legal implementation of laws related to prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace. Otherwise, some brave women will continue to speak up, but they have a tough job ahead of them, initially, after which the companies will pay a heavy price like the Harvey Weinstein Company.

P.S. At the time of going to press, the Oscar Board, has expelled Harvey Weinstein from its committee, a first for the Board since its inception over 80 years ago.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.