Preeti Shenoy's blog.

Many of you must have come across the news items featuring the bearded Sikh girl who has been applauded for her courage, for refusing to conform to what is considered beauty and having the courage to be who she is. In case you do not know what I am talking about do watch the video below.




I came across this a few months ago, when it first popped up on reddit.I, like all other, applauded her courage to stand by the choices she made and her mental strength. Then I forgot all about it.

 Till this morning.

 This morning I came across another lady called Valeria Lukyanova, a model from Ukraine who has got a lot of plastic surgery done to resemble the popular Barbie doll.



Do check out the link . It left me quite astonished!

Both are extreme cases. In one, the person has consciously rejected the society's norm of 'beauty' and in the other the person has embraced it to the fullest.Both have received large volumes of mails of admiration, as well as hate mails. Does anyone else hav…

Men and women do communicate differently. Whether men are from Mars and women are from Venus or not, it is important to co-exist peacefully on Earth.
Here are top five lousy things that a man can do to a woman, often without realizing, just how much they bother a woman.

1. Make her feel guilty: This tops my list of the lousy things guys do.Feeling guilty about many things has long been seen as a female trait. For some reason, women try really hard to be 'great wives', 'great mothers' and 'great professionals' all rolled into one. Most women have a well developed guilt gene. We don't need men adding to it. 'Didn't you pay the electricity bill?' or 'Jesus! It cost 3000 bucks?' or 'Baby---Hasn't the house been cleaned today?' might sound like very innocent, matter-of-fact questions to a guy. But this is enough to send a woman's guilt complex into over-drive. Later, if you ask her, 'what's the matter? Was it something…

Some snap shots from
http://socialmediaweek.org/bangalore/events/?id=160027#.UwHEZIVfQQ6






Women panelist @preetishenoy at #SMWInfosys@dhempe Inspirational talk, thanks a bunch connecting communities pic.twitter.com/iyC6WtmWf0
— Aravind Balakrishnan (@aravindbk) February 18, 2014
Mementos offered to panelists @preetishenoy@the_aliciasouza@mithilasmita#SMWInfosyspic.twitter.com/OIhiqXcwe2
— Infosys (@Infosys) February 18, 2014




With the fabulous Alicia D Souza   
Had a GREAT time.(I know you can tell :) )

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A few days ago, AOL coolage,  which is really popular with Indian colleges and universities, came over to my home and interviewed me.
Do watch the interview. (It is 7 minutes and 24 seconds long)  It's got footage of my home, my son and even my garden cat which sneaks in, when my dog isn't around :) I quite liked how Coolage has put it all together.
Here is the link: (Do watch and come back and  leave me a comment after you do)

http://videos.coolage.in/coolage/a-chat-with-the-best-selling-author-preeti-shenoy-518120723

Today's post is going to be on friendship. A little while back, I was chatting with a good friend of mine. She told me that she was going to cut out a certain person from her life, because she felt taken for granted, far too many times. My friend was there for her , through a bad time and had only been supportive. Yesterday, she made a very rude remark, about my friend, in front of all the office colleagues. Even though my friend told her that she was hurt,…

The routine in unvarying. Whenever my daughter comes back from school, she calls out 'Hi Mamma..Where are you?" No matter which part of the house I am in, no matter what I am doing, I always , rush to her and hug her.

Her next question is predictable too.
'What have you made today?'
Sometimes it is chilli cheese toast, sometimes dosa, sometimes rotis and sometimes when I am too tired or to have been too busy to make anything special, it is just plain old Maggi noodles. (met with joyous screams of 'yay-it-is-maggi-today')

Then she asks me to sit with her, while she eats. And she narrates in the minutest detail, all that has happened at school.
I listen.
In silence.
Without interrupting, judging or saying a thing.

I see all that she describes.
I feel all that she has gone through.
I can experience her happiness, her disappointments, her little victories and her tiny miniscule failures.
I learn with her.
About people, about life, about the world.

She sometimes …

This is a photo post.

 I have just got back from my book launches in Delhi, Gurgaon and Jaipur and here are snapshots from my trip. (The book launches went off fabulously well and I had a great time!)


With Sachin Garg, Nikita Singh and Vinita Dawra Nangia

 Vinita liked my book! Yay!


Had a really good time with Nikita Singh!
Sachin always makes me feel on top of the world! :)




With Anuja Chauhan! :)


With Mita Kapur of Siyahi at Crossword Jaipur. Mita had some wonderful things to say about my book!





Got treated Rajashtani style..Loved it!

Anuj, my very gracious host! I am so going back to Jaipur, and this time with my family. I totally fell in love with the place.
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Tomorrow (6th Feb)  I leave for Delhi.

If you are in Delhi, do drop in at 6.30 pm, to Landmark, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj.
 I will be in conversation with Vinita Nangia, Senior Editor, Times of India. (I love her columns O-zone that appears every Sunday in Times Life) . Vinita loved my book! Praise from her, meant a lot to me.



On 7th, we have another event happening in Gurgaon.



I will be in conversation with Anuja Chauhan. Right now, I am reading her first book 'The Zoya Factor' and I love it! Her second book 'Those Pricey Thakur girls' has recently been released. (I am yet to read that one).

On 8th, I will be in Jaipur, in conversation with Mita Kapur who is a writer herself and also the founder and CEO of Siyahi, a literary consultancy.



I had posted the invites on my Facebook page a little while ago.
A reader commented

"Hi. You are close but not very close to my place. :( "

I replied back saying "Well, I am traveling  2157 kilometres to come to your…

Of all the things that my grandmother used to tell me, one thing that I find reminding myself again and again is "Everything has it's time."

This I think is very true. No matter how hard you try, some things do not work out until it's 'time has come'. Whether you are trying hard for that coveted job, or whether you are trying to find your life-partner or whether you are trying to have a baby or whether you are trying to get into a university or a college of your choice, there are some things which are just beyond your control.

Life comes with no guarantees, with no certainties. This is something that I can vouch for. Life takes twists and turns that you never even imagined even in your wildest dreams.It has happened to me. It has happened to so many people I know. And perhaps it has even happened to you.

Mostly, when we are going through a troubled time, what we forget is the bigger picture. During such times, an exercise that I find useful is to rewind back…