International Women's Day Month in 2021!

After a total wipeout of events in March in 2020, 2021 did bring in a ray of hope. Many communities, organisations and groups got together to celebrate this special day!

My goal was to use this month to practice values of self-care and spend time with friends and family! So there were times with friends and family and moments of pampering myself with little things that bring about joy! And here I bring to you my top five moments of this month!

1. Reunion with Shenomics Fellows based out of Bangalore and catch up with Arya Murali!

The weekend started on a high with catching up and bonding with Arya whom I've known for about 6 years now. We have a lot of things in common and a few things that are poles apart. Sometimes it seems we are soul sisters or a sister from another mother! She is always inspiring people around her. One such inspiration was when she used to walk 10k steps everyday and post a story about it on Insta! I wanted to do that one day and I am glad I did it with her. We explore GKVK in Bangalore and it was a bliss! The day just got better with catching up with four other Bangalore based fellows at Truffles. Shenomics was a life changing experience and the fellows and team I have interacted with are really like minded individuals really passionate to make an impact! What was planned to be a 2 hour lunch meet ended by being a 5-6 hour conversations about anything and everything under the sun. It was hard to believe that we were meeting for the first time ever!

You can apply for the fellowship too by checking out this link!

2. Celebrating International Women's Day practicing self care for the body, mind and soul!

The day began with watching Google For India to celebrate women across the globe. Listening to Sundar Pichai, Sapna Chadha and Smriti Irani were some of my favourites. Smriti Irani with her talk really gave me goose bumps. The day followed with some team calls and the evening called for a celebration! A celebration of gratitude to be born with the 'Naari Shakti'!

3. Time spent with friends and peers from work!

Working from home is fun because it gives us so much time without having to beat traffic woes but it really takes away the spirit of staying together with your team at work! No more coffee conversations, lunch meetings, chai breaks etc. And hence, we find little occasions to catch up over lunch/coffee once in a while!

4. Hosting the Women Techmakers International Women's Day India 2021 along with the Ambassadors!

March is always a special month for Women Techmakers as we celebrate an annual summit in India. This year, it was all virtual! With meticulous planning along with some amazing Ambassadors and Allies, we were joined live by 4.95k viewers over two days. The content included product management, leadership, applied skills workshops, panel discussions, lighting talks and more! The cherry on the cake is always to work with an amazing bunch of people!

Watch the sessions live from here.

5. Conscious self care activities throughout the month!

This one will go without a picture but I found time to work out and stay healthy, found time to pamper my hair with a good massage and to pick actions for the day that give me joy. This could be catching up on sleep, learning something new or just watching something online! Most self care activities for me were my me-time!

Here's a list of 50 ways to practice self care!

Leaving you all with this special feature from Lean In!