Girl Friday at the University

She wanders like a flimsy ghost
in the two-hundred-year-old
university where love thrives
in large abandoned third-floor
classrooms, monkeys shag on
corridors, restless gossip piles up
like dirty dishes in the canteen,
and young women learn some
tough lessons.

Sexual Harassment: Beginning to Engage?

I WAS A YOUNG woman researcher inquiring into sexual harassment at the workplace soon after the Vishakha judgment in 1997. My boss had given me carte blanche and said I could begin wherever I wanted. Along with my co-researcher, I had to fill out 500 questionnaires from employees across all work sectors in Bangalore on incidences and prevalence of sexual harassment.

Shylaja Praveen: When Despair Replaces Anger

AT 24, Shylaja Praveen’s life was ahead of her — an untrammeled space to be explored, full of possibilities and promise. That’s not quite how it turned out though. Shylaja committed suicide last month, allegedly driven to despair by continual sexual harassment by the regional head of ING Vysya Financial Services in Bangalore where she worked.