Kritika Narula is a writer, journalist and communications consultant based in Delhi, India.
Long-term effects of the pandemic and lockdowns on children and adolescents
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns meant to help curb the infection have been around for a year now. When the quarantine, social distancing and lockdown were first enforced, they were handled with gusto — it was all very sudden, but in doing the responsible thing to #StopTheSpread, unprecedented times called for unprecedented actions. The road wasn’t without challenges, however — transitioning to remote work impaired work-life boundaries, online or blended classrooms were tricky t...
Book Review: Understanding “Why We Sleep” to Sleep Better - Indigo Blue Magazine
As we understand the science behind our wellbeing — and especially, sleep — the phrase, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” seems ever more convincingly unpropitious. In a culture where pulling all-nighters sounds like “a badge of honour” or “a sacrifice made for urgent work,” the idea that rest and sleep actually serve a rich litany of functions can seem revolting. It is anything but.
An increasing number of people — researchers, counselors, journalists — are looking at our broken relationship with s...
Remote Team Time Tracking: a Benefit or a Burden?
The exercise of time tracking — the documentation of your daily tasks and the time you need to complete them — can provide useful data for strategic decision-making. But, how does it impact employee trust, accountability and performance? See what remote team exp...
How Remote Teams Manage Impostor Syndrome
Imposter syndrome — aggressive and constant feelings of self-doubt — can get inflamed in remote work environments. Individual and organizational efforts can help minimize the tribulation.
Teaching during the pandemic has been stressful. What can be done?
As the pandemic rages on, so do the measures to combat it, including lockdowns, remote work/study and blended learning models. Because the government guidelines related to lockdown and social distancing differ across countries and from one week to another, a lot of firefighting has been ongoing for months. For school leaders, this has meant:
Managing the school operations remotely and responding to policy changes in a timely manner
Ensuring a seamless transition to the hybrid or online learni...
Safeguarding risks for children in lockdown & measures to mitigate the risks
The pandemic and lockdown have together escalated the safeguarding risks that children face as they become isolated from social support and move towards online learning. We discuss measures to help curb the negative impact of these events.
It has been around 9 months since the first lockdown was announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. It’s now widely known that the disruption to normalcy has impacted children in a number of ways – from detrimental impact on their acad...
UP's Sanjana Becomes Pandemic Champion By Helping Women In Her Community Build Menstrual Health And Hygiene Knowledge
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns brought a lot of things to a deafening standstill. In rural areas, this meant that access to essential services was irregular, the mobility of people — especially women — was restricted, access to online education was marred with challenges. That's when 18-year-old Sanjana, from Indiranagar, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, took matters into her own hands.
How to Alleviate Decision Fatigue - Indigo Blue Magazine
Decision fatigue refers to the deterioration of one’s ability to make good decisions after a long session of decision making. In other words, as you make more decisions, you keep getting worse at assessing all the options and making an effective, thoughtful choice.
When Hannah Gadsby Speaks, We Listen: On the Genius That Is Hannah Gadsby’s Brand of Comedy
When Hannah Gadsby’s debut Netflix special Nanette released in 2018, it was a watershed moment in comedy and a vade mecum in intersectional feminism conversations. In sheer comedic irony, what was supposed to be her resignation from comedy turned into her magnum opus.
How Women Coders Are Making Online Platforms Safer
To combat rampant online abuse, a research team in Australia has come up with an algorithm that can flag misogynistic content, with the underlying message: bring more women to the table during the development process.
‘Never Have I Ever’ Seen a Brown Girl Talk Like That
When the first episode of Never Have I Ever opens, the protagonist Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) is seen praying to Indian deities – knelt down, earnest and surprisingly quick-witted. She has a chat with the gods about how “last year sucked for a number of reasons” and how the gods can “make it up to her.” The sass is both inimitable and unprecedented at once. In the opening for the second episode, Devi is reading Anna Todd’s turbulent romance novel After when she is so invitingly ...
Voices of Rural India trains digital storytellers and helps offset lost tourism revenue
When the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown hit the world, the livelihoods of people reliant on the tourism industry suffered.
To address this, nonprofit media platform Voices of Rural India found a way to turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity by upgrading digital skills among rural storytellers to create alternate livelihoods.
Is Asynchronous Communication The Answer To Employee Burnout?
Releasing ourselves from the constant symphony of pings and buzzes might just be the answer to over-managed, and over-stressed employees.
Dispelling Clouds in the Mind: Understanding & Managing Brain Fog - Indigo Blue Magazine
In a world with dwindling attention spans, it’s easy to dismiss our lack of focus as an outcome of our obsession with screens. But if you find yourself stuck in a prolonged rut with an inability to focus, it could be time to observe the pattern more closely. If you feel groggy and find yourself “zoning out” or have trouble concentrating, if there’s a general sense of fatigue, impaired judgement, and/or mental confusion, this could be brain fog.
COVID-19 Mask-Shaming: Some People Genuinely Cannot Wear A Mask
When the pandemic began, everyone around us was extremely panicky. The world went into lockdown. Our perception of time became warped. Along with the heightened awareness of the protection that wearing a mask could give us, we also witnessed an increase in mask-shaming–a manifestation of a largely ableist culture, this time driven by the fear of the virus as well.