I started writing online in 2004, when blogs were still personal corners of the internet. Now I write about small moments that reveal who we become while we are busy being everything else.
– Ankita Bhatia Dhawan
New Here? Start with these
Still Not Journalling
I thought I disliked journaling because I don’t do well with prompts. Then I realised the problem was not the blank page. It was what the blank page might reveal.
The Real Girl Math
We joke about girl math as if the strangest female calculation is justifying a handbag on sale. But the real girl math is the everyday arithmetic of safety: what to wear, which route to take, where to sit, who to call, and how much of yourself to make visible.
Mothers, Mistakes, and the Myth of Perfection
We placed mothers on pedestals and called it respect, without noticing how quickly admiration turns into expectation. The moment women become symbols of sacrifice and strength, they stop being allowed complexity, mistakes, exhaustion, anger, ambition, or even ordinary humanity.
Hi, I’m Ankita.
I have been a marketer, a mother, a reader, a reluctant organiser of school mornings, an expat, a woman rebuilding parts of herself in more than one country, and someone who still processes life best by writing it down.
This blog comes from that mix. Work. Motherhood. Memory. Books. Beauty counters. Airports. Irritations that refuse to stay small. The things women inherit without being handed a manual. Most posts begin with something ordinary. Then the ordinary misbehaves.
Stories about Ordinary Life
Are You Friends With Feedback?
Feedback didn’t exist in my childhood. There was praise, which was rationed like sugar during a diet, and criticism, which flowed like Lassi during Langar. Nobody told us there was a third thing. Turns out there was, and I’m still not sure we’re friends.
The Tiny Fame of Ordinary People
The tiny fame of ordinary people is the strange visibility social media gives us in our own small circles. It is not celebrity. It is school moms, old friends, cousins and acquaintances knowing bits of your life before you tell them yourself.
Perfection Is the Problem
Perfection is the problem when it stops being about doing things well and becomes a way of measuring your worth. A personal essay on perfectionism, self-criticism, good enough, and the impossible yardstick we carry through work, home, rest, and ordinary life.
The Woman I Never Met
If someone gave me a time machine and one message to send my younger self, I know exactly what I would say: live on your own.
It Began With Socks
I was buying socks for my seven-year-old when I noticed the girls’ section had already made a few decisions for her. Shorter socks. Softer colours. Prettier choices. And somehow, just socks stopped feeling quite so small. It is never really “just socks”, is it?
The Girl With One Braid
Sakshi was the villain long before she left for Denmark. One braid, one book, one bus ride, one refusal at a time, she became the girl who put ideas in other girls’ heads. Sakshi owns the reputation she never asked for and the life she chose anyway.
Types of Moms and the Labels Motherhood Refuses to Fit Into
Motherhood has become a filing system. Alpha mom, beta mom, almond mom, tiger mom, free-range mom. But most mothers are not one fixed type. We are tactics, adjusted daily, badly rested, and almost always answering to a label that does not quite fit.
It Began With Socks
I was buying socks for my seven-year-old when I noticed the girls’ section had already made a few decisions for her. Shorter socks. Softer colours. Prettier choices. And somehow, just socks stopped feeling quite so small. It is never really “just socks”, is it?
Mothers, Mistakes, and the Myth of Perfection
We placed mothers on pedestals and called it respect, without noticing how quickly admiration turns into expectation. The moment women become symbols of sacrifice and strength, they stop being allowed complexity, mistakes, exhaustion, anger, ambition, or even ordinary humanity.
I Let AI Describe Me. Then I Had to Do It Myself.
I asked ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini what kind of person I am. They knew the documented me: the prompts, drafts, edits, searches, and patterns. But the missing parts were more revealing.
Taste: The Stories We Tell Ourselves About What We Like
Taste feels personal, almost instinctive. But food, clothes, homes, and even the sarees that break our own rules often carry older stories of availability, repetition, culture, aspiration, and the small choices that slowly become a self.
Posture: The Stories Our Bodies Tell
You think you’re noticing a person.
The clothes, the walk, the outline of a stranger moving through an ordinary evening.
But sometimes what you’re really noticing is a pattern your body already knows.
How to move without interrupting.
How to shrink just enough.
How to stay within the edges of space without ever testing where they actually are.
And once that recognition clicks, it’s hard to…
My Personal Favourites
Some posts I call my favourites. They are the ones that may hit the hardest. Sometimes, they are the ones that make me smile the widest. Sometimes, the ones that came from the gut. And sometimes, the ones my readers loved.
The Girl With One Braid
Sakshi was the villain long before she left for Denmark. One braid, one book, one bus ride, one refusal at a time, she became the girl who put ideas in other girls’ heads. Sakshi owns the reputation she never asked for and the life she chose anyway.
A Morning of Doubt
Some mornings are too busy for anxiety. Packing lunches, tying hair, watching the clock. But when the house finally falls quiet, the mind sometimes catches up with everything it has been avoiding.
What It Actually Means to Be a Woman Today
Women’s Day often celebrates a polished version of womanhood. This post looks at the everyday reality behind it: invisible work, mental load, quiet negotiations and the expectations women carry without applause. Everything that shapes what it means to be a woman today.
Not By The Hair of My Chiny Chin Chin
A funny, honest look at chin hair after 40.
Why it happens, and how it feels when you’ve lived it.
A to Z Storytelling Series
I chose storytelling as the theme because I kept noticing how much of our everyday behaviour is shaped by the stories we tell. We repeat them so often they stop feeling like stories and start feeling like truth. We tell them because they help us live.
What The A to Z Challenge Taught Me About Storytelling
I started the A to Z Challenge thinking I had chosen storytelling as a theme. Twenty-six posts later, I realised I had been writing about people, survival, identity, discomfort, and the stories we tell ourselves to keep going.
Zero: The Stories We Tell About Starting Over
We call it a fresh start, a new chapter, ground zero. But sometimes the story of starting over is less about becoming someone new, and more about finding the courage to begin while carrying everything we always carry.
Yes: The Stories We Tell When We Have No Choice
Sometimes, Yes doesn’t arrive as a decision. It arrives as duty, peacekeeping, family expectation, and survival. Then, years later, we call it “how things went” because that is easier to live with.
Most Recent Posts
The Woman I Never Met
If someone gave me a time machine and one message to send my younger self, I know exactly what I would say: live on your own.
Are You Friends With Feedback?
Feedback didn’t exist in my childhood. There was praise, which was rationed like sugar during a diet, and criticism, which flowed like Lassi during Langar. Nobody told us there was a third thing. Turns out there was, and I’m still not sure we’re friends.
If My Blog Was a Chocolate Factory
If my blog was a chocolate factory, the homepage would be the storefront. Bestsellers up front, favourites on one shelf, harmless-looking categories everywhere, and somewhere in the box, a sweet piece that leaves a bitter aftertaste.
Types of Moms and the Labels Motherhood Refuses to Fit Into
Motherhood has become a filing system. Alpha mom, beta mom, almond mom, tiger mom, free-range mom. But most mothers are not one fixed type. We are tactics, adjusted daily, badly rested, and almost always answering to a label that does not quite fit.
The Tiny Fame of Ordinary People
The tiny fame of ordinary people is the strange visibility social media gives us in our own small circles. It is not celebrity. It is school moms, old friends, cousins and acquaintances knowing bits of your life before you tell them yourself.
It Began With Socks
I was buying socks for my seven-year-old when I noticed the girls’ section had already made a few decisions for her. Shorter socks. Softer colours. Prettier choices. And somehow, just socks stopped feeling quite so small. It is never really “just socks”, is it?
Perfection Is the Problem
Perfection is the problem when it stops being about doing things well and becomes a way of measuring your worth. A personal essay on perfectionism, self-criticism, good enough, and the impossible yardstick we carry through work, home, rest, and ordinary life.
Still Not Journalling
I thought I disliked journaling because I don’t do well with prompts. Then I realised the problem was not the blank page. It was what the blank page might reveal.