Lifestyle of a Professional

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

Open notebook with unfinished handwritten notes and a blank page beside a black pen, illustrating why I don’t journal.

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.

$A woman dressed for work stands near the door, paused before leaving. Around her are small visual cues of calculation: an office outfit, a stole, heels, a work bag, a phone with a cab/location screen, and a small notepad or floating paper scraps with simple arithmetic-like markings.$

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 quieter: outfit against commute, shortcut against streetlight, empty seat against stranger.

Warm editorial-style illustration of two South Asian women in a softly lit peach-toned home interior, with an older woman seated calmly on a pedestal while a younger woman looks up at her thoughtfully from a dining table, symbolising the idealisation of mothers and the shifting perspective between daughters and mothers

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.

Read about my blogging journey.

Stories about Ordinary Life

Life Stories is where the ordinary things sit before they become stories. A sentence overheard, a room remembered, a small irritation, a moment that looked harmless at first and then refused to leave. These pieces are about everyday life, memory, family, work, identity, and the strange ways we become ourselves while doing everything else.

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.

Warm nostalgic desk with an old keyboard, landline phone, cassette tape, notebook, vintage mobile phone, and modern smartphone, reflecting the Gen Y vs Millennial bridge between analogue childhood and digital adulthood.

We Could Have Been Gen Y

We could have been Gen Y. Instead, we became millennials: the generation that remembers landlines and floppy disks, but somehow also has to manage passwords, updates, and overflowing cloud storage.

A warm home writing corner with a desk, open notebook, and corkboard covered in handwritten A to Z notes, representing reflection after completing a storytelling blog series.

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.

Women’s Stories is where everyday life shows what women learn to notice, carry, soften, question, and sometimes quietly refuse. These pieces are about identity, safety, self-image, reputation, work, family, ageing, and the expectations that arrive long before we have words for them.

Young Indian woman with a messy braid sits alone at an airport gate at night, holding her passport and boarding pass while looking at her reflection in the dark glass window, with warm peach lighting, blurred runway lights, and a small steel dabba visible in her open handbag.

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.

The Real Girl Math

Mothers, Mistakes, and the Myth of Perfection

Beauty & Self Image is where hair, clothes, skincare, ageing, grooming, and appearance stop being “just beauty things.” These stories look at how women learn to see themselves, maintain themselves, correct themselves, and sometimes laugh at the entire performance while still booking the appointment.

Woman reflecting on ChatGPT personality analysis through three glowing AI screens in a warm creative workspace filled with books, notes, lipstick, and soft peach light.

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.

Warm peach-toned still life with rattan, brass, fabric swatches, wall notes, and soft shadows, suggesting taste as an accumulation of choices and influences.

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.

A woman walking away along a quiet residential path, her posture slightly contained with arms close to her body, set against a warm peach-toned background.

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…

Motherhood is full of moments that look small from the outside and feel enormous from the inside. These stories are about working mom guilt, mistakes, love, family life, school, judgement, exhaustion, and the pressure to be endlessly available, endlessly patient, and somehow still fully yourself.

Mothers, Mistakes, and the Myth of Perfection

A pregnant woman and her partner sit at a wooden desk near a sunlit window, reviewing a notebook titled “Baby Names” while a laptop displaying a spreadsheet is open beside them. The woman holds a pen over the list as the man gently rests his hand near hers, with a coffee mug, glasses, sticky notes, and a small plant completing the warm, home workspace scene.

Naming a Baby, the Corporate Way

We approached a baby name like a boardroom decision. The unlikely seriousness of naming a child, and the strangely human logic behind it.

But… those are Boys’ shoes! – A Gender Neutral Parenting Story #Fail

“But those are boys’ shoes”, said the helpful store clerk to me last evening and I wanted to punch him. Thankfully, I had my mask on, so I gritted my teeth, smiled and asked, “Does it matter? Please get these in her size” We didn’t get those shoes ultimately and yesterday was a Gender Neutral Parenting Failure. Why am I…

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.

We Could Have Been Gen Y

We could have been Gen Y. Instead, we became millennials: the generation that remembers landlines and floppy disks, but somehow also has to manage passwords, updates, and overflowing cloud storage.

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.

The Girl With One Braid

The Real Girl Math

An open vintage English literature book lies on a wooden desk beside cherries, a fountain pen, peach-toned fabric, and a small note, with soft afternoon light and green hills outside the window.

Ruskin Bond and the Art of Quiet Storytelling

I first met Ruskin Bond in a Standard 10 English classroom, through a boy, his grandfather, and three cherries. Years later, I understand why that moment stayed. His stories taught me that quiet writing is never small. It notices ordinary people, simple moments, and everyday details until they become unforgettable.

New Here? Start with these

Stories about Ordinary Life

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