The first post!
Getting started is often easier said than done. I have dithered over blogging even before it became fashionable but putting myself out there has given me stage fright. I’m not sure why the process of proffering an opinion – especially about everything – seems so daunting.
It was the covid crisis that spurred me on. I realised that all of us were a little short on time. I realised that there was just so much to share. And I realised that the time to do it, was now.
So this blog is about everything and everything. You’ll find me commenting on travel and art, sharing experiences of raising my feminist pre-schooler, making the odd political commentary (I am a political scientist), sharing stories as a development professional, and if I’m particularly inspired, a recipe or two (I have co-authored a cocktail book).
Until I go live for real, let this first post be a placeholder for things to come. I’ll make it worth the wait!
The writer, and the other stuff.
Hello. I’m Gitanjali — development practitioner, sometime author, full-time mother, and very part-time golfer. I’ve spent the last two decades working across South Asia, West Africa, and bits of the world in between, mostly on polio eradication, regional integration, global health, and gender.
This site is a collection of essays I started writing during the pandemic and never quite stopped. Some are field notes. Some are rants. Some are about the strange things you notice on a video call when you’re on your thousandth one. They are written from Switzerland, where I now live with my husband and our daughter.
Writing is how I figure out what I actually think. I publish in case any of it is useful — or, at minimum, mildly entertaining — to you.
If you’d like to get in touch, you can find me through the usual channels. Otherwise, thank you for reading.