Shilpi Anand

I choose.
To assess and breathe.
To understand and analyze.
I choose.

Matters at hand seem to slip ...  I wake up and look at the office. There is this flutter in my stomach.  I see what to do and where to start. Cleaning and organizing helps me to bring my thoughts in order. From the rising chaos of projects and work schedule, as a creative individual I seek satiety in what I do. But it becomes difficult and challenging when my judgements/perspectives/ideas towards a design solution are looked through Gender glasses. These biases exist, subtly giving jolts which become enormous when you are not alert.  

You doubt your own judgements/process/ideas. You cave in because in the process you lose confidence in communicating what you want to say. Your ideas and creative abilities are questioned based on Gender, not on merit. Any two creative individuals would have a different say for the same problem, but the debate starts when there are underlying, unresolved and often unexpressed or misinterpreted issues. Eventually, being treated as an equal is what everyone seeks. There are many more complexities in learning, improving, and keeping up with the market, but gender issues make them more difficult. 

Work ethics should be redefined, and it takes a long time to see the changes you consciously do. Outbursts of anger were futile in these situations, sometimes nudging helped, slight changes about being conscious and being alert helped. As a practicing professional juggling between work and life to find balance, I think the level of complexity goes higher up a notch when there are two creative individuals of different genders.  Identifying the gap which needs to be addressed and communicated in the right manner is invaluable. 

I collaborated with people with the same frequencies and worked multi-disciplinary. This enabled me to explore new avenues and enrich my knowledge and experience. I choose the idea of collaboration and finding different avenues of creative pursuits keeping the current profile in hand defining my scope. I hustle through different platforms of creativity making my voice heard, loud and clear