There’s a huge divide in India right now. Those who support Prime Minister Narendra Modi and everything he and his government stands for, and those who hate him and all he touches. The former are derisively called ‘Bhakts’ (worshippers) by the latter and the latter are called libtards (liberal retards) by the former. For this post, I’m going to stick to calling them just that, though neither term reflects my opinion. There are a few in between these two positions who supported Modi because he seemed like the more incorruptible and capable candidate, though they did question his ideology and even his governance. And it’s these middle of the road walkers who this post is about.

In recent times, the middle grounders have lost their voice with the din of battle between the bhakts and the libtards. The bhakts have their army of goons who threaten anything from rape to death to those who disagree. The libtards aren’t winning the battle of hearts and minds either in their refusal to accept anyone who may have voted Modi as an example of a half decent human being and therefore, not worth acknowledging.

Recently though, there was an event which shocked even the most placid middle-grounder. Hafiz Junaid, a 16 year old student, was lynched by a mob after a dispute over a seat on a train and while being accused of being anti-national and eating beef. Mob fury has been on the rise since 2015 and has received only mild outrage but the gruesomeness of this attack, the heartbreaking image of the boy dying in his brother’s arms, angered Indians and the world, lay people and celebrities, pacifists and activists alike. And one film-maker was prompted into action. Saba Dewan called for a peaceful protest in Delhi, the nation’s capital. She created a Facebook event for the same and overnight, it became a nation-wide movement. Calls for #NotInMyName protests sprung up from every corner of the country and overseas too. And the middle-grounders participated.

I’m no activist. I am a well-entrenched middle grounder. But there are causes that I’m passionate about and even working on right now. And I’m also a student of digital marketing. It seems strange to study this case as a student of digital marketing. It was not for profit and the film-maker wasn’t looking for any personal gains through it. But it shows that social media can be used for social good – for a cause and purpose better and larger than posting pictures of a night out, documenting daily trivialities and even assuaging your own conscience with armchair activism. A call for action can and will be heeded, provided the content, delivery and distribution is powerful enough. With my mix of television anchoring, journalism, digital marketing and entrepreneurship experience, I hope I will play a small part in the greater good.

I remember walking into the local Chinese school where I taught, just a few days before Christmas in 2012. I was planning to teach the kids Christmas carols and was already humming happily. As the only Indian in the school, I was always treated nicely but distantly. I suppose my colleagues struggled with English and didn’t want to make the effort to converse.

That day was different. There was a group of four women sitting together and looking visibly pained. As I walked in with my cheery good mornings, they responded and then one hesitantly said, ” We hear bad rape in India. We sorry.” They were talking of course of the Nirbhaya case.

In that one second, I paled, retched, sobbed, fumed and cried all at once. There was no condescension in their voices, just genuine concern. And in that one second, the armour of ‘Not my problem!’ that I had built up my entire life, crumbled.

Growing up in India, we hear stories of violence, injustice and oppression against women every other day. As working adults abroad, when we read these same stories, they make us cringe, make us embarrassed and make us thankful to have left India. But deep down, they also make us feel guilty. Guilty that we aren’t able to help in any way.

I’m proud to know this incredible woman – Srishti Bakshi. She is an absolute inspiration.
She has been nominated as a Champion for Change 2017 under the Empower Women Initiative of United Nations Women. This September she begins a 260 day journey walking the entire length of India (3,800km!), campaigning to make India a safe and equal place for Women. She will be conducting workshops to empower women through financial and digital literacy.

Preparing for the long journey ahead

Srishti was an NRI (Non-Resident Indian) like me, with a high paying job in Hong Kong. It would have been easy for her to say ‘not my problem’ and turn a blind eye. But she didn’t.

I’m going to join Srishti in Project CrossBow. With two children under four, I won’t be able to join the actual walk, but I can participate virtually. Every step I take while here in Hong Kong gets counted on the CrossBow app and unlocks funds by corporate and philanthropic sponsors towards organisations in India, working to empower women.

To go from a one-woman walk to a nation-wide Modern Day Dandi March, CrossBow is going to need great virality and social media galvanisation. And that’s where my expertise as a digital marketer comes in. Because this is my fight. This is my movement. This IS my problem.

Tai Tai is a term that everyone who has lived in HK for a while is familiar with. It’s a local, slightly disparaging term for ladies who live a life of leisure thanks to their wealthy husbands. As happens often in a city of expats, the trailing spouses (in this post, I’m only talking of the women) don’t get jobs as easily and so decide to take some much needed time off work. In a new city, the most important thing is to build a new social circle and the first few years are spent in a flurry of socialising – leisurely lunches, bargain and brand hunting, foot massage with friends and wild weekends at Lan Kwai Fong. In a few years, those who have kids have found a great school-play date routine for them  and now start looking to reinvent themselves.

Most expat wives are lucky that they don’t need to work if they don’t want to. Though HK is an expensive city, expat packages are good for the most part. Some choose to switch careers completely and take up careers that can be taken up in most parts of the world – like teaching English as a foreign language. Others choose to go back to the same kind of work but find that they have lost the drive to compete and keep up with the long hours, so instead choose administrative and customer service roles. And then there’s a large majority who decide to follow their hearts and risk it all by turning entrepreneur. The fields are wide and varied. Some turn a hobby into a passion project into a niche business. Others import specialties from their home country or a country they have close ties with into HK. Others look around and look for specialised services that an ever changing expat population is always in need of. And yet others, make products and offer services that target children and turn sensible, practical women into quivering pieces of spending jelly, unable to resist their child’s tears, tantrums or what’s even worse, stoic sighs.

So what happens when a ‘tai tai’ sets up shop? She markets herself to the people she knows. The sisterhood is strong and so she gets a steady stream of customers. Very soon, one of them sets up shop as well. Now it’s her turn to lend support and so there is a solidarity buy. And thus, is born an intricate web of symbiotic sisterhood spending – a chain so complex that it boggles the mind of the most astute multi level marketer. Avon, Amway and Young Living could take a leaf out of the HK Tai Tai network. Even if a tai tai is in HK for a fleeting period of time, the bonds she makes here will last the test of time.

Husbands who are supportive of their wives’ entrepreneurial ventures watch with pride as they see stocks getting depleted fast or their wives accepting orders on the phone. Soon though, they wonder why it doesn’t reflect in the household income. So they helpfully sit down with their wives to help balance accounts at the end of the month. Most of them are finance whizzes with top jobs in leading banks (if in HK, you can throw a stone and hit an HSBCer). And yet, when face to face with the power of the tai tai network, they retire hurt and accept defeat. There’s no way they will ever be able to tally this phenomenon.

• All views expressed here are personal and are not intended to hurt anyone’s feelings. My personal motto reads – Tai Tai and Proud!

Wearing a scarf I bought from a friend, carrying a clutch I bought from another friend and sporting a haircut given to me by yet another! My HK sisterhood!

Me and my girl gang!