Author

Sanjukta Basu | Traveler. Writer. Photographer

Sanjukta Basu is a Feminist Writer, Photographer and Communication Consultant. She has over 12 years of work experience in social sector. Her literary and photography works have been published by media houses and publications across the globe, reaching audiences in France, Canada, Sweden, Germany and more. Her personal blog is a political tool of self-representation, with a reach of over 570,000 unique page views and 10,000+ followers via social media. In 2009 she was awarded the TED Fellowship for her blogging and digital activism efforts. A public speaker and trainer she has delivered talks / lectures at TEDx conferences, Colleges, NGOs and conducted training workshops on digital media, blogging and gender. Presently she contributes to media houses like Firstpost, Huffington Post, Outlook, The Wire. She is also working on Project SWBT, a travel and photography research on gender and public space. She has done BA, LLB from Delhi University and M.A. in Women and Gender Studies from IGNOU.

Founder, Samyukta Media, Social and Digital Media Consultancy and Training for NGOs. To know more about it’s mission and objectives, please read the public announcement launching Samyukta Media.

Sanjukta provides legal counseling to women on matters related to personal, family, marriage, property law and violence against women. Feel free to contact on email for suggestions and guidance in the field of women law or Social Media and Communications. I am also available for delivering training, workshops and talks on Social Media and personal development.’

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[About the Author’s Personal Side]

The name: Almost 9 out of 10 people that I come across ask me, if it’s Sanjukta or Samyukta? It’s actually both. I was named by my mom after the legendary Odissi dancer Sanjukta Panigrahi. I think it is originally a Sanskrit name, Sanyukta with ‘N’ being silent and replaced by a nazal sound, meaning ‘united’ or ‘the one who unites’. In Bengali we don’t have the letter Y we have J instead. So when spelled according to the Bengali pronunciation, it became San’J’ukta. 6-7 years back when I first tried to have an email account on Yahoo by my name I was told “This ID is already taken, try another one”. Now, I didn’t want a funny (or not so funny) combination of letters and numerals…so I simply replaced the ‘N’ with ‘M’ and the ‘J’ with ‘Y’ and since then I have been using that ID in the virtual world. The two complicated names has derived into a whole lot of nick names..Samyukta into Samy, Sanjukta into Sanju has been the most used outta all of them.

I am not a Bong (!)

I am often approached by all sort of over enthusiastic men….please mind it I said ‘men’…telling me how much they like bong girls and how they love bong ‘kaalchaar’…and then they would say some thing broken baangla they picked up from one of their bong friend….it seems all of them have at least one…guys gimme a break coz that don’t impress me much. I am not a bong, not a Delhite, not Indian, not westerner, not modern, not traditional…there is just no way you can label me…except for one…I am just ME

An Honest Lawyer

I am enrolled at the Delhi Bar Council as Advocate Sanjukta Basu. After giving about a year in Court practice, I realised I am not meant to be the black robe wearing litigation lawyer. You need to have a different kind of fire in your belly to be a successful lawyer while sticking to your principles and integrity. In most cases you can’t have both and I just didn’t have the fighting spirit in me. So I chose the easy way, corporate and research lawyer. You have a very weird combination in me, an honest lawyer, sounds like an oxymoron I know but you’d know I am being honest if you follow this blog a bit closely. At times I myself wonder what gives me the strength to be so candid about my personal life on this blog. There is hardly anything about my life that can embarrass me or about which I would rather not talk about. I am given to understand by my own life experience that there is nothing stronger than the truth. As long as I am speaking the truth, there is nothing to fear or lose or be embarrassed of.

Hobbies and Interest

About hobbies and interests I just have one “Change”. I can never be at one thing for too long…No that doesn’t explains why I am still single :P Among the few consistent ones are writing this blog, travel, photography and socialize.

On Life Love Sex and God

I don’t adhere to culture and tradition, I don’t believe in anything called God but I have nothing against those who believe in it, as long as they don’t preach me. I talk too much and too strongly about women’s liberation, right to chose alternate sexuality, I often advice a marriage to be preceded by a live in relationship and I support free sex as long as it is safe voluntary and pleasurable. I believe it is not love unless you are ready to lose every bit of yourself for the sake of it; it is not love unless you have lost your sleep, appetite, reason and logic over it; it is not love unless you are desperate to express it; it was not love if you got over it and it is also not love if it stays for life. Yes, love is momentary, what stays on is not love but mutual respect and understanding, not all who are happily married are in love. I believe in true love, it does happen, happened to Romeo and Juliet, but I also know for a fact, if they didn’t die and got married instead, they would have surely lost it to their daily grind.

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