Category: Legacy & Love | Motherhood & Moxie

  • Part 1: Birth & the Six‑Week Postpartum Journey

    Part 1: Birth & the Six‑Week Postpartum Journey

    Survival Mode and Invisible Labor Birth is immediate. It is visceral and consuming and unmistakably human. In my case, it was also carefully planned—and then suddenly not. I went into the hospital for a scheduled induction because of gestational diabetes, prepared for a long but controlled process. We expected a large baby, close to nine…

  • Pregnancy Plans and Plot Twists

    Pregnancy Plans and Plot Twists

    The Lived Experience of Pregnancy For most of my career, I’ve been a planner. In government and international development, you learn to thrive on spreadsheets, work plans, and five-year strategies. Everything has a process. Everything has a timeline. Everything has a fallback plan — or at least, it used to. Pregnancy laughed in the face…

  • Inheritance, Not Rebellion

    Inheritance, Not Rebellion

    Category: Legacy & Love | Motherhood & Moxie When people hear I’m becoming a single mother by choice, they often assume it’s rebellion.For me, it feels more like inheritance. I come from a family of quiet revolutionaries. My parents were born into a conservative Bengali society where women were expected to follow, not lead, and…

  • How I Got Here: From Bureaucrat to Baby Steps

    How I Got Here: From Bureaucrat to Baby Steps

    “This wasn’t the plan — and yet somehow, it’s exactly where I’m meant to be.” If you told me five years ago that I’d be 22 weeks pregnant, unemployed, and starting over as a single mom by choice—I might have smiled politely while mentally updating my five-year plan to get back on track. Because I’ve…