February is Heart Month in the UK, led by organisations like the British Heart Foundation and HEART UK to raise awareness of heart and circulatory disease and encourage action like learning CPR and understanding your cholesterol. But for South Asian women, Heart Month isn’t just a campaign. It’s a very real wake-up call. In the …

There are losses that everyone can see. The funeral. The black clothes. The social media post. The flowers and the phone calls. And then there are the losses that don’t have a name in our everyday language. The parent who is still alive but no longer knows your name. The homeland you left decades ago, …

Every January, like clockwork, the headlines arrive: “Blue Monday: the most depressing day of the year.”“Beat the Blue Monday blues with these tips…” The third Monday in January gets branded as this big, dramatic low point, dark mornings, Christmas bills, failed resolutions, back-to-work fatigue. But here’s the thing, most people don’t realise: Blue Monday isn’t …

There’s a specific silence that arrives when a child leaves home. Not the peaceful kind you fantasised about when they were small and shouting “Mum!” every five minutes. Not the stolen quiet of a long shower or a solo grocery trip. A different silence. A silence that sits in their room, between your cups of …

Let’s be honest: in a lot of South Asian families, talking about money is still treated like bad manners. We can discuss everyone’s weight. We can dissect somebody’s rishta, outfit and parenting style in detail. But ask a woman: …and suddenly it’s shhh, don’t say these things. For many women in midlife, this silence is …

January comes with all the usual noise about diets and detoxes. But quietly, alongside all that, January is also Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, a month dedicated to talking about a cancer that is, in many cases, highly preventable, especially when it’s found early. In the UK, around 3,200 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every …

Every January, we are flooded with resolutions: lose weight, exercise more, do better. But for South Asian women in midlife, these lists can feel heavy. After decades of putting others first, the New Year becomes less about becoming someone new and more about returning to who we are. Midlife and menopause can feel destabilising. The …

I once sat with a group of South Asian women in their 40s and 50s, and when the topic of money came up, the room went quiet. These women, accomplished, resilient, endlessly resourceful, could talk for hours about raising families, cooking meals, or managing community events. But when it came to finances, their voices softened, …

There’s a moment every South Asian woman in midlife knows too well. You open your wardrobe, stare at rows of sarees, salwar kameez, or carefully folded dupattas, and think: Where do I fit in all of this now? For years, our clothes were about everyone else. Cover up. Look respectable. Dress for family functions. Don’t …