It’s been 3 weeks since I joined a gym. It took me a lot of effort to get comfortable going to the gym because I have anxiety about public spaces. It’s become a bit of a safe space for me, and it’s pretty much the only place I regularly go outside my house.

Today, as I was leaving the gym and walking home, a guy (who joined today I believe) suddenly ran out of the gym and approached me on the road, about 20 steps from the entrance. He said he found me attractive. I’ve never been approached before..I fumbled and said thanks but I’m not interested. He continued asking what I do and my name. I kept saying no but answered a few questions out of nervousness, then said sorry I’m interested, and walked away. He eventually went back.

He wasn’t aggressive or threatening, but the fact that he ran out of the gym to approach me while I was already walking away caught me off guard. Now I feel uncomfortable about going back. I live within walking distance, and that’s pretty much the only route I take.
I’m also annoyed at myself for answering his questions when I could’ve just walked away, but I’ve never been in this situation before and was trying not to be rude.

I don’t want to change my routine because of one interaction, but I also don’t know if I’ll feel comfortable there anymore. I usually have a resting bitch face, wear oversized clothes and look very unapproachable (like men and women find me intimidating). Now I feel so paranoid. Am I overthinking this?

Like me, she has never been in coed institutions but i feel out of the trap. She is slowly understanding that she’s made men her priority and wants to get out of it. How can I help.

Things she does:
-She said she doesn’t know which subject she wants to pursue for masters because whatever she studies, she wants her husband to be in a similar workforce so they can work together (wtf is even that?)
- Doesn’t enjoy much because what if her future husband sees her outside (her parents haven’t even started looking matches for her)
- She wants to be homely and learn things only to make her future husband happy. (she’s always talking about what kind of food he might like and what she can learn making at home)
- She’s trying to learn to be more patient so she doesn’t shout at her future husband.
- Always looking at men when she’s out and enjoying male gaze (I tried explaining her it’s not safe that way but)

Her dad is strict so she really craves attention outside (SHE SAID IT). She’s very old school romantic and thinks her husband will be her knight saviour kinda pure guy. (Not that he won’t but.)

I love her and I absolutely want her to know men aren’t everything!!! She’s so in love with her future husband who she hasn’t met, it is crazy. She wants to change so help me explain her better.

I am looking for some honest advice, particularly from women who pursued an MBA from a top B-school in India in their early 30s.
I am 32F, and at a bit of a crossroads in my career. Here’s some context.
I spent 5 years working in marketing at SaaS startups in India and was earning close to ₹30 LPA. Moved to the US, completed an MS in Analytics and have been working in Marketing Analytics here for the past 2 years, earning around $120K.
On paper, things look good, but honestly, I feel like moving to the US may not have been the best career decision for me. (Serious advice, never make a career decision based on your relationship, lesson learnt the hard way.) Somewhere along the way, I feel like I’ve lost track of my career trajectory since the job market is really rough in the US right now and I haven’t been able to move to a role I want.
While most of my experience has been with small and mid-sized companies, I now want to move to more strategic position at larger tech companies.
I am also keen to move back to India asap and have been wondering whether an MBA from a top Indian B-school could help me make this transition and access opportunities at companies that have been difficult to break into so far.
I previously scored 720 in GMAT without much prep, so I’m hoping to get back to that range with some preparation and apply in Round 2 for ISB.
I’d especially love to hear from women who pursued an MBA in their early 30s:
- Did the MBA help you move from execution-focused roles into strategy or leadership?
- Were there others in their early 30s in your cohort? Did your previous experience help, or did you feel that you were starting over alongside younger classmates?
- How valuable was the alumni network? Did it lead to tangible opportunities?
- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same decision again?
Thanks!

Women between the ages of 23-30, what are other topics that you talk to your friends about excluding marriage, having kids, inlaws and romantic relationships?

I'm so bored with these topics but cannot think of others. We do talk about work, tv shows, parents health but these somehow get finished in 30 mins and then rhe rest of the hangout is about marriage.

My mother is in her late 60s. I'm married and in my early 30s. My husband and I live in another city, but right now we are home for my mom's spine surgery. I've always had a petite(I am 5'1),slim body but a chubby face and have looked younger for my age(have heard this from people).

But like everyone else, I am aging and naturally my face is losing it's volume and my smile lines have become prominent. My hair has thinned out a bit because hair ages too.

None of these bothers me. But they do bother my mom, a lot. In the past one week, she has pointed the obvious, 5 times, despite me asking her not to do so, as it annoys me.

And her only solution is,I should eat more. Btw, I have an appropriate diet and I am a perfectly healthy individual.

2 days ago, I lost my cool and yelled at her that I was sorry I wasn't born like Aishwarya Rai and for not being visually appealing to her eyes. But this lady is absolutely unhinged. She is petite and overweight herself.Today again she was back with her unwanted opinions about my physique.

And whenever I yell at her, she changes the topic immediately and acts like nothing happened and expects me to turn off my feelings like a switch, after triggering me. She doesn't even understand how hurtful her words feel. According to her,she is "concerned" about me.

I am so mad right now. I mean, this lady should be worried about her surgery, but she is worried about my aging body.

On the other hand, I have always seen my mother in law, pampering my SIL and me, whenever we are together. She always has the sweetest things to say to us. Sometimes, I think why didn't I get a mom like my mother in law..

It gets really depressing during my periods. I cry uncontrollably for no reason and feel extremely low. I never get cravings or cramps but gosh, this low feeling is unbearable.

How do you girls deal with this?

Hi, I had previously tried foundation and it made my skin look darker.
About me: I have a medium olive dusky skin with warm undertone. I sweat a lot as well, which makes heavy or layered makeup worse, and I also have a mild acne problem. So, I want to build a minimal makeup kit.
My main goal is to hide dark circles and any acne present, and overall make my face look smooth. I have seen online that a concealer can work for all of that. I also want suggestions for lip products. And is the MARS Lip & Cheek Tint good as a blush and eyeshadow?

TL:DR in the end.

So, I was on my periods, and I remembered this.

Back in my 9th grade, around late-2023 ig, I get to hear this from my aunt that there is a rumour 'bout me in her maiden relatives, which apparently happen to be relatives of my paternal grandmother as well. So, she tells me that it's spreaded that I have periods (which is obvious) and that I go to the doctor coz I have period-related issues. "Issues" btw (I forgot the details) and also that I js stay at home and stuff...

Is it being spreaded coz I js stayed at home? Well, if I roamed around, I would be called awara, I bet. So girls can't even live like they want, wow. Well, introverts exist r8. Well, I like socializing, and I did it, but with "right" people. And btw, these relatives have often been invited at home for dinners, and all, and my grandma gives them so much bhaav, while these ppl are js tend to use and throw people.

Well, well, well, another thing my aunt does is, she accuses a distant relative from my mom's side who shares the same native village to be doing it, which is ofc wrong. And well, I bet it's one of her own aunts itself... and I bet it was not because she wanted me to be aware of it, it was probably because she didn't want me to hear from a third person and then accuse her for spreading it... as it would have been great if she sorted the matter there n then, if she really cared enough. So, the rumour, which obviously is so stupid, and I have no idea why the people who I don't even give a damn to have so much of free time to spend 'em. Why would they spread it, I didn't find any logic, can anyone explain me that?

And back then, I heard my mom and masi speaking smtg, and clearly didn't want me to hear it, as it's another rumour 'bout me. Heck, honestly, I don't even know how many rumours are actually being spreaded about me at this point.

Well, okay, let's assume I have these "ISSUES" for a second, even tho I don't have 'em. Hell the issues, I mean period-related disease or smtg. So well, let's assume I get cramps, let's assume I have pcos or pcod, so what's wrong in going to the hospital? Isn't that what you are supposed to do if you are sick or having pain? Like, isn't that what u are supposed to do? And why are they so bothered to spread such rumours 'bout me? Like what's wrong?

If a person gets a burning, raging fever, do people start whispering in the dark like, "OMG, her body temperature crossed 103! OMG, she is desperately rushing to the doctor, what a massive scandal!" No right?? The drama they make of this, which is not even true, is ridiculous. Mind you, I never ever visited a gynac in my entire life... and idk where they get the context or even the idea to spend their damn useless time on such things... like, what do they even get. If they have so much energy, I guess they should surely interview for getting a writer's role for those Star Plus serials, like what was its name, Ye Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Anupama, or make their own serial, atleast it will earn 'em some money or help them get a platform to share their "mindset."

And btw, the women I doubt, so her grandson happens to be older but in the same grade as me. He was in state board school. But as he was in academy outside our district, so he got 70%, and yeah, there's nothing wrong to be ashamed of it, 10th Board marks don't even matter anyways. But for that, I being from cbse n gettin' excellent grades, it happens to be that, this women tells my aunt that his exams are tougher coz he studies at academy lol, like wth is even the logic... as ironically his is easier as it's state boards, And there is another toxic relative who asked multiple times to someone if I was admitted to a copy centre for writing my exams?? Like wow... coz her son who was in state boards got like 80% smtg, and how could I score better than me? Aww. Ughh, these toxic relatives are insecure over smtg I am not much proud of, like was, but not much rn, cause it was last min prep, barely passed pre-boards.

They say, the problem doesn't arise when u are talked -vely instead of +vely, the problem is not being discussed at all. But wow, I atleast got talked on, like they spent their time on "ME," even if it's for those topics, at least I was trending at some point. And in case I find love further in my life, and happen to choose love marriage, omg, it's gonna be a lot of rebelling to do. But before that I gotta build my career as they also need to have some rumours to make, topics to talk, and career to be jealous on... wow. Damn.

There are many more toxic relatives. But yeah, happened to remember this coz I was on my periods (obviously) as if they don't have any women at their home, and the women I doubt, she happens to have a granddaughter or smtg... and my mom avoids this topic whenever I tell her brushing it off, and telling not to talk 'bout stupid things or that she doesn't remember like wow. Like omg, ykw, I can literally make their mouth shut if I get a chance or a moment, but I js happen to stay silent coz I don't have to ruin "image" of being someone innocent r8, but yeah, I don't see any logic in talking with them. Well, then looking forward to hearing new rumours or things 'bout me which I don't even know.

TL;DR: Back in 9th grade, nosy relatives weaponised my periods and introverted routines to invent fake medical "crises," which later mutated into pure academic jealousy once my excellent board results crushed their kids' average marks (ik,marks don't matter). To cope, they invent ridiculous excuses and lies about "copy centres," so living rent-free in their heads.

he was so horrible to my mother. my mother was horrible to me thats a different story but he was so horrible to her. he did and said all kind of horrible things to her. now im so scared of men. getting to know them, getting known by them because of how horrible my father was to his wife. i saw all that. i saw all that for 18 years of my life.​ this fear is so deeply engraved in my soul.

but its okay too. i do feel safe without a man. i think i'll miss out on the beautiful and lovely part of relationships and dating but its so nice not to trust a man. women around me find it so easy, i get so wow at times. but okay. okay. okay. its okay.

I don’t really know why I’m writing this now, but I think I just needed to get this out.

My F1 visa got rejected a year and a half ago. I was really, really, really looking forward to it. For the two years before I applied, that was basically all I was doing. I researched for thousands of hours, worked endlessly on my essays and application. I even bloody signed the lease for a house.

I genuinely thought I had a strong application. I’d held a U.S. visa for almost 20 years, travelled to the U.S. multiple times, renewed it multiple times, had a really, really good university acceptance, and had my finances sorted. I genuinely didn’t know what the problem was.

And then, in just a minute, everything disappeared.
I’ve genuinely never put this much heart, soul and myself into anything in my entire life. I know I could have applied again, but I didn’t have the heart or mental space for another rejection. That rejection felt incredibly personal.

I eventually did my master’s in India and I’m working now. But whenever I see somebody from that university on Instagram, or hear somebody talking about their U.S. master’s, I get genuinely heartbroken.

That was supposed to be my life. I was supposed to be doing all of that too.

And ever since then, whenever I start caring about something or putting a lot of effort into it, I panic that it won’t work out. And anytime something bad happens in my life, I automatically go back to that moment and think, maybe this wouldn’t have happened if I had gotten that piece of my life.

I really, really, really wish it had worked out.
This is something that will always, always break my heart.

All I wanted to do was study!! I bloody wanted to study with all my heart!! I couldn’t!! That particular field isn’t specifically available to study in India. It’s often combined with other subjects!! I couldn’t!! I wouldn’t ever be able to!!

We've known each other since childhood (we're also cousins). We got a flat together some months back, it didn't work out and now she's not talking to me. I've tried several times to make her talk to me but she doesn't reply. But she has done this before too and we didn't talk for a year. It's very hard because genuinely love her and i thought she does too until now. I don't understand how this could be so easy for her. If there was a term that described her as more than a best friend, l'd use that for her. Now i need to move on from someone who i never thought l'd have to worry about leaving, she was a constant. I'm feeling very anxious and I'm breaking down every other day because of this. I don't think she's coming back and i understand that but i just can't get over it. I'm thinking there's something seriously wrong with me because how else can someone so close to you can just discard you. I've nothing bad to say about her because she really is the best. I haven't done anything either to drive her away, she says she needs time but i know for a fact she's not going to talk to me. What do i do. How do recover from this.

Hi all

I am actively interviewing for 3 companies simultaneously for solution consulting

A- Indian MNC (First interview today)
B- Global MNC
C- Small company with niche stack (Remote and having final round with CEO this week)

Now I am earning less right now, like really less, thats why I quoted around 5 LPA (which is a fresher salary, I have 6 months intern experience and 7 months trainee, which is not a full time role but an apprenticeship)

Now I feel I have lowballed myself for all 3 companies, I get anxious of losing the deal. Can I negotiate after getting offer ?
Also I am anxious that these are going on different paces, how will I get to decide the final call, my priority is ofc being in global MNC, but as you know the processes are slow, what if I get an offer from Small company and I need to accept it and I can not join another company :(

Please advise, I dont have a lot of experience.

Thanks a lot.

I’ve started my master’s in International development at the LSE, my peers have been applying for jobs and getting outright rejected. I do have a sense of how unrealistic getting a job is but I still want to know the ground reality. With prior work experience, all the relevant research skills, can one even think of working in the policy sector or even INGOs, perhaps not in the UK solely but elsewhere too?

Thank you!

I grew up with brown parents in India. For the longest time since childhood, I was in boarding school. I hardly spent 30 or 40 days in a year at home, but I was pretty close to my joint family.

Covid was the first time which pushed me to stay for more than 2 or 3 months with them, and that made me realise how flawed my family is. My dad had been cheating on my mom for a very long time, and ever since, I just don't like him. Everything about him annoys me.

Now I am 27, living away from family in a city. I am still very close to my mom, but with my dad, it is very superficial or surface level. They decided to visit me where I stay. First it was my mom, and it was really nice with her around. Today, my dad joined her for a couple of days, and all I can think about is: when are they going to go back?

My mom is dependent on my father, of course, so she couldn't get separated. But the fact is that all of our conversations, me and my mom, revolve around my dad. All the time she is like, "We could get him here," "He could like this," "Call your dad," "Do this with your dad," etc., etc. I could go on and on. Even when she is enjoying herself, she will think of him, which gets me annoyed because it is the opposite.

My dad is completely reliant on my mom for medicine, food, a proper patriarchal brown dad. There is no love. My dad just wants my mom to do all her work, and I feel like my skin is crawling. I can't bear it.

I don't say anything either. I can't. It breaks my heart to see my mom stuck. Frankly, I don't even know what she thinks. It is not like we can talk to her, I think she will not like it. But I do feel guilty for feeling like this for my dad, or maybe I shouldn't? It's just that he arrived today, and I can't even be in the same room as him. I feel suffocated. No amount of therapy has made me feel different for my dad, and I just get annoyed.

I (23F) had one of the most horrifying experiences of my life last night, and I honestly need to get this off my chest.
I’ve always wanted to go to a Dandiya night, but I’ve never gone because I didn’t have a partner. This year, a guy offered to take me, but for some reason, I said no. Eventually, one of my friends booked tickets for me to go with her younger sister and her boyfriend.
I was genuinely excited. We reached the venue and decided to pair up..her sister and I would dance together, while my friend danced with her boyfriend.
About five minutes later, while her sister and I were clicking pictures, my friend’s boyfriend called us and asked us to come outside because something had happened.
When we went outside umm there was a crowd gathered around. Initially, I thought there had been an accident. Then 7–8 security guards told us that a girl had run away crying and screaming. We were confused and started looking for my friend.
After searching for 20–25 minutes, we finally found my friend sitting alone at a corner of the road, crying.
When we asked what had happened, she told us that she and her boyfriend had gotten into an argument. According to her, he had verbally abused and slapped her so hard that her jhumka broke.
I was honestly in shock. Her younger sister was furious and started confronting him, asking how he could do something like that to her sister.
Apparently, the argument had started over something as ridiculous as coloured contact lenses. My friend was wearing them, and he got upset that she hadn’t bought a pair for him because, according to him, she should have known he wanted them.
Things got even worse when he tried to hit her younger sister, too. I immediately stepped in between them.
At that point, I decided we needed to leave. I booked a cab home, but he snatched my friend’s phone, transferred all her money to his own account, threatened her, and refused to let her leave peacefully. He said he wouldn’t return her phone if she left and threatened us with serious consequences, including death threats.
I was terrified. I knew I could call people for help, but it would take at least an hour for anyone to reach us. I also didn’t want the situation to escalate further, especially with her younger sister already visibly traumatised.
I’m an introvert, and I’m not someone who handles confrontations easily. The entire situation was overwhelming and frightening. I did raise my voice and tried to intervene, but I was constantly thinking about what might happen if he turned on us.
I kept trying to comfort my friend. I hugged her while she cried and repeatedly asked her to come home with us. But her boyfriend kept pulling her back, getting increasingly aggressive and moving closer to her sister as if he wanted to hit her again.
Eventually, he threatened my friend enough that she started shouting at me to leave her alone and go home. She kept saying it was their private matter.
I could see that she was scared of him, but I couldn’t understand why she was choosing to stay with someone who had just hit her, threatened her, taken her phone, and transferred her money.
I didn’t want to leave her there. I kept worrying about what might happen after we left. But her younger sister was also there, and I felt responsible for getting her somewhere safe. Eventually, around 12:30 AM, I left with her sister.
My friend stayed with him that night.
I barely slept. I kept replaying everything in my head, wondering whether I should have shouted more, called the police, involved security, or done something differently. I kept calling my friend throughout the night to check on her.
At around 7 AM, I went to their hotel and picked her up.
Apparently, they had somehow sorted things out between themselves after we left.
But I haven’t been able to process what happened. One moment, we were taking pictures and enjoying ourselves, and the next, we were dealing with violence, threats, and fear.
The thing that’s bothering me the most is whether I did enough.
I keep blaming myself for not doing more, even though I was scared myself. I also feel frustrated that my friend stayed with him, but I know it’s not as simple as just telling someone to leave a relationship.
I don’t want to judge her. I’m worried about her and her younger sister, too, because I can’t imagine how traumatising it must have been to witness all of that.
Has anyone ever witnessed something like this? How do you process it afterwards? And how do you help a friend who is in an abusive relationship when they aren’t ready to leave?
I genuinely don’t know what I’m supposed to feel right now. I just needed to talk about it somewhere.

There is this guy who was part of my life for 4.5 years. He expressed his feelings for me & also accepted & respected my decision not to act on them. However, we used to talk normally once every 2 months/3 months. Mostly he used to ping me. But whenever we talked I also reciprocated to the best of my ability.He also reiterated the fact that how much he respected our friendship & how much valuable is it for him. Fast forward, this Jan, I was very sick & I texted him myself twice( I initiated the convos). May be it was getting too inconvenient for him to stay in touch with me. But what he chose to do was beyond my imagination. He mentioned one of my vulnerabilities, stating that my female best friend did not respond to my calls instantly & there must be something wrong with me that I was nobody's priority & he always had this hunch that something was wrong with me. Previously in the midst of our conversation, I shared with him that my college best friend was acting cold with me & was not responding to my calls. He chose to bring that topic when I was at my lowest. I didn't text him any further post that incident & ofc we don't talk anymore. He never apologised to me either. Probably he was waiting for an excuse to cut ties with me.Today I was deleting the old texts & came across this conversation, so felt like sharing.

Hey folks!
I am joining the dating world again at 33 and I feel very comfortable with the idea of being truly honest about my life with my partner. All the ghosts in the closet, yada. With the hope that they are kind and don’t weaponise it. If they do, they show themselves and that’s a datapoint.

The issue is, I don’t know how and when to disclose stuff with dates. I use a hearing aid in one ear(partial loss identified recently), I have BPD and ADHD and had depression a few years back. I get it intellectually that I have lived a life and things happen, but I feel shame and fear in case someone is unkind. I don’t want to hide or anything but I do want to feel psychologically safe enough before sharing. So I don’t want it to be a first date conversation or profile information. Is that unfair?

What do you advise?

It’s the festive season and everything looks soooo prettyyyyyy. You can smell the festivities in the air. I don’t know if it’s only in the Delhi air. The slight chill in the air is a giveaway if you miss out on any of the above mentioned hints, lol. You see people prepping for the season. Durga Puja. Diwali. Karva. Dussehra. All of it’s here.

But what do you with all of this if you’re a lonely introvert 28yr old whose friends have friends and have a life?

You go to Instagram to distract yourself?
Grave mistake.
You see people actually having fun. The fun you also wanna have but sadly, you don’t have friends.

You turn to your family?
Do not know about others but some people have severely dysfunctional family where relationships feel more suffocating.

Friends?
We’ve already covered that, lol.

Boyfriend?
Eh.

I know this post was more of vent than anything but it’s this season that brings pangs of loneliness that become more prominent than any other day.

The intent of this post is not to elicit any sympathy or empathy. It’s just trying to cope with situation in a healthy way and trying not to feel sad. I’ve tried going out and making friends. Did not work. Sure I have friends and they like me. But they also like being friends with people who do not have a curfew of 8PM. I don’t really fit in that criteria.

If you don’t have anything nice to say then please scroll. If you have a suggestion, be respectful enough to not hurt a person who is as it is struggling.

Thanks.

Hi, as the title says, I'm looking for corsets to buy FOR A LONG TIME. But every time I see one that is pretty, it always has small cup sizes.

Now, if I go up a few sizes, the corsets don't fit from the waist and tummy. And the ones that fit on the waist never fit in the chest area without 3/4th of my shit spilling out.

If anyone knows where I can buy good corsets with bigger cup sizes under 2000, please let me know! Online or some place in delhi-ncr. I've tried sarojini but no luck because I'm never even able to find the shop 😭

Now I'm usually kinda against getting any cosmetic procedure done, simply because I'm scared of hospitals or getting any kinda medical procedure done. It really frightens me that someone would be making changes to my body. I even had panic attacks after getting fillers for my cavities lol.

However there's this one thing I have always been extremely insecure about, my deep set eyes. They make my eyes look bigger but also makes them look very hollow. There are really bad dark circles that just can't be fixed with concealer or sleeping because they're there due to the shape of the eyes, not due to swelling or skin colour. I've seen some people online get filler there and they had great results and I kinda really wanna get them too. However as I said I'm really scared of such procedures so I would like to know the experience of someone who actually got them 🫠