In these times of unpredictability

When I lived in Mumbai, I never managed to learn any Marathi. Instead I'd get along with my bits of Hindi, a sentence often cobbled together with English and a word or two of Hindi. Favorite Hindi word? Billi, which means cat. Of course I first had to get over it not being Billy, as in the cute form of William, or billy goat, which always brings to mind the time I was in Ireland and met one such goat defiantly named Margaret Thatcher.
But no, it's billi, as in feline, graceful, and unpredictable. With a little tweak I found I could sneak the Hindi for cat into the word itself: unpredicta-billi-ty. Voila!
I discovered lots of unpredictability during my stay in Mumbai. The buses that might appear, or not; the fisher women I write about in "The Girl Who Went Missing" who might yell at you or not; the rains that might flood the street or not. One thing that remained constant? The constant ogling and whispering that men do so openly to women. My novel deals with some of the awful stuff women have to put up with.
And in these times of unpredictability, when women are standing up in millions, they might want to take a lesson from the billi. Always be on alert, even when asleep. Always be ready to do something.
As for me? I will continue to champion the rights of all people. My second novel deals with the fate of poor children.