The healing of my mother heart

As I spoke about my little one's June birthday celebrations, with joy in my voice and twinkle in my eyes, my colleague looked impressed. He first checked again if I have two daughters. And then, he said, 'good now you know, you can plan your third child to be born in June.' My smile suddenly widened but my eyes gave way to confusion, as I shook my head and asked, 'why would I plan a third child?' He still looked and smiled at me casually. So I played along, 'I have two, done and dusted, now they need all my time.' He said, 'true, I have two as well and we are done and dusted as well', he paused for a second before continuing as I prayed silently he wouldn't, ' and I have a girl and a boy, all what I wanted'. 

Periods - preparing our next generation

Smriti Irani lost in the elections. I hope she finds her way back in parliament. I say this as I remembered one of her attendance where she calmly but confidently replied in the question hour, "Period is not an illness", Smriti Irani had confidently put her 'personal' opinion in the parliament. I appreciated the way the discussion around the often taboo subject happened so openly, respectfully and in a dignified manner especially between the two genders. Each person that participated in the debate epitomized how mature we can be when discussing such issues.  

It coincided with my own internal discourse of how personally I feel about periods as a woman. Especially, since I have two daughters who will grow up one day to face similar situations, this become even more pertinent question for me in general. How should woman feel about periods? And to answer this for my girls, I revisited my own story as a girl and how did I feel the first time. 

My tryst with compliments

I noticed this lady at a cultural event recently. She was all decked up wearing a heavy blue jewelry set aesthetically matching her traditional blue attire. She wasn't smiling much trying to dance and match steps with other people. We were positioned at some distance to be able to talk. But I couldn't help but to gesture her how wonderful she was looking. We didn't know each other at all. She wouldn't even have noticed me, a regular woman in that whole crowd of exceptionally dressed beautiful men and women. But she was elated. And we continued in our respective groups. I didn't want to say anything else. Who was she, from where she did her shopping or any other effort that can help me in any way. No, I don't want to ruin it. Let her enjoy the admiration and let me enjoy seeing the effect of it on another soul. I might not even recognize her again.

What's in the name? Tell me about it.

 ‘Ram’, I suddenly called my colleague in a group call as I struggled recalling his preferred name. I confess I am poor with remembering names and worse when I am not attentive enough to talk. It's a weakness that keeps people like me much to themselves. I am sure many would relate to this predicament. But that’s not the point here. The point is I called him Ram because out of his full long traditional Indian name which contained several small different names, that’s the only one that stood out for me when I quickly gazed at the screen to help myself out. And the real point of this story is I love the name Ram. Simply because I love Ram. 

Sounds of Quiet - #poem

Whirling waves in the heart of oceans,

Trembling thunders in the dust of clouds ,

Violent volcanoes in the depth of mountains,

And yet, surrendered all sounds to the joys of quiet.

Internet - A parent's dilemma #ChroniclesOfAnITmomma

I think it was just a year before my high school when I became curious about Internet. We didn't have it at home. We didn't have even a computer at home that time. It was the newspapers where I first read about it. Nobody in my family knew about it. And I was so curious!

Main jahan rahoon.... on 26th Jan

One year ago we moved for the first time to another country. Moved from our country of origin to a completely foreign location. My wandering soul as always embraced this as an opportunity to traverse new lands n skies, converse with new different people, soak in diverse cultures.