Small things in life matter .

Imagine being only sixteen years old and getting diagnosed with PCOD.(Polycystic ovarian disease).I didn't know what it was or what it meant as I was very young. And the doctors who threw heavy terminologies also didn't help much. I didn't understand the impact of it until I started putting on weight. It also hampers your Menstrual cycle in a bad way. That in turn gives rise to many other unwanted problems. Later when I got married and decided to have a baby, my doctor's advised me to lose atleast five percent of the total body weight. So in between losing weight, timing ovulations, family pressure and jobs you are asked to somehow retain your sanity. Because here is the thing- if you are stressed out, you will put on more weight, even without binge eating or not exercising. Stress can be solely capable of doing that all by itself and you are suddenly more heavier than before you started the weight loss ordeal. Initially, I was struggling to lose my weight. It

Holidays are the happiest times for me and my family. As a kid I was always looking forward to the next holiday. We used to have a total blast during our vacations. Now that I have my own kids we are following the same tradition. Vacation time equals celebration time. As my kids have to wake up early in the morning for school, their number one priority is to catch up on some sleep on holidays. So for them holidays means I will not pester them to get up early. They can laze in their warm beds as much as they like. Naughty4 always has the same question for me, Will you let us sleep till noon? Which she never does. I guess she likes to ask this question just to see my wide range of expressions .From horror to being calm and all other imaginable expressions in between. We usually take a break from the city life for a couple of days by planning a getaway to smaller towns/villages or suburbs. Both my daughters are excited to see the village life. They have so much curiosity about e

No matter how hard you try to be a Ms or Mr congeniality you cannot make everyone happy all the time. I like to believe that it not only tires you but also makes you unhappy. Because at the end of the day trying to please others may come at the cost of ones happiness. Some wise person has rightly said, " I dont know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." There is always a different viewpoint when you disagree to someone. Both the views may be right in their own place. Listen to your heart. Be assured that the heart never leads you to the wrong path. Let it decide which path to choose. When in doubt always flip the coin..and the side you are praying to be as the outcome, will be the choice which you would want to go with. Your heart already knows the answer, it just needs a little push here a little nudge there to tap into your intuition. No matter how rough the decision seems to be, you have to take it. What's the point in havi

Kids are not always interested in winning. It is we adults who instill in them the importance of winning. We teach them that winning is not everything, it's the only thing. We have blinders put on us because of which we dont see that kids get so much joy while participating, practising and playing. The French coach, Arsene Wenger once famously said, " At a young age winning is not the most important thing...the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence." One Saturday morning while sipping my piping hot cup of tea in the terrace of my home, I saw a mum playing with her two kids in the garden. Probably twins as both were of the same age. She was teaching them to race. To run when she says go and touch their dads hand. She was trying to tell them that the one who reaches first and touches their dads hand first is the winner. Both the toddlers were too young to understand the nitty gritties of the game, still they nodded their head

My house looks nothing less than a wreck these days as my maid is on a vacation. Yeah! you heard it right. She's on a holiday for two weeks. What am I doing here? Wondering if we can go on one too? It's not that I envy her because we too have our share of vacations. It's just that housework is so much more fun with her. I am the manager and she does all the ground-work. I used to do all the housework and cooking and washing earlier till my first one was born. Then I decided to take some help so that I can lessen my burden. And after my second kid was born, I kept my ego aside and took some more help. When you have a toddler and a pre schooler in the same house at the same time, you should think of some serious help you are going to need. Let's face it - You need a whole village to raise a child. Though my maid deserves the break I also think I deserve all the help I can get. She makes my job a lot easy. I can just focus on my kids school, playtime, cooking, stu

All kids like to try out new things all the time. Many of us quit the old stuff to give way to the new stuff. I still remember I had joined a dance class for Bharatnatyam (Indian Classical) just because my friends had joined that class too. So I convinced my mum to purchase the dance uniform and pay the fees. My other friends seemed pretty interested in the dance. But I was getting bored and understood it wasn't for me. I wanted to quit. I prayed to God to bless me as I was going to approach my mother to tell her about my decision to quit. Imagine her fury after only 15 days of the class. Fast forward to today and the same pattern is back. My younger one-naughty4 is like me. Very eager to start something new. Gets bored quickly. And quits. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? When Naughty4 said yes to activity class, I felt delighted that I would get some extra time but when it started, she got bored within a week and wanted to not go there any more. Then she started drawing c

One of the most early teachings which we give our kids is to be not afraid, to soar high, to work hard to achieve our goals and to set free of the boundaries. It is a very complicated process, and more often than not we are all clueless of what we really want. As parents we want our kids to fit in as well as we want them to stand out. We want our kids to reach for the stars but for that, when they have to travel to another country and get settled, we feel so much insecurity. We dont want them to leave us. The feeling of loneliness and grief engulfs us. The feeling of an empty nest syndrome sets in. In the initial years of a child, his mother is the most important and influential person in the whole world. Your child is dependent on you for all basic things and more. You are the giver and caretaker for the child. However when your child starts growing , he no longer needs you to be around him all the time. When your child hits his teens, you start wondering why your child is ac

My elder daughters exams are on and the most stressed out person in the whole family is me. It's easier for others to say- dont get stressed and it's just an exam, but when it comes to your very own kid, you start fretting. Every exam I tell myself that I wont stress out and that I will chill, until I start getting nightmares about me forgetting all the answers to the exam. My husband tells me that it's ok if you forget it's not your exam.(like I didn't know). If you want to test your patience anytime, all you need to do is sit and watch how many times your kids will sharpen their pencils, erase something which is wrong or something which is right, bend to take the pencil which always manages to slip from their hands.( I tried to slip it from my hands and failed). Two minutes into reading a chapter and they are either thirsty or hungry or sleepy. Try and give them something to write and after a minute their hands start to pain. To bear all the innocent excus

Wishing and Hoping are the two most beautiful words which means so much to so many different people. In my little world these two words are always floating around me. There is no day which passes by where I have not wished or hoped for something better. There is a lot of suffering in this world. So many people are struggling to feed their families, to build a new house after a tornedo wiped off their old one, to get on with their lives when a near one meets with an accident or gets affected by a major disease. Still people get on with their lives. They show so much courage and resilience in the face of adversity. I bow down to all such people. I want to tell all the people who are affected that they are not alone. I want to tell people who are about to quit, that please dont quit as this may be the last leap they may have to take. I want to tell people who are depressed, that they are stronger than they think they are and that they will come out of it sooner than they think.&quo