Small things in life matter .

Whenever I decide to not take an umbrella, it has to rain. What about all those days when I was carrying it. Where were the rain gods then? The murphys law is active. So I have learnt to not take anything for granted. Life is a great leveller. You cannot make a five year plan or plan for long term. It seldom happens as planned. Life has it's own course. And noone can mess with its course. Many people come in our lives with a purpose and when that is attained, they disappear as magically as they had appeared, leaving us transfixed. The more you hold on to the old things or people. the more they slip off, from your grip. It seems like everything in life has an expiry date. We should all try to learn to move on with the new things that are happening to and around us. It's easier said than done. I get it, nevertheless we have to keep trying knowing that nothing worth doing is ever easy. I used to always struggle to understand why certain things happen the way they did. I g

I remember the first three- four years after marriage we had a memorable Valentines day. He had showered me with gifts( actually not plural) and we had a really nice time. Then kids happened. And our equation changed a bit. Now I had to juggle my time between my daughter and him. Obviously, he had to suffer. Then came the second baby. And I had to a juggle a bit more. Now it was between my baby and my toddler. And naturally this time too he suffered a bit more. It was like my life was being hijacked. I literally had forgotten when I had last dressed up and gone out with him without a bag full of diapers. Not even on Valentine's. Our cosy dinners had been replaced with chaotic ones where we were trying different food groups all churned in a mixer just so our baby would eat some. Trying to feed our baby was the most traumatic dinners for us. Initially she used to throw out everything I fed her. I was mad. Not because my baby didn't like my culinary skills but because sh

 I have always liked my routine life. When we get bored of our busy lives we want a change of routine. We then take a break or a vacation. However, I am one such person who likes to return to my routine life faster than most other people. I enjoy one day local trips more than the long vacations. Here's my thing, I want a break but not long enough to get homesick. I would rather go on a two day getaway and be back before I miss anything of my routine city life. The ostensible paradox of my life is people go for a vacation to get a break from routine life and I cut short my vacays to return back to my routine life. I feel threatened by the silence of rural life. I am not saying that the urban noise and pollution soothes my soul. But I like the routineness of life, the stability it brings to my life, the familiarity, the organised knowingness of all things. Also because I am very bad at surprises, rather I dont much appreciate any kind of surprises, good or bad. I like to con

People who have kids will agree with me when I say they are the only ones who can put you in your place without offending you. I have two such brats in my house whose only joy comes from making me eat my words. My elder one is like my dad, always on time and punctual. She likes to be well in time. Which isnt a bad thing. Except on weekends. I feel Saturday and Sundays are sacred and should be reserved for relaxing and enjoying as everyone have had a hectic week and will most likely be having another after these two most sought after days. I personally like to sleep a wee bit more on weekends. Why would the schools deliberately spoil that joy for us by scheduling such early parent-teacher meetings(PTM) on Saturdays. My daughters slot for the meeting is around 8 am. The school is around 4km from our house. So you calculate how early that is for a sleep deprived mother of two kids. Till last week the school had arranged all the big days in a queue. The kids Annual Day, the sports

How I wish I could reverse some of the incidents which left a bad taste in my mouth. If only I could go back in the past and warn my naive self to do things differently, I could save myself. However the reality is we cannot change the past and the reality is more scary than the mimesis. I am learning that you cannot expect your life to be without any impediments and still learn from it. Life will not be your best teacher if your journey is not strewn with obstacles. Life, I believe is a great leveller. You lose some you win some. If there would have been no darkness we would have not understood the importance of light. When we were kids, our parents would never fuss over our falls, failures or for that matter anything related to something which is a part of growing up. Whereas in todays times of helicopter parenting we discuss everything related to our kids, our kids friends, our neighbour's kids and our neighbour's kids friends. How are we never exhausted is another da

When you have a child you become a parent, when you have two you become a referee. And it is so true. In an argument which involves your kids it is always in your best interest to not take sides. As there is no right side in their argument. You can never know who started the fight and everytime you think you have found the culprit, you are so wrong, it directly sends you deep down the rabbit hole. The fight starts with my two daughters and somehow along the way they manage to get me involved in it. The two of them start the quarrel and by the end of it, there is no conclusion but a third unwanted member to the quarrel. How do kids manage to create problems to which there are no solutions is absolutely beyond me. No,Wait. There is a glitch here. The mother who gives most of her time and energy in solving the mess always ends up wrong. And a villan. And then there is another person whose analytical and problem solving skills suddenly become important. The entry of the hero. Daddy

Have you ever wondered why we all are a little more hungry when we are a guest at someones house but still we end up eating a little less as a guest. For some people it may be shyness. For some it might be the diet they are following which doesn't allow them to indulge in certain food categories. And some others may have various food allergies. I always make it a point to eat some thing before leaving my house for a lunch or dinner party. You never know the time at which the food will be served. Why remain hungry till someone else's mercy. Also if a person is a fussy eater and very picky it becomes difficult to feel satiated. If you are having a pot luck, things look much better as then atleast you would have one dish which you can have without worrying. Also pot luck happens after a lot of deliberations. Women don't want to repeat a dish, do they? Meticulously planned pot lucks usually are lit. For me, I have never understood how some women nibble on their food a

When I was growing up, the world had not seen the advent of either smart phones or mobiles, neither there were computers nor anything remotely entertaining. We had television when we were in third grade and that too black and white screen. The only sole channel which used to play on it had sporadic entertainment. So the only entertainment we got was from outdoors. And so unlike todays generation we never used to sit at home watching computers or smartphones or tablets. We used to roam around in our locality, exploring new lanes and bylanes. We used to engage in all kinds of silly activities. I remember we used to chase cats and dogs and try to befriend them so that we could take them home with us. The idea was to give the stray animals some kind of temporary shelter. Our neighbourhood was like one big family where everyone knew each other. We never hesitated to use our neighbour's porch or veranda to play hide n seek. In a nutshell, on that fateful day I was in my natural el