Few months back, at a Madh Island hotel, walking around the periphery of the back lawns opening to the vast sea, I could not help but witness fishes flying over the barbed boundary wall on to the green pathways, some withering on muddy path without water, others already dead, discarded by the volatile sea waves….
Co dependence
Meet people but don’t fall in love. Fall in love but don’t drift apart. Drift apart but don’t burn bridges. burn bridges but don’t stay too apart. Grow roots. Become root bridges. Interwoven. Intricate. Co-dependent. Fell in. Fell out. Fell out. Fell in. Now, entangled.
Books that made me a better parent in the year 2017
Last week of the year. I was reminiscing about the books read in the year 2017. In a year-end wrap-up, today, I will reflect upon the books that entered the hidden crevices of parenting styles, helped me turn inward, to introspect and reflect upon the finer nuances of conscious and compassionate parenting, that all parents…
Ten in the new teen!
We have a Netflix date due now and the boy wants to watch RichieRich. This is in retrospect to the movie date with the Teenager over the weekend. Balances of life. A mother can’t afford to let the scale tilt heavier on either side.
The Curse of Trishanku
Do you know the origin, genesis,the lineage of “The Great Middle Class”? The one who scrapes thru 20 days a month,lives on debts for 10,till fickle salary drips into the bank. Pays debts,buys ration, cuts an EMI cheque for a house tinier than an MP’s guard box, outside the tony New Delhi bent. The one who…
#MeToo
#MeToo. Pushed, touched, slurred at, cajoled, bribed, leered at, groped, abused, felt up, down, pinched, threatened, stalked, pounced upon. At 7, at 37. As a child, as a woman. In a crowd, in Isolation. By strange hands, by familiar eyes. Speak up. Vent out. It was always ” Them”, not ever, never us. Being a woman…
The Majestic Munnar
Munnar has been on my mind since our last visit to Kerala two years back. We travelled across South Kerala from Kochi and visited Kollam, Trivandrum, Kovalam beach, Poovar beach and Kanyakumari. That visit was during monsoons and we soaked in the beauty of God’s own country during rains. Also read : Watch an evening…
I am the Shell Keeper
Somedays, I am the shell keeper, the lone guardian of their sea. Somedays at the shore, I trove memories. Somedays, a soothsayer, trudging raised barriers, taking a leap of faith. Somedays, I am a naysayer, fearful of a future, unseen. But. On all days, undoubtedly, I am a woman; the creator, a mother; the…
Watch an evening go by Kovalam Beach!
On #WorldTourism day, sharing how an evening spent at the lighthouse and the Kovalam Beach in Trivandrum (Tiruvanthpuram) can leave an indelible mark on your heart. Lighthouses are love. Showing us a life less ordinary. A life above the mundane. The one above the rising tide, the beaten stones, the one away from turmoils. Lighthouses…
I have a question, Sir?
Does peace love solitude,
or coexists with multitudes?
If self-attainment is an inner sanctum,
isn’t religion, an overhyped fulcrum?
Amidst chaos & cacophony
of ideological diktat, how, why,
for what, the faith remains, intact?
The Photographers’ Poem
50 mm lens, a compact nifty fifty, aperture shifting, @ f/1.2,f/2.4,f/4, Zoom in, out slant of the eyebrows, The face, myopic, microscopic now. (-0.50 lens, are appearances everything)? The scuffle between agility and survival, Amma’s saree pleats on her forehead, mish and mashed, like parallel plateau, in an ebb & flow, embedded in her…
Mysuru before the Dasara week
How many of you remember Mysore as the inspiration behind the city Malgudi that R.K.Laxman had created with his words? On this sojourn, I wanted to locate Malgudi in the folds of Mysore.
Positive parenting skills for modern age parents
Summing up the positive parenting skills in a parenting skills checklist :
1. Effective communication between parents and with children.
2. Make ground rules for children and yourself. Adhere to them.
3. Set routines for children to form new habits.
4. Be involved and evolve together.
5. Teach them empathy, compassion and self-respect.
6. Participate in parenting skills workshops at school and in the community.
7. Get involved in parenting skills activities with other parents and teachers.
8. Give them a stable and non-conflicted environment at home to have good self-esteem.
9. Be unconventional sometimes and teach children to live outside their comfort zones.
10. Remember, moderation is the key to effective parenting skills.
Modern Age Parenting
How do modern age parents avoid the pitfalls of modern times and raise sensitive global citizens of the world?
DIAL-CSR @10 ,GMRVLF@25 – A CSR Journey
Company Act 2013 made CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) a mandate for the corporates to set up a CSR board committee and ensure at least 2 percent of the average net profits of the company from three preceding financial years is spent on CSR. This meant close to Rs. 150 billion rupees were available to be spent annually on the altruistic purposes. How does one ascertain if the mandate has been followed with the intent it was established with? Here was an opportunity to explore.
The Malady of Wanderlust
Fear jazzed with angst on the tip of my tongue. churning stomach, knots wrung. Stranded entangled, in a maze of roads, my heart rose, ticked as a clock with battery low. The curvaceous roads to NathuLa pass, surrounded by them mystical mountains echoed and forewarned at each turn; curvy Tsmago lake, can be lethal, a meandering snake….
The Release
If only he had known she was the last shaky leaf precariously clinging to a family tree barren’d by cancer, he may have been gentler in his revelation.
Unforgettable Friends.Happy Friendship day – To a friend, I never met.
Nostalgia is like butterscotch ice-cream. The caramelised sugar chunks, the moments, tantalise the tongue long after the ice-cream is over. I ran my tongue over the lips. The smile tasted of sweet caramel.
Lipstick Under My Burqa
Lipstick under my burqa effectively portrays the baby steps taken by four women towards liberation from the dogma of society. Their lives intertwine at some point during the journey, handholding each other without judging or being intrusive. The movie offers you no solution in the end, neither does it preach in any manner. It shows you how brazenly these four women embrace the grey shades of their lives.
Shameful – Day 14 – #OctPoWriMo 2016 #31days31poems
In India, female foeticide has been an evil practice for centuries, for the want of a male child. There are religious, social, financial and emotional reasons too. Times are changing and people are embracing the girl child. Unfortunately, there is still a segment of the society that practices female foeticide.The poem addresses the malpractice which…
Strong -Day 12 – #OctPoWriMo 2016 #31days31poems
Free Verse : The refreshing brew, A precocious mind, Two steady hands, The rising tide, Magical lantern of twinkling stars, Floating clouds, A flowing swag. Embraced in a pair of strong arms, engrossed in conversation with a strong willed mind, sipping a cup of Strong brew, under the well lit sky, looking over the strong…
Conversations – Day 2- Void #OctPoWriMo 2016
Always the full stop, never a pause ; You, in our conversations. “I like to be the medium,” you said, “never the end. ” Counting the milestones, I collected stamps of memories from each stop over, and you left thumb impressions, inking your presence and marking your absence on the spiral highways of life….
ADAM AND EVE : Muse of the Month April 2014 – Women’s Web
“A tribute to my favorite Indian Poetess Kamala Das” Even when the world was young, did Eve believe that the world was her own? This poem will set you thinking. One of the top 5 entries for April’s muse of the month ( 2014) writing cue, “Today the world is a little more my own.”…
This is for all those men who raised questions regarding celebrating International women’s day : BECAUSE SHE IS She wears invisible hurt on her quaint heart, A reminiscence of a not-so-glorious past. Can there be an unscathed mind? Seething pain keeps residual angst alive. She laughs, cries, she purports and roars, Yes, she is a…
The Alpha Beta Lover
What kind of font a lover-to-be, can be?
If not tenderly cursive, rusticly bold or frighteningly upright?
Carpe Diem , O Captain, My Captain
” I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.” Asked John Keating. Headmaster Nolan replied,”At these boys’age? Not on your life!” How many of you remember this contrasting ideology exchange between the high school English teacher John Keating, Robin Williams character on use of unconventional methods of teaching for teenagers and headmaster Nolan rooting for rote learning in the 1989 American movie “Dead Poets Society”? Have you come across teachers like John Keating, during your academic years or of your children, who can think outside the box? John Keating tells his students in his first class in “Dead Poets Society” , you have two options – Call me Mr. Keating or say « O Captain, My Captain ». This is how he introduces his enthusiastic class of 17…
Raising The Millennials
Last week, a thought provoking discussion on “Raising The Millennials ” organised by Jindal University and Young Ficci Ladies Organisation{YFLO}, Delhi at The Lalit, New Delhi on 27th October 2017 opened the forum on insights and possible solutions on raising the Millennials by parents, educators and the socio-economic-political environment.
Gee 