Colors of life

My dear daughter, Yes! It’s that time of the year again. Yet another year has gone by as you turn three today. A year of challenges, a year of plethora of emotions, a year of trial and tribulations, a year of exploration and discovery.   Being an Indian mother, my conscience doesn’t allow me to write about my failures or weak moments as a mother. We mothers are expected to be ‘super moms’ at all times and failure of doing so puts us at a risk of being called ‘poor moms’. I don’t really care about how and what the world thinks about me as a mother but it matters to me how you, who means the world to me, when you grow up will think about me. How would you react when you, who look up at your mom for every little thing now, know that your mom is not what you thought her to be. Yes, when you learn the truth that I’m not exactly a monster that you thought me to be all these years. I know it will be the moment of awakening for you and will shatter all your delusions about your mom(me...

The past few weeks have been the most challenging and toughest weeks as a mother. The most dreaded day in the life of any parent, arrived. The first day at school. Yes! My little baby who is no more a baby, officially, started playschool last month. Okay, now first of all let me clarify this, which I seem to be doing a lot of since I put her in school, before you jump on to any conclusions. It is NOT a school it is just a PLAY school and no they don’t teach her Abc’s or 123’s as everyone assumes. It is more of a platform for her to interact with kids her own age, to explore new and different activities, to develop and instill in her the power of imagination and creativity, to feel the goodness and develop self-confidence and above all to have a good time whilst channelizing her abundant energy to something positive and constructive for a couple of hours a day! If doing this makes me a ruthless mom, then so be it. Whoa! Playing defensive, are we? I have never been a defensive ...

My dear daughter, Today, as you turn two years of age, I look past and reminisce the day you were born. It feels not so long ago when you entered our lives and spread happiness around. You made your way instantly into our lives and our hearts so effortlessly and graciously. The past two years has gone by so swiftly that I now realize that I will miss those little things that I so deeply loved about you. Gone are the days of longing to get a peek of that incredible toothless smile now that you have your complete set of teeth. Gone are the days of watching you take that first step and your wobbly walk now that you run around the whole house with confident stride. Gone are the days of listening to you coo and gurgle now that you talk incessantly all day long. Gone are the days of holding you in my arms and rocking you to sleep now that you lie by my side dozing off listening to bedtime stories. Gone are the days when you sat on your high chair finishing your meals without any fu...

My new year resolution this year is a little different from any of the resolutions I ever had or will ever have. I had firmly resolved to have no resolutions this year but I am required to take this one resolution out of sheer necessity. So I hereby resolve to save myself from baby bashing! I’m sure all of you who read this will take it as I’m one mean mom who bashes her child all the time but the truth is exactly the opposite where the mom is being bashed by her child! How? You wonder. Well, read on to find out… I’m sure most of you have seen the movie Baby’s day out. The initial reaction to the movie would be “Awww… such a cute adorable baby” and after watching the whole movie the reaction would be “Whoa! That is one hell of a superkid! Can a sweet adorable looking baby create such a havoc in an adult’s life and in this case not one but three hefty looking adults.. it is definitely a little over the top!”   Life sometimes depicts a movie or is it the other way round? ...

 And my little angel has completed one full year on this earth! What a year it was! I am still amazed how did the year whiz by at such a fast pace. Daughters, I tell you, grow up super fast and before you can blink an eye it’s time for her to spread her wings and fly away to a different nest. The thought itself gives me a shudder and I can now relate to how my parents must have felt when their little daughter also flew away from their protected nest to make her own nest in a different country as soon as she grew up. Sigh! But, that’s the way of life. A daughter is a blessing from above and spreads happiness, love and care wherever she goes. I, as a parent, feel extremely blessed to have this little angel in my life and can’t thank God enough for this wonderful bundle of joy! So then, why do so many people in our country still consider having a daughter as some sort of a ‘taboo’ and get disheartened by the birth of a girl child, in this day and age? Why do we still nee...

Okay, I know I broke my New year resolution and didn’t try to keep up with it even once! The cliché ‘Resolutions are meant to be broken’ probably might have saved the day for me, if only I didn’t feel so guilty about breaking it. It’s not that I didn’t want to write but the lack of time and energy prevented me from achieving my resolution. I could have managed the time factor if needed but the energy factor became a deterrent. After running behind my little terror, who is all of nine months now and is a powerhouse of energy, all day round consumes all my stored energy of the day not leaving much for the rest of things I would want or like to do. Like opening my laptop has also become a once-a-week affair. For those who don’t know me personally, let me enlighten you with this simple but significant detail which is extremely crucial to understand its gigantic role in my life, to comprehend that it is a big deal for someone like me who used to survive on it on a daily basis pre-pregn...

My dear daughter, Ever since you came into my life, announcing your arrival with a loud cry followed by a declaration ‘It’s a girl!’, I knew my life was about to experience the most significant change ever. I don’t know if that change is for the good or bad. I am not sure if that change is temporary or permanent. I’m not even certain that change is essential or unessential. All I can be confident about is that this change will be embraced with open arms just as you. I know life won’t be the same as it was before, we will have to think a zillion times before your dad and I do anything like going out for dinner, enjoying a movie in the theatre, hanging out with friends, going for a vacation and many other similar stuff which we did for our enjoyment and fun . Even a simple task of sleeping all night long at a stretch seems farfetched as of now. But all of these things seem petty when I weigh it against the happiness and inner contentment that I attain when I see you or wh...

So after another long sabbatical (this time for a valid reason..I promise!), I’m back yet again. With a bang! Yes, that’s right… With a loud BANG I want to announce happily and proudly to the world that I’ve become a ‘Mommy’ to a beautiful little baby girl! We feel immensely blessed and eternally grateful to God for bestowing us with such a precious and priceless gift ever. It is the most wonderful feeling on this earth, to be a mother, as I’m sure all the beautiful moms would nod their heads in agreement. Earlier, even before I was married, whenever I pictured myself with my child somehow I always pictured a baby girl. So I guess my subconscious mind already knew that it would be a girl though everyone who saw me during my pregnancy betted their life on that I was going to have a baby boy! And boy! were they wrong (much to my relief!). Not that I don’t like baby boys, its just that I love baby girls much more. For multiple reasons; they are super cute and adorable, its so muc...