The Phone Call

It was like any other weekend morning. The kids were up and running around. The smell of fresh chai brewing and fermented idli batter came from the kitchen. She poured out the chai and passed a cup to her husband. “Thanks dear”, he smiled. She accepted it with a fresh smile and a stroke on his shoulder. And off she scurried to the kitchen. “Where’s your chai?” , he shouted after her. “It’s here, I’ll have it here!”, she replied loudly. Some days when she’s in a hurry she sips her chai in the kitchen itself, amidst all her chores.

“Mummy, can we have dosa instead of idli?”, came in the kids questioning. She gave them a puzzled look. ” I thought you guys wanted idli?!” “Yes mummy, we did but the thought of thin, crispy dosas…” , they described on. She didn’t have the patience to hear anymore, “Fine”,she said, ” You can have dosas. Now, out you two!”, she said pointing to the kitchen door. Off they scooted, giggling of course.

She hurried all round the kitchen, tempering the chutney, chopping the coriander leaves, scooping out the idlis. Breakfast was almost ready, when the phone rang.

She dropped everything and ran to answer the phone. Her husband sat there, sipping his morning chai. ” Hi! I was waiting for your call” , she replied heartily. Her husband smiled as he watched her walk into the balcony with the phone.

The whole house rang with her merry voice and chatter. The kids came after a while asking for their dosas which she didn’t hear. She was down her memory lane by then, chatting away with her friend who unfailing called her every year on her birthday.

Her husband got up and called the kids and took them to the kitchen. ” I’ll make your dosas for you. Let mummy talk. She has been waiting a long time to have that talk!”

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True beauty lies in imperfection

This quote by Alice Walker just spoke to me! I can’t agree with her more. We strive to be more and more perfect everyday. Everybody around you tells you that you ought to get there, to the bullseye, you have to be perfect, that’s your goal. But, is that true? Do you really need to be something more, somebody else?

Look around in nature, you see some trees twisted and bent. You see some birds white and some spotted. You see long, short, fluffy, skinny dogs but they all are unconditionally loving. Do any of these elements of nature need perfecting? Is it really going to make a difference in their beauty? They are all magnificent and beautiful in their own way.

We are all beautiful in our own twisted ways.

Survival of the fittest – Competition or Cooperation

Today, our world out there is majorly driven by competition. To excel in a field means to beat everybody else down. As a student, I was just mediocre. I was satisfied with what I got. My mother was good academic and she used to say that she had such competitive spirit in her that she always wanted to score the most. I always tried to get that ‘spirit’ but somehow never found it.

The whole world tells you that competition drives it. If you are not competitive enough you are bound to lag behind. I was sad, every time I tried to get the spirit of competition I could never keep up that fierceness it required. I was satisfied with what I achieved. And it didn’t upset me what another scored. It just didn’t.

After all these years I still wonder, does competition really rule the world?

NO. Competition is not what caused our world to progress. It’s cooperation.

As adults we must practice cooperation and we must teach our children to cooperate. Whether be it in the playground, in the classroom, in an office or while running your own business, what an individual needs is teamwork or cooperation. A sense of competition will not help us reach very far.

If the human race sticks together, we can do & achieve wonders!

I miss Instagram

Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

Photo by Jeremy Levin on Pexels.com

I miss Instagram for what it was. I joined Instagram more than 7 years back. Joined it clueless of what the app was to deliver. I loved photographs, still do. Whether it is the satisfaction of taking a good photograph or looking with awe at a beautifully captured one, photographs always gave me great joy.

Slowly with time, I realized this was indeed for me. You could find all kinds of photographers; amateurs, professionals, passionate parent photographers, travelers, it was endless. The talent you saw there was wonderful!

Though the option to have a private account was there from the very start, I always maintained a public account. Not only me, majority of the people of the gram were public account holders.

Very few people of my immediate friends circle were on Instagram at that moment and I enjoyed the anonymity it gave me. People would genuinely appreciate and follow. It was a good vibe. When somebody said it was good, they meant it. Nobody knew you and so there was no judgement or awkwardness . It was all good.

There were many acquaintances I made there. Some really wonderful people that I met.

There’s this mother of 8 from Canada. The beauty is she has adopted/ fostered most of them. And she is so passionate about all of them! It’s not the quality or perfection of the photos that attract you, but the soul in it!

Then there was a young girl whose pictures were the result of a very good photographic eye and the words she penned with it were beautiful!

So many people like that…

While some remained faithful followers with a distance, others often had a chat.

Slowly with passing years and increasing traffic, things changed in the Instagram atmosphere! You started to get so much spam, advertisements, product marketing, stalkers, trollers, weird guys leaving weird comments or trying to engage in weird conversations and so on! It was getting exhausting. The anonymity the enjoyed all this while was fading away, with everybody on Instagram creating accounts and stalking. The increasing weirdness made me turn my account privacy to private.

In an interview I heard lady Gaga say, Social Media was the toilet of the Internet! I could totally relate to that at a point.

I know I might be missing out on a lot of potential good and talented followers but I have chosen to take that chance. It was becoming very stressful to filter and respond or ignore weird conversations and comments.

I’m less on instagram now, which has become this place with so much marketing strategy and such a big facade. Nobody seems to be real or telling the truth. All this false outlay is exhausting.

The Blogosphere so far is giving me that warmth that I used to enjoy with instagram. People who you dont know, read what you write, like it if they genuinely do, leave a comment when they agree or disagree. Its really refreshing.

Stay fresh and stay real WordPress!

Tiny storytellers

Storytelling comes by instinct for a child. Whether it lingers on as they grow depends on the circumstances, the people around & the child itself. But that thirst and need to tell is always there.

My kids love anything to do with stories. Whether it’s me telling a on-the-spot story, or reading a book or enacting a childhood memory, or imitating someone, they are my best audience in the world!

Of late, they come asking for a story and I’m tired or in no mood to enact out a whole story. You can’t trick children, they know so well if you are faking it or giving it your all. So to give me some breathing space, I have come up with a new idea, I encourage them to tell a story too.

My two daughters just keep breaking the boundaries every time! I stand in awe at the way their imagination goes!

My eldest daughter has beautiful princesses with flowers and ponies and castles. While my younger daughter takes me by surprise with her plots. Even Shakespeare would stare in wonder with the tragedies she outlays! (Mind you she’s only three!)

It’s wonderful to see them give their best into it. Watching them both tell their stories, gives me tremendous energy and motivation to keep going.

Reading to your child is always worth it.

Give children opportunities to bring out their creativity and imagination. Stories have always been a part of human existence and growth.