Oh that sameness!

Few days back, someone whom I follow on Twitter tweeted this and I replied to her this. For the ease of reading, I’m just pasting the content here:

@mathur_vaishali: It scares me, this evenness of spaces. The sameness of flats and buildings; of cars and malls; of people dressed uniformly in brands.

@kanupriyasindhu: @mathur_vaishali and the aspiration of people to achieve that sameness, to do the same as others are doing! Scares me too.

Almost a month now and I again remembered this tweet today morning. A look at my Facebook timeline, pics shared on Whatsapp & the Tweets – oh that sameness, the same sameness and the rush to achieve that sameness! It’s scary! 

I know the person above was referring more to infrastructural sameness all around but trust me if you take a closer look around you, this sameness is there now in almost everything. The sameness of aspirations, the sameness of our lives, the sameness of passions! Not that I am not a part of that sameness. I’m sure that at times, even I have tried to achieve that sameness and vice versa. There are moments when I have felt aghast by actions of some people who have tried to do things to be the “same” even without evaluating where their interest lies or estimating their own potential. 

On many of those introspecting and self-conversation moments, I actually now wonder why? Is it because we really want to be like the other one or is it because there is this competitiveness for anything and everything in our lives now? Is it because we actually aspire to be the same, or is it because there is this feeling within that if he or she is doing it, then why not me? Is it because now we know too much about what others are doing or is it because we are informing too much about ourselves to others? And when I say too much information about us, of course we are informing mostly those ‘hip & happening’ updates of our lives, part of which might be true and part of which is how we would like others to perceive our lives. Is it because we not only aspire to be the same as one person but also like many others with whom we really would not have been in touch with ever if not for Facebook or Twitter or Whatsapp! Is it because we are too much connected, with too many people, almost all the time and at every medium possible? 

Just think about this – in your friend’s list on Facebook, how many do you actually think are your friends? On your contact list of Whatsapp, with how many of whom you think you would have chatted or would like to converse on daily basis if not for those jokes or forwarded messages?

Imagine this – On any normal day, ‘A’ logs in to Facebook and sees posts from ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ & ‘E’ on his/her timeline. Here’s what happens inside the brain of A thereafter – “Oh B went to holiday at this place, looks like an exotic destination, I must go there soon and let me try to find a better resort than B”. “Oh C has posted these photographs that look great but it must not be her skills, it’s actually that NiCan camera which she bought recently! Huh, with a camera like that, even I can be a photographer for sure. Must buy that same camera with better lens soon”. “Oh D has posted pics of his baked goodies, looks yum! Must try to bake these soon. What the heck, when he can bake, so can I and I will be definitely better than D”. “Oh E has started running a blog, well I have been thinking to do it myself for so long, after all it looks good on resume. Must start it soon, I am sure I can write better than E”. And the list goes on & on and see how much A has already burdened her/himself with “to do soon” list just because someone else is doing it. Few triggers here and there, and one “A” is trying to go on a vacation, become a photographer, baker, writer all at one go! And this is only when A saw things done by 4 friends, how about if we just take even 10% of our social networking contacts whose lives or updates are actually influencing us! Impressive stats of self imposed pressure on us to achieve that sameness, no? 

Ummm, I think my wondering is actually going beyond one post, maybe I can write a complete chapter of a book on this. Have I got any fixed conclusion from my musings? No! But the more I think, the more I am sure of few things – too much influence of anybody and everybody can actually be a whole lot of pressure on life! Anybody can do anything but everybody cannot do everything! Don’t be same. Just be yourself because everyone else is already taken! Whosoever wrote these were just so right!

Alphabet Dress-Up: Children’s Book

Ok, I’m late in doing this post about “Alphabet Dress-Up” book by FunOkPlease. Got it few weeks back by the publishers but got the time to check it only last weekend. And man, was I really impressed? Yes and a big YES! I immediately thought to jot down my feedback on this book as its one fantastic piece that deserves more and more mentions all across. I can’t tell you how impressed I’m with this “FunOkPlease” group. Every book that they come out with is actually better than the previous one. Simply put, to me this is one publishing house that just outperforms its own creativity with its each new launch. 

The book written by “Nalini Sorensen” and illustrated by “Shraddha Pimputkar” is a brilliant visual treat for kids! The whole alphabet series is presented in the form of dress-up options with a puzzle on each page to find another word with that same alphabet that’s there on the page. Total fun, isn’t it? But that’s not all. There are many other things that I loved about this book as a Mom. Here goes the list of few of them:

• Interesting yet engaging! Not only the bright, colorful illustrations draw attention to the pages, those puzzles actually keep you glued on to the book for long. A good fun exercise for kids!
• Unique! When I say unique, it’s actually unique. Trust me on that! These days, since I often browse books for the little one, I have actually got a chance to see many other alphabet books including the ones from international brands but this one is indeed different. 
• Attention to details! 13 characters are girls in that book and 13 boys. Now how cool is that! Isn’t it? And the professions have been depicted in a way that breaks the gender stereotypes. For e.g., the astronaut in the book is a girl and the teacher is a boy.
• Stimulates imagination! It’s not only about bright colors and cute characters, it actually lets you imagine and opens up possibilities to think of other professions as dress up options from things around you. In this age of fancy digital screens & high-tech apps, anything that lets kids imagine of possibilities with day-to-day regular things is such a welcome change. The book also comes with a flash card game at the end and all of this at Rs. 199/-!

Overall, a book that I totally recommend as a Mom. My toddler has yet not reached the stage of understanding different professions shown in this book but I have added this book in my ‘read-out-loud’ list to teach him alphabets and different words that’s possible with each alphabet. In case you’ve a kid at home who is at alphabet or word learning stage, then do check out this book. I’m actually quite confident that you will love it! 

To know more FunOkPlease, click here and to buy this book online at Flipkart, click here. 

The Talking Parrot Series - 1

I have a talking parrot at home these days and that parrot is none other than my little one! Yes, he talks now and that too a lot. Time flies, we always say this, but wait till you have a baby and see him/her growing in front of you. You really will see this term “time flies” in a different light altogether . So, this talking parrot has to repeat everything we speak. At times, his sentences leave me totally amazed wondering if it’s really him who said all this! And the reactions range from Awwww to WTH to Oleeee to WHAT! Yes, yes parenting emotions are all about diversity and that too at a speed which you won’t even know is humanly possible :P

So, yesterday I was trying out a dress and little one was as usual messing up with things kept on the dressing table. What’s with the fascination of these kids with dressing table and kitchen utensils! As usual my brain was multi tasking and while I was looking at the fitting of the dress, I kept on saying, “Ni No! Don’t throw this! Don’t open that” A total irritated WTH stage I was into when the little one suddenly stopped and started looking at me intently with a smile.

Me to Ni (that’s what he calls himself these days): Ni, Mumma achchi lag rahi hai?

Ni: Aan, Mumma achchi. After a short pause, with gleaming eyes and pointing to his own clothes, he asks: Mumma, aul Ni achchi?

Oh that shining eyes and that cute “Aul Ni achchi”, I immediately bent down, hugged him and replied:

Me: Ale Ni toh hamesha achcha, har kuch mein achcha, sabse achcha!

Ni: Otte. Mumma bi hamesha achcha, hal tuch mein achcha, shabshe achcha!

I can’t tell you how I felt at that moment! An immediate transition to “Awwww” from “WTH” within seconds! I know he didn’t understand what he said, he was just repeating my sentence by replacing Ni with Mumma but still it was such a different thing to listen to it from his mouth. #WishfulThinking by the mommy in me – Wish he will say this someday when he understands the meaning of it as well .

And the mommy in me has decided to document such tidbits of my current phase of life. On those gloomy, clueless, lost-in-life days I must come back and read these to remind myself that life is not only about pre-decided goals, fierce ambition, planned holidays, showcasing our perfect life on social media and socializing with so-called friends! At times, it’s just about living in the moment and experiencing it then and there. For you never know, when one of those moments will actually become memory that you would like to cherish forever! A memory that's sure to bring a smile on your face whenever you will think of that moment!

More options, lesser communication :)

I'm back! Once again! Once again I was gone for long and once again I want to be back! To this space of mine that I had always cherished! That I want to cherish in future as well! The space that is mine! Where I was free to express anything! I miss this space. And my expressions! And the me-time that this space used to give me earlier! I want that back! I really do! Those people with whom I could converse! Without the fear of being judged! The like minded ones! And the not-so-like minded ones! Opinions of whom were healthy! And so were the conversations! I want those readers back! I really do! I don't want this space of mine to meet the same fate as that of many other form of communications these days! Conversations are shorter! Opinions are fabricated! Ideas are copied! Personal interactions are dead! And ideologies are... well, what's that?

Well, whatever be the situation now, one thing is for sure that I had always liked to have a space where I could express myself. It started from a black slate as my mom says where I used to draw things at night that I did the whole day :), moved to copies, then diaries, then fancy notebooks, then handcrafted notepads, then a computer, then a basic laptop, then a higher end laptop, then an ipad, then a fancy phone, then millions of writing apps installed on multiple digital devices, then... phew the more the options and the fancier the medium, the lesser the communication! No :)? At least with a black slate, white chalk and minimum language skills I used to draw daily :). So, here's a hope that amidst all the chaos of life, daily madness, insane schedules, inner turmoil and external craziness, I will get back to certain passions of my life that I once truly enjoyed! And writing definitely is one of them.

Anybody still coming here :)? 

Parenting 2.0: Nuggets from the little one

So, the little one has been gifted a talking parrot by his mama and new mami (oh yes, he has a mami now, more on that later :)) and he was totally in love with it. But as is the case with most of his toys, he got bored of it after few hours and then started throwing and hitting it with his bat. This is one habit that I have really not been able to control. He gets bored so easily with anything and he is just not the child who can play with toys. He needs more of outdoor engagements like basketball, cricket or anything else to do with balls. He is obsessed, like seriously obsessed with balls! 

So, this parrot stopped talking after being hit few times. And little one got restless, started shouting on the parrot as if that toy will get scared of his scolding and will start talking again. When the shouting didn’t work, he got sad and kept on showing the parrot to me with a “nai nai” and expecting me to tell the parrot to talk to him. I observed the toy and realized that the batteries came out when he threw it last and hence the parrot stopped functioning. The mommy in me tried to use it to my benefit. I took the parrot, showed it to him and told – “This parrot is angry with you, you hit him and hence he has stopped talking to you. He is sad that you threw him and is not going to talk to you again.” I repeated similar sentences with a sad face to create the impact and kept showing him the parrot and during one such act I showed him the back portion of the parrot where the battery section was open. Immediately his eyes lit up, he snatched the parrot from me, examined it carefully and then started looking around aggressively. After some running, bending and lying down, finally he could locate the batteries underneath sofa. Took all effort to finally grab those back and inserted them in that parrot. And lo the parrot started talking. With a winning smile he came to me, gave the parrot back to me and said – “le le”. Oh that look on his face as if saying – mumma you tried to fool me. And the mumma looked at him appalled with mouth wide open and completely shocked at the brain of this tiny little creature! 

Gawd that confident “le le” to me… all I could tell myself was welcome to parenting 2.0 or is it like 3.0? Ummmm maybe n.0! Whatever but you just can't fool the kids these days and he is just 17 months old as of now!

Meri Adhuri Kahani...

Without any deliberation, I think I should title this post as “Meri Adhuri Kahani”… yes, that’s what the status of my life is these days. Almost everything adhura or half complete! Blog posts – half complete, books – half complete, paintings – half complete and millions of things at work – half complete! Ufff where are days flying by these days? In past few weeks, I have saved soooo many posts in drafts. I thought to share about my excitement of watching a movie in theater after almost an year and what better movie than Kai Po Che to write a post about but that too half complete. Women’s Day, Holi, some positive updates at work, some not-so-pleasant updates of motherhood but everything half complete. And this also reminds me that I have a new template for my blog and even that work is – half complete! Phew, let us see if I manage to complete this post till end or this also becomes a part of my “Adhuri kahani” series.

Anyways, coming down to this post… last two weeks have been no less than mayhem at my household. Maid lapata (ufffff this misery never ends ) and to top it, little one terribly sick. High viral fever followed by body rash and super fussiness! But what was the highlight of this phase was his blood test. Yeah, blood test and you might be thinking what’s so big deal about getting a blood test done. Ain’t we all get pricked all the time? I, for one, have always managed to get all my tests done alone without much ado and after reaching adulthood at times have even wondered on few women who shout and create hungama during blood tests. Yeah, I met many such ones esp. during pregnancy checkups. During those days, checkups and lab visits used to be quite frequent and so were the encounter with such screaming and ‘oh-i-m-such-a-delicate-baby’ kind of women. Trust me I never could fathom the big deal about it! But things were different this time when I went for the first blood test of my little one. The moment he entered the lab he started howling, maybe the setting around made him scared or whatever. He was anyways in high fever & then came out three needles. Okkkk, and then I was suddenly nervous! Rational mind said it’s after all few pricks that would get over in seconds but the mommy mind said – oh my god, all these would be inserted in his veins. Yes, I was sweating even in that AC. And this little hyper active brat – uffff you do anything but he could manage to free himself from that doctor’s hands and roll over to the other side of the lab table. Then came another worry – what if the needle moves inside if he would be this unstable! Hee hee, I am laughing now while I am writing this. But this, as well as millions of whats and ifs and buts were coming to my mind during those few minutes of his first blood test. He was screaming at the top of his voice and both me and my husband were standing still, silent, apprehensive with our fists tightened and brows joined! It took 2 nurses, 1 doctor, 1 lab assistant and 2 of us to finally make him stable to go through those three needles and yes, those were just another pricks. Little one was crying more because of being scared than pain and we were worried more for… ummmm…. Ha ha ha I think no idea why on earth were we so worried that time. But we were! Didn’t I say earlier that parenthood makes your emotional glands hyperactive . And at the same time it does make you strong, far stronger than what you were before.

Thank God, he is better now and everything seems to be coming back to normal. But I had no idea that something as small as a blood test can evoke so many emotions within me. This had to be jotted down somewhere for us to read and have a good laugh later .

So, tell me how was it for you when you took your little ones for blood test for the first time? Were you like me or your normal calm composed state?

P.S: Yayyy, finally I could manage to finish this post. But guess how many sittings did it take to complete this? 5! Yeah, that’s how my life is these days :-)

Wordless Wednesday: Baking for the little one

Fresh out of my oven - baking for the little one :-)

Movies that cheer you up anytime :-)

Today I tweeted something about movies in the morning and it instantly reminded me the number of movies I got to watch in 2012 in theater. Guess how many? Well just TWO! Now who know me, know very well my movie stats till 2011 but then things change and have changed a lot since the little one has arrived. Though the good part is that we have started to spend more and more time at home these days playing and having fun with our little one. We both always loved watching good movies at home but these days our DVD viewing has gone up considerably. Where else will you get the comfort and convenience of watching movies with multiple breaks for diaper change, milk refill, play time etc. Yes, a two and hour movie is watched somewhere between 4 hours to 4 days depending upon what mood our little boss is into .

And at the end of hectic days coupled with all these breaks in between, all you wanna watch are movies that can cheer you up. You know those comedies that make you really laugh, rom-coms that bring a smile on your face and those girly-girly movies that you can never get bored of! Yeah those and my movie quotas generally consist of such movies these days, movies that just add some light and fun moments in my life. All my old preferences for world cinema and serious movies have been saved and well preserved for later stage in life. As of now, only movies that can cheer me up !

Here’s a list of five girly (caution: I repeat these are truly girly :P) that I watched in last few weeks and despite the fact that all these were re-watch for me, I still didn’t get bored of any .

• Confessions of a Shopaholic: Hee hee, whatay delight! Well as per what people say about me, I’m not a shopaholic I think but then Beccy does bring a smile on my face. You don’t need to be a shopping addict to relate to her, some part of her is definitely real, after all which girl does not like new stuffs ? And to add to that Hugh Dancy as Luke Brandson is absolutely droolworthy!
• Sleepless in Seattle: It must be my nth watch and I was still not bored of it! I’m sure anybody who likes to watch mush must have watched it. In case you haven’t, please stop reading this post and go watch it now!
• A Walk to Remember: When I had first watched it, I was totally surprised. I had expected it to be just another rom-flick but it was much more than that. I watched it again few days back and didn’t use the forward button at all.
• Julie & Julia: I just spotted a copy of this movie and for my love for cooking & baking and the fact that I am in kitchen more these days for the junior dude made me watch it again. Watch it for the love of food and the passionate chef inside you; you won’t be disappointed for sure.
• Music & Lyrics: Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore… do you need any more reason to watch a rom-com than these two? 

I’m a huge fan of Hindi cinema too but I wonder why don’t they make good light movies that one can think of re-watching again. The last hindi movie that I willingly watched second time was Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and after that none! There are many from other genres in Bollywood that I can watch again but comedy? Well, I think none! Not at least any recent one.

So, which are your cheer-up movies that can lighten your mood anytime you watch them? Share it here and in case I have not watched it, I would love to whenever I get time next. 

Haylos :-)

Wish you all a very Happy Makarsankranti, Pongal, Lohri & Bihu. One day, so many celebrations! But then that's the beauty of rich cultural diversity like ours. So, how's the new year treating you? Like every year, this year I couldn't wish you on time. But then as they say wishes are never late... so, wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR too!

You know I miss this space a lot, I really do! There's so much that I want to share, so much that I want to discuss and so much that I want  to express but... sigh life seems to be running by these days or shall I say flying by and that too on a jet plane! I read, heard & knew that life will change after entering mommyhood but would it change so much? Well, I had no idea! While I try to cope up with one thing, the second springs up within a blink! But I do wanna write on this space more regularly now, as for a person like me writing is the only medium that always helps me express my thoughts more clearly. Have been writing a diary ever since I learnt writing I think and have been blogging for more than a decade now. I so hope and wish that my this passion does not die like many others in the rut of life :-(. So, hoping to get back with my next post soon!

Bbye for now, will be visiting my favorite blogs to read updates from your life there.