The Darjavas ,Baboons and other joys of parenthood

Its a funny family thing , my parents and I call darwaja as darjava, . The nomenclature was performed by my little sister, and it stayed for 25 years and doesnt seem to be going anywhere for next 25, at least. Though, she graduated to darwaja , pig and bakri from darjava ,pigri and kabli respectively, a long long time ago , the names got stuck with us and we still dont seem to get over these.

Being a Mom to a toddler I can now relate with the joy my parents would have felt when we would have spoken our first words. I feel a surge of excitement when Mr T calls a baloon , baboon, the bathroom as bathoom, a dog bhu bhu , a car pi pippi and so on. The pride grows even more when he does the rolling wheels action pleading me........naah rather, ordering me to put on  wheels on the bus video on you tube on the ipad. Not to mention, that the funky gadget once belonged to my husband , who doesn't get to enjoy it anymore.  My heart goes to him when I see him surfing on our 5 years old laptop, with almost no keys on the right place and then the moment little one puts his choice of Bingo video on Ipad, the same heart swells with so much pride .

I give in and yet again give in to his demands of a daily lollipop while coming back from school , a new ball almost every day and a new baboon to be filled up every half hour till he goes to sleep.Still, smiles ,hugs and kisses in return , never fail to bowl me over. Its amazing, how a toddler is controlling every moment of my day, every thought and action of mine. Also probably all my conversations , which my friends colleagues and neighbors or rather my whole social circle would readily agree .

The idea of a fun outing these days is to either a park, a zoo, play dates and if its a lucky day , then birthday parties  .  Mr T makes me believe that birthday cakes are the yummiest food on the earth and nothing can be more precious than the return gifts. Gone are the days when weekends included lazing around until mid mornings ,Shopping afternoons, catching up late night movie shows and romantic dinner dates. Online shopping which once was a craze, is a necessity now unless, running behind a toddler in mall corridors is your idea of a work out. And yes, face the stares of shop attendants making you feel like a shop lifter , when a 2 yr old takes the stuff and runs out of the shop in midst of repeated beeps of sensors buzzing on the doors. .

My days now start with the morning cuddles and sleepy smiles which lasts for 15 min and then the fun begins. He doesnt call it a night until he has had his daily set of jumps and ridings on my back .

These days he has learnt the magic word NO. Mr  T take bath --No , Mr T please wear the diaper , NO Mr T lets have breakfast NO. I wonder,  if he thinks I do not understand the word at all because he turns his head at a speed which might induce a pain in the neck , frustrated.

Motherhood also seems to have intensified a crazy streak in me .  Rainy weather which once was romantic and refreshing now raises my BP. I worry endlessly that he might catch cold or viral. Every fever bout sucks the life out of me. Every mosquito now is an arch enemy and I feel the onus to extinct their race, is on me. Every sneeze is an alarm  of something more serious. Every throw up makes me suspect food allergies . Every phone call from his school raises my anxiety level manifolds. Two days back he stuck his head between two rods in play area and got himself in a tricky situation ..its been 3 days and the nightmare of same episode has not failed to wake me up at night . But everything seems just right when I see him sleeping next to me with an angelic smile. It feels everything in the world is just right. Perfect.

So immersed we are in this little world every thing else seems trivial. We have forgotten what life was like before him  .  Days are filled with laughter , every milestone is a moment of celebration now. It seems my thought process has changed . I appreciate , all blessings the God has bestowed on us .
I remember as a self doubting new mom I asked my Ma, how will I be able to take care of him and She said Love makes it all happen . It sure does :)

Life is what you make it - An inspiring read

Lately, I have been following Preeti Shenoy's blog closely . I indeed wait for her new postings and a large part of my leisure time is spent on her earlier ones . I thoroughly admire upbeat attitude reflected, so well in her writing.
I ordered her latest 'Tea for two and a piece of cake' and 'Life is what you make of it ' together , from flipkart last week and Needless to say once I couldn't put any of the books down once I started reading 'em.

So after a weekend very well spent on 'Life is what you make of it ', turns out that this is one of the finest books I have ever read in recent past. I felt like I was on a journey with Ankita and experience her exhilaration, joys , sorrows and frustrations .


The striking thing about the book is that Preeti has managed to bring out the patients perspective so well . You feel overwhelmed as Ankita goes through a maniac phase accomplishing things far fetched for normal ability and Your heart cries for Ankita when she is realizes her ability to read and comprehend has been lost to her depressive phase cycle, when she is scared to face her parents and the social stigma attached to mental illness in our society. Her character fits the girl next door image to the 'T' . She could be any one of us and that's the high point of the book. This book instills the thought in our mind that people suffering from mental illness are just plain simple people who we all know and meet in daily walks of life. If our acceptance of people doesn't change if we discover , they suffer from high BP or Diabetes then why do we fail to accept people with bipolar disorder.


The author has been audacious enough to take up a subject least discussed in hush hush tones in our society and has done to full justice to almost every aspect of it . The book certainly strikes a chord anyone has experienced mental disorders , not necessarily first-hand . The book captures the perspectives of the patients and people close to them, both dumbfounded with occurrence of sudden events, failing miserably to cope and comprehend .

It address the social stigma attached to Bi-Polar disorder and other mental conditions and instills a the deep faith that as any other illnesses , these could be managed very well too. People suffering from these do lead normal and highly successful lives when they learn to cope and not break down with such diseases.
Here is where Ankita's story will comes out as an inspiration . I strongly recommend this book. I also wish this book reaches to the patients who suffer from such conditions and their families to as a source of strength.

Not to mention a praise about Preeti's writing style which is simple , straight forward and never ones fail to capture reader's attention.

Kudos to Preeti Shenoy for this book . My respect for her has increased manifolds after I read this.

an Inner child in my grandmom

I talk to my Nani every day, the first thing before I start my day in office. Somehow talking to her gives a head start to my day and fills me with positive energy essential for day’s challenges.

But today it was different. Today her voice was euphoric, filled with giggles, laughter and chirpiness of a teenager. And the credit goes to her two sisters who were visiting her after a long time. The bond she shared with these two will be so different from what she shares with rest of us . Though in their 70’s they are still the same little girls in each other’s company. I wonder how their childhood have been. They never had tens of dolls, tons of games , cupboards full of soft toys and summer vacations at exotic places. Rather they faced difficulties to make ends meet still their child hood memories are as beautiful as they can be.

This got me thinking, in all our years of togetherness, I never got to explore this side of hers. She got married at the age of 13 and had a kid by 17. She never lived the childhood she deserved. Domestic responsibilities dominated most part of here life but still , she has managed to keep alive the child like enthusiasm . The same goes for here sisters as well.

She is an elixir of life for me.I have always known here to be calm composed, eternal positive thinker, my personal google for every difficulty I have and seeing her unwinding, reliving her childhood filled me up with indescribable emotions, somehow I loved my Girly Nani Today.