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Same time last year, the reflective last few hours of 2015, I had decided that in 2016 I will take out time to do few things out of routine, out of my general commitments to family and work. I will do this to enrich myself with new knowledge, to gain new experiences and to continue to discover myself even as I am turning boringly old in the 30's club.  I opened an unused Diary and jotted down three headings in three pages: Five new books, Five new places, Five new things to do. It may seem as a rather simple target to set for few, but once you are on a vicious homemaker-mother-employee cycle, this simple target seems almost impossible to accomplish. So was I able to accomplish what I set to achieve? Let me start with the books 📖. To be honest, I don't get more than 10 minutes a day to give to a book and I get these 10 minutes when I am at the loo. This has become my secret 'me' time where I can loose myself (pun intended) in a book, in a story, in a characte...

Who in this world has the time to make something for you, with their own hands? In the age of assembly line like production for pretty much everything including our daily diet, handicraft stores come as a welcome change. Luckily, I live in Vadodara, Gujarat – a city well known for being a producer and marketer of Gujarat’s handicraft products. Here are some reflections from a recent handicraft exhibition visit. Kutch embroidery work, popularly known as Kutch work is love at first sight for me. One can find me staring in awe at those intricately sewn thread work patterns replete with mirrors and beads. The colourful patterns hypnotize me of sorts, making it hard to take my eyes off them. When you hold a Kachchi cloth in your hand, you can feel how heavy the thread work has made the underlying fabric, brushing upon you a whiff and some loose threads left by the worker who originally made it. Kutch work is done on a host of items – blouses, skirts, hand bags, pillow covers, bed sprea...

The world is full of people and people are full of thoughts, ideas and feelings. We live in a society and enjoy the company of friends and family. But what happens when these people who share your life, who become a part of it by virtue of relationships or friendships contribute in negative ways to your life. People share negative thoughts, negative ideas, negative emotions and constantly prod you to be party to their "negative" thought process. Infact, things like news and television can also constantly add to your daily dose of negativity. You, if you are like me, on the inside don't like that they are talking so negatively about say a person but on the outside nod your head or stare as if you are watching Arnab Goswami on Primetime, without basically adding anything to what they are saying. You would think that this was a good way of handling "negative talk" situations. But after repeated exposure to such incidents I have understood that even if you do no...

Yesterday, my daughter turned two. That marked 730 days of awesomeness with her! To be honest, not all the 730 days were exactly awesome, some were terrible and some I marvel that I got through. To note a few of the ups and downs in this mommy journey of mine, I write this self appraisal note and wonder what's my next KRA (key responsibility area in corporate lingo). The first 10 days: Inexperience, fear, pain and the added pain of responsibility. This sunk me in. I was overwhelmed with emotions I am scared to even think about again. Happiness crept in much, much later. The whole idea that a living thing was dependent on me scared me to tears. Of course, her presence in my arms still kept me going, brought in the fierce mother's courage and told me to do what I need to do. The first six months: She lived ONLY on my milk for six months! At times when I was away from her for more than two-three hours, I panicked to reach back to her. I think I was addicted to feeding he...

Few are White. Few are Black. Most are Grey, alright. It's tough to be White. It's tough to be Black. It's easy to be Grey, alright. White has No Compromise. Black has Little Conscience. Grey has No Other Choice! Alright. White feels good. Black feels bad. Grey is life and Grey is human. I am grey grey grey, alright.

Some relationships never get closure, And some dreams never get freedom.

I recently read that upcycling is the new recycling. Instead of crushing up and using waste products in a different form altogether, upcycling is basically reinventing a waste product and giving it a whole new purpose as well as value. I think  I might have two examples of this at my place.     #1 - I upcycled Cereal and Cerelac boxes into CD holders. It helps me keep CDs organized and easy to pick from. I could've have used waste paper to label them but I'm saving that task for a later date.   #2 - We had a waste top cover of a flush tank. Thought of making it into a plant holder. Successfully grew some plants in it and it looked good for a few days. I'm looking for plants that could grow in such short depths, that would definitely make this work better.