MellowDrama

हाँ मैं गलत, गलत मेरी बातें , गलती से ही दुनिया बनी  पूरा सही कोई नहीं, ले ले मेरी चेतावनी  (Yes, I make mistakes I am often on the wrong track, this world is made because of many mistakes No one is completely correct, Take my warning) This song has two interpretations in my parenting story.  One is which, I as a parent would want to tell my children that no one really knows what to do in this life. None of us really are aware of how to navigate this life. We all make mistakes and that it is okay to do that- make mistakes. This world came to be so because of these mistakes- mine, yours and ours. Then there is the line of thinking that my (or rather all the kids everywhere in the world) children would presume. The one that every child knows well in her heart till the time she becomes a parent- that their parents are wrong, mistaken and (maybe) foolish.  But I think we all agree that making mistakes is important and natural. Life is full o...

गज़ब का है दिन देखो ज़रा   ये दीवानापन सोचो ज़रा  हम भी अकेले, तुम भी अकेले  मज़ा आ रहा है , कसम से  (Look, what a fabulous day it is WE are alone We are enjoying, By God!) It was a nice balmy afternoon during the lockdown days. He looked at her with anticipation. She smiled. A kiss lingered in the air. But the next moment anguished cries rose from another corner of the house. Soon it seemed that a battle had been launched and the two of them were summoned back to the reality of being parents.  Have you ever lived out this horror story? Today's song choice made itself clearer to me just last night. It wasn't as if I haven't known this truth for the past few years since the boy made an entry but nothing could have made it as crystal clear as what happened last night. And to think of it now, what happened really wasn't all that different or revolutionary from everyday that I should have suffered this revelation jus...

Every breath you take and every move you make Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you Every single day and every word you say Every game you play, every night you stay, I'll be watching you Though the song totally sounds creepy, doesn't this really sum up our lives as mothers. Also because of the similarity in the E and I sound I chose to go with this song  instead of any other Hindi song. So back to the topic. Mothers are by default negative creatures, I feel. I look at my daughter and think of ways in which she will mess up her life because she doesn't fold her clothes exactly the way they had been folded when they were sold  to us. I see my son jumping and prancing on the sofa and nod my head in utter distress thinking about his future in which I see him as a street dancer. It takes special effort for me to dispel such negative thoughts and remind myself that they are just children doing children-y things. That she will learn to p...

बांवरा मन राह ताके तरसे रे  नैना भी मल्हार बन के बरसे रे  Would you know of any parent, who. hasn't cried because of the children? No, not for the children, not as in missing them or worrying about them or riddled-with-anxiety-about-them-crying But crying, may be not really the physical act but the act of exasperation in which you don't know what to do or in which your emotional dam has burst open and you can't wait for the spousal entity to come and take them off your hands. If you haven't ever then I would like to meet you. Please book me a return plane ticket to your address as soon as Corona permits. If you have then, I dedicate today's song to you. Young mothers and  fathers, accidental parents, experienced mums and dads, wherever you might be in your parenting journey, there are times when you are just about at the end of your rope. Yes, I am saying this loud and clear as much as we love our children, it can be one t(c)rying and tiring job .  Who ...

DJ वाले बाबू मेरा गाना चला दो  DJ वाले बाबू मेरा गाना चला  दो  DJ वाले बाबू मेरा गाना चला  दो  गाना चला दो, गाना चला दो  The boy aka Cutlet Kumar had put in an appearance in to our lives by September 2014. By the time this song came out in 2015, he had begun to sit by himself and wriggle his hips. He has forever had a ear for music but when this song came up on TV he would just go mad. In whatever way he could communicate, he would ask for the song be played and then move enthusiastically to it.  This boy I tell you, is different. You know how they say that we are all made up of stardust. I do truly believe that he is from a far superior grade of material. Do you think I might be biased? Might be. Just a little bit. Abir is extremely alive. More alive than I have ever seen people or even kids to be. I don't really know how to explain it but I can see it when he is paying attention, when he is listening closely. ...

Dread, Short Stories by Aseem Rastogi is a very small ebook published last month by Blogchatter during the month long e-book carnival. There are five stories in the book, of varying lengths. The thread tying them together is the emotion that finds an echo in each one of them. That emotion is FEAR. A young couple at a safari, a man who had everything working for him in life, an office goer and more make up the cast of the stories.  I can hardly write anything about the stories here without giving up the gist but I can definitely say that Aseem knows how to keep his readers glued to the pages of the e-book. Aseem is a passionate blogger  and traveller. You can get a glimpse of his well travelled soul in the various stories which take place from New Delhi to Grasslands to London.   The stories are written well, the language playing in its author's hands to instil exactly what he aims at, dread. I am no brave-heart but continued reading the 35 paged book in one sitting e...

I participated in the Blogchatter A2Z on almost the last minute. I was not confident about my ability to write a blogpost everyday. I have been at blogging for donkey's years now but consistency, well, who knows what that is. I signed up with a lot of trepidation for sure and made no promises to myself yet when I uploaded my last post on alphabet Z, I could not but smile at the journey I had undertaken via these posts. They say that you should write about something that you are a master of. I have been parenting for more than a decade and having really not studied anything dedicatedly in my whole life ( Jack of all trades was coined for yours truly) did not actually have a subject to write upon. Well, so I set out with the first alphabet- A . As could be expected with my first alphabet I woke up to the need of being organised and prepared for the herculean challenge. Anyway, that is the way things are with me. Always in the retrospective. But finish I did the 26 alphabets ...

नानी तेरी मोरनी  को मोर ले गए बाकी जो बचा था काले चोर ले गए (O grandmother your peahen has been carried away by the peacocks and whatever was left has been taken by the thieves) You must have heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. If you are bringing up a child/ren you will know exactly what this means but if you don't have children of your own yet take my word for it. Raising a child can't be done single handedly by anyone. You need emotional and physical support, you need advice, you need a sounding board and most importantly sometime you just need someone else to take charge. Grandparents play a huge role in our Indian homes in helping raise a child. Whether it is teaching them values and morals via stories, or enforce good habits, they have extremely important roles to play. My children have been very lucky to have a set of doting grandparents on both the sides. On   the paternal side my mother-in-law is always ready with her bag of exciting st...

छोटी सी प्यारी सी नन्ही सी आयी कोई परी भोली सी न्यारी सी अच्छी सी आयी कोई परी If this isn't hint enough, I am going to talk about my daughter in this post. This child gave me the exalted status of Mummy. I will probably be more famous as Netra ki Mummy than anything else at the time. Netra, my 12 year old daughter, was born after a difficult pregnancy and that has been the easiest part so far. She is a sweet, gentle and generous child at, and I have complete strangers stopping me in mid-way or calling me up, to tell me how she has offered help seeing them in a tough spot. Sometimes she has held doors for the, sometimes helped carry their bags, soothe their child and at others just greet them, every time she sees them in the complex, in the lift or on the road. This very child can be very stubborn, adamant and exasperating preteen several times a day. As all of us, she is full of contradictions and I had a very difficult time learning how to be okay with that. It is stil...