Connections

"With great power comes great responsibility" ...this is a close-to-heart phrase for me. Power or the lack of it largely steers the course of our lives and the lives of the people around us.

The space I find power profoundly impacting is parenting, and yesterday was such a day I felt power-less and lost for words. The kids have been coping up well , atleast, that is what I thought. That was until my 10 year old girl was bawling her eyes out about how she is tired of staying indoors,  missing school, missing friends, missing her playground, her lunch-time at the cafeteria and missing the run to the school-bus.It was an anxiety attack, she was gasping for breath,  and all I did was stayed calm and held her close. It was a long while after which she gained composure. I still know she is murky in her heart. It pains to see their childhood being ripped away by the complexities filling their lives. I am trying  hard to make things better for them , without getting too easy on them.

These are challenging times and moments like these reveal the beauty of the human spirit...how, in the same space, thrives vulnerability and strength. I think they are two sides of beautifully embroidered human fabric, one side beautiful and another knotty, both one does not exist without the  other.

Meaningful connections are what will help us tide these rough waves. If you are reading this, you probably are my friend. May be we talk now, may be we dont. Please know that I have not fallen out of our friendship. I am sure we had way more good times that we can ponder on and I am more than happy to chat up on our good ol' times, craziness, bickerings.If you need help, someone to reach out to...I am here.

I may have missed saying this to you in person, I never closed the door when you left. 

A Time-capsule post

This blog post is more than a regular post , on a personal level, this is intended to be a time-capsule. This year 2020 has been very very eventful and we are into almost the 5th month of resticted movement due to the global Corona Virus Pandemic (COVID-19). My last ever foray into free-world working was on January 23rd, 2020 and there-after there was a very small impromptu Women's Day celebration I had with my bestie o March 7th. We bought ourselves 'Friends' tee for twinning. Now it looks like it will be a long time before we get to sport it.

A quick snap-shot of life as it is now. All of us are at home for months in a row.I have stopped going for my daily runs since January and the least exposure to fresh air is what I get from peaking out of my kitchen window. Grocery runs are meticulously planned and prepped for , with gloves , masks , sanitizers apart from the shopping list itself. Thankfully, there is a 24-hour store right across where we live and we do shopping either late in the night or in the dark hours of the day. That way we get to avoid the crowds and get work done quicker.

The kids are now doing online classes and being home-schooled, to which ever extent it has been possible. They are generaly being well-behaved and I am secretly happy and grateful.  Positively engaging them includes bubble play, crafting, baking, clay modelling , painting , lego , board games, colouring, drawing, puzzles, cooking, cleaning, water balloons, dressing up. I am getting a little lax about engaging them digitally. When we simply are tired to entertain the kids, we resort to cartoons. I am coaching myself to feel less guilty about it.

 Our meals have become very elaborate and I am into cooking and baking quite extensively. I think cooking and baking  calms me down...just like sleep. I have been sleeping a lot as well and my best-friend says I should simply indulge myself because it is my body's way of coping up with stress. Then there are days when I cannot muster up the energy to do anything at all, and thatz when dadster steps up to the plate.The unwritten guideline is that we keep the show going. We are coping up fairly well.

We celebrated Vini's Bday amidst the lock-down. To keep up her cheer  we tried putting together a video compilation for her , editing done by Mintu. Vini was happy. A lot of conversations with Vini these days, are around how many people died and what happens when people die. I feel sad that a 6-year old has to go through these thoughts.Vini wants to become a doctor so she can save people.

Mintu picked up a little bit of rappingover the last month. She is almost as tall as me and has grown-out of most of her dresses :) She seems to be quite a medley , one minute , worldly-wise dishing out communication strategy advice to me and in the next fifth minute rolling on the floor , tooth and nail with her sister , over the last choco-chip that is left . She is big-time into Harry Potter and so am I, for the second time over. Stephen Fry's narration of Harry Potter has been such a soul-saver. We listen to the audibles over and over again...immaterial of which chapter it is running. Another life-saver is my favourite music playing all the time. There are days when I drag myself to get work done and get back to my slumber. But gratitude is a constant theme...thankful to be safe and alive.

That pretty much sums up what is life at this point in time. The plan is to lie low, keep steadfast and get over this rough patch.

When this is all over, the new normal will be very very different from what is had been a few months ago. So much better in a lot of ways.

Oh , and ...Happy Mothers Day  to every motherly soul out there !!