My salted tea

Sometimes, being with a baby, can get overwhelming. Now that I am a stay at home mommy, my only company is a baby who demands constant entertainment most of the times. And this gives me little breathing space for my own. Of course, after my husband comes, I can hand over the baby to him. But that’s the only time I can get any cooking done.

Today, when I noticed a cool breeze on my patio, I decided, no matter what happens, I will make myself a cup of tea and enjoy nature for a while. What’s the use of having such a huge patio then? Wouldn’t it be such a waste? After playing with the baby nonstop three hours (phew, so much energy they have), he finally dozed off to sleep. Without wasting a second, I sneaked into the kitchen and set upon making my tea.

As I made the tea, I noticed the dirty dishes in the kitchen, the toys scattered all over the floor, various other things messed up the living room, the kitchen table top screaming to be cleaned….there was so much to do. And the baby was sleeping. It was the perfect time to get things done. Putting up a strong front, I choose to ignore the chores that screamed for attention.

This was ME time, I said myself as I noticed the milk boiling with steam. I will not be one of those women who never make time for themselves and become miserable. Instead, I will ignore household duties for a while and enjoy a cup of tea. If I don’t enjoy, what’s the point in living? I reasoned with myself marveling at the fact that I had managed to squeeze few minutes for myself.

As I seated myself in my patio chair, with a carefree feeling taking over my mind, I set upon enjoying my tea (which was the whole idea). I frowned at the first sip. My tea was salted. How did I manage to put salt instead of sugar was beyond me! So much for a cup of tea!

Today is not my day, I thought as I threw the tea down the drain. Perhaps, another day will come, unplanned, undecided to surprise me with a cup of tea. Until then, you dirty dishes, here I come marching to fix you.

Miracles

“Every day, God gives us the sun–and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy.
“Every day, we try to pretend that we haven’t perceived that moment, that it doesn’t exist–that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow.

But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment.

It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock.
It may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us.

But that moment exists–a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.”

How I fell in love - Again

It’s said that a person can fall in love more than once. But people who have loved deep and once, would say that true love happens only once. Having grown up in the fairytale world of love, I chose to believe that deepest love thrived only between man and wife. When I met my husband, I believed he was the only person I could love all my life. But God has his own ways of letting us fall in love, sometimes again and again.
Having a baby has changed a lot of things in my life. It’s probably the biggest change in my life. To think that this change occurs in almost all of our lives which is considered a perfectly natural experience baffles me beyond explanation. After all, people have been having babies ever since humans were created. Pah, there is no surprise here.

Though it’s human evolvement to grow from 2 to 3 and so on to create a family, I have found the whole experience to be life altering overnight. I have scared myself asking endless questions about how I would face a small tiny human being. In fact, even after holding my baby in my arms, I was alarmed at the reality that my days and nights were now mixed up, in a way I was not prepared for.

What followed next took my completely by surprise – which I should have foreseen (given that I had been pregnant for a whole 9 months). I lost sleep, I lost my days to nights, I woke up at wee hours to a high pitched wailing baby, I spent hours confused, fighting the hormonal mood swings ( which my friends like to refer) until I asked myself – whoa, do I really want this? Can I really handle this?

To be honest, I freaked myself out. I tried to talk to people endlessly to understand the concept of parenthood. Some said it’s the most toughest and craziest phase, some said you have to sacrifice whole of your life, some said you won’t know how time flies, some said it’s a beautiful experience and some said, you’re doomed for life. You won’t have a life anymore. (gee, that’s so encouraging)

I realized that people could have different perceptions on how they treated having a child in their lives. As I tried hard to make sense of my life, eventually but slowly, I began to fall in love. It happened gradually, without me realizing that my heart was opening up to another human being. And it didn’t happen the night I held my baby (which I thought was odd cos the movies show people being all emotional and cheesy once they see their baby).

But I did fall in love again which I had always thought wouldn’t happen. I did fall in love again with the tiny little human being. And I know that’s what all mothers do – they eventually fall in love with their children that lasts for a lifetime. I know that mother’s love is nothing to be surprised at – it’s all over the world. Despite being a mother, I became aware of the fact I could love another human being despite being in love with my husband which I think is a truly dreamlike experience.

I am simply baffled by nature’s ways. I know there are thousands of opinions about having children just like how we have opinions for almost everything in this world. I would simply like to call it magic.
To be able to fall in love again is magic.

James Cameron's DeepSea Challenge ( From Titanic to deep waters)

James Cameron's contagious passion from the end of the ocean.

Fear is such an integral part of our lives that we spend almost half our lives being scared about the next thing that's to happen in our lives. Then there are those people who look fear in the face and sail beyond and far. These people also face the same fears. Being scared is natural, which humans cannot live without. Yet, how we travel past the fear is all that matters towards the end.

One such man who has been courageous enough to explore the world of his dreams is James Cameron, better known as the director of Titanic. His documentary, Deepsea challenge talks about his dives into the deepest of waters on his submarine, DeepSea Challenger. For us, the ocean is just a world of water filled with fishes and mammals. But for this man who calls himself a curious monkey, looks at the ocean as the world of his dreams. His dreams are expensive, challenging and life threatening.

Who dreams about travelling 35,000 feet into deep waters all alone in a submarine, trusting on instinct and technology to keep you safe out there? James Cameron did seem crazy to me when he spoke about this dreams on the documentary. Yet, he has been able to make them true no matter what heights he had to drive to. It takes courage to be able to dream big, it takes bigger courage to be able to set them true.

While we live our mundane lives, doing the same thing over and over, because we have been told that living normal routine life is safe, content and acceptable, there are people out there who are breaking the taboo, letting us know that lives can be completely different if we allow ourselves to be courageous enough to dream big.

James Cameron's courage has definitely made me wonder if people could really set dreams true and create a change for human life. I am enthralled by his quote when he says , "Never compromise. Not with the stuff that keeps you alive".

How many of us compromise with our dreams?

That moment when I turned into a messenger!

Each month, I eagerly wait for the next issue of Reader’s digest because that’s the only magazine I have managed to be regular at. That’s also the only magazine I never grow tired of reading. I always end up finding something interesting.

This time, in the February issue (yeah, it comes way too early), I flapped through the pages skimming through my favorite sections first and then coming to the detailed ones later. There is an interesting yet short section called ‘Finish the sentence’. Reader’s digest publishes a prompt to complete a partial sentence each issue after which responses are published in subsequent issues.

In this issue, one response that caught my attention was this, “For one day, I would like to trade places with….. my autistic child, just to see the world through his eyes.” For some reason, I felt that the writer whoever had sent the response must have had her share of pain in life. And simply wanted to see the universe through her autistic child’s eyes to understand his world better.

I found it to be thoughtful, filled with plain love. The next instant, I reached out to the writer on Facebook to let her know that I liked her response. She was surprised that she had been published (she had probably sent the response months ago and forgotten all about it). She sounded excited when she learnt that she was published.

After exchanging our goodbyes, I wondered if I were chosen to be a messenger to her in that particular moment just to give her the news. It made me think that we all are, probably, messengers in some way to each other. It’s just that we don’t really know it all the time.

A dark day – Peshawar School Massacre

There are simply no words to explain what the world has just witnessed. It’s one of the darkest days we will live through and still move on with our lives. What else are common people like us are capable of? With anger and pain in our hearts, we can simply curse the utterly barbaric attack which God or the supreme power mercilessly, has allowed to materialize.

What is unimaginable is the endless, unspeakable pain of the families of the 132 children whose lives were cut short on a casual day to school. Who would have thought that a day to school would result in a mass tragedy for a huge number of families whose dreams must have been tied to their children? Some vicious venom made its way into the lives of these children and snatched away the happiness of these families, resulting in pain that will last till eternity.

Of course, the blame game has begun. But the truth is that, we all are responsible for this, as human beings. It definitely tells us that, we as humans, are far away from being called progressed human beings. It’s not the progress in technology or science or medicine or career that matters to the world. All these fields are just there to facilitate our lives. At the end of the day, what remains in our hearts is what truly matters.

Things are done. Deaths have occurred. For now, I would simply want God to give immeasurable strength for the mothers who have lost the apple of their eyes to a gun shot. This day will be marked forever in their hearts as the killing of dreams.

The ingredients for writing a book

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Have you ever wanted a book that told you everything about writing. well, here it is. I have penned down a book which talks everything about writing. But remember, any book can only show you the way. It cannot make you write but only you can do that. A book can only show you how it's done. There are plenty of books out there which describe about writing. There were some things which I never found in any books. So, I decided to write down one that can probably help someone who wants to know the business of writing.

Writing a book isn't an easy job. It requires a lot of effort from a single person to have a serious thought on a particular subject and put it down into words to produce a book. The labor of writing isn’t limited to writing alone for it involves knowledge in various other areas such as plotting, researching, editing, submitting and marketing. A writer has to possess strong command over language, has to be interested in reading all kinds of books and should have the motivation to keep himself going even when he wants to stop. A writer has to possess certain qualities to grow from being a beginner to being a well-read writer.

The book “The Ingredients for writing a book” throws light for the newbie writers who know that they want to become a writer but have no idea how to do so. A lot of people abandon their dreams when they have nobody to guide them. This book will teach writers on how to start writing a book and stay with it until it’s completed. This book is for people who have difficulty in realizing their true purpose for writing. It is aimed to help writers develop their writing style by learning the art of English grammar and implementing them in the correct technique.

This book will boost writers to generate more writing by having faith that the stories they write will definitely make a difference in the literary world.