Wo(a)ndering thoughts!!!

My dear pre-teen,  Part of me wants you to stay young and innocent, but life gets to us all and you grow, and I have to grow as well. First, I want to thank you for putting up with me and my parental demands. You take me by surprise every single day with your patience, focus, attitude, and how you face challenges that are thrown at you. I’m so grateful to watch you grow the way you are growing with kindness, satirical sarcasm, to-the-point-arguments, your excitement to be involved in every adult conversation, and your logical and strategic thinking- you are the best ‘IDEA’ man I know in this world. Thanks for teaching me how to reach for the moon and stars.  This is going to be a big year where you are going to face your first breakups and first ‘goodbyes’ to the wonderful community of friends you grew up with. I don’t know how much you can understand that now, with some of your friends- this might be it. I hope you appreciate their presence in your life and the impact you

Recently I had an interesting conversation with a friend over lunch. The conversation only got interesting when we started talking about cultural differences between the East and the West. I grew up in the East but spent all my adult life in the Western world. She on the other hand grew up in the Eastern-infused Western world. What I mean when I say Eastern-infused is when the first-generation Eastern migrants like us move to Western countries and raise their children in a mix of both worlds. For example, I pick and choose the festivals and customs I could do given time permits. Celebrating Holi and Dandiya is not part of my upbringing but is practiced now. Since these celebrations work well in connecting with my friends. I have seen some strong Eastern and European families holding on to the traditions and culture for generations after migrating to Western countries.  One of my Italian colleagues makes her tomato passata for the entire year every Feb and it’s a family event with

Often, I have a casual conversation with A and get surprised by some of his responses which I find very profound. I don't know whether he understands the meaning of it or it's the way children brain work - stick to rudimentary thinking, we adults complicate everything unnecessarily. I have recorded so many of our conversations in my other related posts, but this one deserves a post on its own. Little things matter  be it a gesture of care or love, last night I was down (blame the hormones!!) and was lying next to Aaryan who was busy watching TV. I turned around and asked him whether he would love me forever, he asked me “ What do you want me to say amma! ”. He was genuine when he asked me what I wanted to hear so I would feel better. He knew it was a silly question that I asked, but his presence of mind to check with me when I was feeling low was true blessing. Incident from the past , this is during our recent trip to Mildura and it was a longggg drive(7 ho

We are aware of the jet lag, you know when you travel to a place of different timezone, your body would still work in previous timezone. However no one talks about this lag that comes with Daylight savings change.  Recently we turned our clocks back an hour, I noticed I have been exhausted by 7pm and going to bed by 7.30 (and actually sleeping by 8). I thought it was just long day with work, workout and school holidays  drop off /pickup, house work and all of it. but this has happened consecutively last 3 days. That made me think, its not me its the TIME CHANGE that impacted my routine.  Now Im hungry early and want to sleep an hour early.   By the time I get used to this new time, Spring starts for 'new' new time change and it feels like a vicious cycle. Having said that adjusting to Spring time never felt this hard, I get to sleep early even Im not tired. But turning the clock back an hour is a nightmare. On the brighter note, we are now officially in the best season of the y