Happiness Matters

Dear Readers, "Motherhood is a different ballgame altogether!" Whenever my mother watsapps me or calls me, she asks - Did you eat? Probably this is the universal question of all mothers. And like all other children I get irritated by this question. I used to wonder all these years why is she after my food intake. Another equally irritating behaviour of her is hypertension. Now that I stay miles apart from her, phone and wats app are the medium of contact. If I do not answer her calls or if the last seen of my wats app is several hours ago she starts panicking. I wonder why is she like this when it comes to me. Because otherwise she is a very cool headed person. Ironically today I am equally uncool, hypertensed, all time freaking out mother just like my own Mom who's only motive in life is to feed her daughter properly and who always finds her daughter to be thin each time she sees her! Lol! I am aware that I have this problem but I dont wanna solve it. Strange?! Isnt it? ...

Dear Diary, "Pregnancy is over hyped but motherhood is not" By the word "over hyped" I mean once you are pregnant so much thought and panic is created by the people around you that at the end of the day you also tend to think only about pregnancy all the day. Thankfully, I didnt indulge myself in this overthinking process. For me pregnancy for a woman is a natural process just like physical changes for a girl when she enters her teenage life. So, I continued the normal activities in my entire pregnancy period starting from doing all household chores to attending office physically. Since covid episode and lock-down started in my 3rd trimester and there was no maid in the house, I did clean utensils and did cook. In pregnancy you are not supposed to lift heavy weight or bend and pick things from floor - I followed these. The thing which kept me physically active till my delivery time was exercise and walk- every day I used to walk (of course slow walk) for 1hour and I...

Hello Maa. Hello bol kmn achs? Valo aci. Tomar bazar esce to online theke? Ha esece. Tor baba ki krche? Ei to ekanei ace. Phone speaker ace kotha bolo. Hago tumi keyecho? Ha keyechi. Tumi ekn bazar dorona jeno. Na dorini. Dorjar kache roeche. Ha ekn thak 24 ghonta. Kal nun jole dubie rode sukie tule reko. Achha sei valo. Tumi mone kore tomar osud gulo kheo. Ha khabo. Ei deko Bouma ki bolbe. Ha Bouma bolo. Maa, bolcilm je tomar hater muri ghonto ta ki sundor hoe, tomar chele khabe bolcilo. Lockdown kobe je kulbe. Tumi barite eka atke porle ar amra sobai ekane. Sei to. Amaro ki mon ta kharap lagche Babu. Kobe je toder dekte pabo. Tomake bollm video call ta sikie dicchi phone, tumito bolle parbena. Ami ki osob pari re, sekele manus. Oto bujte parbona. Achha Maa recipie ta patio to muri ghontor. Ha patachhi. Amr diary te lekha ache. Chobi tule patachhi phone ta reke. Ok. Sabdane theko. Dorkar lagle phone koro. Ha re Babu. Torao valo thakis. Keye nis time moton. Phone ta reke ekta sostir ni...

Dear Diary, This is Dec 2019. Just now I saw my anomaly scan report. I not only have completed 20weeks of pregnancy but also have a good news, the anomaly report looks fine. Never have I ever waited so eagerly for the result of my medical reports. Exactly 1 year before I lost my first baby. On Dec 2018 I had miscarriage. The reason - the foetus stopped growing, only the sac inside which the foetus stays was growing. This is what medical report says. But for a mother that was not just a foetus but her child. When doctor showed me my child on the screen while conducting the anomaly scan my eyes became wet. Each time my usg happened and I saw my baby growing inside me tears used to come out- tears of happiness. Now I realise why mothers are so sensitive towards their children and from where do their tears come. A baby is not only the dearest one for a mother but the baby is a part of her body. For the ones who do not know, anomaly scan is done at 20th week of pregnancy to check if there i...

Mumbai city is called "City of Dreams". It's not just the city or the ample of opportunities that make this a dreamland for many, but the people and their attitude towards life make this the "Business Capital of India". People here understand one thing "To work". So if you want to work this city will provide you what you seek for. It is said once someone comes here, the city engulfs that person and it becomes very difficult for that person to leave this city. Well this is true! And what is the secret? No not the vada pav or the pav bhaji, not the Bollywood glamour, not the Marine Drive, not the high end lifestyle but the right attitude of the people who live here. Here you will not only get whatever you seek but you can lead a life without being judged and stay focused on your goal. I came here 3 years ago, but now I just don't stay here, I live here! Mumbai life is incomplete without its weekend hotspots. Weekend destinations are so many. F...

Covid 19 has disrupted our lives. Govt has ordered supply of only the necessary/ basic items i.e grocery and medicines would be there. But the irony is that the idea of basic need is different for different sets of people. Let's look at the following set of grievances: A: "My maid is on leave. Thank God I have my house keeper who works here for 24*7. But how much can she take up the work! I have to help her in pulling curtains sometimes. Struggle phase for me, phewwww!!!" B:  "Parlors are closed. Oh God! Why they had to close the parlors! Are these not essential? Plus now I have to help my Mom in daily chores! I hate Corona!" C: "No maid in the house plus we are working from home. Double work for us. Over and above this since, we are staying at home all the time due to lack of physical activity we do not feel hungry. God knows when this phase will end!" D: "So much pressure now what to post on social media, as I cannot hang out with...

When the biggest doubt is "Will you survive?" then why not make use of the time that you have. Think these 21 days in this way - what is it that one thing you wanted to do provided you had time. If this is the last few days of your life how you want to spend these days without going out of your home. What is it that makes you happy, actual happiness, bring joy to your soul, may be tears in your eyes! Each of us will have different answers. After reading these many of you would think "Where is the time for all these, Boss? We are working from home plus since there is no maid we have to do the household stuffs on our own. Double work for us!" But I am sure amidst the schedule you get sometime in a day to look through the news update on Corona Virus or Covid 19, you surely take out time to browse through Amazon Prime or Netflix, you surely browse for one or two innovative cooking recipes in the internet. So why not think about that one thing which has kept you...