From Deepa's Desk

Schooling-wise, my son has had an interesting journey so far. After spending his pre-kg years in a kindergarten school, he got enrolled into a new school and started his first year there. I have to say that his first year was the only year that went smoothly in school. Thereafter, COVID clutched the whole world in its fists and led to a nationwide lockdown. Vedant spent the next two years 'studying' from home, attending online classes and doing just about everything except for studying. While I do not miss those chaotic days, I will admit that they were hilarious and funny too, if we ignore the studying part.  In his fourth year, the school finally re-opened in the month of July. But then, it closed again as the buses had not started operating, which led to the return of the (in)famous online classes. The funny part was that, we live in an apartment which is just five-minutes away from the school and don't even avail the bus service. The online classes went on for another m...

Mornings are usually rushed, what with the kid's school, husband's office, tiffin and everything clashing all at once. I wake up by 5 and before I know it, it's 8.30 already, the kid has left for school and husband has left for office. Time literally flees! I have been following a particular routine every morning. I usually prepare tea for the household while sweeping the house. I know this sounds weird, but I boil the water and milk at very low temperature so that the tea soaks in some more flavour from the tea powder. By the time the tea is prepared, I am usually done with the sweeping. Then I mop the house, gulp down the lukewarm tea, rush to take bath and start preparing breakfast.  Since few days, I had been feeling a bit disgruntled on waking up. The prospect of all the tasks looming ahead started overwhelming me. Actually, the sense of disgruntlement started descending right from the night, just before I went to sleep.  I pondered on this for some time. It wasn't...

I came across this wonderful musing today. It contains a world of wisdom.  I used to believe that happiness would be a gift, that there would nothing more wonderful than to be happy always. How it makes me chuckle now! For starters, it is impossible to be happy always. If you do not believe me, try waking up with the oath that come what may, you will be happy the whole day, and what you get is a whisper from the Universe - 'Challenge accepted!'.  It didn't take me long to realize that happiness doesn't come alone. It brings its shadow - grief - along with it. Where there is a wave, there is a hollow somewhere. Where there is a high, there is a low. Where there is a mountain, there is a valley too!  This realization taught me a very important lesson. More than being happy, it is important to be contented. You can train your mind to be contented and to be at peace. I have been trying to do this since a long time. I would be lying if I say I have succeeded, because this is...

I came across this beautiful word yesterday. Coincidentally, it was also the day when I went to my kid's school after a long time to pick him up. He has been coming home on his own since many days now. Yesterday I went to pick him after a very long time, almost a month.  I happened to meet some parents with whom I used to cross paths regularly. Conversations were very rare, for, there was just about enough time to collect the kids and leave the school. Yet we often exchanged nods and smiles. Sometimes, a tired and amused look when the kids would be in hyper-active mode due to the high of leaving school after what was undeniably a long and boring day. But there was a mutual understanding between us parents. Even though there was no communication, we could relate to each other as parents.  As I met some of them after a long time, a new realization came in. I saw them for the first time in a new light, not just as parents but people with stories of their own. They must have come ...