The blue sky

The other day, my friend from Accenture, Tanushree and I were talking about her son, Suhas, who is just 2.5 yrs old. He has his own choices when it comes to wearing clothes and he always picks up matching shoes. He knows what looks good and what not. I was amazed and went back to my childhood. How dumb I was when I was a 2-3 yr old kid? Whatever parents got for me, I wore it without even understanding what choices and color combinations are! But today's generation is too fast! Today's kids are 1000 times smarter than what we were and they have their own identities right from their birth. They treat themselves as individuals right from the time they start understanding. They want their own little things and they make their own decisions when it comes to what to wear, what to eat, where to go out etc. My little neighbor, Aarohi, also 2.5 yrs old likes to wear different accessories on different days. One day she likes bangles, the other day she likes to w...

Today is International Women's day. I am flooded with mails and messages wishing me about the same. I respect the sentiments of people who have done it. But then isn't it a borrowed concept from the West? Why can't we follow other good things from West like meticulous planning, dedication to work, cleanliness, encouraging women leaders and managers? I am not in favor of any such day celebrations. Especially, in a country like India, I think we all are hypocrites. We worship women as goddess, but at the same time the rape on women and the female infanticide and feticide rates are the highest here. Literacy rates for women in India show such a poor picture of how much importance is given to her education. This is an average and typical scenario in India: If a woman remains unmarried and wants to create a niche for her, she is looked with suspect and her potentials of being a virtuous woman are questioned. The ultimate aim which a woman can achieve he...

I went to office after a long time yesterday and it felt so different. I was working from home for a few days as I did not want to stress myself travelling in peak hours and sitting alone in office for 6-7 hours without any company is so boring. I was relatively free to take rest whenever I needed it at home and also work as and when I could. I had to submit medical bills and collect Sodexho meal passes from the office. I also wanted to meet my ex-colleague, Shilpashree, who was my first contact in Accenture, when I joined her team as a German translator. She was coming to my office for a training and we were meeting almost after 3 years. So, looking at all these factors, it was worth going to office. As my dad drove me to the office in the car, I suddenly felt strange. Throngs of people were rushing to their work place, kids were going to school, there were so many vehicles on the road and it was just 7:45 am. It was only me who was travelling after a long gap and I sud...

I am in my last trimester and preparing for the arrival of the baby. I was looking out for a middle-aged woman, who would massage the new born, bathe him/her and also help me with the post-pregnancy activities like giving massage, giving medicinal steam using charcoal etc. Being in Bangalore, I was finding it extremely difficult to find such a lady who would be able to understand what I wanted and also understand in return what she was trying to communicate. Language barrier poses problem when it comes to such personal things. In the mall culture, language hardly proves to be a barrier, because one speaks English there. But these rare and personalized services generally are provided by women who can talk only in their mother-tongue, e.g. Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, which are like Latin and French to me. So I posted a message on the marathi speaking e-groups in Bangalore asking availability of such women in the nearby areas. I am sure most of you know what an e-group is. ...

Madhuri was so excited that day over breakfast. "My leave for the long w/e in January is finally approved and I am going to Coorg with my husband and his friends". I was happy to know that because from the past 1 week she was speculating if she is going to get leave or not, whether she is going to enjoy the long w/e of 4 days! Madhuri was my new breakfast mate. She worked in the same team as my best friend, Tina. Tina left the company, but she introduced me to Madhuri and then when Madhuri moved to my office from another branch of our company, we started going together for breakfast and tea etc. We started chatting about various things on the Office Communicator. She previously worked in the same company where I worked before joining the present company. So most of our talks were how good that company was and how different this company is! She had recently got married after a courtship of 5 years with her boyfriend. They were a cool couple and they both worked in diffe...

When I was in Mumbai last year in September, I happened to go to a wonderful workshop on the insistence of my mother. She is well aware of all the important things happening around and wants me to get the best of everything. That workshop was organized by "The Manashakti Kendra", Lonavala. They conduct numerous courses related to personality development, mind development. Many people work there as volunteers who have devoted their lives just to make the life of other people better. You can check out their website here: http://www.manashakti.org/ My mom got to know that they also do workshops for the pregnant women to help them cope up better with their pregnancy and also help in giving birth to a baby, who is strong, sound in health and mind. They believe that the generation which is due to come to this world has to be very refined with good morales, culture and values and educating them can start right from the time they are in the mother's womb. I found this concept ...