"A labyrinth of Unpolished Scribbles"

  Which School Does She Go To? If I had a rupee for every time someone asked me this question, I'd probably have enough to pay for a few years of school already. My daughter Rael is three years old. She doesn't go to preschool, and we are planning to send her to formal school only after she turns four. For some reason, this seems to be a very big deal to many people. Rael has always been a talkative and social child. Even when she was around one and a half years old, she would happily talk to people wherever we went. Shopkeepers, neighbours, strangers in queues, she would greet them, smile, and start a conversation. People would often ask me, "How old is she?" When I told them her age, they would usually respond with surprise. "Really? She talks so well for her age." "She's very smart." Then, almost without fail, came the next question. "Which preschool does she go to?" When I replied that she wasn't going to school, I would get p...

Today, I experienced one of those quiet parenting moments that stays with you long after the conversation is over. I was reading I Miss You: A First Look at Death by Pat Thomas to my daughter, Rael. The book gently introduces children to death, grief, and the emotions that come with losing someone we love. As we read, we came to a page explaining that when someone we love dies, we often feel sad and miss them. I paused for a moment, expecting the usual questions a three year old may ask. Instead, Rael looked at me and asked, "Amma, do you still miss her? Are you still sad?" I asked, "Who?" She replied, "Mummy Ammoomma." Mummy Ammoomma was my grandmother. She passed away when Rael was just one year old. For a moment, I was completely speechless. I never expected her to connect the story to a real person from her own life. Yet somehow, she had connected the idea of loss, sadness, and missing someone to a real person whom she knows. Then came another questio...

These days, I have been thinking a lot about life. Just through everyday experiences. Small disappointments, tired days, overthinking nights, and quiet moments where things suddenly made sense. Through all this, I have had a few honest realizations. One big thing I am learning is to stop keeping too many expectations from people. Earlier I used to believe that if I gave my time, love, care, and emotional support to others, it would naturally come back to me in the same way. But life does not always work like that. Not everyone thinks, feels, or gives the same way we do. Accepting this truth was hard but also very freeing. Another thing I have realized is that it is impossible to make everyone around you happy and satisfied. No matter how much you try, someone will feel upset, misunderstood, or expect more from you. For a long time I tried to keep everyone comfortable even at the cost of my own peace. Honestly, it was exhausting. Slowly I am learning that it is okay to choose myself som...

It Doesn’t Take a Village to Raise a Child , It Takes Parents People often say that it takes a village to raise a child. The idea is that relatives, neighbors and society all play an important role in a child’s life. While this may sound good, I believe that when it comes to parenting, the responsibility should stay with the parents. Parenting is a personal journey. It is something parents do with love and intention. Only parents truly understand the values, routines and ways they want to raise their child. Too many opinions and advice from others can easily cause confusion. It can also take away the peace and consistency that children need. This does not mean that children should grow up away from others. In fact, being around grandparents, relatives, neighbors and friends is very important. Children should be free to interact, explore and learn from different people. These moments help them develop social skills, empathy and confidence. But there is a difference between being part of...

  Every day, we wake up to disturbing headlines. Another woman has died by suicide. Another daughter is lost. Not by fate, but by prolonged emotional and physical abuse she went through in her own home, the very place where she should have felt safest. And in most of these heartbreaking cases, there is a painful pattern. The family already knew. After the tragedy, we hear statements from parents and relatives. "She had told us he was abusive." "He used to beat her, we knew she was unhappy." "We believe he is responsible for her death." But here is the question that haunts me and should haunt all of us. If you knew, why didn’t you pull her out of that pain before it was too late? Why is it that a woman has to reach a breaking point before her suffering is taken seriously?  Our society still glorifies a woman’s ability to adjust. She is expected to tolerate, forgive, and endure. She is told, “Things will get better,” “Do not ruin the marriage,” “Think about ...

  Parenting is beautiful, but it can also be really hard especially for mothers. From the outside, it looks like a happy journey of watching a little one grow, but deep inside, there are many struggles we rarely talk about. Talking to other moms made me realize that most of these struggles don't come from the baby, but from the people around us, family members, in-laws, and relatives. Almost every mother I spoke to said they were not allowed to raise their child the way they wanted. There were comments and interference about what the baby should eat, how and when to sleep, and how the mother should act. One mother said her mother-in-law kept giving her toddler sugary snacks and junk food, even after she had asked her not to. Worse, the mother-in-law told the child, "Don't tell your mother," which made her feel helpless and betrayed. As a working mom, she couldn’t monitor everything at home, and that made it even harder. Another mom shared her difficult postpartum days...

  It’s heartbreaking to see how some people treat helpless animals. Recently, I heard about newborn kittens being thrown away, taken from their mother, and left to suffer. It made me wonder how can anyone be so cruel? Do we really have the right to decide which lives matter and which don’t? The Bible says in Proverbs 12:10, "Good people take care of their animals, but even the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." Just like we love our children, a mother cat or dog loves her babies. Imagine how painful it must be for her to lose them. No mother deserves that pain, whether human or animal. Many believe that hurting innocent beings brings consequences. Life has a way of giving back what we put into it. If we show kindness, we receive kindness. If we show cruelty, it can come back to us or our loved ones in unexpected ways. Imagine if someone took a newborn baby away from its mother wouldn’t that be horrible? Then why is it okay to do it to an animal? The Bible also says in Mat...