"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...