Petals!

Start of the day is when we want everything to go smoothly for us. The productivity of getting a task done, the milestones involved, the effort of teams or maybe supportive systems - a lot is at stake whether you are working or managing the home. Start of the day: What the Spiritual Masters Say The ancient, wise men who guarded Indian traditions and beliefs knew what they were talking about even back then. They knew how important it is to start the day with a sense of awareness and mindfullness, something we are all struggling with. In fact, many of us don't even wake up peacefully. However, the Hindu scriptures clearly differentiate between following a spiritual master and following an Avatar. That would take me several posts to write so I am not getting into that. The spiritual masters I have researched about include Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Ramakrishna Paramanhansa, Swami Vivekananda, and several Buddist spiritual leaders. But please note that while I am not a followe...

Here's another art and craft project that Adi had got from his school. So, let me explain how we worked on it. He was given a printout of a giraffe's image and told to do something creative to make it look interesting and environment-friendly. I was like "How can you make a giraffe look interesting? All i have is a printout." Well, then I spotted an old birthday wrapping paper that looked flowery and I showed it to Adi and we both liked the idea of putting that as a kind of background for the giraffe. So first, Adi colored the giraffe in shades of yellow and brown. Then he stuck the giraffe onto this wrapping paper. But I felt though it looked good, something was still missing. That's when I fished into the Lindt Box   and saw a green post card promotional that was about saving electricity and carbon. The context was different of course but I liked the message that it was giving. So, I cut it and Adi pasted it. It felt perfect. What do you think?

There's a beautiful white Lindt box that I kept when a dear Uncle gifted the chocolates to my son. The box has 'Lindt' in golden letters. It is a compact white box that looks too chic and expensive to be thrown away. Well, I kept it. For a very long time, I thought to myself, "What do I put in this box?" I had nothing to put in it. Then, Adi's school began. Projects of one sort or the other began to come in, sometimes weekly, monthly or quarterly. While many parents in his school prefer to get them 'custom made,' I saw it as an opportunity to flex my weak 'creative design' streak. I am pretty bad at it but I thought "Why don't I and Adi learn together?" So, there began my collection that found its way into the Lindt box that was still in pristine condition. In the Lindt box, I would collect scraps that we would normally throw away such as bright chocolate wrappers, old postcards, brochures of any company that they use as promo...

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs - you've created more than an Apple for the world. Before you departed, you've created a whole new world. Today, I believe that Death is a great teacher whom we don't have to fear. Reason? Because life is a preparation for a new beginning after death. A caterpillar has no growth if it remains a caterpillar, does it? It has to shed its existing body to rise anew. Instead of running away from what it represents, we need to prepare our life for the truth called Death, with every breath we take, every step we take and every action we decide to go forward with. As Steve Jobs say, there's no time to waste & there's no reason not to follow your heart. The choice is ours.

Mother is that special, incredible & irreplaceable person in your life who can completely turn your world around and be there for you when no on else cares to. From a fiery, trendy and highly stylish young woman who played terrific basketball and knew the right dance moves and had the audacity to assert that she'd absolutely no belief in God, my mother's journey to becoming a woman of traditional values, materialistic restraint and spiritual strength is nothing less than incredible and amazing. But that calls for a separate post altogether so I won't go into that:) Mommy, you've taught me so much about life and relationships without saying a single word. Your life - the simplicity, the way you've led it, prioritized it and valued your relationships with such dignity - tells me more than any book in the world. And by now, I am sure you are smiling and I've got to tell you - I've always wished I had your seductive smile! I'd have been a...