What’s your Legacy.. Material or Memories?

 

What is our legacy for our children…Material or Memories?
Childhood stays as the most cherished and beautiful phase in anyone’s life. What our kids would reminisce most about their childhood? How our kids would remember us eventually? Let us take a moment to ask ourselves and reflect?
We are struggling day and night for securing a better future for our children. In the process of facilitating them a luxurious lifestyle, pacing up with peer pressure, somewhere, securing in the future , the present itself is getting missed.

Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.”    Richard L. Evans 

The early years are the formative years, casting an impression of living a life. Are we setting the right example? These formative years develop a strong foundation of a kid, cultivate into an emotionally secure human being. So the involvement and the attention required from the parents is the most in these years. When we remember our childhood, the most endearing moments are our happy times with our parents…Hence the most precious thing we can give to our children is our time…quality time. We are sacrificing the together time fulfilling the demands of our children with their favorite branded toys, gadgets, video games. Of course high life, better education and secure future is important but where is the limit? Parents are the school for life for children. If we are mentally absent translating our love with material assets, we might not be their idols, friendly mentors than just being their financiers. The balance is important to maintain and actually live a quality life.

As somebody has profoundly quoted:
To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today. Anonymous

Life is unpredictable, and for any reason, we leave this world earlier than expected, then all memories our child is left behind with is the time we have spent with them and developed long lasting memoirs.

Shower your love, and valuable time to let them miss your absence even when you are alive and away. For some grownup teenagers, parents are just walking ATMs, and it’s not merely their fault.
It’s a choice to make, be their financier or be their lifelong mentor, friend and a loved parent. It’s time to get mentally, emotionally and physically involved with your child, , sculpting your tomorrow. That’s the best investment in your kid’s future and one step ahead towards Holistic parenting.

Preet Key Phool

प्रीत के फूल 

कुछ शिकवें हैं  

नासूर से, अंगारों से 

दफ्न हैं मेरी सिम्त में 

दहकते सिन्दूरी लाल 

ना छेड़ो इन्हें कि ज्वालामुखी फूट जाएंगे 

इंतेज़ार है तो बस उस बरसात का 

जब ये दह्कते शोले बर्फ़ हो जायेंगे 

इस ग़र्म बेनूर राख़  में 

प्रीत भरे रिश्तों के फूल खिल आएंगे 

-मीनाक्षी 

Hope Seeks Despair

I am desperate

For you

I believe

So are you

The rain pours there

On the most dry patch

In the darkest backdrop

The spark Illuminates the most

If there is despair

Hope stays just the next door

When I seek you

Wholeheartedly, insanely

You will appear

Absolutely, Abundantly

Tick-Tock, We’re 30 : Book Review

     Book Name - Tick-Tock, We're 30
     Author – Milan Vohra
     Publishr – Westland
     Pages – 412
     Pricee – INR 250
     My Rating – 3/5
     

Snapshot

     Interesting, isn’t it, how someone is always utterly attractive to someone else? For every male tree frog, there is a female tree frog whose dry skin and warts and bulging eyes are the most divine. And to you, Lara Bagai, a karela is a thing of beauty, Nishad comments.·    
So he remembers I love karela. So what?I take it your interest in frogs is purely academic? I snigger.  'I promise you I am not in danger of being madly besotted by one anytime soon,' he half-smiles.

·         The clock is ticking towards Lara’s thirtieth birthday and the whole gang is coming together to celebrate it. It’s a pact they made back then to meet when they all finally turned that age. So far, so cool. What isn’t cool is the other pact Lara had made one tipsy evening with Nishad. To marry each other if neither of them were hitched by then.

·          

·         The last thing Lara wants is to give Nishad the pleasure of knowing he was right about Ranndeep being so wrong for her. Ranndeep, all-male, pro-motor racer whom shed been so sure of at the time. So there was only one thing to do. Lara would have to drum up someone else to pass off as her love interest for now. Enter flamboyant Perzaan, Turkish dude full of surprises. With the reappearance of Ranndeep and the gangs other quirky characters, its a week of audacious hookups and mix-ups. Chances are you’ll be guessing right till the end who ends up with whom, if ever.

My Feedback

                

The story line associates youth, and the plot is appealing on the happenings and reunion of friends on protagonist Lara’s 30^th birthday. Some characters and events, and the setup where the gang of friends plan to rent a house in the same society appear nostalgic and easy to associate with. Lara’s meeting with the hero Nishad is interesting and her tryst to convince having another man in her life. The most interesting part is planting a fake Turkish boyfriend as a banker and the sequence of mix up after that.

And the way protagonist Lara is portrayed as a Tom Boyish woman, with a witty sense of humor and her description of her hero with physical details in an aesthetic manner. Especially , the sequence where Lara bumps in to two ladies in the painting exhibition and tries to read and sync their minds. But after mid way , the no. of the characters and their specific characteristics, get jumbled up in mind creating confusion, when the reader feels forced to find a reference about Sita the man, thin Riya, fat Riya, Lara, Nishad, Aunt Nair, Ranndeep, Lara's parents, Faviyo, Perzaan etc.The book offers melodrama, a bit of romance overpowered with non stop mental commentary and everyday sequences with flashbacks all happening in a paced up manner, 

So overall, it’s a light read and I appreciate the sense of humor the most, and the witty remarks splattered all over with dialect idioms and jokes and thank the author having portrayed Lara as today's woman. But the no. of characters and the length of the book, both could have been reduced to do the reading better and enjoyable.

This book review is a part of the Promotion conducted by Women's Web, a leading online e zine for today's women

Nakshey

नक़्शे

इक उम्र  खर्च हो गई
मैं वो नक्शा ढूँढती रही
तुझ तक पहुँचने का
तेरा दीदार पाने का
तू मुस्कुरा कर रोज़ मिलता रहा मुझे
उन नन्ही किलकारियों में ,उन बेपरवाह खुमारियों में

तू सामने हँसता रहा , मैं ऑंखें मूँद कर सो गई
मंज़िल ए मक़सूद  भूल कर बस रास्तों में खो गई

- मीनाक्षी ( 24 जनवरी , 2013 )

Are You Working ?

Are You Working?

......In any casual gathering, party, meeting, the inevitable question hits me sometimes like a lightening instantly after a name exchange or so in few secs and sometimes it slithers like a serpent after a chat of few minutes of introduction etc.….And now when I get attacked, I am prepared, 
I start with my historical background to earn some respect for my present status of being just a housewife and gradually declare my current status….

So are you working? A woman mostly befitting the 'working' criteria asks!

Oh yes, more than ever! I am working 200%....Although I have worked for 10 years in IT but now as a mom of twins I am working more than I have ever worked and please note that there is pure heartfelt joy in this current work. With no complaints and lot of love as remuneration.

What about you? Are you working? I usually ask to be courteous and feed the ego..

I am an investment banker, a program manager etc…and the answer comes with a proud posture with a dash of pity in those eyes for me.

And the words flow from the working woman for consolation...as I had pressed the agony aunt button in hers...

Hmmm……. that's good, you have taken a big decision or decision is often replaced by sacrifice, a career sabbatical, or being laid back in life….but often after the profound declaration of being a housewife…the discussion takes pauses with courteous goodbyes or other excuses…and I choose to be too dumb to not understand the loss of interest accident just happened.
All I want to ask is
Does a success scale exist where we all women/mothers have to compete, get measured and rate the success of life depending upon the status quotient or how independent as a woman I am?
I may be dependent on my husband for the financial needs for a while or forever but that’s nowhere makes me less independent as an individual.
What I propose as a common scale which can be measured is the smile/happiness in one's heart and one can choose to be smiling and happy woman/mother in life regardless of being employed. 
Moreover,A woman/mother is always working so the question is invalid. 
What are your thoughts?

Public Disclaimer : I do not opine that all women who are working possess that superior complexity syndrome but citing those accidents which I have faced and perturbed me. I have lived the life on both sides of the spectrum and for me personally both sides are beautiful and no cast of being working/non working make me any less.

ना आना फिर इस देश लाडो

ना आना फिर इस देश लाडो

पहले 

संजोए थे मैंने हज़ार सपने,आई थी जब तुम मेरी कोख से बाहर 
तेरी वो पहली रुलाई भूल नहीं पाती हूँ , बस मंद मंद मुस्काती हूँ 
बनना है तुम्हें इक डॉक्टर , मानव और समाज की सेवा को 
रखा है इक लाल जोड़ा , तुम्हे दुल्हन सा सजा देखने को 
रोज़ तेरा माथा चूम कर दुलारी, मैं तुम पर बलिहारी जाती हूँ 
तेरी वो पहली रुलाई भूल नहीं पाती हूँ, बस मंद मंद मुस्काती हूँ 

अब

अब सांस तो लेती हूँ मैं लाडो, बस रो ही नहीं पाती हूँ
सोचती हूँ उस काली भयावह रात को , सिहर कर भूल जाना चाहती हूँ

नहीं,शायद यह सच नहीं, बस एक बुरा सपना था
कि तड्पी थीं तुम उस रात एक अदद चादर को
जो ढक सकती मेरी दुलारी की, लहुलुहान काया को और आत्मा को
तुम तभी बस में मर जातीं तो अच्छा होता
की यूँ जलते ज़ख्मों से यूँ ना सामना होता
अब तुम्हारी आखिरी सिसकी को भूल नहीं पाती हूँ,
मैं ज़िंदा हूँ बस रो ही नहीं पाती हूँ
मैं तुम्हारीं क्षमाप्रार्थी हूँ
इस माँ की उजड़ी कोख़, की है मेरी निर्भया को गुहार
ना आना फिर इस देश लाडो , ना आना फिर इस देश लाडो

- मीनाक्षी ( एक माँ ) जनवरी 05, 2013