Vocal Mama

Yesterday was women’s day. My phone was bombarded with women’s day messages. I am home-based now but I remember being showered with gifts and chocolates on women’s day when I used to physically visit office. All that feels nice, isn’t it? Everyone loves to be treated with warmth and we women are no exceptions. But is this all what we need in general or on women’s day? I think more than the material items, we need and deserve the gift of freedom, the gift of choice, the gift of being.   Starting from very beginning, our birth is not celebrated as much as a boy’s. We are still considered as a liability than an asset. No matter how good we are at studying or sports, we must know how to handle house hold chores; there is nothing wrong in learning and doing household chores, what’s wrong is the bias around it that only women need to do all that. We must learn the art of respecting and pleasing people and the list is never ending. When we grow up and start working, we usually encounter m...

Yuvaan was 7 months old when we took a family trip to Agra in 2020. After that, the pandemic hit and left us home-bound. Now when things were settled, we planned a small trip to Rishikesh. It’s a 4 hour drive from our place and seemed do-able with a toddler. One of my cousin’s family (him, Bhabhi, and their adorable 8 years old daughter Anika) joined us for the vacay: the more; the merrier. Y has met Anika numerous times and he loves her to the core, he calls her Anika didi. The trip started with both these kids chilling on the backseat of the car. They played, ate, and watched peppa pig on A’s tablet. No fuss, no tantrums, only fun and joy. The trip felt like a cakewalk. After 2 hours, we took a halt to chill and eat. After lunch, both the kids slept and parents enjoyed the quite time.   We reached Rishikesh in another 2 hours. Y was elated and excited to look at a water entity and the hills. We took a boat ride and both the kids were so happy that they denied to get off the boat....

14th January (Friday) was my father in law’s birthday. We and specially Y was very excited to celebrate his daadu’s birthday because birthday means balloons and cake. The birthday celebration was a hit but while finishing dinner, my mother in law complained of body ache and fever. We gave her medicines and quarantined her immediately. Her RT-PCR for COVID was scheduled for the next morning. She tested positive. Since she was already in quarantine and we had heard that omicron was showing mild symptoms, we did not panic. We consulted a doctor and started her medications. The house-help was asked to stay on leave indefinitely and hence, that responsibility came up to me but since it was a weekend, things were manageable. Saturday went okay except for the fact my own mom tested positive too, she was away at my cousin’s and felt fine. Mum in law felt fine too. None of us showed symptoms. And then bam! Sunday came. Y was normal till lunch but then suddenly started vomiting and had high feve...

 2021 has been the worst year of my life and that’s solely because I lost my father in 2021. Well, that lost is irreplaceable and unexplainable and nothing/nobody can ever change that. The memories of his death still haunts me. But, keeping aside the fact that I can’t ever get papa back and I blame this sucky year for that, 2021 taught me a lot of things which I don’t think I would have learnt any other way: 1. Death is inevitable. We all are going to die and thats a solid reason to make the most of this life. Do what makes you happy. Work hard party harder.  2. Help yourself. Nobody but you should be responsible for your own life. Keep some money aside for the unfortunate times. Secure your and your family’s future. Get medical insurances. God help them who help themselves.  3. Expect nothing. This one is the toughest but expectations only cause sadness. Don’t expect people to come and spoon-feed you. Take the steering of your life in our own hands. Its your life and you...

Toddler and tantrums are synonyms. Y was a calm baby but as a toddler, his emotions are no less than a roller coaster. Sometimes he is easy to distract and sometimes he is impossible to. At home, we somehow manage to respond to his demands but once out, he becomes 10x difficult of handle. We have a mall nearby where we usually take Y on weekends. Y loves to take the toy-train ride there. This weekend, we went to a different mall where there was no toy-train for Y to ride. He kept searching around for train ride the whole time and when we told him that there was no ride there, he threw a fit. From that moment till we got back home; Y kept crying for the train ride. He was crying and sobbing as if he had lost something very pricey. This was not the first time that something like this happened. These tantrums are now a part and parcel of our lives and I am sure that this scenario is persistent among all toddler-parents. So I thought to share a checklist here which I swear by while handlin...

Having a positive outlook in life is crucial. Stress and negativity does more harm to us than we can ever imagine. I was under a lot of stress since my papa passed away. I even had anxiety attacks a couple of times. Things just did not make sense. I was always blaming myself or someone else for the situation I was in. The world seemed pale. I always felt either sad or mad and dragged myself to function every day activities. Some days were better than others but most were cruel. I have hardly ever been this anxious and stressed earlier in my life so I did not have an idea how it feels but now I somewhat know how it does. It feels like as if you are caged in our own thoughts, you try but you can’t get out of what your mind is consistently thinking. We, as a society, don’t take mental health seriously but our body actually cannot differentiate between mental and physical trauma. I struggled but eventually took over my anxiety issues and the following things helped me the most: Talk, talk,...

Yuvaan recently fell sick. He had fever on and off for five days. One minute he was fine and next minute he was warm, vomiting, irritated, and crying. The five days of fever were like a nightmare for us. He was just not taking his medications, was drowsy plus super clingy. His nose was blocked and he was coughing. None of us (Y, S, and I) slept properly for 4 nights. But this time rather than focusing on what happened and how it happened, I would share what helped me get pass it. Here is a list: ➡️ Have patience and a lot of it. ➡️ Consult the pediatrician ASAP and abide by what he/she suggests. Do not just do not start your gharelu ilaj and delay the doctor visit. ➡️ The baby will be clingy and cranky so put everything aside and focus on the baby.   Every other thing can wait. Cradle him, comfort hi m, hug him. ➡️ Babies hate medicines. They will sometimes throw up immediately after the dose. So, use a dropper or medicine dispenser to give medicine. Dispense the medicine at the en...