Tiny Toddlers- Let them have their fun!

Have you seen the popular TV advertisement of Reliance Big TV ? On hearing the first attempt of his little one to repeat simple words like apple, banana, the overwhelmed dad says Czechoslavakia!!! A cute one it is as an ad !

If we give it a little thought, most of us as parents do it. Our expectations on our kids soar up so high that we sometimes tend to forget to realize that we cease their freedom to even grow at their own pace.
It is three months and you want the tiny tod to roll over and lift his head, five months and he must crawl, eight months, you should see the first teeth and in one year, his first steps on!!! If something goes off the way, you panic and even if you don’t the social circle makes you to. “Oh, your son does not walk still, my neighbours’ daughter is one month younger and she is running. Why don’t you check with a doctor?” ….Well, that is it!
When the times comes for them to go to school, most of us under the name of the kids’ boredom, put them at play school even before they are two. I know it is hard for us to accept that we don’t find time to engage the kid at home and I am not an exception in that. Draped under the well fed fame, these popular schools, put up a milestone chart - social skills, gross motor skills ..what not! and poor little ones- just two years!!!!!!

If they do well, we as parent are not just satisfied. We want more from them. They say a rhyme, you try a story and it goes on and on. Of all things, whoever comes home, we take pride in making the little one recite and show up all his talent. But have we ever realized, how many times we hide our faces if asked to come on stage even for a game?

We want them so disciplined. But then tend to forget that it might curb their creativity. More learning comes through boredom and unstructured activities. Just leave them in the kitchen and see the wonder!! I know what it is to clean up the mess. But once in a while, we can trade off to see the real joy in the kid.

We blame the kid if we get the child a costly toy and he cares not about it in two days. Sometimes we even force them to play with it- might sound funny if we think of it now :). But how many of us as adults, got a tread mill and not used it after a week.

All this is not to convey that we leave our kid in its own way. Definitely, we need to groom them and teach them values, discipline and also bring out the talent hidden in them. Right from the days in womb, it is natural for us as parents to have dreams on our kids.But then lets not forget to give them their own pace and not curb them the joy of growing up by overtaxing them!

And ya,, this is just my thought and my experience and a learning as a mom. :)

Diwali shopping in T. Nagar!!

The festive season is on and the first thing that hits our mind is ---Yes! You guessed it right-Shopping! For people at Chennai, the word shopping on a festive season is complimented with the word crowd or you can say mob!


And when it is T.Nagar, I am running short of words! Though a whole lot of mega malls have been spread out around the city, people flock around this place like bees over the years. Even as we wonder what is so special here, we step into the crowd 

How much ever you plan in advance, you are the most fortunate if you have escaped the mob! There were days when only the branded shops were flooded but today, people don’t leave any shop. Hundreds of multistoried shops and each one of it are flooded with customers. Be it jewelry, clothing, footwear or for that matter a chat shop in the street corner!
Knowing all this, I set out shopping for some dresses for my family on Gandhi Jayanthi! Yes on a holiday!! I would say the crowd must have crossed the numbers, awaiting lord Balaji’s darshan at tirupathi on a Saturday! Mad rush! People just push you on the move and it is not surprising if you land up at a totally different place.

Successfully, I entered a not so popular garment shop with half the spirit of shopping gone after surviving the crowd. And to my wonder, even that was over flooded. Someone stamps on your feet, or just directly pushes you or snatches the dress you were looking at…That is not so ridiculous…Yes! there is no room for politeness, courtesy or etiquette! Customer service- That’s way too far to expect. Those irritable, tired faces- I definitely don’t blame them, rather pity them. They start off patiently showing every color and design and then realize the person is window shopping! If shopping for you is exhaustive, imagine their plight servicing the whole lot of people that too for extended hours.

So, if you are expecting all this then you are at the wrong place…Be a Roman when in Rome!!Do not hesitate to push someone or even forget all your so called etiquette to survive your shopping spree. Our sole mission is to shop!

If you get what you want then I would say- Mission accomplished! You can feel the pride equalizing winning a trophy on a sports day!

But then I must mention the excitement on these shoppers in spite of all this messing up! That what keeps the place on the move!! Never tiring and exploring!! Daring I would say :) ..Whatever said, it was an exhaustive experience for me and yet my mission was accomplished!!!

Going Green- A little thought!

Go Green, Protect the environment, Global Warming, save the power-we see all these words everywhere. Little do most of us have time for it.

When I heard about the principles of one of my friends on these environmental aspects, it sounded impractical or even foolish in this fast moving world in the beginning. But now I feel it is worth giving a thought.
A person high up in a leading software concern using only the public transport to commute, not only to office, but wherever he goes. In the scorching heat of Chennai, does not use an air conditioner, instead prefers planting trees in the little vacant land around his home. First one to switch off the lights or fans wherever he finds them unused, irrespective of where he finds it or who put them on. Of all things he once said in frustration about the traffic- if given a chance to be the PM for one day, he would compel people to use the public transport. Not only will this save us from pollution, but also would pave way for a hassle free traffic. Is that not a boon to Chennai?

Well, it may not be practically possible to do all this, keeping in mind our present day lifestyles. But then, we can sure do minor contribution to protect the environment which in turn is nothing but protecting ourselves and our future generations. Can’t we ensure to close the leaking taps, avoid plastics, car pool?. If we just give a thought, we can find quite many ways to protect our depleting environment by doing trivial changes in our daily activities. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean- right? So why not all of us join hands in this?