My Off-day:

There are days when things just don’t go the right way. You are completely put off by the turn of events and don’t know how to deal with it. Today was one such day. Things kept spiraling down-hill from the moment I got up.  And by the time it was 7, I had thrown in the towel and wanted to call it a day. So frustrated was I, that I decided to apply for leave, stay home and sulk.

Then, I remembered reading a quote somewhere which goes something like this; “No matter how you feel - Get up, dress up and Show up”.  Something told me this was sound advice. So, I picked up the pieces, got dressed and showed up for work. It’s a blessing to work in a school, you know, because unlike the other jobs you are not stuck in your cubicle staring at the wall or your monitor all day; where the day’s events keep repeating themselves in slow motion, again and again, making you feel worse than before.

Here, once you step inside the gates of the school, all you can see and hear are smiling faces and squealing kids, where the worst thing that can happen is a forgotten homework. You have absolutely no time to even think about your worries, let alone brood over it. The morning events are a blur and completely forgotten by the time you come home. And by then, you have a whole new perspective about the things that seemed so impossible just a few hours ago.

Spirituality – Now…do we know what it really means?

I didn’t. Most of us think we know what it means when we hear the word spiritual. It generally translates to a person who is getting closer to ‘sanyasa’ which means letting go of attachments towards worldly possessions for the sake of attaining god. This was my perception too…mostly. I mean, I never felt the need to think beyond this point.

But a big change in perspective came a few months ago. I would like to think that it was because of yoga (as it happened during the same time I started attending yoga classes). Incidentally, reading (I must say re-reading as I had read this book before but it didn’t make an impact on me at that time) Robin Sharma’s “The monk who sold his ferrari” did help to some extent in creating an intrigue towards this topic. Now, don’t get me wrong; I am not taking you through some spiritual experience of mine. I was a skeptic and I am sure you are too…

Once this new interest took over me, I started doing a little research and turns out that spirituality has more to do with mind power. Being spiritual actually means being in total control of yourself…your thoughts and actions. Ahhh…now you know why we associate spirituality to sages; because they are the ones in this mortal world who have the power to stay calm and composed, have complete control over their thoughts and actions.

We don’t have to renounce worldly possessions and head towards the mighty Himalayas to become spiritual. We can do what we are doing; Be a mother,father,son or daughter. Be a banker, software engineer, doctor or a business man. You could be anybody. Just cleanse your thoughts (read “remove negative thoughts”) and reflect inwards more often. Allocate time in your busy schedule for self improvement.  Imagine what it would be like if we could control every single thought that enters our mind. We could react differently to situations and in turn change the course of events that follow. We would become a better mother, better father…..a better person.

“As you think, so you become.....Our busy minds are forever jumping to conclusions, manufacturing and interpreting signs that aren't there.”

This quote started making sense. We slowly and steadily fall into the trap of developing negative thoughts from as early as our childhood. Always imagining the worst case scenario, so that, anything that happens will not be as bad as we thought it to be. This kind of negative thought process gives  us a false sense of power over our situations but in reality,  we just keep falling into an endless trap of negativity, which ends up ruining the way we look at life in all its glory.

Be positive. Think positive. How many times have we heard or read these statements? This is the most profound statement you will ever hear. We need to stop taking false cover under our negative thoughts and stop being in constant fear of any wrath which will befall us if we think positive.

Let’s take a bold step, let’s become spiritual and allow ourselves to think positive and reap the benefits it has to offer.
Being Spiritual, is being a better you.

Yoga – As I see it

I never really felt the need to exercise either to lose weight or stay fit. I was quite ok with my weight and only took to brisk walking during morning hours just to improve my stamina. (This routine too never stuck with me for more than a couple of weeks, as I found it difficult to stay motivated for long). Then slowly the aches and pains associated with neck and shoulder started occuring and reccuring more often than I could manage. A few tests and an MRI later, I was told that I have spondylitis and a few exercises to correct my spine were recommended. Then came along a mild pain in my hip joint which would occur only when I sat down on the floor. The pain was only in my left joint and it would slowly aggravate to a point that I couldn’t sit down any longer.  After shelling out a few thousands to different ortho specialists, the realisation that my body is not as flexible as it used to be dawned on me.

I traced back the root cause for this inflexibility to our modern way of life. From getting out of bed to using a western closet to sitting on chairs or sofas all day, we have completely lost the habit of sitting criss-cross on the floor. The thought of managing pain with medicines was not what I wanted as a long term solution.

That’s when Yoga came to my mind. Imagine all this wisdom lying around us for centuries and all we look for are quick fixes. We often come back to the basics only after everything else fails.

I turned to yoga only to increase my flexibility and as with anything novel, I was completely floored by all it had to offer. From breathing right, correct postures and simple asanas that stimulate our glands and improve bodily functions to self suggestion and active relaxation, yoga is all about treating our body right. And the best part is that you don’t feel exhausted after a yoga session, contrary to that you feel relaxed and refreshed.

People think yoga ideally means twisting your body to unimaginable postures (of course there are such complex asanas) but a few simple stretches and deep breathing with intermittent relaxation can be called yoga as well. The best part is, the simpler poses have almost the same benefits as the complex ones. What better news than that for an ameteur like me.

There is so much talk about yoga being this and that, but if you ask me, yoga brings you closer to yourself.

My balcony garden

It was last year that we finally moved into our own apartment after what seemed like an endless wait. Every aspect of the house be it the rooms, library, kitchen or utility was meticulously planned by none other than yours truly. Months of designing, color coding, researching, brain storming with the carpenter and hunting to source materials, had finally taken shape. Though it was tedious, it was a wonderful time!! I enjoyed every bit of it. It is a dream come true for anyone (especially true for ladies) who has within her a little interior designer raring to come out. Putting together things that reflect your personality and changing a house into a home, is well, endlessly rewarding.

Once everything fell into place, there was still one thing that I hadn’t ticked off my list; a little garden of my own in my 11th floor apartment. Yes, a garden with white and pink bougainvillea, beautiful yellow Alamanda, fragrant passiflora and white bunches of madhumalathi branching out on my balcony railings. Hanging pots with ferns and asparagus and colorful pots with Anthuriums, roses, jasmine, hibiscus, areca palm and…. a papaya tree too.

Once my balcony garden was ready with all the plants on my list, It finally felt like home.

                               
               

The changing face of teaching…..

In today’s age of information overload, parenting styles, education, career choices and everything else under the sun is undergoing a paradigm shift in their outlook. It’s no wonder then that teaching as a profession is also experiencing a silent yet radical change.

Gone are the times when teaching was considered the most boring of professions; and might I add, the profession known to be chosen by those who couldn’t get a better job….(Yes, I am shocked too but I hate to say that this perception is true). The new age teachers come with backgrounds as varied as IT, corporate, medicine, engineering and accountancy. What is the reason for this change and why are more and more people looking at teaching as a career option?

As a society, we are in a transitional phase. As we are trying to question the existing norms, we are also trying to understand why our traditional ways still hold good.

As I look at my generation, most of us between the age group of early thirties and forties, I see one thing in common; worries about the value system of the current generation kids. This one aspect is triggering many other underlying issues such as increasing cases of children left in the custody of people other than parents, which in turn is resulting in lack of supervision on computer/TV time, poor eating habits, inadequate exercise or playtime routines, lack of proper study habits and of course lack of manners and a general don’t care attitude in children.

Our generation is also the one which had seen the IT boom that paved way for the middle-class Indians to fulfil their dreams of working abroad. This experience has made most of us aware of what we are missing when we are in foreign land and made us appreciate our own culture and diversity.

Money not being the deciding factor for a career choice anymore in most of the middle class households, people are now looking at job satisfaction and quality of life as opposed to the earlier mind-set of more money equals more happiness. This job gives you the flexibility to be creative and have a well-balanced work life, which is what most of us strive to achieve.

Teaching is attracting people as it is gives them a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction of bringing about a positive change in the quality of education. It also gives an opportunity to mould young minds who are the face of tomorrow. And this is why we need intelligent and passionate people in this field, more than in any other profession; I personally know teachers working with me who are IIM graduates, Alumni of BITS Pilani, IT consultants and Published Authors. With better remuneration and benefits at par with other professions, this growing trend can be made more promising and exciting to encourage many talented people, passionate about teaching to take this up as a profession. 

  

Off to the hills...

As we left Chennai behind and drove towards our weekend retreat, a sense of relaxation started to set in.  Now let's just rewind a couple of hours. Of course, all the things that can go wrong on the D Day took its course. We had packed all the possible things we would need on our trip and planned to hit the road by six thirty to escape the morning city traffic and save on our travel time. But of course, as always, firstly, the alarm doesn't go off, so we had to hurriedly jump out of bed and rush out to get ready. Secondly,  my daughter refused to wake up and decided that the world wouldn't come to an end if we start an hour later. Kids! Now what do they know,  except to complain later when we're stuck in traffic. So finally, when reasoning failed and threatening began,  she got the point. Then of course my son, who couldn't go anywhere without his cricket kit (and I mean stumps and all) , his transformer toy and all the  bare necessities a ten year old boy can't live without, had to be packed . Finally and I  mean Finally, after ticking off the check list for last minute things to be done before leaving the house, we managed a group hug (this is a tradition we love to follow just to bring everyone into the holiday mood,  thanks to my dearest hubby) we are in our car cheering in  chorus - yelagiri here we come.

The three and a half hour drive to the nearest hilly terrain, yelagiri,  doesn't seem to be too tedious,  does it.  Not if you have two kids simply allergic to the idea of  travel. The mere mention of it can spell disaster in our household.  So, right from the minute we left our apartment premises,  the infamous phrase "are we there yet"  was the only mantra we heard for the next 2 hours. Thank god for the music we took along that saved the day. We had downloaded the kids favourite songs just the day before. What a life saver....(sigh).

Another minor abberation to our plan was that the online purchases (which usually don't arrive without much following up), miraculously began to arrive one after the other at our house right about the time we crossed the city limits. But nothing could stop us from enjoying our holiday plans, we decided, and yanked the music a little louder to drown all the mundane thoughts in our minds.
Soon the scenery around us started changing.  From the hustle and bustle of the city life, we were suddenly in the midst of serenity, surrounded by hills and grassy plains with very few signs of civilisation. The surety that we were in the lap of nature came when we lost cell phone signals and network.. (wink wink).  We could feel the daily routine of hurried monotony melting away and giving way to a relaxed and laid back mind set.

As we drove past the hair pin bends, we could feel the sweltering heat of chennai taking a dip as the fresh mountain breeze started to blow on our faces.

We were pleasantly surprised as we entered the property  where we had booked a cottage. Nestled amidst greenery, flowering shrubs and fruit trees,  it was just the place we were hoping for. Vast acres of green space with cozy cottages, hammocks and park benches, huge trees, birds chirping, swings, exotic plants, kitchen garden and duck pond,  it was an ideal getaway for my family of four.
For my artist daughter,  cricket fanatic son,  outdoor adventure loving husband and a person like me who would love to curl up with a book or sketch, this seemed to be a perfect place to unwind. This private property managed by two brothers had everything a nature lover could wish for - including a private trekking path starting from the premises with our own guide,  a cheerful old farm helper.

Day one was reserved for lazing around and nothing else - apart from us trekking to sunset point and a few good games of badminton, followed by a hearty dinner.

On day two, the weekend crowd started pouring in.  Voices of kids squealing and chattering filled the air. A nearby location for adventure sports beckoned. After a couple of hours of adrenaline rush, we returned back to our oasis for a sumptuous lunch. There is nothing like a short nap on a lazy Saturday afternoon, is there?

My daughter accompanied by her sketch book didn't leave the cottage and my social butterfly son, chased new friends around, played ring ball, badminton and random games and never entered the cottage. Post dinner, a roaring camp fire was an ideal way to wind up a beautiful Saturday.

Day three,  started out with an early morning nature walk around the 10 acre property with Korean grass pathways,  bamboo grooves, trees like mango and guava laden with fruits,  geese quacking, birds chirping and the sun coming up shining brightly. Equipped with a nikon camera deftly around my neck, my hubby and I had a field day clicking away trying to capture the beauty (if that's even possible) in a vain attempt to relive the moments later. That done, we were ready to leave, rested and rejuvenated.