A chance of a lifetime!

The audacity of the current world situation is  genuinely alarming and haunts us with loads of information from all sides. So keeping all of them in mind and going through these tedious times, let us take an opportunity to be the best version of ourselves exhibiting humility and kindness towards each other.

No other time than now on earth we would need the humility and generosity as much! It is like the whole nature is been asking you to be someone you always used to think u should be, but never got a chance to be, in your busy  life . So this is your chance to redeem,where the whole universe is conspiring to make us a better human being.

With a full stop to our busy lives we have got a world of exploration in front of us where we could explore our hobbies , our strengths,our family time. Beginning with inculcating good habits  in the young ones, to sitting together for deeper conversations with the older generation. It is an absolutely fantastic time to just reset everything we used to do and redo them in a finer way.

Ok! I know you must be thinking it is easier said than done but the options with us are really limited and this tops the list of the things we must do. I still wonder how our lives has shrunk to a smaller caliber that too on various deeper levels. The unlikeliness of the situation has been daunting us, pushing us to deviate from all our plans of earlier life, doesn't it feels like an earlier life?

A life where so many things were taken for granted, roaming around freely, hanging out with friends even going to a grocery store which is now obstructed .We are not left with anything but ourselves and hence its a best opportunity to change, not only the way we live but the  whole thought process. These times already have showed us that how temporary our world is and however much we think that we are stable and prosperous , we are always on the brink of extinction. The paradox of having been planned for next 10 years straight and fixing goals of far future feels so foolish all of a sudden when we couldn't see all this coming!

Conclusively I firmly believe that humility, kindness, gentleness and compassion goes a long way, and it shall remain till the end with us. Spurts of helps and looking out for each other is something we all should start doing, with rigorous times coming ahead. Do your bit by calling an old friend and catching up from where you left, posting positive stuff online, developing interests and hobbies, checking up on your neighbours , participating and promoting creativity even while on video calls with family,  involve in deeper conversations with your parents and offsprings, it is a golden time to bond with humanity and lets do bit by bit by eliminating the unfavourable elements and spread positivity in these fragile times.

Pic courtesy : quotefancy.com

Nothing like before

Unanticipatedly the whole  formula of  living changed swiftly! Things which were important are somehow negligible and the things which were not given much importance are now a luxury.Imagine how much we took people, things and surroundings for granted, until all this happened we were still grasped in the cliched petty issues whether about relationship,work or certain friendship. 

Now all the jealousy, competition,branded shopping, travel flaunt is put to a full stop, just to save ourselves! So basically we were living a materialistic life until the outbreak and one fine day the switch got reversed  confining us to our home to save lives! This proves that afterall we started running this race for supporting our daily life only and somehow  got jumbled up with all the flashes and frills while running and forgot the basic goal of why we were running so fast? To introspect then and now everything looks so tiny and meaningless.

 The selfies with friends have become a a mere screenshots of numerous video calls, the instagram has become more of a stage to showcase your hobbies instead of being a market place. Virtual travel trips are a new thing, schools and students are struggling with online classes. Netflix has become a trend and a way to kill the boredom. Restaurants are a far fetched thing and cooking at home and putting up the videos are the "in" things.  News channels have no other topic than the current situation, and curfew is the new way of our daily routines. Quarantine and lockdown are the most used words on the internet. Hugs and kisses are being missed , coffee shops are now treasured the most after toilet paper (lol) malls and movie theatres are not even in the list of "places to be" and everything is zeroed down to existence and storage of daily necessities ( how ironic!)

Still missing the larger picture of what perilous situation we are dealing with; Everyone is trying hard, really hard to be as they were before but it will take time to settle with everyone that world is never going to be the same..and gradually we will learn to live in a new found way with sources available on our disposals.

Pic courtesy @thinkingmindspage

Being an Ordinary parent in these Extraordinary times

Being a mother of two boys ,aged 5 and 8 , I was enthralled and baffled upon hearing this pandemic outbreak. It started in December in China and since then almost all countries are battling with it now, as the cases arrived here in our country,the schools got closed in the third week of February hoping to open April and now extended till October . Earlier hearing this news as a parent I was intimidated and then I understood the fragility of it!

Well, as parents also we were not ready to handle such a preposterous event, suddenly we are expected to fit into a lot of roles along with being a parent like a teacher, friend,coach etc . Not only pondering over the academic shortcomings but also of the extra circular activities which the kids are now devoid of! I felt an urge of devising a plan to keep them updated with their academic level as well as keeping them carefree and loved in this difficult times.

Hence It drains my energy everyday thinking of how else can I make a day better and fruitful for these kids.Limiting screen timings, finding books to read for them, researching on a new craft, keeping up with a bit of academics too !But that's just one part of the play and I have another parts too to play as well, where I have to manage my baking venture, home and mountain of other daily tasks and responsibilities.I am sure a lot of the Moms must be feeling the same as me that we are depicting  Noah  from the Noah's ark --stocking up, keeping calm and handling the kids keeping them indoors.

First of all take it easy, breathe and don't be so hard on yourself as a parent, you have to provide all of it but it is really not humanly possible.Therefore stop being guilty of what you are not able to provide,  but yes educate them about the problem and tell them that they are safe and loved.Take one step at a time to keep them engaged , as we are bound to more and more social distancing .Plan one activity a day and bifurcate it into series of  activities on the same topic throughout the day.

Kids take up lot of our energy and generally its hard to keep them bounded to a thing for a long time. But, well if you give a little structure to their day and they will be sorted and happier. I am huge fan of "routines" and adhere to them strictly enough.Hence I started with making a routine for them where we do similar things at similar time every day whether it be creative time..bed time..reading time..learning time, and their beloved screen time. Almost a month now that the school closed we are still sticking to routines and its helping me to be sane for sure.

Despite being a referee to my kids' fights everyday I still wonder how they get so much energy to fight about every petty thing, and I realized that imagine if that energy is not being able to invest in right directions! These are hard times but we can learn many things and make them learn it too. There are a many online platforms available to keep them engaged. Of all, its the best time to introspect and teach them the best, on life and being a better human being,  also about their environmental responsibilities.

We don't know how long and how far we will be into it,as these staggering times are difficult and much challenging to deal with kids . These are out testing times and also of building up our pile of patience to handle everything around.

I know we have too much on our plates as a person, but let that not vent out out and reflect on kids, instead let this free time for kids be a creative and educative one, with lessons they learn from us each day and what we choose to make them do.

Happy Parenting!