Honoring the woman in me

I was always a tomboy. I loved wearing my hair short and had no idea how to dress up. I loved climbing trees, swimming, cycling, driving, dancing and traveling without caring a thing about what others thought. My brother and my male cousins were my best friends. I bonded more with my male classmates and trusted them.

It was when I became a mother that I started realizing the true essence of being a woman. I began acknowledging how much effort a mother puts in to raising her kids and family. A tiny dependent bundle of joy reminded me constantly I was the world to him. I started honoring the woman in me more after I became his mother. His unconditional love and hearing ‘I love you, mother’ every day acted like an elixir.

I had put on almost 20kgs extra weight during pregnancy. My first act of self-love was losing that weight. Running behind him 24/7 and sleepless nights, of course, helped.

My second act of self-love was treating my body with healthy food. I began to give attention to the food I cooked every day, trying to keep it nutritious yet tasty. To one who opted to eat out at any given chance, it was a definite improvement.

My third act of self-love was chasing my passion. I revived old hobbies like crocheting, sketching and painting. I became a more dedicated blogger and writer once he started play school. I became a published author.

These days, once a week the two men in my life treat me like a queen. I sleep in late in the morning while they go out for breakfast on weekends. They bring me breakfast and later on help me cook lunch and clean. It is our bonding day.

I am still struggling in various aspects of grooming. I hate going to a beauty parlor. I hate torturing myself through waxing and threading. I am so confused when I have to buy clothes for myself. I still get scolded by my sister for not giving attention to tiny nuances while getting clothes stitched. I mess up recipes. 

I don’t think I will ever become an ideal woman. But I guess I am enough. I love myself and what I have become.

I have come a long way from being the girl with bushy, unkempt hair and bizarre clothes. Having a big fan at home who considers you as the prettiest woman in the world is my daily ego boost. 

This post is a part of #MondayMommyMoments being hosted by Amrita and Deepa. 

Friendship, Blogging, Aliens and Hrithik

Image Courtesy: www.tinabasu.com

November is always a time for new beginnings. Being my birthday month and that of my baby, I always look forward to some quiet family time and travel. November is also the month of vigorous writing, being the month of Nanowrimo. Last year I had registered for it, but couldn’t write as we were mostly traveling. This time I decided to give it a miss for a multitude of reasons.

This #ThankfulThursday I wish to thank Tina for literally dragging me back to blogging. I had put Blogging on a back burner in the last few months as fiction writing had taken priority. I didn’t get much time to blog. If I did, they were just random outpourings from a tired mind.

I believe that people come into our lives for a reason. They might arrive with a lesson or for a season.I had met Tina during the Game of Blogs by Blogadda in 2014. We belonged to team ‘By Lines’ which went on to win the competition. This inspiring lady surprised us daily by being completely involved in the discussions, editing, posts and also the huge amount of research that we did. After all, we were writing Sci-Fi fiction. All this while working at a hectic day job at an MNC. Because we clicked as a team, four from the team came together and created the best-selling anthology ‘A Little Chorus of Love.’ Our chat group on Facebook still remains the place where I unravel my bundle of doubts, troubles and also finds inspiration and ideas. 

 Now she is a busy mom and yet she finds time to maintain two blogs, be a hands-on mommy, cook awesome dishes and yes, she is active on social media as well. She also stood by me during one of the darkest phases in my writing career. I am forever grateful for that.

Being Scorpios, and having birthdays adjacent to each other, we are almost twin souls.We share many common interests. We LOVE Hrithik Roshan and would kill for him. Any Hrithik hater will face our wrath. 😈 We can discuss him for hours and moon over him for days. And yes, we have seen UFOs in namma Bengaluru. Believe it or not! Perhaps our aliens (the very ones who helped us throughout the Game of Blogs with various twists and turns) had decided to visit us and thank us for spreading their message.

I know I will post at least two posts weekly because of her. And I also know I have a friend who will never fail to inspire me, someone who is just a click away. Touch Wood!

Thanks are also due to Amrita and Mayuri for the Thursday and Friday prompts respectively. My blog will be eternally grateful to you three.  

This post is written for #ThankfulThursdays being hosted by Tina Basu and Amrita Misra