learnings

It was with great pain I read about the death of the little girl Sherine aka Saraswathi in USA. The child had some special needs and the adopted parents failed in their duties to understand her and parent accordingly. One may ask if they were her biological parents would they have done so. Well there is no clear cut answer. Biological parents have also been known to be harmful to their wards. Parenting is no easy task. Yet society puts tremendous pressure on couples  to become parents. It is a crime towards the child. It is amazing to note how we think that parenting comes naturally. Maternal or parental instincts may be present naturally in most of us. But parenting is not instinct. It is a task that comes with huge responsibility. To be responsible means one has to devote time and effort. Here effort is engagement- engagement with focused attention. So before considering having a child biologically or via adoption the couple has to consider if they are physically, mentally ,...

https://www.parentune.com/parent-blog/why-do-children-lie-the-psyche-of-lying/2747

An old man with matted beard came up to me asking for alms. I do not encourage begging but there are exceptions like this old Man who would have been almost 75 years. When I gave him money he thanked me in English. His voice and tone suggested that he had seen better times. I was pleasantly surprised to hear him speak fluently. I got curious and I began chatting with him.  The first sentence he uttered was , "I made the wrong choices. Now I am paying for it. " And I asked him the reason. His name is Prakash. Prakash owned a distribution company for ITC. Plenty of money passed through his hands. He did not bother to save. He spent all of it on entertaining people in posh hotels. His mother would warn him every day that he ought to save. He did not pay heed. His vices grew.His wife died of asthma. His daughter died of brain tumour and his mother of old age. His biggest regret was that he could not afford treatment for his daughter. His money had all gone. So were the so...

I had been to a play that was adapted from the very popular movie 12 Angry Men.  This play was obviously adapted to Indian context.  12 jurors contemplate if an 18 year old boy form the slums was guilty or not,of murdering his father. Each juror contemplated from his/her viewpoint. The social inequality- after all he was a slum boy so he would have done- shone through several jurors. It was exciting to note the predictability, the emotions and the debate. I was discussing this play and our social prejudices with a highly educated friend of mine. He said very callously, 'well what is surprising, aren't they capable? In real life if this were to happen we would judge the boy as guilty. After all a slum boy. They are like that!' So the play reflected our mindset?  Scratch the surface and the real layer is revealed is it not. After all we see the world as how we are brought up - secular, communist, capitalist, optimist, pessimist, discriminatory, comic, tragic, morose, ...

I visited the USA to spend time with my 7 month old granddaughter. I had a lovely time and gained another perspective in pregnancy and childrearing. 1.        The pregnant woman is not treated like an invalid: I was amazed to see pregnant women happily swimming and exercising in the pool. It is easier to do leg lifts in the water. The pregnant woman goes about her tasks as usual till she enters into labour. Neither does she eat for ‘two’. She eats wisely. Hence it was refreshing to see slim and healthy pregnant women. 2.        After child birth- On the 5 th day they are up and moving about, if they have had a normal delivery. They are taking the new born in the stroller for a walk too. Both parents take equal responsibility of raising the child. Hence it is wonderful to see the father so active in taking care of the infant. The couple become self- sufficient. 3.        Raising the baby-...

I read the other day that transgenders were requesting the media to support them. They emphasized that if the media lends support to their voices and life issues, the society would be more accepting. I usually listen to Radio 1 or Fever on my way to work and back home. Today happens to be the birthday of a celebrity producer and director. He has come out clean that he is not straight. Both the radio channels were making a mockery of his voice and identity. I felt pained at this insensitivity. And to my incredulity one of the RJs made fun  of a racist bias held by the same celebrity. She mentioned sarcastically that the celebrity was here to cleberate his success of distributing the film Bahubali. recently some in Bollywood commented that Bahubali was a tamil fim when in reality it is a telugu film. So this RJ mocks at the situation emphasizing that Tollywood and Kollywood are not the same. So was it the pot calling the kettle black? we get so infuriated about such bias but do ...