Small steps, long pauses

When a child is born, the whole world jumps in to help. The well-being of the child takes precedence over everything else.  Parents sometimes move cities, states or even countries to ensure the right surroundings for the child to grow up in. As the child grows up, again, there is help at hand on how to manage every aspect of the child's growth. From building emotional intelligence and acquiring social skills, to honing inherent qualities, developing life skills and academics. There are scores of books on parenting. And this starts from the womb. Case in point: the book ‘What To Expect When You Are Expecting.’ The title says it all and the slew of information continues.  On the other end of the spectrum are the Elders. It is said old age is a ‘second childhood.’ This is because, like infants, older people sometimes lose control of their senses and also become dependent on others and require care. But that is where the similarity ends. Take a pause and think — have you read an...

I turned fifty yesterday! Many relatives, friends and acquaintances congratulated me and wished me many more years ahead. I too, had been waiting to turn fifty and now I finally am! I had written about this last year. It was like reaching an important milestone. I couldn't wait! However, since the past couple days, as the date drew near, I had been feeling a strange sense of distance from the whole idea of 'I'm fifty!’ Don't get me wrong… I'm still excited about turning fifty. But it also brought home the fact that I have been around for five decades! Total fun trivia: that's 600 months or 2600 weeks or 18263 days of existence! It felt a bit overwhelming. I also felt old… not old as in ancient or outdated or worn out or weatherbeaten. I felt old as in wise and experienced and aware and considerate. Even vintage, like wine that gets better with age. We celebrate these milestone birthdays of 18, 21, 30 and so on, each marking a significant point of transition from...

My last post was towards the end of January, and February was Board exam time for my daughter, and us too!! She has Board exams on loop this time of the year for three years and this year being the second one, we felt strongly the need to have at least a short holiday before school related activities for the next academic year (her more important one yet) started building up. I was keenly waiting to get away from the usual routine and do… nothing! It was also going to be the first time we went away from our usual places of visit since i started using the wheelchair outside the house. Actually, we did travel to this place called Olde Bangalore, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, last year, for about two days. That place is totally wheelchair friendly, whether it is the entry to the resort, access to the dining area or the rooms — which, by the way, are tents about four or five feet above ground level. There are ramps everywhere! One could go all across the resort seated in a wheelchair. So ...

We are already almost a month into the new year and the buzz of celebrations has died down. We are all back into our usual routines after some bit of downtime in vacations. I have been pondering over what I can write about this month and figured there isn't any one topic that I could write about. Towards that end, can I request you, dear reader, to put in your thoughts, reactions or comments in the blog itself in addition to or instead of only on Facebook? The reason for this is that the blog has a wider reach as some friends forward it further to their friends and acquaintances. Thus the responses reach more people. Who knows what interesting conversations could then spark? (And also give me ideas for future posts!) I have been in a strangely reflective mood since some days. I have been thinking about how my life has played out so far and I realised that before MS started interfering in my daily life, I had only just existed and not lived my life. The past few years – with MS robb...

Planning to go on a vacation, looking to change the home decor, upgrading the car, buying a hot-selling home appliance or even moving house? How do we do this? In the past, all we did was check with our trusted friends, read about market trends in the newspapers, discuss among family and a decision would be made. Life was simple and uncomplicated. All this was before technology invaded our lives. Now, thanks to the Internet, we face an overload — an information overload. There is information, lots and lots of it, an infodemic, about every single thing one can think of. Be it for the usual suspects like home reorganisation, food recipes, shopping for self or or be it for the more specialised areas like healthcare, architecture and more, one can find information in excess on the Internet.  What happens when there is so much information so easily available? Well, I can only cite my own experience with it. Twenty years ago, when I was first diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, there was...

How is it that age and time are so inextricably linked? Our perspective about time changes as we age. And with passing age we begin to value time. When we are young, say until the first decade of life, there is no concept or understanding of time. What matters is the here and the now. I would say that is the primary cause of all childhood tantrums and meltdowns! We do not understand what 'later' means.. that's as good as a 'no.' At that age, we can't think of tomorrow or next week. All that matters, all that exists is 'now.' Then in the second decade of life, suddenly 'now' and 'later' exchange places. The teenage brain often likes to be in a state of constant inertia and can't be bothered with hurrying up anything. Why do something 'now' when it can be done 'later?' (I have first hand experience of this with a teenager at home!) Then, we step out into the real world and find everyone is running a race, a race to achie...