Skip to main content

Posts

When act becomes expression

A recent experience of directing a drama with children opened up new perspectives to the mother and teacher in me. As I was pondering about the art of acting as someone in a story, it dawned upon me that children are born actors. Look around to see how natural it is for a young child to imitate others all the time, so well without any inhibition or filter. A child naturally lives in the other to understand what it means to be the other - it is profound learning, and hard work that they are doing. It is only later, through the years of growing up, we gain the ability to look at others as someone else from the self. Hence we grow the ability to empathise, that we can transform ourselves to feel what it means to be in others shoes and come back to the self - much like playing a role in a drama. As we grow, we invite many roles into our lives (father, mother, brother, son, aunt etc.) and juggle between acting in different roles. We act so well that we actually live in that role and
Recent posts

Perceiving Special & Ordinary

Last Saturday morning talk with parents was uplifting and I could visualise children growing deep in their connections. While we were discussing many things about how one could become more caring by being aware and more present, there was an interesting sharing by one of them. She said that how simple ideas are becoming revelations and it may appear to us that these ideas may or may not have a huge impact on life, given the broader perspective of how we all grew up. She expressed thanks to the current group of children, and that they are leading us to this state of enquiry. This was a thought-provoking share and thanks to her, it brought me back to my musings on why we do what we do today. I do not remember my mother or grandmother talking about showing care for my body or any of my cousins or to my own child. They simply did what they had to do. A daily ritual of Abhyangana snana from birth to at least next one year (or more) was more of an understood rhythm. Nobody discussed tha

Care - Extend it to where it is needed

Nothing is ever made to last forever, but we can make something better, extend its life, nourish it, nurture it and value it, so it is as good as lasting forever and as well becomes precious while it lasts. Isn't it? That saree, which was passed down from my grandmother is so precious. It is unique. I put an extra effort to keep it for longer. I wear it only on one of those rare occasions, rather the saree carries the definition on when it needs to be worn. I am mindful of how to clean it, fold it and place it in my wardrobe so it stays put well until the next time I get an opportunity to be with it. Same is the case with our own bodies. Babies have such supple, glowing and healthy looking skin. It gets wrinkled as we progress into old age. However we take all the steps to safeguard it and nourish it in every way possible. As my grandmother's saree and my own body is very unique, it comes naturally to me to care for them in a special way. It remains in my awareness that they

Why Wait For That Profound Moment?

What is your idea of a profound moment? Is it that moment, when something happens out of your control and yet leaves a great impact? Is it when you get your first pay cheque or get married or give birth to your baby? Why should we even look forward to one such moment? Profound moments are important in a way. Especially, when such a moment helps you to become a better individual, where you make choices with good intentions and better clarity. However if we leave them to circumstances, that we think should happen according to our expectations or societal norms, we might end up waiting too longer. Even worse, we end up being less content as the outcomes are seldom in our control! During my early school days, there was no television at our home. I used to go to my neighbor's place to watch TV once a week, and to be precise, it was to watch Mahabharata. My dad had all the time for me on weekends when he used to sit in one position for me, so I can play hair stylist and experiment w

When The Wings Are Ready, Let Them Fly

Once upon a time, my major thoughts were about potty! I know it sounds crazy but any parent with a toddler would understand, trust me, really! I used to fidget about how to get this boy potty trained! What is the rush for? I wonder how we tend to get unnecessarily worked up about the child's current stage and do not patiently wait for his age to take over certain developmental milestones? Why are we always in a hurry and why do we keep saying, " Hurry up, it's getting late! ". If you observe closely, sometimes we get late because of adults and not kids and yet kids do not complain. As adults it is our responsibility to plan and provide the environment in such a manner that things tend to go smoothly and avoid any disappointments of getting late or missing something. Why should a child hurry all the time? Also, have we questioned ourselves what great harm it can cause if we do not say, " hurry up! "? One day the boy was clearly getting late to school

Understanding What Is Automation In Today's World

What is automation? Does it mean killing the beauty of human nuances in a handicraft? Or does it mean changing the face of how we manufacture many things? What is automation, really? When you type the words, ' what is automation? ' and search online, the results include worlds apart meanings, such as - " the use or introduction of automatic equipment in a manufacturing or other process or facility"  and " unemployment due to the spread of automation. " An engineer might prefer the former answer, while a sculptor might favor  the latter! Let's ponder a bit... What is automation to an engineer could be completely different from, what is automation to a sculptor! Although the answers might turn out to be exact opposites, may be there is a need to refine our question from ' what is automation? ' to ' What is automation with respect to basic necessities of life? ' That brings us to the need of addressing  what is automation as per t

The Guilt Trip Of Structured Learning

I admit that I am a huge fan of bollywood music. And when I am in the mood for dancing, the more noisier the music gets, the better! This has been one of my struggles to strike a balance between my enjoyment and not exposing my child to age inappropriate music. He is five now. Bollywood and me There was a time when he used to watch bollywood songs along with me on TV! There I confessed! Sigh! So much for being a Waldorf parent! However, this episode was few years ago and I am happy to say - now I am out of that habit for good. It was not easy for me but yes I needed some discipline to not watch it in front of the kid. Anyway, we can always catch these amusing things when the child is not around. Once I was out of that habit, I joined bollywood dance classes. Come on, from somewhere I needed to get my dose of dancing for that kind of music! Added benefit being the start of a fitness routine, which I badly needed. Now, the next part was that I had to take him along. Again, he used