After what feels like eons, I binge-watched a show. Never Have I Ever season two dropped on Netflix this past week. I am a sucker for young adult stories – books, films, shows and, magazines. It gives me a peek into what it could be like for my daughters growing up in this country. That…
Last night, I stood up in a room of over 150 adults, mostly white, and spoke up. My heart raced. My phone registered four instances of my heart rate going over 110 when I was not doing anything physically active. I was at the local school board meeting. I have lived in two school district…
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I start my mornings with a steaming cup of coffee. It is my quiet time, a time to slowly wake up. In the past, I have browsed through the news as I sipped on my coffee. These days I look at the heavens on my phone. The moon moves the fastest, followed by the other…
A couple of years ago, I started searching for videos predicting the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election, not data-based predictions but ones based on the US Sibly chart or the ones that used the then contenders’ charts. As I listened to astrologers opine about planetary placements, I watched because, at that time in…
It has been a day since I got back from a week of solitude. I am firmly back in the grind, laundering clothes, cooking, cleaning, washing the kids’ hair, and meal planning. It hit me with force when I lay down for a nap in the late afternoon, how easy it is to slip right…
I spied my youngest through the window. There was a bounce in her step and a book in her hands. Her backpack jogged along as she hopped, skipped, and ran her way home from the bus. The excitement was catching as I opened the door and she thrust her yearbook in my hand while talking…
This week, buoyed by stumbling on a couple timing techniques and some concepts not yet taught in my astrology class, I bravely agreed to look at the birth charts for a few friends. These are people I know online, meaning what I know of them comes solely from the curated version of themselves they put…
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A few times a week, I am on the verge of blowing up. The things the people in my family do want me to break things, raise my hand, yell or cry. Thankfully, most of the time wisdom prevails. I hold back, breathe hard and, walk away. The few times I do things I regret,…
Nostalgia is part of who I am. I meticulously track birthdays, death days, wedding days, and anniversaries of all kinds. I used to be able to remember dates. I used to call, email, text until my forties hit me with a vengeance. At my last annual physical, I had trouble recalling words in order. I…
I stepped out in the evening sun with my three daughters. It is a ritual I look forward to each evening, at least when the sun is out and the temperatures are warm. We amble along the sidewalk, covering about a hundred homes. We stop and stare at beautiful blooms. We enjoy the birdsong. We…
I am at my table, my laptop open to a multitude of browsers as I google health conditions, after effects, treatment plans. On the side lies a pile of paper caps with hand drawn dinosaurs on them. It is adorable. It is annoying. I love the art my children create. Yet, it becomes overwhelming sometimes.…
All of this week, I have been going through the motions at home, at work, and everywhere else that requires my participation. My heart hurts. My head hurts. I feel like an imposter feeling a sense of sadness and bereavement about people I do not know too well. These are deaths in the extended circle…
Read more National Foster Care Awareness Day – Second Nurture
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“I’ll get it Amma…” The snippet was part of some inane conversation in the morning as we bustled around getting ready for school and work. I would have missed it had it not been for the funny flips my heart did when I heard Amma instead of mommy. Motherhood, for me, is the destination of…
The words are relentless. They appear on my Twitter feed. They show up in my WhatsApp messages. They sneak into my FB Messenger. Sometimes, they even make their way into my now largely defunct email inbox. Each word, each sentence is a life. It is a friend. It is a friend of a friend. It…
Sunday evening, I watched Moxie while my kids watched The Little Mermaid for the gazillionth time. The movie started well, was predictable, had good acting and by the time it was done, I was disturbed. The premise of the story is great, so why doesn’t the movie deliver? This question has been in my head…
On average, I field 2-4 calls a month from hopeful adoptive parents. Sometimes, google throws up my name. Sometimes, they stumble on my blog and reach out. Most of these people are desi like me. They are away from the homeland and are mulling adoption for one of two reasons. “I have tried all avenues…
As we creep up on the end of Spring and anticipate the balmy warm weather, FB memories show me the lead-up to last year’s book release, the back and forth between the publisher and me. The many, many edits, the trickle of illustrations from the lovely Niloufer. The marketing plan that got refined with each…
The pandemic and by association, the seclusion, has afforded me a lot of time to think. I think a lot most days. It is my default setting. I am either reflecting on the past or planning for the future. My thoughts almost always revolve around family or the future me. It is, but natural that…
