Rekha's Ramblings

Now that I am focusing on rediscovering myself and writing is something I always wanted to do, I went to our local library last week to attend a writer’s support group meeting, to see if that’s something I could do. It is an informal group for anyone who wishes to write, aspiring writers of all ages and genres. It was my first time going there. So, they asked me what do I usually write about and or what do I want to write about and why. I said I usually write about whatever comes to my mind, I call them my "ramblings".   They are in a blog form and mostly about my journey, as a mom, a parent. My husband and I were old enough to be parents, but we had no external support, our families lived thousands of miles away and I often felt overwhelmed. I wished I had someone to talk to; fellow moms, someone who was going through what I was going through, the rollercoaster of emotions, the good, the bad, the ugly.   Back then, these feelings were not talked about, there was a cert...

  Today is international day of happiness! What makes you happy? What do you do in order to be happy?? Happiness comes in many different shapes and forms. For years, my loved ones told me I could never be happy, I had high expectations of me and them. They told me to be happy with what I had, there was someone always in a worst situation than I was. They never realized that there were simple things they could do that would make me very happy. But then again, I was expecting it from them. So, I changed that expectation. It was easier said than done. The irony is that it was the lockdown that helped me change my perspective. I realized that It was the simple things that made me happy, that brought a smile to my face. A simple walk in the neighborhood, admiring whatever was growing at the time, made me happy. And above all, spending time with my family made me happy. While I busy chasing happiness in different things and places, it had been staring in my face this whole time. I just h...

 When you are going to be a parent for the first time, you are excited, nervous, anxious; whirlwind of emotions, all at the same time; if the baby will be healthy, whether you will be good parents. There are constant self-doubts, worrying. Then the baby arrives, he turns your world UPSIDE DOWN, in a good way. Now, he is your WORLD. Your life revolves around him; nurturing, nourishing this tiny human being. His safety, the sleepless nights and all the things which come with the newborn. You are in a constant SELF DOUBT mode. Somehow you figure it out, it is going well, you have got this. The baby is healthy, he starts walking, talking on time and eventually starts going to preschool but now the baby realizes that the only people he has are his parents. Besides parents, the baby has no family, no grandparents, no extended family. We are first generation immigrants and our families lived thousands of miles away. Baby does not understand this and starts asking for a brother or a ...

 This year marks the 30 th anniversary of me graduating from college, as an Occupational Therapist. This year will also be the year when I let my professional license go.  It broke my heart, but my heart was also not in it anymore.  I grew up in a household where getting a degree was not negotiable, whether you were a son or a daughter. My mother was a homemaker while my father was a working father.  There were several women in my extending family who worked full time, but they had help at home, in the forms of their mother-in law, their moms, or someone in their extended family.  We moved to the USA because of my job. There would be no external support when the time came to raise the children. We had not thought that far out.  Surely, I knew a few working moms but nobody was in the same situation I was, three children, two of them twins and a husband who would barely be there due to work conflict and there was no village for me to rely on.  It would ...

  This post is inspired by the show “Queen charlotte.” It is streaming on Netflix, a Bridgerton story. I finished watching it this week. She reminded me of “ME” in many ways. I was not born a princess, but I grew up in a joint family in India where I was treated as the princess of my household, an apple of my families’ eyes. We were not rich, but we had an abundance of love and happiness. There was always someone there to turn to, someone always watching over me, someone always talk to.   Fast forward, I moved to the USA for my job. When our first child was born, we had no external support from the family. However my husband was preparing for his exams, and he became the "stay home dad" cum “the default parent” while I worked full time. All of that changed right after the twins were born. Our roles had to be reversed. Husband got into a residency program. Things were finally moving into the right direction for him. The twins brought him luck.  Luckily, it was in the s...