Rekha's Ramblings

They said, work hard, go after your dreams. You worked hard and went after your dreams. They say there is a price to pay for everything. Nothing comes for free. So now you have paid the price. You worked hard, you gave your time, you worked hard to fulfill your dreams. They said you can't have everything. So now you have a fulfilled dream, but it has cost you time, the time away from your family. They say there is nothing like spending time with your family. You do just that but now you have no money. Then there are those who were doomed by their circumstances, by where they were born, the color of their skin. It didn't matter how hard they worked. They could have nothing. Their fate was decided by geopolitics, their race. They had no chance. Some will spend their entire lives in refugee camps. The moral of the "they say", "you need to give up something to get something, you can't have it all" is a bunch of BS. I haven't figured...

Recently, I started watching the TV show This Is Us . One of the episodes was titled “ There .” At first, I didn’t think much of it. But halfway through the episode, one line stopped me in my tracks. One of the characters, Kevin, talks about his father, who is no longer alive. He describes him as the most “ there ” father. A father who was always there for his children. That word lingered with me long after the episode ended. “ There .” Such a simple word, yet it carries so much meaning. It instantly brought me back to my own childhood. My siblings and I were blessed with the most “ there ” father imaginable.  A physically present father. He did not miss anything. Looking back now, especially considering the time and place where I grew up, my father was far ahead of his time.  He was simply there. When and where I grew up, my father was ahead of his time to be always " there ." That was not what fathers did back then. But my father did, he was always present, pushing us to do...

  When I first moved to the USA from a tropical country, it was the end of April, daylight savings had already begun, and the days were long.  It would still be light outside, almost until 9 PM. It was something new to me. Every now and then my collogues would say, “oh, it’s going to be a beautiful day today.”  Back then, I didn’t understand what they meant by that phrase. I grew up in India where nearly every day was a sunny day except of course during the four months of the monsoon.  I failed to understand their excitement about a “day.” It was a day. What was the big deal? There was no Google then to ask any questions.  I had to take each day as it came. I had no idea what the weather pattern was going to be like, what to expect. The naïve me had not even ever heard of such a thing as “daylight savings.” And boy, come November, was I going to be surprised!!! By then, they had started talking about the end of daylight savings and how we were going to gain an...

November is the month of Thanksgiving.  One of my friends shared this "30 days of Gratitude challenge " with me a few years ago and today's challenge is "Growth".  The dictionary defines “growth” as the process of increasing in physical size, amount, value, or importance. In other words, it’s not just about getting physically taller but also growing your values, what matters to you, what grows your self-confidence.  In my opinion, Growth is based on your environment, the challenges you face. Some people thrive and become a better version of themselves when put under pressure, some not so. It also depends on how willing you are to learn, to get out of your box, to adapt to the situation, your circumstances.  My personal growth has always been through introspection, how I can be a better person than I was yesterday. It’s a journey, I am still learning.  There are many who continue to inspire me daily. I know my weaknesses, my flaws, my strengths, and I am trying t...

  Writing has always had a special place in my heart and its roots go way back to my childhood, to my father, my inspiration.  My father has kept a journal, a daily diary since he was, I believe 20 years old, sort of chronicles, at first of his life and then our lives. He would write down all he did every day and along with that, he would also write down community happenings, a little note of news, local, nationwide and or global events which occurred on that day.  He has a record of everything and anything that happened in our tiny community where I grew up and where record keeping was almost nonexistent. A tiny catholic rural community in India. He meticulously noted birthdays, anniversaries, and even deaths, along with details of dignitaries, clergy coming and going. He was a walking encyclopedia of our community's history.  He is well known in the community partly for that reason, as a historian, their source of information. They come looking for him when they ne...

  I very recently started listening to podcasts. One of them is “wiser than me” hosted by Julia Dreyfus. One of the questions she routinely asks all her guests is, “do you have a self-care routine, do you mediate, yoga, what do you do?”  I don’t remember exactly who her guest was this time, but I was simply fascinated by their answer. It was unlike any one I had heard before, but I was very happy to hear it, it deeply resonated with my own answer, one very dear to my heart. This guest said they liked to read before bedtime, that is their self-care routine and not only that, their favorite genre is  reading "mystery” novels, that is their escape from reality.  OMG!! I was surprised to hear that answer. In today’s world, self-care is often associated with mediation, yoga, going to a spa, getting a massage, exercise and those are not necessarily bad things, they have their own benefits, and I am happy if they work for you. But they have never been my things. My self-car...

 I very recently started listening to podcasts, I do not know why I waited this long. I was stubborn but that is not important right now.  I finally started listening to them and I have been listening to this particular podcast, “Wiser than ME” hosted by none other than the iconic Julia Louis Dreyfus. In these podcasts, she interviews a different accomplished woman who is older than her and therefore wiser, she takes us through their journey, how they became wiser and concludes the podcast by calling her mom and they discuss the details of the podcast.  I got hooked on to it immediately, undoubtedly for all the wisdom from all these wise women but also because of the way each podcast ended. Julia and her mom have a loving chat about the host, the things they talked about, they reminisce about her childhood amongst other things; and it was these conversations that sold this podcast to me.  I love hearing their conversations, the mother-daughter bond, their loving rela...

 ASK and YOU SHALL RECEIVE!    This phrase was a recurring theme during my upbringing. I grew up in a closed catholic community in a tiny rural community outside of Mumbai. As a 3–4-year-old little girl, I was merely repeating what the adults were saying, asking for some sort of forgiveness for our sins, not knowing its implications. Little did I know that this phrase would be my lifeline, the biggest tool in my tool belt later in my life.   The then little girl in me had taken this phrase for its literal meaning. I had started asking, mostly for a bigger share of food, a bigger portion of a single candy bar which my grandmother had to divide into four.  But when I started going to school at the age of 4, my father, the smartest and the wisest person I knew at that time, an enormous source of wisdom, guidance not only for me   or my family but for my entire village, emphasized on this belief, “ask and you shall receive.” He then went on explaining what ...

 I very recently started listening to podcasts, in fact started listening to one just this week, it was a friendly suggestion by the AI of the music app I use; and heard one today with a very interesting message, the "power of silence", how it can convey what you want to say effectively, sometimes even more so than your words can.  I am not the silent type of a person, I am usually loud, I will butt in, I will interrupt, I want to be heard (why that is so is a whole different story, for another time). And while I may be loud, I am not stubborn. There is always room for learning , I am always trying to be a better version of me than I was yesterday.  I come from the land of Buddha, people who were enlightened by staying silent. So, now I need to learn how to achieve this new skill. How hard can this be?   And as I say this out loudly and narrate the details of this podcast to my family, they are rolling their eyes, like that is ever going to happen. ....  Bu...

  When the pandemic hit and we were forced into a lockdown , the anxiety and stress levels were extremely high given the fact that my husband and I are both healthcare professionals.  We have three children; I had been working part time until then but decided to quit my job altogether not knowing what was ahead of us. It then meant lots of free time at hand; I am not much into cooking, sewing, gardening and I had to find something to keep my mind occupied. During the lockdown, we were allowed to walk outside, of course observing social  distancing. Up until this time, I was not much into any type of exercising . Hence, decided to challenge myself with walking, with a daily goal of 10,000 steps. The Samsung health app was already on my phone but had never paid much attention to it until now. I started walking in our neighborhood, in and around where we live. The first week was very rough, panting, knees hurting, barely making it to  even my halfway mark. But then, mag...

   This morning, while talking to a family member, the subject came up, why I turned out to be different than the rest of them.  I don’t know exactly when it all started.  I grew up in India, in the seventies and eighties.  My sisters and I used to watch a TV show named Rajani. Rajani was a homemaker, a mother. She was fearless, she was not afraid of anyone or anything. She saw any injustice happening, in any form or shape, to anyone; she would speak up. Not only did she speak, but she also made it her business to seek justice. She was not afraid. The show would air on Sunday mornings. I wanted to be like her, so much so that I disliked going to church not wanting to miss the show. In those days, if you missed it, you missed it, it won’t come back. I wanted to be “Rajani.” I was probably ten or eleven years old then.  Then there always was Jhansi Ki Rani, who fought for what was rightfully hers, with a kid on her back. I wanted to be like her…as the years p...