Best Joys Come in Smaller Packets

Everywhere I go, I end up listening to this phrase "Best things come in small packages" and then one day my view changed, it's not just things but even happiness. It is happiness alone that makes us optimistic rather it is wise to say, optimism makes us happy and content.

This incident dates not very long ago, but just a mere year ago. I was a recent graduate who didn't wish to pursue engineering all throughout my graduation yet for the sake of my parents happiness I did it. Earlier I wasn't a cribber, I used to be content with what life and god bestowed on me. But with each passing day or rather semester I slowly ended up becoming more and more discontent, with life with my career choice, with my inability to not stand up to my parents et al. Yet there was no one to blame but me and in doing so many-a-times I slipped into the black hole of pessimism. Time and again I resurfaced and lived my life with joy; I enjoyed all the time spent in college and yet I wasn't as optimistic as I used to be.

Then hours turned to days and eventually years and now I was a fresh graduate with no job. Was I unhappy? No hell no, I wasn't I was finally relieved to be out of that thing called engineering. I though the world was my sky and I free bird.

My first task was to bask in the new found freedom and then join a NGO which I always wanted to do. Second would be to find a job where I want to work. And third? Well I hadn't thought that far.

My first hurdle was crossed and I landed in MAD. I was exuberant and joyous than I had been in ages. Every Sunday I used to go to my center and teach the boys (yes mine was an only boys center) English. Some Sundays were fun while some taxing and occasionally a few were emotionally draining too.

Now what did I do the other six odd days? Well I posted job resumes everywhere I knew, I went for job interviews etc. Every place I went I was turned down with a no. Some said though I was good, I was over-qualified, some others said why don't I try an engineering firm and some directly turned me down saying I was under-qualified (shocked!!!) and well some I rejected because it wasn't feasible to travel 2 hours for an Rs.8,000 that too six days a week.

All in all everything was a failure. Add to that my mum fell ill and all the household work fell on my shoulders. No one to share, no one to hang out with and too much tension. This time I slipped into the well of pessimism and cribbed that why can't I have anything? No job, no this no that. In my own words I was pathetic.

It was during one such MAD class on a Sunday when one of my student was not attentive at all and we were doing some activity on family. Me and my co thought that maybe staying in a shelter home apart from family is affecting him but we let it go, as there was nothing we could do. And then to my horror E started crying ( I won't name him, I respect his privacy but his name was from E).

What do you do, when a 13-year old young boy suddenly starts crying and you don't know what to do? Finally we calmed him down and asked him what was the matter?

First he wouldn't open up then with lots of coaxing he did, he said it was his mothers death anniversary and he was missing her a lot today, moreover we started teaching them about family so it hurt more. We asked do you want to call your father, we can go to Brother and tell him. He said, "No I don't have a father." On further inquiry we came to know he was an orphan and he just had an elder sister to was herself staying with a guardian and studying. And since his guardians couldn't afford his quality education, they sent him here so that he gets to stay in boarding and attend a convent school. He said, though sometimes he feels very lonely here and misses his parents, he has to make a name and life for himself and his sister. And that gives him hope and he continues to smile.

The shock of this left me reeling, in that one moment everything fell into perspective. Here I was cribbing over not getting a job, because I was searching somewhere where I didn't fit. When in reality I had loving parents, a roof of my own to live in and I wasn't devoid of money for my basic needs. what was I cribbing for? Why was I sad when in reality I had all the joys one wishes for.

This young brave brave boy in some weird way gave me back my lost optimism. Slowly and steadily I started searching a job in the field I graduated and eventually 2 months later, I got a job as a teacher in a college. Something I hadn't expected and I was happy, yes truly happy.

It was then that I finally realized "Best things come in small packages." All we need in life is a little hope and optimism and every good thing follows automatically. I finally looked up to joys and true contentment and happiness.

This is my official post inspired by Housing.com - Look Up.

Red Blotches, Why Me?

Back then in my Junior College days, the teenage days when almost all girls tend to be affected by pimples and have their faces covered with scarfs because of the red dots splattering their cheeks, I roamed carefree with not a single pimple in sight. I considered myself lucky and prided my bath soap for keeping me away from harms way.

JC ended and I stepped onto the next pedestal, the Engineering College days. Not that I was very happy getting into it, after all my dreams of joining media studies were blown away. The dream was short lived just like my lucky-prided  no pimple free self, as it would be known. Year One passed uneventfully, with me going about my routine fussing over nothing and happily welcoming the succeeding Year Two. Year Two began on a dramatic note and well the end? Grr I don't even want to think about it..

It was in the fall of 2010 that my pimple chronicles began and continued to worsen over the winter. Year Two was supposed to be the year of the IV err Industrial Visit that was more like a Jab We Met; with we running behind the train. But coming to the main topic, yes it was the year of the IV and just like the planning to visit North began in fall slowly and steadily; the red blotches started marring my pretty face almost the same way, slowly and steadily. First they were less small patches here and there and then they grew into full fledged pimples by the time 2011 arrived. I was worried, worried is an understatement I was quiet dramatically worried. And thus, started my problems. For ease and less drama let me list down the problems I now started facing on a daily basis;

1. Itchy, very itchy skin add oily to that too.

2. Reactions, plenty of them. Gosh even my most prided soap couldn't be spared.

3. No makeup(okay I practically applied none but well what I meant was Talc) so not even talc.

4. Worried about how I looked when it came to fests especially.

5. Being teased by friends mercilessly, karma is a bitch truly.

6. And so on, so on as my principal always concluded his speeches....

I can so relate to this 

So with so many problems, I obviously tried a lot of solutions. Right from one face wash to another, not to forget the special dermatologist treatment. Alas! All failed and I was promoted to my Year Three and with that even my pimples. Eventually, I was tired and thought of giving up all the creams and medicines et al. when a miracle, an angel arrived.

Out of routine, one fine supermarket visit and my mum got Garnier Neem FaceWash  for my sister, note my sister and not me; after all she is the one who used it. And looking back now it would seem that the stars were finally aligned in the right direction. As I came home one fine evening, after a tiring day in college and later on an extreme struggle in college; I went to wash my face but what do I see? My precious oh-so-expensive facewash and serum got over! What now? I was tired and secondly I was in no mood to go down and get a new one *after all it wasn't really working.* So out of laziness I ended up using my sister's facewash and continued using it for the next whole week. And viola suddenly it seemed like there was something different. My face, my face was improving, the pimples were finally leaving me!

Rescuer  !!

I could not believe yet I carried on with the experiment, *yes now it dramatically was called experiment instead of laziness* one week then two and the pimples magically started disappearing slowly and steadily. In no time, okay almost three months my face was back to how it was, Looking back now it feels like ironic, the solution was right in my home and yet I went to search it outside failing miserably. Sometimes I feel glad of my laziness that day, had it not been for it who knows I would still be a victim of those monstrous red blotches, ruling my face. Ending my story on a dramatic note, I'm indeed glad for the karmic intervention! And now I use it daily!

This post has been written for  bit.ly/GPABlogLinkIndiBloggerActivity and bit.ly/GarnierPureActiveNeemWebsite




    

A Healthy Child Makes a Healthy Home

There is a famous English Proverb that goes as, "The soul is healed by being with children."

Children make our heart soar with happiness, contentment and joy. They not only lift up our spirits but in ways unknown help us to be better adults. There is a child in all of us, after all we too were once children and our parents nurtured us to grow into healthy adults. 

We had a home, our parents who took care of our every need. Right from our clothes to our nutrition. But what about kids who don't have a home? Or who stay in an Orphanage or better yet a Shelter Home. We all know home is a place that resonates with the joy of being with family, our parents. However, not every kid is fortunate enough to have parents, does it mean they don't have a chance at a being a healthy nutritious choice? They do, they have  every right.

So why this post or what reminded me of it? Last year I used to teach in a Shelter "Home" and those kids stayed away from their parents for 6 months at a stretch and till the time they stayed there we taught them. And believe me, teaching was not mere teaching like going and coming back home, it was so much more. I was attached to the kids and the kids to their teachers. 

There was one such incident that reminded me of this, I had a student who was very mischievous, he couldn't sit in one place for long always jumping and reading chapters which were yet to come. He looked like a 5th std kid but in reality he was a class 8th student. Somewhere around mid-term suddenly for more than two consecutive days he wasn't coming to the class. The class sudden;y seemed dull, I mean it was class of mere 4 and in that too one child missing, it is tough. Finally no longer being able to control my concern after my class ended I went to Brother and asked him where Blaise is; he was unwell. 

In brother's word, three days ago when he was playing football with the other children he was dizzy and fell to the ground. They took him to a local doctor and he said this happened because he wasn't getting the nutrition required for a thirteen year old boy. He gave some vitamins and other iron supplements. With this he even said that they could give him some Dabur Chyawanprash, this is clinically tested and proven to boost immunity and supply the necessary nutrients to developing kids. 

"A healthy child makes a happy home", this is true not only for kids who stay with their parents. Every child deserves a bright future and being healthy makes the journey less trudging. After all, home is where the heart is, and that shelter home is his Home. 

This is the nutrient supplement that the doctor suggested, 

https://www.liveveda.com/daburchyawanprash/

  

Book Bond With Ashwin Sanghi - Prelude to Tata Lit Live

Photograph Credit: Vaisakhi Mishra

The most awaited International Literature Festival in Mumbai - Tata Literature Live has finally arrived. This is the Fifth consecutive year that the fest is being held, this year the dates allotted are Thursday 30th October to Sunday 2nd November 2014. The schedule is out and the venue is NCPA and Prithvi Theatre. Each year the festival has more add-on's that highlight the beauty of literature surrounding us and connects it to the masses with collaboration with media.

The festival is an enriching platter full of various speakers, award winning novelist, journalist et al. A sneak peak into the fest that connects over 125 artists under one roof. The speakers would be Amir Or - The multi-awarded poet whose written 18 poetry's in Hebrew and whose work has been translated in over 40 languages, the bestselling author Anita Nair, the young Eurig Salisbury who won Welsh Children’s Poet Laureate) 2011–13, Amish Tripathi, Ayaz Memon and Barkha Dutt to name a few.

As a prelude to the upcoming festival, the Tata Lit Live team organized a Book Bond meet and greet event with author Ashwin Sanghi (Chanakya's Chant and The Krishna Key), for bloggers in Mumbai. The event took place on 20th October at Vivanta by Taj, Mumbai. The whole session that lasted around say roughly around 1- 1.5 hours was a captivating and an interactive one.

It started off with Anil Dharker, Mumbai based writer, columnist and the director of the festival initiated the evening discussion. The session heavily focused on the Indian literature, our outlook towards it, the current and the past trends of publishing and the center of it all - The Indian Author and the Publishing Industry. The discussion sifted effortlessly on how we have evolved both as a reader and an author, still not losing touch with our history and the deep rooted mythology. There was a considerable amount of time devoted to mythology, as Ashwin Sanghi has structured his stories around them, countless discussions of God and sharing of funny incidences from both the authors and bloggers lives enlivened the evening.

One of the best part was that, this discussion had a bit of an informal touch where we came to know a bit more about Ashwin as to how he started of with being an accountant to a novelist. And how his maternal grandfather gifted him a book till he passed away. Now I'm not so good at remembering numbers but the round figure what he said was somewhere around 370 or 377, and the best part being he still has all those copies (he remembers not because he still has that book keeping streak in him but also because the books are numbered.) I was totally in awe of his grandfather and how he shaped Ashwin to what he is today, a brilliant author and an equally humble man!

Photograph Credit: TataLitLive

Coming back to the discussion, we not only came to know how the Tata Literature Festival was conceived or about Ashwin's journey but a lot of other minute things that we tend to neglect. The discussion was thrown open to bloggers, with several new questions that brightened the evening further. And giving a world view of different perspective. Along with prose even poetry was subject touched upon  where Anil Dharkar said, “Poetry is the final distillation of Literature, of thoughts. But very few get it and poets are even less.”

Anil Dharker officially announced the shortlists for 3 coveted Book Awards – Tata Literature Live!

1. Book of the Year (Fiction & Non-fiction),
2. Tata Literature Live! First Book Award (Fiction & Non-fiction) and
3. Tata Literature Live! Business Book Award

Photograph Credit: TataLitLive

Alas! All good things come to an end, and so did this evening. But is any literary event complete without a book? No right, the highlight of the evening was the autographed copies of ‘Private India’. by Ashwin Sanghi co-authored with James Patterson,

Awaiting the festival that commences tomorrow! Keep on reading and re-reading.

-Fatima

Social Media Week Mumbai 2014

I've always been interested in Art, Culture, Media and Literature. There is something about media that when blended with society brings about a change, a betterment. Being part of NGO's I can say I've been part of this social movement, bringing about change in the most basic of ways. Be it either teaching young shelter home kids or elders who wish to improve their communication in English so as to raise themselves to a better employment sector of our society. In a way, it helped me view the lives of people at the grass-root level thereby understanding them and bringing a smile on their faces. But despite all this, I never did get a chance to explore it in the media way, I always heard about various organizations fighting for trafficking or rape victims but never got a chance to interact with them directly. Then apart from that there is always a factor of blogging, being an avid blogger myself I wanted to socialize and venture more into this arena.

Blogadda gave me this opportunity to attend social media week, (me thinks if I didn't get this opportunity I wouldn't have found time in my schedule to even attend it). The Social Media Week was held in Mumbai, at Novotel Hotel, Juhu.

So, I registered for 4 events that could fit my schedule but call it bad luck I could attend only 1 of them as I fell ill on the third day of the event :-/ and have just recuperated just yesterday. (Started off with mild fever and cold and went onto allergies that eventually banned me from leaving the bed). So end of this sob story, let's continue on the workshop I attended.

   
This is the pass I was given at the entrance and could be used for attending all the workshops and events. The event I attended was "A Perfect Bite" - A masterclass on Food Blogging by Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal. Ring a Bell? Nah..Okay let me stop the misery, she is a food blogger, an amazing one at that. Her blog is full of small notes and filled with personal touches as well as mouth watering recipes.

What I remember the most of her amazing session is this line, "Being a curator of information." She began the presentation by focusing on what is Blogging all about, how to be a blogger, make a blog and other smaller things that make a blogger.

Ten minutes post  this, the presentation on Food Blogging finally began. Never being a food blogger, this one had me hooked; I wanted to know that how's and what's of food blogging. And who better teacher than the speaker herself.

Some of the points she spoke to be a Good Food Blogger were; Being a writer, A recipe creator, Food Stylist (how you present it to your audience), a photographer (very essential), Designer (plating and all is important) and finally a marketer. And finally every post should motivate the reader, motivate to try the recipes and eventually experiment their own recipes.

I would like to end this post on both a happy and a sour note. Happy because I agree with the speaker, that Blogging gave me an identity. And sad because I really wanted to attend this event,  "CASE STUDY ON CITIZENS AGAINST RAPE, MOLESTATION & ATROCITIES (CARMA)" The speaker also the founder of CARMA Ashwin Mishra is a friend, we used to teach at MAD together and I had heard a lot about his organization with him, but sadly bad health made me miss this one; one which I deeply regret.

But I sincerely thank Blogadda Team for giving me this opportunity to attend this event, even though I attended one, it helped me realize that media is what we make of it.

-Fatima