Motivation

When I asked my friends and family what they thought of my writing and what experience they would like me to share, I got a few responses, which I will write about here.

First of all, I wholeheartedly thank my dear husband for standing by me and holding me when I am on the verge of losing my mind. It's only natural if you think about it. I had no job/career/money-making motivation to wake up to every day. I only had to take care of the house, my baby, and focus on my well-being. Throughout my life, I have always been a motivated person. My Prakriti itself is self-motivated. If I had time again with myself, it wouldn't be difficult to do what I like and divert myself towards my hobbies and health, or so I thought. 

Weekend with Badminton

Majorly, I lost motivation. I lost the will to get up from the sofa and work out. I did not bother to open my blog and write. I did not crochet. Apart from my minimal daily routine, I didn't do anything exciting. This is the hard truth. This is all that I wanted to do, but I actively chose not to. 

As I said before, my husband stood by me. I was a bit low and guilty. And he did motivate me. One such appointment we made with ourselves was the Weekend with Badminton.

We gathered our beloved families who live close by and our cousins, who live far away, loved us enough to come and join us. We booked 2 badminton courts nearby for 2 hours on as many Saturdays as we could and played. We took Nabha as well. Akka got her new rackets, and we got new shuttlecocks, and whoever could would book the court. Friends and family are the first-line motivators.  

 

Movie nights

Spending time together on the court also built a rhythm for us—we started looking forward to weekends, not just for playing but for being together. That naturally carried over into other fun activities. Movie nights, without doubt, are a good stress buster. We would get together and watch movies late at night. Sometimes it was family, sometimes just us after Nabha slept, and sometimes kids' exclusive. 

   

It felt wonderful to have these little rituals—whether playing or watching movies—that kept my spirits up. Slowly, I found myself open to trying other things that could bring me joy and growth. This support helped me a lot, and it even led me to build another good habit—reading. Books, I must say, open up a whole new world of experiences. But I will stop at that for now, because even my journey into reading began with my family’s encouragement, and I’m truly grateful for that.

Documenting in words

It has been a while. I have had a wonderful few months. A lot of new experiences and a learning journey on multiple levels. I have kept myself busy and taken good care of my baby and myself, of course, my husband as well. 

So, to document my life since my last blog, which was in April, I spent some quality time in my hometown for a while. In Arasinamakki, we lived in a slow-paced village life amidst nature. That's where we celebrated Nabha's and my birthdays. 

In between, the mother-daughter duo also had a trip to Hyderabad to spend time with my sister. All we did was cook good food, eat good food, go out and eat more, watch movies until late at night, and gossip forever. We relaxed with some at-home massage service.   

Amma's home

We came back in May and spent the whole month at home in Bangalore. Because we had a lot of time to kill here, we had Varun, my dear husband, to take us around Bangalore on tour. It might be weird, but I had not seen a lot of things in Bangalore, though I have lived here for over 6 years. I even travelled with my mother-in-law to a few places like Hyderabad and Chennai. I willingly went, and I was more excited about the trip, and you will know why soon. 

Then came June. My baby had to go to school. And I was left alone at home! Never done that and can't do it. Not happening, bro. Not happening. Thus, I did something bizarre, atypical of me. I joined as a part-time admin at an electronics company. Meanwhile, I also applied for a part-time PhD position at Manipal University. And since then, I have been busy again. A lot of administrative work on the go. I enjoyed every bit of being an admin at the company because all I had to do was organise and sort. It was the most satisfying job I've ever had. Of course, the PhD application was always on my mind and never let me concentrate on everything that I wanted to do.

July was mostly a drag of June. But the beginning of the month brought a new responsibility for me. My mother-in-law moved to the US for a short while to live with her other son. And that opened a lot of doors. I managed the home on my own. I felt it was my place. It was my peace of mind. It was a lot of work, but it didn't matter anymore. This was different. I felt better. Finally, I knew what feeling better is. I knew what was missing during the months when I had felt low and was actually depressed. 

End of July and the whole of August were the king of challenges. It was the month of concentrated festivals. Almost 2 days a week were dedicated to Gods, starting with Jyothirbheemeshwara Vrata and ending with Ganesha Habba. With a lot of struggle and exhaustion came extreme happiness and contentment. 

That was the gist of my golden days to date. Every day was a new learning experience. Every meal was savoured with gratitude. Every minute spent with Nabha was focused. If that is not an experience of a lifetime, what else is?     

Time to rest and reset

This blog is dedicated to my toddler's new dimensional life.

I had the privilege of taking some time off my paid job. With the support of my loved ones, I am resting. I am having slow mornings and am away from my hustling life. My toddler has her summer holidays and is experiencing life with me, spending quality time with soil and rain.

Time to reflect

I have started something new in life Again! But what interests me every day is always fascinating. Unknowingly I am on my path to identifying my passion. Also, I finished reading the book ' Ikigai, the Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life'. As a matter of fact reading books is one of the entries in my list of 'Finding my passion'. 

Now I have started writing, as you all know already by now. If not go read my other blogs and do let me know what you think about it. 

Does DNA have conscience

This blog might be a little philosophical when compared to my other writings.

The life of DNA is simple.      

DNA simplified

What is DNA? When you Google DNA, the first thing that pops up is its expansion - deoxyribonucleic acid. Also a very complicated explanation - the genetic material that carries information for the development and functioning of the body. 

Do we understand anything from it? When I read it first, I thought I was not even familiar with the language. But now I know. 

Instead of breaking down each word here, let's simply term them in a language we understand. 

Deoxyribo nucleic acid - certain chemical molecules. 

Genetic material - Consider you own a piece of land that you inherited from your family. It's well-documented and usable for whatever purpose it holds. Similarly, genetic material is nothing but a set of rules written in sequence format for the development and functioning of your body which is passed on to you through your parents.

Carries information - a certain sequence of these chemical molecules has a certain meaning. 

To simplify, let's consider the letters in the alphabet. A, B, C, D, and Z, when used in a certain way, provide meaning. When A, N, and T are combined, it becomes ANT, an insect. 

There are 26 letters in the alphabet and DNA is made up of just 4 chemical molecules. We can call them A, T, G, and C. 

A sequence of A, T, G, and C combined will give rise to DNA. 

What does it do carrying all that? It's not much by itself.

Functioning and development: Let's understand it with a day-to-day example. Consider a recipe book. The book holds information about something delicious to eat. Does it cook by itself? Not really. someone who is following the book will do. Similarly, a living cell contains so many other things apart from DNA. Some of those things, like chefs, will read the DNA and follow the orders.

Now how cool is that?

A little bit of negative emotions

I would say I am a kind gentle parent. I am calm and composed as much as possible and try not to hold her back from experiencing the world unless it is severely dangerous. And when it is time I need to say 'no' I explain it to her. Even though she might resist a little eventually she gets it. I can proudly say that after minutes of debate, we come to terms, and there is mutual understanding between us. And I am still talking about me and my toddler here. 

You might wonder what I'm talking about. It's nothing complicated. All I do is show her the respect she deserves and ensure she is given an equal opportunity to make her points. Mind you, she is 3&1/2.

This story is about her ignorance and how she learned her lessons. It had nothing to do with me intentionally teaching her a lesson. 

She loves school

We were going through numbers from 1 to 20. She always skipped 15, and 17, in the sequence. I simply would make her repeat it after me. It never bothered her to correct herself because I did not force it on her. Today one of her friends who is a little older came over and they were playing. Randomly they were shouting numbers and out of habit, Nabha missed 15 and 17. Her friend who is equally innocent, started laughing at her mistake. And she corrected My baby then and there. For the older kid, it was silly. But it touched my baby where it was supposed to. She felt a little embarrassed, she felt a little angry, she was a little jealous all because her friend knew it and she didn't. That made my baby learn the correct sequence of numbers. I am sure she will not forget it now. 

I am so proud of my baby at this point. I could see all the negative emotions in her eyes and in her body language and raised voice. But even with all that, she was composed and never told her friend off. She accepted what she didn't know and most importantly she learned. She learned not just the sequence of numbers but how to deal with her emotions. She might still be ignorant which will take a lot of experience in life to get over, but at this point, she knows some people know more than you and you need to learn from them if you need to be better. 

So bottom line is, life is not a piece of cake. A little bit of negative emotions, healthy competition, and a learning mindset will push you forward to make you a better version of yourself.