Birds of Paradise

Thank god Tejas got birds of paradise. The same yellow lily was redone into the plume of the flower.
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Hindustan Times Article

 Sunday, September 09, 2012

Manjula Narayan, Hindustan Times
September 08, 2012

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First Published: 22:47 IST(8/9/2012)
Last Updated: 00:21 IST(9/9/2012)

Mum’s the word

Motherhood is one of those life experiences that transforms the women who opt for it, changing the perfectly balanced person into a lunatic given to sudden fears and a bizarre interest in her beloved progeny’s bodily functions. At once comic and terrifying, new motherhood compels a woman to be constantly inventive while keeping a tight grip on her sanity. It’s also usually a time when women used to the camaraderie of the workforce have to contend with the social isolation of their new status as stay-at-home moms. For the generation of Internet savvy Indian women who had their children in the mid 2000s, blogging was the best way to recreate that sense of community and a profusion of blogs dealing with the joys and terrors of motherhood sprang up. Plenty of them including sunayanaroy, madmomma, Mamasaysso and boosbabytalk are still active and a few later arrivals like mommygolightly have also appeared but the scene doesn’t seem as vibrant as it was in 2005.


“From medical to parenting advice and attitudes towards raising children, blogging has been helpful,” says writer Kiran Manral whose seven-year-old karmickids blog connected her to other mothers. “There isn’t always an older person around and the first few years of raising a child gets tough in an urban setting,” says Manral. Madmomma, the anonymous former journalist too drew some comfort from the online community. “Blogging gave me the opportunity to interact with people who didn’t cringe when I began talking about my kids,” she says reminiscing about the virtual baby shower that other mommybloggers threw for her before the birth of her daughter. “There were hundreds of posts dedicated to me and the baby and each person uploaded a picture of what they would have given me if they were there,” she says.
Inevitably, though, there is an unsavoury side to the scene. “Mommybloggers can be extremely nasty,” says Madmomma recounting how “some of the nicest mommybloggers would dig up stuff” about the identity of her investment banker husband whose privacy she jealously guards. There was also abuse to contend with. “People don’t like a mommyblogger to have opinions,” says Madmomma recounting how posts on the Bihar floods and on reservations got vicious reactions including a comment from an anonymous handle that read: “I hope your brother dies and your kids become beachbums”. Ironic posts or even those that don’t express an outright adoration of some childhood behavior also come in for flack.
“People consider it sacrilege to poke fun at mommyhood or god forbid, babies!” says Lalita Iyer whose mommygolightly blog has led to a book deal. Apart from an absence of a sense of humour, blogs by Indian mothers, unlike those by women in the US, have rarely been able to bring about real change. Where, for instance, are bloggers like Erin Kotecki Vest (queenofspainblog.com) who has written about her struggle with lupus and made references to her son grappling with OCD? Exceptions like Manral who wrote a heartfelt early post about her son’s Pervasive Development Disorder that meant his developmental milestones were initially delayed, do exist, but few Indian mothers are willing to be as open. Possibly, as a result, Indian mommyblogs have not been as wildly profitable as Heather Armstrong’s.
“As a culture, we hesitate to put ourselves totally out there. To be a mommy blog that is truly profitable, you have to be completely accessible, all of you, your family, friends, universe, everything. Plus our commitment to blogging is much weaker,” says Iyer.
Perhaps a combination of that lack of commitment and the ascendence of social networking has leached the energy out of the Indian mommyblogging subculture. Unlike the early-to-mid noughties when many new mothers blogged to express themselves, younger women now seem to prefer Facebook and Twitter.
“A lot of people have moved on to other things. Blogging was a phase in their lives. Some couldn’t deal with the intrusiveness of readers, others had pressure from family members to stop discussing matters online while still others simply got caught up in the business of living,” says Sunayana Roy.
Riti Kaunteya who blogs at itchingtowriteblogs contends that every sort of online medium goes through a life cycle: “Mommy blogging was at its peak in 2006. Orkut was around six years back. Now, fb and twitter are hot.” She believes the perceived decline of the Indian mommyblogging scene could be attributed to a generational shift. “The children have grown up and therefore there are fewer milestones to blog about,” she says.
Sociologist Zainab Bawa points out that apart from the low internet penetration in the country which means Indian mommybloggers enjoy nothing like the influence of their US counterparts, studies by Anja Kovacs of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru, have shown that advocacy on the Internet in India has been stunted. Indeed, India has been ranked 33rd on a list of 61 countries in Tim Berners Lee’s new web index that measures how effectively countries are using the Net to change lives. Will the Indian online world look back at mommyblogging as the transitory phase of a generation or will a new set of mothers take to blogs and make them a powerful medium for change? The answer to that question possibly lies with the tech soothsayers of the future.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/926789.aspx

© Copyright © 2012 HT Media Limited. All Rights Reserved

Empee

The boy kids in the building refer to That Particular Part as empee. I used to give them grief as I though it was a slang word.

Today I was enlightened that it is MP an Abbreviation for Main Part.
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The lilting lilt of Lily's laughter

That's the husband at work making a lily for Ojas who has to go as a lily to school tomorrow.
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Celebrating Our Myths

Tulika is celebrating Our Myths! This hugely popular series of books features timeless stories drawn from popular and marginal sources, which gently question stereotypes and rigid notions about myths.

Myths may share beginnings, meet in the middle or find themselves face to face at the end. Sometimes they're as multi-layered as nesting dolls, with one story concealed within the other. They unravel as they are told, and change as they travel from one place to another, one storyteller to another, one listener to another. And so there is always another version of the same story...

SITA 

My earliest recollection of the story of Sita is that King Janaka prayed for a child and he was advised to prepare for a yagna to appease the Gods. Before the yagna he ploughed the land himself and while he was doing so, the lower portion of the plough hit something. On exploring further, he found a baby girl in the fields and adopted her as his daughter. He named her Sita because the land ploughed by the yoke of the plough is called Sita.

Recently, I heard of another version and read the same in a book by Ashok Banker. This connects to the story of Sita being found in the fields by Janaka and therefore creates a reason behind the same. 

Sita was Ravana's daughter. Astrologers had predicted that she would be the cause of Ravana's death and therefore he had her abandoned and buried in a distant land. Where she was found by King Janaka, adopted by him and raised to marry Lord Rama. 

Circumstances cause Ravana to abduct Sita and therefore she becomes the reason behind his downfall.

VIJAYADASHMI

I like the festival of Vijayadashmi/ Dusshera / Navratri as there are multiple reasons for celebration of the same.

One it represents the war of Lanka and therefore most of Northern India play the Ramlila - the story of Ramayana and the final day of Dusshera is celebrated with the symbolic annihilation of Ravana, Kumbhkarna and Meghnad.

Two, it represents the defeat of Mahishasur at the hands of Goddess Durga.

The similarity between the 2 reasons of celebration is triumph of good over evil.

SHIKHANDI

Shikhandi plays a pivotal role in the Mahabharata. 

The simplest explanation of his presence is that he was the reincarnation of Amba one of the three ladies who were abducted by Bhishma to marry his brothers.

Another explanation I read in Devdutt Pattanaik's book The Pregnant King was that Shikhandi was born a woman and was raised as a man. He was married to a girl and on his wedding night, he entered into a deal with a Yaksha. The Yaksha became a woman and Shikhandi became a man on mutual exchange.

Stories

Tejas- V's mamma tells him dirty stories.

A boy was drinking juice and there was a lizard inside!

Tejas' friend- I am naming my baby sister Brinda

Tejas- that sounds like Mirinda

The Mandatory Birthday Post

37th this year....and no, there were no flashes of regret or enlightenment or any other fireworks or bulbs glowing. In fact the bathroom bulb fused and I rang in the birthday sitting on the throne with a book and with stomach pain and nausea....ha...doing 2 of my favourite actvities after all

I realize that now I have learnt not to equate celebration with food even though we do end up eating while celebrating. But I am trying to reduce the focus on that.

That coupled with the fact that I was not feeling up to it, we did a simple lunch at home and a small party with very minimal snacks and dinner with very few friends.

I also did another of my favourite activity that is shopping for a couple of pieces of jewelry for office wear. Not the types that go into the locker. 

The next day, the spouse's birthday was celebrated at Mainland China which was our combined birthday lunch and watching the Dark Knight Rises on popular demand from the kids. And a simple cake cutting back home.

It gets so tiring on 12th that the spouse's birthday celebration on 13th gets compromised....
May be I should start celebrating a month late to spread the celebrations!!!

Just Married Please Excuse Contest

  Yashodhara's book  Just married Please excuse is out and she is running a contest on her blog. 

If you're one of those people who know that married life can have its hilarious moments, please pay attention to this one:

It's really very, very simple - 

1. You write a post on your blog, describing an incident aboutsomething funny that has happened to you as a part of married life, preferably when you were 'Just Married'. (By 31st August 2012)

2. HarperCollins and I select the 20 best entries and they will be sent copies of my book; and 10 Delhi-based bloggers get to join me and VK Karthika, (Chief Editor of HarperCollins and all round super-cool person) for a leisurely Saturday lunch at the new Mamagoto outlet in Gurgaon for some really great food ( I'm told the Khan Market outlet is never less than packed, and for good reason). Oh, and there'll be some good conversation too :).

Some things to keep in mind to be eligible for this contest: 

1. The Title of your post should be The 'Just Married, Please Excuse' Contest 

2. Please include in your post a link back to this post, so that your blog readers know what the heck is going on, and more people can participate.

3. Please leave a link to your entry in the comments section to this post.

4. In case you don't have a blog of your own, do leave your entry in the comments section to this post and we will consider that story, too. In case you face issues while commenting, email me your story at yashodhara dot lal at gmail dot com (But only up to two such comment/email entries can win, so you better make it funny)
5.Note -If you're not married, but still want to participate, you can do it - just tell us about a funnyJust Married story about someone you know! 

Finally - if you can promote your entry on Facebook and Twitter, it will help spread the word.

Also while you are at it, please read my review of the book here. 

Executive Behaviour

Me- Ojas, if you want to drink water ask Dadda to open the car door with the remote and you can run and get the bottle

Ojas- Tum jao, yeh tumka idea hai

(You go, it is your idea)

Title Courtesy Nandhu

Forgetfulness

Ojas- Mamma, did you give me Kurkure in my snack box.

Mamma- no. You remember everything na!!

Ojas- and you forget everything Mamma