Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all
Festivals add cheerfulness to our monotonous routine, there always is some natural joy in the air with festive season around the corner. Though as we age the true spirit of festival-celebrations loses its charm but along comes a feeling of responsibility of passing on the traditions to next generation. We also start understanding that every ritual has its own significance and impact on the well-being of our family.
Festival celebrations also depend on our state of mind; if there have been happy occasions in our life around that time than the festive season appears to be more joyous similarly sudden demise of loved ones or any other trying moments lead to completely contrast state of mind. Sometimes whole society (thanks to inflation, insecurity and other things like that) feels the later. It is said that if we are not feeling happy at an occasion we should find solace in social service, we should go all out to arrange some celebration for the underprivileged, it will give us tremendous inner joy and satisfaction to see smile on those faces who have never celebrated anything in their entire life. There are hundreds and thousands of people out there who have never ever opened a brand new gift exclusively bought for them. Spending some meaningful moments with
Them will give an altogether new meaning to our celebrations and to others’ life.
ganapati bappa morya!!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
practice to live in the present
Keeping pace with my two lil’ kids’ various appointments, managing my workshops’ activities, along with relationships, social network, home management(bills deadlines, groceries refilling, cleaning and maintenance, handling maids & their tantrums….phew!!).it really some times get on your nerves. Following are some of the thinkers, which help me in maintaining my sanity, and in making multitasking much easier.
A) Being without mental words for some time period during the day helps wonders, just try to vacate your mind of any thoughts for 10 min. and you will feel the rejuvenating effect.
B) Try to live in the present moment, consciously clap or tap if you notice that mental words are taking you either to your past or to your future.
C) Write a list of your sweet memories ( can be your baby’s first recognition smile) try to recall any one of them when feeling down, this will magically cheer you up instantly.
D) At the end of the day ,imagine yourself plugging-in with God/Almighty(as you charge your mobile) this thought will provide immense confidence.
Try to implement any of these thinkers and most definitely you are going to feel the changes in your state of mind.
A) Being without mental words for some time period during the day helps wonders, just try to vacate your mind of any thoughts for 10 min. and you will feel the rejuvenating effect.
B) Try to live in the present moment, consciously clap or tap if you notice that mental words are taking you either to your past or to your future.
C) Write a list of your sweet memories ( can be your baby’s first recognition smile) try to recall any one of them when feeling down, this will magically cheer you up instantly.
D) At the end of the day ,imagine yourself plugging-in with God/Almighty(as you charge your mobile) this thought will provide immense confidence.
Try to implement any of these thinkers and most definitely you are going to feel the changes in your state of mind.
creating self worth
Life can be so active and fruitfully busy even at eighty, was hard to believe, till I met this vivacious, loving Marathi and Art teacher. No, she was not teaching to a group of toddlers or teenagers, she was surrounded by a group of ladies in their mid thirties or forties
At an age when one just counts days with monotonous routine, that lady was remarkably different. She had started classes for middle-aged women with a thought of giving some feeling of self worth to them. She was running the classes for free so that money didn’t become hindrance in taking out time for them.
Create some self worth, don’t limit yourself to kitchen only, learn and spread your knowledge to others were some of the loving advices given to the class. Her face lit up with joy when one student told her how much satisfied she felt after spending one hour with her colors, for which she was never able to take time out.
“I will also teach you how you can convert this hobby in business opportunity, half of my day is spent in planning for the classes, and I want to pass on my entire knowledge to the next Generation, I am teaching art to my grand children also. At the end of the day I feel completely satisfied with my life, I also feel that life appears short if you have taken up some cause and you are working towards that.”
That gave me a secret wish that I’d also like to follow her footsteps someday in my life.
PS: Mrs. Urmila Wagle is running Drawing and Marathi classes at
Vasant Vihar Club House, pokhran road no.2, pawar nagar, Thane (w), Maharashtra.400601
Contact No.022-21711111/40128395.
At an age when one just counts days with monotonous routine, that lady was remarkably different. She had started classes for middle-aged women with a thought of giving some feeling of self worth to them. She was running the classes for free so that money didn’t become hindrance in taking out time for them.
Create some self worth, don’t limit yourself to kitchen only, learn and spread your knowledge to others were some of the loving advices given to the class. Her face lit up with joy when one student told her how much satisfied she felt after spending one hour with her colors, for which she was never able to take time out.
“I will also teach you how you can convert this hobby in business opportunity, half of my day is spent in planning for the classes, and I want to pass on my entire knowledge to the next Generation, I am teaching art to my grand children also. At the end of the day I feel completely satisfied with my life, I also feel that life appears short if you have taken up some cause and you are working towards that.”
That gave me a secret wish that I’d also like to follow her footsteps someday in my life.
PS: Mrs. Urmila Wagle is running Drawing and Marathi classes at
Vasant Vihar Club House, pokhran road no.2, pawar nagar, Thane (w), Maharashtra.400601
Contact No.022-21711111/40128395.
good housekeeping...contd.
………Likewise you will prepare the lists of all the categories and minutest items to be included in that list, you may add or delete items as per your requirement in that list.
After preparing the list for all broad categories which occupy floor, wall or air space in your house you have to assign a particular place for a particular article in the house. It will be convenient and will appear aesthetically nice if you collect similar kind of things together
As a result of this exercise your daily cleaning and organizing chore will become very systematic & hassle free.
Now, we come to weekly cleaning, we should focus on one area, in one room which requires immediate attention. Suppose on Monday you take up fridge cleaning & wall tiles cleaning in the kitchen, Tuesday you take up master bedroom’s furniture cleaning-bed sheet change-bedside table sorting, Wednesday you take up second bedroom’s furniture cleaning-bed sheet change-bedside table sorting. Thursday take hall’s furniture cleaning-sorting, arranging. Friday can be given to two bathroom’s extensive cleaning. Saturdays, doors, switch boards, and dirty patches on walls can be taken up. Sundays can be assigned to cleaning of webs and dust on the walls of whole house, fans and tube lights. Take care that when you are dealing with the weekly cleaning of a specific area daily cleaning of whole house has been performed as per the schedule.
Fortnightly cleaning, includes wet cleanings of windows and doors , extensive cleaning of kitchen shelves, any other shelf or storage area in bedrooms other than clothes almirah.
Monthly cleanings requires removal of heavy furniture and proper cleaning, bed box storage etc. areas which are out of sight, contain necessary items, which should not be out of mind.
Cleaning in two or six months can be of loft areas .
Yearly areas include whitewash, or wet cleaning of walls, almirah and other areas.
In nutshell, basic & daily cleaning requires most meticulous planning & execution and all the other things will easily fall in place.
keep coming back, for further sprucing up of above plan and other wonderful tips on organizing home
After preparing the list for all broad categories which occupy floor, wall or air space in your house you have to assign a particular place for a particular article in the house. It will be convenient and will appear aesthetically nice if you collect similar kind of things together
As a result of this exercise your daily cleaning and organizing chore will become very systematic & hassle free.
Now, we come to weekly cleaning, we should focus on one area, in one room which requires immediate attention. Suppose on Monday you take up fridge cleaning & wall tiles cleaning in the kitchen, Tuesday you take up master bedroom’s furniture cleaning-bed sheet change-bedside table sorting, Wednesday you take up second bedroom’s furniture cleaning-bed sheet change-bedside table sorting. Thursday take hall’s furniture cleaning-sorting, arranging. Friday can be given to two bathroom’s extensive cleaning. Saturdays, doors, switch boards, and dirty patches on walls can be taken up. Sundays can be assigned to cleaning of webs and dust on the walls of whole house, fans and tube lights. Take care that when you are dealing with the weekly cleaning of a specific area daily cleaning of whole house has been performed as per the schedule.
Fortnightly cleaning, includes wet cleanings of windows and doors , extensive cleaning of kitchen shelves, any other shelf or storage area in bedrooms other than clothes almirah.
Monthly cleanings requires removal of heavy furniture and proper cleaning, bed box storage etc. areas which are out of sight, contain necessary items, which should not be out of mind.
Cleaning in two or six months can be of loft areas .
Yearly areas include whitewash, or wet cleaning of walls, almirah and other areas.
In nutshell, basic & daily cleaning requires most meticulous planning & execution and all the other things will easily fall in place.
keep coming back, for further sprucing up of above plan and other wonderful tips on organizing home
Saturday, August 30, 2008
good house keeping
Perfectly Organized homes can become a reality with a little planning, consistent effort and proper execution. Once your basic plans falls in place it takes hardly one hour everyday to run all the functions smoothly.
Basic plan preparation takes some extensive thought process, which may require 6-7 days of yours, but the outcome is productive and is going to make your life so hassle free that putting in these many efforts is quite worth. Basic plan has to be customized (as one plan can’t fit for all) to be effective, and only your involvement at every level can make it appear to be tailor-made. This article will be navigating you through basic guidelines and you can make changes as per your requirements
First of all you have to decide in which category your dwelling place fits in. is it
a) An apartment, or
b) A standalone kind of house /row house
Apartment style of living doesn’t require outdoors to be taken care of in general, which is not the case with row houses, accordingly time and days will be assigned to management of outdoors also.
First we will take up organizing an apartment style of dwelling place; we are assuming that it’s a two bedroom-hall-kitchen flat, with four family members.
Now we can divide all the cleaning & organizing activities in following sections
a) Which are needed to be done daily
b) Which are needed to be done weekly
c) Which are needed to be done fortnightly
d) Which are needed to be done monthly
e) Which are needed to be done bimonthly
f) Which are needed to be done six monthly
g) Which are needed to be done yearly
a) Daily cleaning & organizing activities include placing each and every object at its assigned place, dusting of major visible areas, brooming and wet cleaning of floors with clean waters & cloth.
Before proceeding towards daily cleaning, most crucial step is assigning place to every small item in the house; if we consider one category i.e. children’s belongings there can be numerous things attached to that; children’s toys, indoor and outdoor game equipments are to be assigned different places and containers, their books ( books can also be segregated into school notes, home notes, reading books, encyclopedias) bags(schoolbag, bags for different classes) ,umbrella,raincoats,general clothes, special clothes, school uniforms, clothes to be washed, clothes to be ironed, gym wears, party wear shoes, casual footwears,sports footwear’s, school lunchbox, water bottles,vehicles.you may add or delete items as per your requirement in that list.
After preparing the list for all broad categories which occupy floor, wall or air space in your house you have to assign a particular place for a particular article in the house. It will be convenient and will appear aesthetically nice if you collect similar kind of things together…. To be continued
I am taking off for the day but will continue with the same topic tomorrow………
Basic plan preparation takes some extensive thought process, which may require 6-7 days of yours, but the outcome is productive and is going to make your life so hassle free that putting in these many efforts is quite worth. Basic plan has to be customized (as one plan can’t fit for all) to be effective, and only your involvement at every level can make it appear to be tailor-made. This article will be navigating you through basic guidelines and you can make changes as per your requirements
First of all you have to decide in which category your dwelling place fits in. is it
a) An apartment, or
b) A standalone kind of house /row house
Apartment style of living doesn’t require outdoors to be taken care of in general, which is not the case with row houses, accordingly time and days will be assigned to management of outdoors also.
First we will take up organizing an apartment style of dwelling place; we are assuming that it’s a two bedroom-hall-kitchen flat, with four family members.
Now we can divide all the cleaning & organizing activities in following sections
a) Which are needed to be done daily
b) Which are needed to be done weekly
c) Which are needed to be done fortnightly
d) Which are needed to be done monthly
e) Which are needed to be done bimonthly
f) Which are needed to be done six monthly
g) Which are needed to be done yearly
a) Daily cleaning & organizing activities include placing each and every object at its assigned place, dusting of major visible areas, brooming and wet cleaning of floors with clean waters & cloth.
Before proceeding towards daily cleaning, most crucial step is assigning place to every small item in the house; if we consider one category i.e. children’s belongings there can be numerous things attached to that; children’s toys, indoor and outdoor game equipments are to be assigned different places and containers, their books ( books can also be segregated into school notes, home notes, reading books, encyclopedias) bags(schoolbag, bags for different classes) ,umbrella,raincoats,general clothes, special clothes, school uniforms, clothes to be washed, clothes to be ironed, gym wears, party wear shoes, casual footwears,sports footwear’s, school lunchbox, water bottles,vehicles.you may add or delete items as per your requirement in that list.
After preparing the list for all broad categories which occupy floor, wall or air space in your house you have to assign a particular place for a particular article in the house. It will be convenient and will appear aesthetically nice if you collect similar kind of things together…. To be continued
I am taking off for the day but will continue with the same topic tomorrow………
Friday, August 29, 2008
god supports good parenting
“If you will hit me with a stick, I’ll also hit you with this bat” this was my older one of 6 while playing with his friend. It took me a while to accept that it was really my son’s voice, I was in a shock as we had never ever raised a hand on him or his younger brother of 4 & we had always taught him that in our house hitting was absolutely not acceptable and he had also imbibed the learning quite well, then what was so provocative today that he was responding in this violent manner; it was very very essential for me to understand his point of view ,I was required to sit with him and talk about the matter….
“But mamma it was he who first hit me, should I be just sitting and letting him hit me, without any action?”
Now there was a need for me to do some thinking; this was learning for me as well, as I had fed him only half the lesson, I had taught him that hitting was not good. It was OK till the time he was following this in the secure environment of our home as everybody was following the same rule; but was he being prepared to face the big bad world of outside where ultimately he had to venture, he had to share the space with people of different upbringings & values….people for whom hitting each other may not be such a bad thing!
So... should I tell him yes, you were right you did the right thing, or should I just remain silent and pass on the massage to him that he could carry on with the same behavior, should I just sulk that because of others’ I was not able to give good values to my own children…
No! within a flash of a second ,I got the answer as if God himself was helping me to overcome this big dilemma, yes this was Big for me and my child because whatever I was going to tell my son at that moment was going to affect the shape of his entire personality, and the course of his entire life. It was my duty as a mother (appointed as a moral teacher by god himself) to tell him what was right and what was wrong.
“So, this shows that his mind is more powerful than yours?” I started. “Why?” He showed interest… “Because he controlled your mind very quickly and taught you his actions so easily, he asked your mind to hit and your mind started following him”. “Yes you’re right mamma” he said thoughtfully, “but what could I have done?” “Very simple”, I said calmly, noticing that my talks were having an impact “next time when this thing happens stop the hockey stick in the air look in his eyes and in a loud, confident& firm voice tell him don’t hit me, its bad”. “YES Mamma, It Will Work!” there was joy in his voice, and a victorious smile on his face.
I had a satisfaction that my son has absorbed the message that being right is the biggest strength in itself.
I also had a satisfaction that god has provided me with a great insight, at this stage when my child is graduating towards the next level of maturity, when he had to be more on his own in this world. I wondered that that this one insight can always be of help at various stages of parenting, issues arising due to peer pressure (smoking, drugs etc.) can be dealt with easily if we tell our children to differentiate between the right and the wrong from the childhood; I was feeling light as if I had discovered the fundamental secret of right parenting…..who said parenting was a tough job?
“But mamma it was he who first hit me, should I be just sitting and letting him hit me, without any action?”
Now there was a need for me to do some thinking; this was learning for me as well, as I had fed him only half the lesson, I had taught him that hitting was not good. It was OK till the time he was following this in the secure environment of our home as everybody was following the same rule; but was he being prepared to face the big bad world of outside where ultimately he had to venture, he had to share the space with people of different upbringings & values….people for whom hitting each other may not be such a bad thing!
So... should I tell him yes, you were right you did the right thing, or should I just remain silent and pass on the massage to him that he could carry on with the same behavior, should I just sulk that because of others’ I was not able to give good values to my own children…
No! within a flash of a second ,I got the answer as if God himself was helping me to overcome this big dilemma, yes this was Big for me and my child because whatever I was going to tell my son at that moment was going to affect the shape of his entire personality, and the course of his entire life. It was my duty as a mother (appointed as a moral teacher by god himself) to tell him what was right and what was wrong.
“So, this shows that his mind is more powerful than yours?” I started. “Why?” He showed interest… “Because he controlled your mind very quickly and taught you his actions so easily, he asked your mind to hit and your mind started following him”. “Yes you’re right mamma” he said thoughtfully, “but what could I have done?” “Very simple”, I said calmly, noticing that my talks were having an impact “next time when this thing happens stop the hockey stick in the air look in his eyes and in a loud, confident& firm voice tell him don’t hit me, its bad”. “YES Mamma, It Will Work!” there was joy in his voice, and a victorious smile on his face.
I had a satisfaction that my son has absorbed the message that being right is the biggest strength in itself.
I also had a satisfaction that god has provided me with a great insight, at this stage when my child is graduating towards the next level of maturity, when he had to be more on his own in this world. I wondered that that this one insight can always be of help at various stages of parenting, issues arising due to peer pressure (smoking, drugs etc.) can be dealt with easily if we tell our children to differentiate between the right and the wrong from the childhood; I was feeling light as if I had discovered the fundamental secret of right parenting…..who said parenting was a tough job?
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