Letter to my Daughter

Dear Daughter,

I don’t know when you will read this; actually I don’t even know when you will come to this world. But whenever you will come in our life, I want you to know what I think and dream for you. Every parent wants their kids to be obedient, do well in life and love their parents back. I will be no different, but with this I would also like you to be what you want to be.

The atmosphere you will grow up in will be way different than the one I grew up in, but I would like to keep the same friendly relation with you as I have with my mom. I have a stay at home mom, who was always there to open the doors when I came back home from school. I always took her for granted for doing my laundry, cooking my favorite meal and telling me stories when I was eating. But you will have a working mom, who will be overworked at times. May be I will not be able to give you as much time as I got from my mom, but I will try to spend quality time with you, so that we understand each other well.

I hope you will love to play with soft toys and give them funny names, just like I do. I would like you to find joy in small things in life, you need to understand that happiness is not materialistic, it comes from within. I would like you to be a strong person who can understand her responsibilities and rights, at the same time someone who can respect the rights of others too. I know you will have your set of friends and you will have good time with them. But the numbers of years I spent on earth will make me more helpful to you then your friends at times. So my little princess whenever you are in doubt or any kind of trouble, talk to me. I can’t guaranty that I will solve your entire problem like a super mom, but I will do whatever I can to make things easy for you.

I would like to introduce you to art, music, books and sports but what you take up will be fairly your choice. Whatever you do my dear, do it with passion and commitment, besides I will be there to support you on every step. Yes! Do not throw tantrums in front of me, because I don’t find them cute at all. Be naughty but not nasty. Be strong headed but not rebellious. Love others but first love yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others, you are unique and special the way you are. However this does not stop you from learning from others, always be willing to learn, take all the goods and leave the bad.

I will be lying if I say that I won’t search for myself in you, but then I know you will be different yet so much like me. One important thing my love, please don’t pick the moody genes from me, I hate my mood swings and I don’t want you to have that. You know, handling two moody women will make your dad’s life really difficult J   (I seriously hope that I improve with time, and you don’t get to see the moody side of me)

Oh… I have so much to tell you my baby, but let me keep something to share with you later.

 Until we meet, take care of yourself.

With lots of love,

Mom.

Just Married, Please Excuse: Book Review

I like reading fiction and when I saw this book was up for review on Indiblogger, I quickly grabbed my copy. This is the first book by the Author Yashodhara Lal. She was a marketing professional and an IIM graduate. And she also writes at her blog ‘Y on earth Not’.

Most of the Fiction books talk about a girl and boy falling in love, convincing parents, fighting the odds and getting married and then living happily ever after. But do they really live happily ever after; this is the book which tells the story of that happily ever after phase, or not so happily ever after phase. This is the story of urban Indian couple. Who is well educated, working in MNC, but from two completely different backgrounds. Yashodhara (Y) is a Delhi girl with an MBA from IIM, while Vijay is 7 years older than her and belongs to a rather old-fashioned Jaipur based pure vegetarian Brahmin family. They meet at their work place, and just after 3 months of dating Vijay propose to Yashodhara. In her early twenties, Yashodhara wants to stay away from marriage for few years or may be throughout her life. However finally these two opposites settle down in a marriage, but do opposites really attract, well not always.

The life of Y and Vijay is like any newly married couple these days. Working couple, both have their opinion in everything, and both wants to win every argument. From selecting curtains for their house to keeping name for their newborn, they rarely agree on one thing. But their small-small arguments are not heated arguments always, it makes the reader laugh. The other characters in this book are also interesting and will sound very close to real life. Some incidents in the book are really very funny. Like, Vijay’s love for Alu Gobhi and everyone’s enthusiasm to feed him alu gobhi. Yashodhara’s mom googling the lyrics of the song to prove she is right. And, the conversation between Vijay and Kajal are always hilarious. But if I am asked, other than the fun what I got out of this book, then that will be the statement made my Yashodhara’s mother-in-law about marriage “Ladne ki kya baat hain? Arrey, kabhi main maan jaati hoon, kabhi wo maan jaate hain”. This one is the very simple but powerful mantra behind every successful marriage.  

This book is written in the way you talk style, use of hinglish language will make the reading experience fun for some but pain for others who don’t understand Hindi L

For me in whole this book was a joy ride. I enjoyed reading it. And being a newly wedded (1 year in marriage is still new rightJ) myself I was able to relate to the story very well. I had so much fun reading this book and I will recommend this book to all newly married couples and everyone else who wants to take a fun break.