Rashmi's Space

आजकाल व्हॉटसॅप च फार वेड लागलाय लोकांना. सकाळ संध्याकाळ नुसता व्हॉटसॅप आणि त्यावर येणारे जोक्स! लहान मुलांपासून ते रिटायर्ड आजी आजोबांपर्यंत घरातले सगळेच ह्या व्हॉटसॅप चे दिवाणे. बरं नुसतेच जोक्स फॉरवर्ड करतात ह्यावर असं काही नाही; ह्याचा उपयोग बऱ्याच वेगवेगळ्या कामांसाठी करता येतो. म्हणजे अर्जंट निरोप द्यायचा असो, किंवा कुणाला महत्वाची माहिती पाठवायची असो; इतकंच काय तर सणा सुदिच्या शुभेच्छा पण ह्या व्हॉटसॅप वरून अगदी सोप्या आणि फटाफट पणे पोहोचवता येतात! हो, हो, हे सगळं तुम्हाला माहीत आहे; पण तुम्हाला हे माहित आहे का, कि कुणाला शालजोडीतून मारायचं असेल तरीही हा व्हॉटसॅप आपल्या अगदी मस्त उपयोगी पडतो? हो ना, जे म्हणायचंय ते म्हणून घ्या, ते हि एखाद्या मिश्किल विनोदाच्या आडून. किंवा कुणाला लेक्चर द्यायचं असेल तर पाठवा एक मार्मिक कविता; कि वाचणाऱ्याची पार विकेटच गेली पाहिजे! आता हेच उदाहरण घ्या. बरेच दिवस व्हॉटसॅप वर एक कविता शेयर होत होती. आता नाव नाही आठवत नीटसं पण मर्म हे कि आजकालच्या नवयुवती जीन्स घालतात, अगदी आई झाल्या नंतर सुद्धा - आणि मग जेव्हा आजकाल ची मुलं...

The alarm rings. I look at the time, snooze for ten minutes and turn on my back to see my little one lying next to me. Okay, so he has wandered in during the night and is now sleeping spread-eagled, occupying most of the bed, having kicked my husband as close to the edge of the bed as one can go without actually falling off. I find myself smiling as I pull the covers on them. My little one has his exam today and unless I get started in the kitchen now, he’s sure to miss his paper. I am trudging to the bathroom, dragging my feet and cursing the early hour, when suddenly it occurs to me that it is not only my little one’s exam today, it is his last exam paper! It is the last day of school! I do a little dancing jig and almost trip on the bathroom mat. And then I rush to the bedroom to wake the guys up, with a spring in my step! Oh yes, it is the last paper today. Yay! Another academic year finished! No more worrying about the school schedule, no more ironing the uniform i...

It is early evening. I have just had my evening tea and my young one has run outside to play. Soon the sun will set and it will be time to light the lamps. And then I will ask myself the same question I have been asking for years – what do I cook for dinner today?   What, now you are shaking your head and muttering tch tch under your breath because you opened this post looking for some serious intellectual or political or even emotional quandary women find themselves into? Well, I will have you know, that this one question is a huge intellectual, political and emotional problem rolled into one! Now you'll say what's the big deal? There are so many dishes to choose from; just go ahead and choose one! And I would agree, only; my problem stems from this very variety of choices that are available to me!  Okay, then ask the family, you say. Fine. So I ask the man of the house what his preferences for dinner would be; and “anything” comes the reply. Hmmm, that went...

This is a sponsored post for Eureka Forbes AeroGuard and was first published on MyCity4Kids.com When we think of air pollution, our first instinct is to look outwards – exhaust, combustion, burning fuels, vehicles on the road; the works. But we rarely think of pollution in terms of indoor pollution – inside our homes, inside our offices, inside our schools – and maybe that’s why, we pay comparatively less attention to it. But this weekend, returning from a week away from home, we were greeted with a sight that made me look at indoor air pollution from a whole new perspective! You see, our apartment is close to a main road where hundreds of cars move about all day, every day; and a lot of dust enters our home. We keep getting it regularly cleaned and dusted so as to ensure that there are no dusty surfaces. But this weekend, as we got back after a week out of town, we discovered that the house was dusty despite all our windows being shut tight. Not only that, there was also...