Rashmi's Space

I remember being fifteen and telling my parents that I wanted to go to an out-of-town college all by myself . The place in question was only a half hour train journey, followed by a fifteen minute bus ride; but it was still a big leap for someone who had spent the first fifteen years of her life living in one place and being chaperoned to any place that took more than twenty minutes to reach. Being a good negotiator (or believing myself to be one) I gave my parents two options – one, let me travel by the famous Mumbai local train to a college that was an hour’s journey; or two, let me travel, (again by the erstwhile local train,) to a college that was a half hour’s train journey followed by a fifteen minute bus ride. I cleverly presented them with these two options, the idea being, that even if they agreed to the one with the least travel time, I would still get my wish granted of going to a college outside of my small town!   The interesting thing was, it didn...

“Whoa! Did you see that?” the little one screamed, astonished! “Hmmm,” “Dad! Check this out! Quick, its going to disappear, Dad!” “Oh wow! Yeah, hmmm,” (without looking) And then there is silence. Wondering what’s going on? Ok, let me give you the complete picture: This story is about a father and his son. The father is a promising young go getter climbing the corporate ladder; and because he hardly gets any time to spend with his little one through the week, he has brought his son to the park on a weekend. The child, delighted as he is to spend time with Dad, has spotted a squirrel scurrying to a tree to stash the nuts that it is holding in its tiny hands. The squirrel is running away fast and the boy urges his father to look at this amazing sight! His father though, is busy texting on his smartphone. He answers in monosyllables, and actually fakes it when he says “wow!” without even looking up from his phone. He thinks he has gotten away with it and ...

"These children have parents yet feel orphaned" screamed a headline in the newspaper and I skipped a beat! When I read on, I found that the info in the article was not so much surprising as it was shocking! The article spoke about young children seeking psychiatric help from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans). In majority of cases they evaluated, it was found that parents used inappropriate styles of parenting when it came to raising their children. And this was attributed to the recent trend across the country where working professionals found it difficult to provide effective parenting to their children.  With an increasing number of career oriented professionals in big cities choosing to work full-time, children are left at home almost all day, either alone or with maids in most cases. The decline in the number of joint-families has not helped the situation either; and thus, more and more children are being treated for psycholog...

“The most precious jewels you will ever wear around your neck are the arms of your children.” We have all heard this. We also have ‘liked’ it every time we have seen someone post this on Facebook and smiled when we have received this as a forwarded message. And then we have thanked our stars for being parents and gone ahead with whatever it was we were doing at that moment. Even so, I am sure all parents agree with me when I say that there is nothing more precious to a parent than their children No matter how fussy, troublesome or even annoying children can be, there is no possibility of imagining life without them! When we decide to become parents, our world changes forever. Simple, everyday routine things change in deference to the little bundles of joy that take over our lives – our work, our hobbies, our  life  takes a backseat when we welcome a little baby in our homes. We become cautious. We become responsible. We become  parents . But as our child...