The Other Side of Life

An year with zero posts. That has to be a new low for this blog! 👀 Literally. My last post was about 2022 year end.  In my defence, it has been an year.  In 2022, I became a Mom and thought that was overwhelming.  In 2023, I became a Working Mom and realised what overwhelming really means. I am not the first person to say this and definitely not the last - I don't know how Moms do it. All of it. I don't know how stay at home moms keep their sanity. I don't know how moms who go to office manage their guilt. I don't know how work from home moms balance. To be clear, I know its hard for Dads too. But I am going to talk about Moms just because I am one now. I am now a work-from-home Mom with an 18 month old baby. I am very lucky that my company is flexible. But that also means, there are no boundaries. I am working, sometimes with Lego on my feet. I am playing with him sometimes, while chatting with a colleague on Slack. My actual work happens only after I put him to sleep

Just like that, it is time for my annual year end post. I would be lying if I said it's been a year. Like life changing. The first half of the year was marked by the pregnancy, COVID, waddling through life like a penguin, taking it easy at work for the first time in my life, eagerly waiting for little Lego to come join us, not knowing how it was going to be once he comes, being pampered like there's no tomorrow. And then came May, bringing with it our little bundle of joy, Lego. Just like that, life was overhauled. The first 2 months were difficult. Like zombies we took care of the Lego, making sure his needs are met and he settled into life outside the womb. And gradually, like an onion being peeled, everyday started bringing more and more joy. When he laughed for the first time, when he rolled over, when he hugs, when he pretends to kiss, when he sings, when he showers his love on us like we are all there is in this world - the heart just overflows. The second half of the yea

Having a baby is so many levels of discoveries daily, it never ceases to amaze. But somewhere in those big changes that keep happening every single day are small moments that just melt your heart.  Little Lego turns 5 months old today. I thought I should write down some of those small moments before he turns older and in the new discoveries, I forget what made me so happy in those moments. For a while, Lego believed all music originated from Mummy. Every time he heard something melodious, he would look at me. That's because I would sing a lot to him. But that look he would give me was precious. Even if someone sang something nice on TV, he would look towards me. For a few days there, I was the best singer on earth for someone! When he was just a month old, he loved the light from the window. Every morning, he would lie on the bed beside me and stare out of the window, have conversations with the sun. That was all it took to entertain him back then! He gleams when he is happy! Like

One of my all time favourite snippets from a book has to be the argument about existence of God, from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Context: The book has many hypothetical alien species, one of which is the babel fish. A Babel Fish when put in the ear automatically translates everything someone says in any language to a language you understand. Discussing about the existence of this amazing species, the author says: “Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.  The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."  "But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own argu

So in May this year, I attained the distinction of becoming a mother to an adorable munchkin and with that, I now feel obligated to fulfil my duty of occupying the niche intersection of being a mother and a behavioral scientist. What does that mean? At some point during the first few days of becoming Mom, surrounded by the daze of sleeplessness, pumped up on hormones which didn’t know where to go, with emotions all over the place and suddenly faced with the responsibility of a helpless, little pink breathing mass, I found myself struggling to answer three questions: The warm glow of pregnancy vanished before I could blink. Pregnancy was glamorous. Motherhood didn’t seem to be. The mood swings, the sleeplessness, the guilt, the confusion, the uncertainty, the lack of even the semblance of a schedule. I wondered, why don’t women share how hard the initial few days of motherhood really are? Most mothers I spoke to before my delivery would share some snippets of their experiences, but alw