And the journey continues..

Moving out brings feelings of mixed emotions - 

Special memories of the place that served us well, of wellness and of gratitude.

While not having family around to share this joy is certainly a major downside, such occasions allow us to dream new dreams and to work to make those dreams come true.

As we look forward to making our own place our 'new' home, it feels special to celebrate this magic! Magic because it is not something that can easily come by on a Sunday afternoon; that it is a privilege to live in a place where no one else has lived; that it took a year to get to this day and hence it makes me feel humble not because of where we are but what it took to get us here. Yes there were arguments and differences and lots of anxiety till the very end. 

And thus, together these are the thoughts worth cherishing and making them worthwhile.

And as the journey continues,

to pause and reflect.

And feel blessed indeed!

Off You Go Dear K...

...into a new beginning and a new milestone!

A little smile and a butterfly kiss

That's all it took to say good bye;

But we both knew that it meant more than just that

as you venture into a new horizon!

As you began full-time from Montessori today, it fills me with mixed emotions of apprehension and excitement. 

Apprehension because of how you (and I) will respond to the change in our routines as you move out of your existing comfort zone. 

Excitement because of a new beginning to a never-ending journey of learning!

This next step means a whole new world for you to navigate and enjoy; 

That you allow yourself to shine; 

that you live each day with gratitude; and 

that it teaches you to follow your heart.

Through this, do know that you are blessed in this journey and that 

I will be beside you each day; 

Cheering you and watching you as you discover all that it means to be you.

That with this beginning I can understand what it truly means 

to have my heart beating outside of me.

Embracing Differences....Celebrating the Freedom!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend, as a visitor, a Naturalization Ceremony here in the DC area - an oath taking ceremony for approved individuals to become US citizens. I thought it would be a routine procedure, formal yet quite to the point. Candidates take the oath, there is the anthem, the pledge of allegiance, some paper work and thus, citizenship. 

Yes there was all of that but much more. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the approach of the event and the overall enthusiasm expressed NOT by those to-be Americans as much as by the organizers. The feelings were that of excitement, celebration, honor, and most importantly, the warmth in welcoming the 'opportunity'. The lead speaker presiding over the 'ceremony' expressed how excited she was to be present today, almost as a promise to her nation to build a better country - a country of immigrants coming together as a melting pot of diversity, cultures, circumstances and now joined together to be part of one nation. She called out the list of all the countries that were being represented in this location - 62 nations, 250 participants. 

Many of them must come from countries that have disowned them, the land to which they can no longer go to, the land that does not acknowledge them, the land that would take away their freedom and their liberty. Thus, for many of those 250 individuals who from today on, have a new identity, this to me represents a defining moment in their lives and that of their loved ones and how fate must have had a larger role to play.

Today, as I do my little bit to celebrate the Independent India, I look back at yesterday and feel thankful and privileged that I can still feel ‘belonged’ to my birthplace, that the thought of settling down there still exists, that a stronger part of me wants to see a better India and that the word ‘opportunity’ has significant meaning there too! Here’s to the country I was born to as it celebrates its 'freedom' and to the country that continues to embrace diversity.

"Mumma I did not eat Chicken" - The Veg Dialogue

I wonder what is a good age when toddlers begin to understand the kind of food they eat/are offered to them by their outside world. I would assume that they realize this when they observe food others eat which perhaps may begin in school. I thought it would be a while before my soon-to-be 3-year old would identify chicken or meat as food items. Hence I was pleasantly surprised when K remembered that he did not eat ‘chicken' nuggets that were offered to him at a recent birthday party. (Aside from the fact that he rarely eats anything outside of his 'subzi-roti', I would like to believe he stressed on the 'chicken' part more than the 'not eat' part).

Both A and I were raised vegetarians and hence there is no doubt that we would raise K the same way too. At the same time, the subtlety of handling this issue as K grows up is quite critical vs what we were exposed to as kids. For e.g., it was 'easy' to be raised as a vegetarian in India where majority of our immediate circle was of the same belief. But in America I am often asked how we would handle vegetarianism with K as he grows up. What if he was the only one with 'special meal' plan in his school or that others considered him the 'weird kid' if he wouldn't eat those nuggets? While I know this is the time to explain the concept to him, I want to be careful in the way we communicate it to him.

Since he is an animal-lover, it would be easy to tell him that eating non-vegetarian means killing/hurting animals. At the same time, that just sounds too judgmental especially considering he might have his close friends who are meat-eaters.

For A and me, there was a strong religious connotation to our upbringing but to pass down that conviction is also something that might be out of character for us. Nevertheless, my role as a parent would be to guide K in the direction that we 'believe' would be right for him and us; that I may have to inculcate values in the upbringing in a way that he would still be able to make his own choices, be it spiritual or otherwise; that each family eats differently hence it is important to embrace different cultures but not to an extent that you compromise on your own.

How have you explained such concepts to your child? What has your experience been in having conversations about meat/no-meat to them especially in ways they have responded?

Corporate Social Responsibility

Recently I was helping someone with my thoughts on the role of the government in corporate social responsibility. This resulted in an interesting discussion on the issues surrounding a new company bill introduced by the Indian Government. This bill requires companies above a 'certain' size to ensure that they spend at least 2 percent of their annual profits on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. While the 'certain' size of these companies remain to be answered, what got us talking about on a tangent was what would constitute as actual spending on CSR focused activities vs the so-called administrative support aka the 'overheads'. 

Now I have been in the development/non-profit sector for as long as I can recall and to me the word 'overhead' itself remains a highly undervalued term within my field. When I develop budgets for my work, more often than not, the question of administrative costs are reviewed a lot more closely than the work that we actually deliver. Yes the current economic scenario demands that in order to win programs, we ensure a competitive economies of scale. The flip side, in that however, is that most often measurable impact gets lost because then it becomes a matter of number game as opposed to the real return on that investment. I disagree with the notion that for nonprofits to run a successful activity, their overheads should be at minimum - that this should be equated per the ratio of what goes into an organization's 'overhead' vs the direct benefit of the activity. 

It is thus exciting to learn about the recent initiative by Guidestar, Charity Navigator and Giving Alliance wherein they mention that "the percentage of charity expenses that go to administrative and fundraising costs—commonly referred to as overhead —is a poor measure of a charity’s performance". Or more importantly the simple clarification on what these 'overheads' could include - that "they are important investments charities make to improve their work: investments in training, planning, evaluation, and internal systems".

 

This campaign that they propose is long overdue for the sector and I would be extremely keen to see how it unfolds in responses mainly from those outside of the nonprofit sector. In the meantime, if there is a specific charity that you are supporting - take a moment to review their work, their accountability, the risk factors - and then assess the real return on your investment.

Take a Pause

Every morning, my daily commute is a mix of rush hour traffic to the metro, delayed schedules and overcrowded trains. While the body is fighting the morning blues and attempting every bit to stand/sit amidst the commuters, the mind is always rushing through those thousand and one things pending on the 'to-do' list outside work and at work. Hence no surprise that the moment you get off at the metro, it is all about getting on with those tasks asap. 

However there are some mornings, when there ought to be a slight detour. Like one of these marked by a group of musicians – with their instruments tuned to hit the soul at the right spot. It was more meaningful – a unique vibe, an uplifting sound, the kind of music to spring up the morning vibrantly. 

 

They were there to welcome us morning commuters with their tune - a tune that connected us by their chords. When leaving some cash in their case, a sense of joy was felt; it gave a different perspective to this morning; and a feeling of gratitude prevailed. 

I call it - Take a Pause.

 

It has been a while...

...since I last blogged and I wonder why I could not stay committed to writing. This makes me realise that the most dangerous thing a blogger can do is stop writing! It wasn't that I had nothing to blog about but this disconnect turned days to weeks and that into months and before I knew it,  I had hit rock bottom in playing catch-up.

There are times when bloggers like me get interrupted for reasons, more than one, and before we realize it is too late to get back to that rhythm. When I started my photo-a-day commitment, I was skeptical of making it through considering my past record. At that point, I had big plans of covering a specific theme a week/month and while that clearly did not happen, what did continue was a way to seize the day in one picture. It turned out to be a feat for me and I was thoroughly satisfied that I did it!

Just like taking a break from the routine gives you a different perspective, an opportunity for introspection, reflection and clarity, I consider this break from blogging a similar experience. And now as I reflect on the moments that I missed writing about or sharing about, I make another comeback, another attempt with renewed perspectives and to ensure that this long break does not destroy the blogger in me.

And while I gather some of these moments to write about, I do wonder how other writers get back after a break from the writing rhythm? 

If you or someone you know has experiences to share, feel free to mention them.

Till then more to follow soon.

Project-365

Inspired by many, I have been working on 'Project-365' with photography since two months and enjoying every bit of it so far. While it sounds easy, it does take some effort to keep this going day after day. Tough part is not adding a photo for the day – but ‘remembering’ to do so. Further, it is also not that easy to keep those creative buds on all the time. However, the goal is to continue doing so thereby making this hobby of photography a daily event. Also, this photographic journey may not be as spectacular as you think, nevertheless, is intended to take a stint at photo-blogging and share the day through the lens. Hope you enjoy these as much as I do posting them and feel free to share your ideas and themes that I can work on to make it more interesting by the day.

Find this Project at - Canon101

Children's Day

We never really celebrated Children’s Day as Jawharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary when growing up but it was surely a perfect day to exercise our freedom from all the rules at home and school. Here I share a beautifully written letter by Jawaharlal Nehru to the children of India (taken from The Speaking Tree of TOI).

“I hope you will take a long time in growing up” – Indeed!

Dear Children,

I like being with children and talking to them and, even more, playing with them. For the moment I forget that I am terribly old and it is very long ago since I was a child. But when I sit down to write, I cannot forget my age and the distance that separates you from me. Old people have a habit of delivering sermons and good advice to the young. I remember that I disliked this very much long ago when I was a boy. So I suppose you do not like it very much either. Grown-ups also have a habit of appearing to be very wise, even though very few of them possess much wisdom. I have not yet quite made up my mind whether I am wise or not. Sometimes listening to others I feel that I must be wise and brilliant and important. Then, looking at myself, I begin to doubt this. In any event, people who are wise do not talk about their wisdom and do not behave as if they were very superior persons...

What then shall I write about? If you were with me, I would love to talk to you about this beautiful world of ours, about flowers, trees, birds, animals, stars, mountains, glaciers and all the other beautiful things that surround us in the world. We have all this beauty all around us and yet we, who are grown-ups, often forget about it and lose ourselves in our arguments or in our quarrels. We sit in our offices and imagine that we are doing very important work. I hope you will be more sensible and open your eyes and ears to this beauty and life that surrounds you. Can you recognize the flowers by their names and the birds by their singing? How easy it is to make friends with them and with everything in nature, if you go to them affectionately and with friendship. You must have read many fairy tales and stories of long ago. But the world itself is the greatest fairy tale and story of adventure that was ever written. Only we must have eyes to see and ears to hear and a mind that opens out to the life and beauty of the world.

Grown-ups have a strange way of putting themselves in compartments and groups. They build barriers... of religion, caste, colour, party, nation, province, language, customs and of rich and poor. Thus they live in prisons of their own making. Fortunately, children do not know much about these barriers, which separate. They play and work with each other and it is only when they grow up that they begin to learn about these barriers from their elders. I hope you will take a long time in growing up..

Some months ago, the children of Japan wrote to me and asked me to send them an elephant. I sent them a beautiful elephant on behalf of the children of India... This noble animal became a symbol of India to them and a link between them and the children of India. I was very happy that this gift of ours gave so much joy to so many children of Japan, and made them think of our country... remember that everywhere there are children like you going to school and work and play, and sometimes quarrelling but always making friends again. You can read about these countries in your books, and when you grow up many of you will visit them. Go there as friends and you will find friends to greet you.

You know we had a very great man amongst us. He was called Mahatma Gandhi. But we used to call him affectionately Bapuji. He was wise, but he did not show off his wisdom. He was simple and childlike in many ways and he loved children... he taught us to face the world cheerfully and with laughter. Our country is a very big country and there is a great deal to be done by all of us. If each one of us does his or her little bit, then all this mounts up and the country prospers and goes ahead fast. I have tried to talk to you in this letter as if you were sitting near me, and I have written more than I intended.

Jawaharlal Nehru
December 3, 1949

Life Cut Short

It is said that through death we appreciate life and it puts into perspective how we live it. But then how do we deal with the time when a life cuts you short? All of a sudden our hearts skip a beat when dealing with tragic death – and the world stops spinning. That is what happened when I learnt this morning about the terrible news of someone I barely knew long ago – and yet my world stopped spinning for that moment. A vivacious young 23-24 year old girl – recently graduated and about to venture into the prime years of her life; so talented, in fact you would think she is going to go all out and make a difference to those around her and to the world!

Why then did life cut her short?

This is an eternal question that haunts us forever. It is times like these that remind me of how fragile life is; that we are promised nothing for what is to come. What would truly matter then I believe is –

to find those moments each day that make me tick – before life cuts me short

to find solace in those who love me – before life cuts them short

to marvel at the way my family and friends touch my lives – before life cuts them short

and to continue honoring memories of those who have inspired me – as life did cut them short but their flames sparkle forever.

I know - easier said than done - but then again, how does one deal with such situations? I would love to understand what are some of the best ways to come to terms with such instances in our lives. 

My deepest condolence to the grieving parents - extremely difficult to fathom what they would be going through – but I pray that when they reach a point to see beyond this terrifying grief, that they can find peace and love in recognizing the preciousness and that eternal flame their young daughter has brought to their lives.