Soulful Journeys Within

“………….but I want to do what I want to do”. The loud voice of ‘once’ sweet son, came from the family room as I asked him to turn the TV off and ‘practice’ that he learns after school and on weekends. I was not only shocked but almost in tears as this was not my same son who religiously followed the evening routine and took everything seriously that he learnt in extra curricular activities, along with his learning at school. Above all that he has been ‘Mama’s helper’ in tutoring his younger sister, passing on all the good stuff that he learnt to his sisters. Like his first-grade teacher still says about him "They don't come in better package than this one". I had no complaints and said prayer of gratitude for these children every morning and before going to bed. But what happened this last week? I don’t know except that I know he is going to celebrate his 12 th birthday in few weeks and he is growing. I think that is what they call adolescence. If I remember it right it is...

Our house is very often visited by relatives who come from out of town and spend two or three weeks with us. Most of them are very nice but it is still an inconvenience to have all of these extra people in your house. Recently, we had a relative come to our house late one evening. It was a young lady. She came about three and a half months ago and is still with us. We are very much inconvenienced with this young lady as her habits are very different from ours. She likes to sleep during the day and at night she keeps us awake to amuse her. We must always keep her in good humor as she becomes cross at the slightest irritation. She has her meals regularly enough but they are not at the same time as ours and this is a big problem. She also doesn't eat what we eat. She has her own special foods. She smiles when in good humor with such a broad and pleasant smile we can't help but smile back at her even though she has disrupted our lives completely. In spite...

Have you ever thought that the ones who gave their head to Guru forever were only ‘five’ and the ones who wrote ‘be-daava’ ( disclaimer) and deserted Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, were eight times more than five? Why is there any wonder that today more young sikh boys and girls are apostate than rahatvaan? There is again pressing need for Mai Bhago….not just one but Fauj of Mai Bhago to awaken the youth. When Mai Bhago came to know that some Sikhs of her area had deserted Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji at Anandpur Sahib and renounced his guruship in writing. She could not hold herself, as she was zealous to serve the Guru. Boiling with rage, and moved by love for the Guru, she, the great heroine, said to her husband, “Guard up your lions and let us lay down our lives for the Guru who has sacrificed his father, mother and four sons for the Sikh faith. We must not sit idle when innocent lives are being bricked alive.” She was determined to wipe out the badge of infamy from the face of her ar...

Maxed out. Stressed out. Worn out. I am out and out ready for a change. Well, after years of planning, gathering the much needed courage to ‘quit’ I am ready….so I began to clean up the mess of 14 years from my file drawers, reading, deleting and of course ‘saving’ e-mails in archives. Majority of my e-mails consisted of e-mails exchanged with my beloved husband about our munchkins….some are heart-breaking…to recall those mornings when a wailing toddler wouldn’t let go of my leg…those teething days when my child depended more on Tylenol than my warm lap…shuffling between baby-sitters and pre-schools. It made me think hard on ‘why did I continue to work?’ It is hard to pin-point one single reason but I will share my thoughts on it from self-experience as well as gathered from having conversations with different mothers who I worked with over the years. Yes, I enjoyed working, but that is before I was reincarnated as mother of our three children. There are lots of women who hold two full...