Four Clover Life- By Namrata Shailendra Singh

This July, Hope, Perseverance, and Ingenuity launched towards our neighbor- Mars, on their  7-month long journey, each assigned with the task of unraveling the mystery of the red planet. I  am amazed at the tenacity and fortitude of our space missions and the teams in the face of the  crisis we all, unfortunately, find ourselves in. Howbeit, I am also struck by the beautiful  coincidence of what is up there, and we need down here on planet Earth-Hope, Perseverance,  and Ingenuity to stand tall in front of the invisible mighty opponent. There is hardly any aspect of life where the 'virus' has not sneaked into and turned our life  upside down. The center of our narrative has shifted heavily, and as I write, the noun has  immense possibility of becoming a verb-You see, in the year 2020, we got 'virussed,' and then life  was never the same. What started in late 2019, spread over 2020, and we know- we have to  wait, hang in there for some time before the case is dismissed fo

" Moms, don't miss the opportunity to make the most of your time with the little ones while they are still little. Cuddle them, squish them, smell the top of their heads, shower them with a hundred kisses! Let your clothes soak up their tears and let their grubby fingers ruin your hair as they fling their arms around you. Etch each moment in your memory because no pictures will ever do them justice. Trust me, time flies. Soon, these days will seem like a distant dream, and you will wish for them all over again!" These lines have not been written by me. It's been pretty viral on Facebook, and it made me think. Literally, pause and think. Undoubtedly, beautiful words, heartfelt emotions, and just so TRUE. Then what's the discomfort? It's painful and, unfortunately, unavoidable. The nest one day will be empty. Can you prepare for it? NO. Can you ensure it doesn’t pain? NO. What can you do? Make the best use of your time RIGHT NOW a

So I was asked this question today by one of my readers who also happens to be one of my friends “Why did you change your name after marriage?  Nobody does this nowadays. Why should we women do this all the time? We are equal and not need to change our surnames or our identity. You went ahead and included his name and surname too.Phew! ” I looked at her in bewilderment, because I had never thought of this and said rather meekly- " Our name together sounds really nice to me. It has a melody to it which makes me ... smile." That's all. Sometimes it's really not about empowerment, equality, and identity. Beyond the frontiers of man vs woman, lies a sweet spot where I feel nice to be married to my husband, feel fortunate to have him in my life, cradle him to sleep when he is tired, serve him warm food because I know he likes it, dust his shoes when he is running late to work, try to keep his tea ready once he is back from work and stand by him at all times.

I love this speed. It gives me much better control of the car and life:) Dearest non- driving moms, Don’t fret over not knowing how to drive. Don’t let it hit your self -esteem and when the other mom asks you – “do you drive?” don’t get sheepish and wrinkle up your nose with a malcontented smile. IT IS OKAY. DRIVING IS NOT THE KEY TO A HAPPY LIFE or a TESTAMENT TO ONE. I wonder if it even figures in the list. He!He!He!Guess, to some, it may. To some, it may not -SO, NO JUDGMENTS. I know driving. It's just that I prefer   1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Special  . Below that, it doesn't suit my taste. Yeah! It is 26.4 million $, and hence I have not been driving. You have no idea how misery strikes in life? Ha!Ha!Ha! Jokes aside, back in Chicago, when I tried to merge onto a freeway, I had my first nervous breakdown, and after that I swore to myself that I will drive into anyone’s home but not on a highway. Amongst  the biggest fears of life, driving fi

“I am wondering how will I fart post the wedding? What if he hears? Oouuchhhh! What will he think about me? All the romance will be flushed out right there. So unsophisticated! But, you tell me, a fart is fart is a fart. A body mechanism and how am I supposed to hide it forever?” I looked at my laptop screen in disbelief( Yeah! I was reading -How to have amazing sex every time! ) while my bestie poured Harpic around the rim of the commode in our bathroom and mockingly answered “he would also have all kinds of noises coming out of his body, so, just chill!” I remembered this conversation today, early morning, when I let out the infamous fart while stuck in a yoga pose(Bhujangasan) right in front of my husband, Kuchipoo(his puppy pet name given by me), for 5 years. Because we sit opposite each other while doing these aasanas, it caught his attention for a millisecond and we moved on. The fart disappeared in the humdrum of regular life.   I remembered my days just after my

...and Phew!!! It ended. The gaiety, the merriment, a giggle here and a guffaw there, warm hugs, 'Hi, how are you?', chit chats, joshing and the color ‘RED’ tinted the OC sky with empressement of togetherness and Indian-ness at the  Orange County Indians holiday meet today. Dear Santa, Thank you! You see, a better vocabulary other than this is hard to find, so I will stick to the ordinary yet the sincerest and impacting. Thank you for this community that every Indian woman and her family has found here and is an integral part of. Every flight that lands in Orange county carry that one Indian family who becomes our valuable member.  It's fun to have a  group that constitutes of such variety- the 6:00am 'Good Morning' senders, the 10:30pm 'shayaras,’ the questers in search of information ranging from plumbing to calculus tutor, and the responders who never fail to impress. We are the ultimate Google for each other. Sundar Pichai, are

It is the way some evenings welcome themselves into our life. Some are enveloped in the shade of deep orange and some in clear blue sky with white clouds floating like cotton balls; some are wrapped in darkness with no stars to twinkle and a pale dark blue blanket all over. And, some are washed in the moonlight, shining so bright that it becomes difficult to differentiate the day from the night. In every way, evenings are my favorite. The day is too bright for me and the nights too dark. What makes me feel comfortable are the silken evenings. Or maybe there is something more to that. Evenings I guess, symbolize 'return.' It's reassuring to see the birds fly back to their nest as we wait to get back to ours. The children, gleefully playing in the green parks, bathed in sweat, look forward to going back to their homes where their mothers wait with bated breath. They shall be washed and scrubbed and made to sit and study in their warm beds. Somewhere, ol

Dear Words, I am struggling, and I am new. Everyday tracking of page views, Google AdSense and affiliate account earning (if any), umpteen social media accounts, followers and following, stumbling and pinning, posting and reposting, Facebook groups and their admin, gaining entry and getting blocked, FB pages, and no. of likes,  and the list is endless. I am overwhelmed by the vastness of this world. I am out of breath already. Collapse I may anytime or quit. Should I? When I see myself in the ocean that I am in, I feel scared. There are so many people writing so well, blogging so well, skillful and artful, earning and thriving. And here I am scrambling to survive. When I quit my corporate career to follow 'WORDS,' I was unsure if I am doing the right thing. I followed 'WORDS,' and I am still uncertain if I am doing the right thing. Every day a new revelation, a new learning, and a new lesson. It's when you see millions of people who have been there, done tha

I shivered, reading Michelle Obama's words. " I never cut class. I loved getting A's; I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world." The words echoed as I felt goosebumps on my body. My heart shriveled up as if aching from old pain, and my mind raced fast. I know what it means to cut class. I know what it entails to chase cuteness. I know how it feels to get an A. And I now know that being smart never goes out of fashion. It's the safest bet, actually. When I was in high school, I was a victim of the 'cute syndrome.' I was all of 16, and there is something about being 16. A lot is going inside, and then there is a threshold that you never get to know when you have crossed. There is a big ' YES' your heart says for every 'NO' that your mind says, and you oscillate like a pendulum. I surrendered to many YES’s only to realize later that I lost out on class, grades