The Rath yatra, or the chariot festival as it is popularly known as, is celebrated in the month of June-July early year. As per the Hindu calendar, it is celebrated during the Ashadh, or the rainy season. The Jagannath Rath yatra is an important festival celebrated with pomp and glory in the eastern states of India, especially in Odisha.
What do we plan to leave behind for the generations to come? An exhausted and pillaged planet? Loads of plastic waste? A world divided on petty and frivolous excuses? Or do we want them to feel grateful for their inheritance? Maybe a better quality of life? A proud heritage? A rich cultural legacy? Individual decisions are based on individual circumstances but as a generation of people what are we leaving behind? I’ve often wondered about this and the answers are always different.
Parents must realise that education happens even outside the classrooms. The child learns so much about the world beyond his family and discovers parts of his or her personality which have otherwise been ignored. Therefore parents should, and must, encourage the children to explore new activities during the summer vacations instead of doing the same cliched things. I have listed out a few activities to happily engage children for the summertime.
(for those who know it all and for those who are still struggling even after years of experience)
Is it only me or are there other overwhelmed and hassled parents out there wondering what’s happening around them? I mean with raising children. Am I doing it right or is there something wanting? Every time I call up any of my friends, the conversation somehow manages to drift to the children – their studies, behavior, food habits, digital media, etc. etc. In short, it’s all about the children.
So, I decided to list down a few things I felt these kids need to know, need to equip themselves with as they step out into the real world, without their parents watching out for them at each step, pandering to their every wish, paying for their every fancy. Learning about these life skills can be started off even before they’re ready to move out so that it becomes a part of their personality.
If there’s something that’s difficult to do, it’s to be happy – just plain, simple happy. Yes, as simple as it may sound, being happy is one of the most difficult things to do. And ironical it may be that it is an easily achievable target. It doesn’t need pots of gold or fame or fancy clothes or fancy houses. All it needs is a few changes in the way we do things, minor tweaks in our attitude and more importantly, the will to try them out before we get all cynical or brush it off as new-age pish-posh. No harm trying it out, what say?
To say that the pandemic has created an upheaval in our lives is an understatement. It was affected each one of us in so many unimaginable ways. Sometimes the effect was direct, as in one has lost someone dear to the virus, or sometimes one was a mute, helpless spectator as the virus danced to its macabre tunes. Either way, no one was spared. It brought us all down to a level playing ground where even the rich couldn’t buy their way through. But if one were to choose the category of people who were, and are, the most hit then it would be the children.
The definition of Mother has undergone a change now. No more the all sacrificing, virtuosic figure glorified by the Bollywood mothers like Nirupama Roy. The new age mother is all that and more. She has come to realise that she too is an individual and one of the primary roles that she’s essaying is that…