You are only given a little spark of madness. You must not lose it.

- Robin Williams -

“A woman of substance” – that is the tag line of India’s high profile beauty pageant – Femina Miss India. Fashion world is all about eye candy where tall and skinny girls in sparse cloths provide ample entertainment. They twirl, swirl, wave and pose endlessly. To their credit, the contestants put in a lot of efforts to perfect every aspect of their personality. From elegant cat walks to eloquent answers and everything in between. But calling them “women of substance” is little too much praise – in my opinion. So I was surprised to read this story of this year’s winner. It is a story of a mother’s courage and her daughters’ determination. The woman went through emotional and physical abuse, gave up the social security blanket of being a married woman, worked day and night to put bread on the table for her daughters. It has everything required for making of a Bollywood blockbuster – the evil in-laws, painful poverty, challenges and obstacles, and finally a glorious ending. It is almost like a fairytale, only better, because it is real. She is a woman of substance in true sense.

I am thinking of my mom today as the world celebrate motherhood, reflecting on her life and how it has shaped my personality and impacted my life. There are so many things that I have learned from her. And many more I have yet to learn.

She has worked hard all her life. She worked while in college to support her family, continued working after marriage to be financial independent. Did not spend much on herself and saved for our education. Even today she continues to work tirelessly just because she cannot imagine not doing anything. You will rarely see her relaxing. After a day’s of hardwork she watches TV for half an hour or so. Even then she has to do some work – like cleaning and cutting veggies for next day.

She learned cooking after her marriage. Though cooking is not her hobby, she enjoys trying new recipes. My brother and I joke that for mom our kitchen is a lab and our taste buds Guinea pigs. That is just to tease her. She makes some pretty good stuff. She has a long list of signature dishes. The soups, the fish frys, the fried rices, the raitas, the prawn rolls. And I have yet to eat chapatis lighter and softer than hers. Unfortunately the talent was not passed to the next generation. Nor will be the recipes. She makes all those things perfectly delicious every single time; yet she cannot tell me the proportion of the ingredients/spices. “How much water do I add for 8 tomatoes?” I inquire as I attempt the tomato saar. “little bit” comes the reply. “What do you mean little bit?” … “Just enough to make it a little loose but not too thin” … “How do I know who much water will make it loose but not thin?? Tell me the exact amount – one spoon, one cup?” … “I don’t know, I never measured. Just eyeball it”… “Arrrrrgh”.

She played awesome table tennis and badminton. She has more trophies than me and bro combined. How cool is that?! I could never beat her at either of the sports. What impresses me is that she continued playing at the office gym till about 10 years ago. Most of the time she used to be the only woman on the courts. A forty year old woman playing badminton with her male colleagues must have raised some eyebrows. But she was not the one to give up something she loved because it seemed unconventional.

Her greatest contribution to this world (apart from me, that is) is her positive attitude. She is one of those people who live by Napoleon’s quote “The word impossible is not in my dictionary”, who cannot accept not trying. Now in her fifties, she continues to do the household chores, a very demanding full time job and is doing MA by correspondence course.

Unfortunately I did not inherit the golden qualities. I am a self proclaimed “realist”. I also believe in optimizing efforts; which translates to avoiding work if there is some possibility of failure. Well, some times even if there is none. Because I am borne lazy. And my childhood memories are full of mom pushing me to do things I did not want to do. All those summer camps, swimming lessons, extra curricular activities and NTS classes. How much I hated all that!! I was mean enough to say I liked dad better than mom because he was lenient and never made me do those “horrible” things. I protested, made excuses, argued endlessly. But mom never budged. I am glad she did not. It has made a huge difference. I am still not ultra optimistic, nor have I achieved anything great (yet ), but I can say that I wouldn’t be half as good as I am now had she not pushed me.

Moms are awesome They are our best friends and greatest teachers. Here is to all the caringly nagging, selflessly hardworking, infinitely loving and ever inspiring super moms. Happy Mother’s Day to you all

Slightly belated, but doesn’t matter as long as I take some time to think about how my life style is affecting this pretty blue planet. I have been slacking lately with unplugging appliances. Earth Day is a good reminder to do something about my carbon footprint.

Here is a another ‘cool’ website I found today : http://www.greenlivingtips.com . They have the green tips categorized. That is really useful. I Plan to go over one category every month and see what I can do differently to save the environment.

Stumbled upon this one while browsing 43things ..

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten.

I (like to say that I) like nature. Well, occasionally I try to help the green cause of by posting a blog or two and following the advice for a couple of days, but that is how far I go. But when it comes to enjoying it, I don’t think I want anything else more than the beautiful views from the mountain tops. I like everything about nature; from animal behaviors to variation in vegetation, from colors of rainbow to monochrome beauty of the snowfall, from the energy of a cascading waterfall to serenity of quiet lakeside. I could go on and on. The point is, most these things are what we see around us. But how about from a different perspective – the big picture ?

Such a pretty blue planet !

Yesterday I stumbled upon that big picture. Hubby was searching for a desktop wallpaper – specifically ‘earth’ images. He showed me the search results. Both of us were ‘WOW !!!’. Not that I did not know the earth looks blue from the space. I might have even come across some of the images. But I had never realized how beautiful it looks from outside. Isn’t it the prettiest planet in the whole universe ?

Unfortunately, we live in a paradox – we love nature, we depend on nature, but we are destroying the nature.