7 life lessons from my mumma

I'm having a "I miss my mumma" kinda day. This in turn has made it a reflective kind of day. So many things about the way I live now is because of life lessons taught (read: ingrained into my system) by my mum. They sure didn't seem like pearls of wisdom back in the day but in retrospect, mum's always right isn't she?

Source: jackandfriends.com via Radhika on Pinterest

1. Read

Reading has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As kids, my mum went out of her way to take us to the library every few weeks and took an active interest in the books we read. She was always reading a new book and we had a bookshelf packed to the rafters. Reading opens your mind and introduces you to worlds you've never seen before, she always said to us. She couldn't be more right.

2. Eat your breakfast

In my school days, I liked to get every last minute of sleep possible and if that meant skipping breakfast, I'd give it a shot. But mum wasn't having any of it! You don't go to school without your breakfast and a glass of milk. Today, I know how important a meal breakfast is and my tummy is growling as soon as I'm out of bed.

3. Don't slouch
I was very self conscious as a kid because I was a beanstalk while my friends were still catching up. I slouched, trying (in vain) to look shorter and fit in with my classmates and cousins who were yet to catch up. Mum took every opportunity to tell me I was being silly and being tall wasn't a bad thing. She was  always annoying us to sit straight at the dinner table and being all superior-like with her ramrod straight posture.

Fast forward to the present day and I wish I'd listened to her more. I am Slouchy McGee at my desk very often and this gives me terrible back pains. I'm trying to consciously work on my posture more but should've just listened when I was 10!

4. Bananas are your friends
I've always been a fruit and veggie eater but I absolutely loathed bananas. If forced, I'd eat them only if they were at their perfect stage of ripeness, not too hard, not too soft. Squishy bananas made me want to throw up in my mouth. But mum never failed to tell us how good bananas were for you and I never failed to roll my eyes at her.

With the wisdom that only age can bring, I know now bananas are an excellent source of nutrients and are my favourite pre and post-workout snack and is the best way to stave off Hangry. Funnily enough, bananas always make me think of mumma.

5. Make up doesn't make you beautiful
This wasn't an active lesson as such. My mum never really wore much makeup. Her daily routine involved her compact powder, a touch of lipstick and the traditional Indian red bindi. And she looked beautiful. So I learnt that sure makeup helps, but it isn't essential to making you beautiful.

6. Drink water
Going to bed? Bring a bottle of water. Shopping trip? Bottle of water. Sit down to dinner? Bottle of water - check. My mum is obsessed with drinking water and I never understood it. A bottle of water is like an extension of her arm - always there when she needs it. Surprise, surprise - I do the same now. Never leave the house without water.

7. Mum knows it all
Finally, the most important life lesson of all - always listen to your mother. But whhhyyyy?

"Because I said so!"

When I grow up

I had always imagined when I grew up, I'd turn out to be a polished, well spoken, classy lady who has her shit together at all times. I went to an Irish Catholic all girls' school for Chrissake! When the nuns weren't talking about Jesus, all they taught us was how to be a lady.

Instead I turned out to be me.

• Someone who can't eat a cupcake without getting the frosting all over her face.
• Someone who puts her top on inside out and doesn't notice till someone points it out.
• Someone who tries to get up from her chair whilst still having her headphones (which are plugged into her computer) around her neck. Almost every day.
• Someone who forgets at least one thing on the shopping list (isn't that the point of having a list?)
• Someone who stubs her toe on the bed at least once a week.
• Someone who sometimes tries to answer the phone when the alarm goes off in the morning.
• Someone, who has conversations like this:

J: Do you think Macs will ever take over PCs?
Me: Who's PC? 
J: Umm... Macs? and PCs?
Me: What are you talking about? What's Mac? Mac, as in short machiato, like a coffee?
J: Oookaaay. Are you even thinking?
Me: What? Why? WHO IS PC?
J: I'm just going to wait till it comes to you.
*finally, my brain kicks into gear. Cue, giggle fit*
Me: oooooohhhhhh hahaha.
J: *shakes head*

May be, someday I will grow up and become a lady who thinks before she speaks?

LIFE, question mark

Sometimes I tend to abandon this blog because it gets too personal. It orders me around and demands I reveal more of myself than I'm comfortable with. I don't like being told what to do so I do what I do what I do - I run away. Sometimes we run into each other on the interwebz but I can be cold-hearted. Blog looks at me with the fond smile of an old friend & I just ignore it, pretending we've never met. But then, on days like today I come back, arrogant in my certainty that Blog has no choice but to take me back. I have things to say and Blog always wants to listen and thus begins another "On" chapter of our tumultous, sometimes toxic, sometimes comforting on again/off again relationship.

Also, on the spur of the moment, I have decided to challenge myself to the 30 posts in 30 days thing that a lot of bloggers do. (well 31, as it is July). Starting today, I'm going to post here (however big or small) every day until the 31st of July. Forcing myself into being a writer by leisure, not just by profession so I can remember why I used to love it so much.

So anyway, yesterday my dear friend S wrote a note on Facebook "When I grow older..", which is now on her blog. Please read it and then come back and tell me she's an amazing writer. She's smart, she decided not to make a career out of writing. That's where things start going downhill. But I digress. S's post is a series of questions and realisations about the crisis of growing up. (Yes, it is a crisis, an unfortunate unavoidable one at that.) She inspired me to write this so at the end of it, if you think reading it was the biggest waste of your time, feel free to blame S. haha. :)

I'm curious by nature and I ask people (or Google, as the case may be) a lot of questions but this time around, I've been asking myself a lot of questions. Ever wish you had an internal Google that would just give you all the answers? Do you think if it were possible to measure the speed of thought, we would measure distances in space in "thought years"? (seeee - so many questions and I haven't even started the "actual" post.)

Do you ever reach a point in your life where you look at all your dreams, goals,achievements, ambitions and even materialistic pursuits - and wonder - "Why do I want this?"

The things you thought you wanted from life - do you really want them or have you just been conditioned into wanting them? By people? By society? By advertisements? ;)

Can anyone ever really be beyond cultural influence? So why do you think you are so special?

For all your independence and pride, did you really make all your decisions "independently" or have you surreptitiously been conned into them?

If I asked you "Who are you?", could you really tell me? Not your name, not your job, not your skills, not your hobbies, not your relationships - but who YOU are?

Can you evolve overnight and become a different version of yourself or are you just trying on a new skin for shock value?

Is it normal to regress to your teenage years as a form of liberation from your adulthood? Can you be living your life in reverse?

Do you feel passionate and blase about the same things in alternating bursts of dizzying euphoria and mindnumbing dullness?

Can home bring you comfort while also frighten you into depression? Can home be home without the people? Can you be home and still be a nomad?

When you don't cry - is it because you are really happy or are you too scared to feel...anything. If the happiness is bittersweet, is it really happiness?

If you are asked "What did you want to be as a child?" and you cannot remember, is it because it was that trivial or have you lost a part of yourself?

Do you find yourself wishing you had some psycho babble analysis to blame things on but you can't because you had such a perfectly normal and happy childhood?

When you meet someone new who knows nothing about you or where you come from, can it be a relief to hide behind the lack of identity? Or is it simply a chance to create an identity without pre-conceived notions?

Remember when your naivete and innocence was lovable? When did it become laughable?

"Good things happen to good people" they say and you believed it because you are an optimist. But are you sure? Are you really, really sure? No, really?

Can you be a cynical optimist? Why not? It's like believing Evolution was followed by Creation. Or being Agnostic. No?

Is faith (in anything) good or are you just kidding yourself? But you're a daydreamer - do you really want to let go of that just yet?

Are you being impulsive and "listening to your gut" or is it just the devil-may-care attitude frothing up to the surface?

Why is it when men are nice, you think "he's a nice guy" but when a girl is nice, she's flirting?

If being nice was cool, would more people be nicer or is bitchy always going to be in?

If you put yourself before anyone else, is it okay not to feel guilty about it?

Do we put too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect?

Do you feel like you're constantly falling short of expectations that no one has of you but yourself?Once you start falling short, do you stop trying or do you just go harder? Are you running around in circles then or is it a marathon with an eventual finish line? Do you stop if you run out of breath?

When your heart tells you you want to do something that will "make a difference", why does your mind shut it up with "wise" words spouting "impracticality" "no future" "what will you do for money?" and even "rubbish, what difference could you possibly make"? Is this part of societal conditioning or are you too afraid to take the leap? Will you do it anyway?

Can we really have it all? What is this "all" you speak of?

P.S. Don't ask me "What brought this on?" or anything to that effect. They're just questions...at some point you've probably asked yourself some of these too.

Three years ago

... on the 27th of February I arrived in Australia. As cliche as it sounds.. wow, I have grown up so much in these last three years and for various reasons:

1. I have never lived away from home before my move to Australia.
2. I have never had a real job until I moved to Australia.
3. V and I started living together 3 years ago and only now do I know how much that has helped our relationship grow.
4. For the first time in my life, I had to worry about responsibilities such as bills, groceries, cooking for myself, cleaning up the house etc.
5. I've met hundreds of new people from different walks of life, different cultures, different backgrounds and meeting these people in itself has been an experience.
6.V & I bought our first car AND had our first serious accident.
7. I have learned that being assertive is not a bad thing and even though it takes me a while to mentally prepare myself.. I am much better than what I used to be.
8. I am no longer afraid to voice my opinion
9. I now drink wine. ;-)
10. I'm 25 now.. that's a hell of a lot older than 22 ;)

There are probably many more reasons but these are the only ones that come to mind. I miss India for the fact that it is home, it's where I grew up... for the familiarity. But I love Australia and I'm so glad we moved here... this is home to me now.

I've been away...

... a while for various reasons and while at work today, I realised that to help me get over some of my issues, I need to start blogging again. It has, in the past, been very cathartic so here we go again...

Uni is over. O-V-E-R. I am very well aware of the finality of it but as with all my reactions to change, I don't think it has really hit me yet. It's still February and Semester 1 doesn't usually start until early March so I could very well still be on uni holidays. Yes, I am working full time now but I do that every time i have uni holidays so no real difference...yet.

I did realise though that 2010 will be the first year (since pre school) that I will not be studying. That's a pretty big deal to me. I don't enjoy exams etc but yes I definitely do enjoy studying and learning. Maybe by end 2010 I will have started learning a language so then maybe 2010 will not really end up being a non-studying year. Ha ha! :)

In other news, I turned 25 last week.
TWENTY FIVE.
Wow, when I was 18, 25 seemed so very old. Many of my friends have asked me if I'm having a "quarter life crisis" but I'm actually ok. I've never had any "...by 25" goals so crisis has been averted (I hope!). I do however have "...by 30" goals so if by 30 I haven't achieved the things I set out do and my plan hasn't fallen into place I might have a crisi then. Might.

That apart, it's just been work and not much more. Life is routine but life is good. :)