• Toyna,  Yog

    One Afternoon

    The afternoon clock said it was 2:30 p.m. The caller on the phone was desperate. My heart grew heavier as I listened in. Not again, not today. I just couldn’t manage to leave office today. I pacified the caller with an assurance that I would come home if the situation did not improve in the next ten minutes. I looked again at the clock in the corner of my laptop screen. It was not cooperating. It was just 2:31 p.m. There were 89 more excruciating minutes before Toyna would get home. I pushed my chair and got up from my seat. The document on the screen was no longer important. I…

  • Toyna

    Creating Happy Memories

    Human mind is a very powerful thing. Irrespective of what is physically happening around us, it is capable of creating a world of it’s own making, for us to live in, not only for the present but also the past and the future. I learnt about this fact from Toyna when she was six years old. When Toyna was 4 years old, she had a freak accident playing on a slide in our neighborhood park. Her right elbow was smashed and a sharp bone piece also injured the nerves in the arm. The injury was so severe that at a point there was little hope of ever recovering the movement of her…

  • Thoughts and Quotes

    It is OK

    It is never the environment that causes the stress. It is the realisation that you are incapable of handling the environment that causes the stress. I wish I could just close my eyes, take a deep breath and calm down. On some days, it’s OK to be late to work. It is OK to make a quick meal in place of an elaborate one. It is OK to just stop in the middle of the chaos and find the sense. It is OK to just say to yourself, “It is OK!” Life is still good.

  • Toyna

    A Letter to Toyna

    Dear Toyna, I write this letter to you today, as a reminder to you (and to all those who might ever stand in your path) of the extraordinary courage and will power you possess. I don’t say this because you are my daughter and I am blinded by my love for you. I say this because I have witnessed it first hand when you were just 9 years old. I know you would have already forgotten about that day. I also know that going ahead, life will seem extremely difficult at times. And lastly, I also know that there will be multiple times when everyone around you will believe that…

  • Toyna

    What’s in a name anyway!

    Whenever I meet a stranger, I usually introduce myself with my name , “Hi, I am Shilpa. Nice to meet you here…… “ On the contrary, I am always pleasantly surprised at how Toyna meets strangers her age. She never starts the conversation with telling her name or asking their name. The conversation is always straight to the point, “Do you want to play with me? I like to play badminton. Do you?……” Many a times, she comes back to me after spending significant time playing with a friend, not even knowing his/her name. This is how conversation goes thereafter: Me: Who is she? Toyna: A friend Me: But what’s…

  • Yog

    Walking and Falling

    After a month of holding hands with Yog and religiously walking around, Yog finally started walking on his own. Watching him grow towards taking his first few steps on his own has been a significant journey for all of us. In the early days of trying to walk, he lost his balance once and fell hard. Ever since that day, he became skeptical of walking. Somewhere in his mind, he associated walking with falling and getting hurt. In the last month, we all knew he was capable of walking on his own, but he wouldn’t let go of our hand. For him, the fear of falling was way stronger than…

  • Toyna

    Drama Skills

    Toynas school teacher told her today that she is very good in Drama. He also promised her a role in the next school drama show.I was surprised that one – it took them so long to observe this skill of hers (which I have been subject to for eternity) and two – how differently we reward a skill like Drama at school vs. at home.How I wish she didn’t have to practice Drama at home to really hone this skill!