Women's Web

Trees, plants, gardens, flowers was something I have loved for a long long time. However the liking remained unstructured and drifted into nurturing potted plants but I did not really try to develop it as a hobby for reasons unknown. Last year, I learnt about a course in Field Botany and I began that with great apprehension. Would I be able to get back to Science after all these years, should I give up precious evening hours on weekends (usually devoted to family outings), and so on and so forth.

Yet I did complete the course and gained hugely from it. Besides making new friends of all age groups, the best one was the greenery around me that I had taken for granted till now. I know the names of trees and their general flowering seasons and peculiarities. What I don’t know, I know whom to ask or which websites to [...]

Somehow and quite unintentionally I’m sure, some home makers (self included) derive the impression that they are the foundation that holds a home together. While this is absolutely true to some extent (in terms of maintaining relationships, developing and strengthening family bonds etc) it may not quite apply in other areas.

Let me clarify. With husbands busy with their careers and kids with their schools and studies and classes for all kinds of skills meant to boost their future job and matrimonial CVs, its Moms who take up the task of keeping the home running perfectly.

The waiting room of a pathology lab unexpectedly turned into a learning experience. At a recent visit for the annual check-up, I had no time for my usual promises of sticking to a ‘healthy lifestyle’, the reason being a laboratory pamphlet entitled ‘Soul to Soul’. Intrigued I picked it up, not really knowing what to expect inside…

Let me get straight to the point. This was a marketing leaflet that described a package of tests for a young couple to be done prior to marriage.

Every evening I see mothers ferrying their kids on two or four wheelers across the city for tuitions, sports groups or some talent classes. Amid completing schoolwork and developing other skills, the kids end up physically and mentally exhausted as competition is intense. They pick up the ‘infection’ of wanting to stand first or top every event they take part in. Most syllabi encourage learning by rote rather than really understanding a particular topic.

Yet we read strange reports in newspapers: Like this one about ‘outsourcing’ a Tenth Standard school project in Mumbai. Apparently this is a thriving business. I had assumed school projects were meant to improve a child’s knowledge but not to test the paying power of their parents!

Considering all this focus on education, its normal to expect that Indians would figure among the top in any education related survey. However I was horrified by this recent report, which [...]