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Every one of us talks about how important it is to give time to one self, whether it is meditation, exercise or self-grooming time. But as a woman, it becomes a hell of a task to devote that ‘me time’ for one self.
In addition to that, it is almost an unimaginable task if you are a mother as well. As you all know, spas and parlours are meant to rejuvenate and relax you from the daily stress we go through. Feeling beautiful both inside and outside gives one a wonderful feeling.
Recently after almost ages, I dared to visit a parlour for a bit of self-grooming. Believe me, as I entered, I almost got an anxiety attack by looking at the ladies sitting in there.
At the back of my mind, I was calculating the waiting time for me and ‘tough time’ my husband would have in managing the kids on his own. When I almost decided to drop the idea (for the nth time like always), a lady came in and asked me what all I needed done. She asked me to wait for just 5 minutes after which she would attend to me. I felt oxygenated. I was on cloud nine that my months old mission would finally be accomplished.
However, I was not aware that this oxygen supply would be cut short soon when those ‘alluring 5 minutes wait offer’ stretched to 15 minutes. So after those excruciating 15 minutes, I sat on the ‘Hot Seat’. As the procedure started my phone rang. Without looking at it I already knew who it would be.
“Hello, how long it will take?”
“It just started”, I replied.
“Ok, So I will be sitting in the car in a parking lot with the kids”, pat came the reply.
After a while, I thought of taking advantage of my visit and getting one more thing done quickly. It’s been ages since I had gone for a facial or even cleansing. My skin felt dull and was shouting for some help since months. So I settled myself down for the quick cleansing procedure to save some time.
Now my ‘Hot Seat’ was converted to a comfortable bed and I was lying there enjoying the aromatic fragrance of those scrubs, creams and gels. My face and skin were thanking me a million times for this pampering and I was almost lost in a dream world when my phone rang again and my dream almost broke.
“20 more minutes”, said the woman serving me, well before I answered the call and asked her. We women understand each other so well. After attending that call, I had butterflies in my stomach. I felt every worst feeling present in this world. I felt suffocated, anxious and couldn’t relax. All I now wanted was to finish fast and rush back towards the parking lot and go back home. It was getting harder for the ‘Kids’ Dad’, to manage them.
So it was that an ordeal of 40-45 minutes, which was supposed to be relaxing, soothing and a fun activity turned into a more tiresome, hush-hush affair along with the ‘guilt’ of having more self-love than mother love.
If anyone of you has taken this type of guilt trip somewhere, do share with us all. It will help me in releasing my guilt trip a bit. Thank you for reading!
First published here.
Image via Pexels
Postgraduate in CSE with 10 years experience in academics and corporate industry. On break after birth of my second kid. I love teaching,cooking,reading. Have recently discovered my love for writing articles based on read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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