If you want to understand how to become better allies to people with disabilities, then join us at Embracing All Abilities: Including People with Disabilities at Work.
I feel proud that though, am still not financially independent, I can be, anytime I want. My degrees are not wasted, no, they simply gave me the power to choose!
Like many working women do, I took a maternity break from the Corporate world after being there for 11 intensive years after completing my MBA. The birth of my elder daughter was the reason for this and as she turned 8 a few days back, I look at her and realize that time truly flies.
I fully intended to go back once my maternity leave got over. However, I never could!
The thought of leaving such a small baby with a help, nearly broke my heart. I was a Brand & Marketing professional and my job involved late hours and travelling. I felt I would miss out on life so much if I continued working! My heart would always be home with the little one!
So, I decided to quit for good and stayed home taking care of her and I have never regretted even a single moment of it!
By the time she was 4, we planned for our younger one and my sabbatical got even longer! My priorities had changed and I chose to stay home with the girls.
When my younger one started playschool a year ago, I looked at my girls, feeling proud of how I have brought them up so far. Little angels but so spirited and curious…and happy above all.
Then, I looked at myself. Two pregnancies ending in two cesareans and a long maternity break left me happy, no regrets there…but, I felt unfit and unhealthy. It just didn’t feel right. I had no stamina and I was so out of shape. I realized that I needed to take care of myself too.
I contemplated joining the Corporate life again but in all honestly, I didn’t want to. I still wanted something which would leave me plenty of time with my little girls, even if it meant less money and no fancy designation. Spending time with them made me happy no matter what others felt about me wasting my degree and talents.
First of all, I decided to get back in shape and learn something new. I started with kickboxing, thinking it would be fun and would also help me in getting my strength back! It actually just changed my life around! Fitness indeed is an addiction…and I fell hook, line and sinker!
I couldn’t stop once I started…I didn’t want to. I joined a reputed gym close by, worked hard, read and researched a lot, took care of my diet.
It wasn’t easy…I did not know what to do and how to do anything, inside the gym! But I started anyways…and today, I have come a long way! From 30 lbs leg press to 320 lbs, from not knowing what a deadlift is to 120 lbs of deadlifting…a lot fitter, a lot stronger and a lot healthier!
I also started learning guitar as I always wanted to. I read as much as I could! I have always been a bookworm and reading helps me unwind.
I have authored a small children’s story which is available on Kindle – “Dhruv & The Mad Scientist” by Smita Krishna) and I am working on it so that I can get it published in hardback soon.
With all this and some more, I am always running against the time, doing so many things and taking care of everything and everyone. Meeting many deadlines on a daily basis, I have vowed to never give up and I work hard, everyday, to achieve my dreams.
When people find me and my dedication inspiring today, I feel happy and encouraged.
Though I do not wish to return to corporate world now, I still want to have a career, in blogging. I feel proud that though, am still not financially independent, I can be, anytime I want. My degrees are not wasted, no, they simply gave me the power to choose!
I take care of family’s finances and investments, take care of my life-partner and the kids, their studies and other schedules, take care of the house, read and research, work hard at gym and stay happy and disciplined myself, both.
I write about many things and majority of them are fitness and nutrition related. My website is: www.jillofmanytrades.com. I post every Friday and my readership and followers are both growing, slowly and steadily. If you find me inspiring and like my blogs, please join me on Instagram for regular updates, photos and work-out/nutritional information @ jillofmanytrades_blogger
I am fitter and stronger than ever. Looking and feeling fabulous is a bonus. I now want to inspire other women to take care of themselves, physically, nutritionally and mentally.
I aim to do that with my blog and other social profiles on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I lead a well-read, well-aware and disciplined life and I am enjoying my blogging journey! I hope to be one of the top-most influencers online someday and to inspire people, especially women, to be aware and to know their worth, above all.
I have so much to learn, so much to write. I even have a bucket list that I have to finish eventually. I am a super-mom and though I have quit corporate world and am not doing a traditional 9-5 job, I am happy with my new career choice. I am doing what makes me happy and I am getting better by the day.
That’s my story. #MomAndMore
Image via Unsplash
read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
What I loved was how there is so much in the movie of the SRK we have known, and also a totally new star. The gestures, the smile, the wit and the charisma are all too familiar, but you also witness a rawness, an edginess.
When a movie that got the entire nation in a twist – for the right and wrong reasons – hits the theatres, there is bound to be noise. From ‘I am going to watch it – first day first show’ to ‘Boycott the movie and make it a flop’, social media has been a furore of posts.
Let me get one thing straight here – I did not watch Pathaan to make a statement or to simply rebel as people would put it. I went to watch it for the sheer pleasure of witnessing my favourite superstar in all his glory being what he is best at being – his magnificent self. Because when it comes to screen presence, he burns it, melts it and then resurrects it as well like no other. Because when it comes to style and passion, he owns it like a boss. Because SRK is, in a way, my last connecting point to the girl that I once was. Though I have evolved into so many more things over the years, I don’t think I am ready to let go of that girl fully yet.
There is no elephant in the room really here because it’s a fact that Bollywood has a lot of cleaning up to do. Calling out on all the problematic aspects of the industry is important and in doing that, maintaining objectivity is also equally imperative. I went for Pathaan for entertainment and got more than I had hoped for. It is a clever, slick, witty, brilliantly packaged action movie that delivers what it promises to. Logic definitely goes flying out of the window at times and some scenes will make you go ‘kuch bhi’ , but the screenplay clearly reminds you that you knew all along what you were in for. The action sequences are lavish and someone like me who is not exactly a fan of this genre was also mind blown.
When Jaya Bachchan speaks her mind in public she is often accused of being brusque and even abrasive. Can we think of her prodigious talent and all the bitter pills she has had to swallow over the years?
A couple of days ago, a short clip of a 1998 interview of Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan resurfaced on social media. In this episode of the Simi Grewal chat show, at about the 23-minute mark, Jaya lists her husband’s priorities: one, parents, two kids, then wife. Then she corrects herself: his profession – and perhaps someone else – ranks above her as a wife.
Amitabh looks visibly uncomfortable at this unstated but unambiguous reference to his rather well-publicised affair with co-star Rekha back in the day.
Watching the classic film Abhimaan some years ago, one scene really stayed with me. It was something Brajeshwarlal (David’s character) says in troubled tones during the song tere mere milan ki yeh raina. He says something to the effect that Uma (Jaya Bhaduri’s character) is more talented than Subir (Amitabh Bachchan’s character) and that this was a problem since society teaches us that men are superior to women.
Please enter your email address