Deep down, people are all alike...

I wish I could say I was going down a deep dark alley, but truth be told, it was so dark, I could not see whether there was one! I could see nothing, I heard nothing. It was as if around me, suddenly, was a vacuum. People I loved no longer existed. The life I so loved, no longer thrived. The colorful world I had chosen around me suddenly wilted and burned down to a harrowing painful rubble. I was chained down, may be glued down, aching to move. I had become rock solid and could feel myself no more. It was as if I had been turned to stone, like in some movie I saw long back, but my soul was left in. My body seemed at its best, and yet the pain inside was tremendous! I could have crushed a mountain inside out with that intensity! I seemed to have become invisible. I could hear myself crying out for help from the inside. I could see myself as if as an outsider, and yet could offer that crying weeping dying soul no help! I stretched out my hand for help and was every time called crazy. I w

What would it take for me to be the child? To have that sparkle! To have that never waning enthusiasm! To be the curious energy! To be the energy of amusement! What would it take for me To be fun! To be joyous! To be happy all the time? What would it take for me To see happy and sad just for what it is And move ahead nevertheless To just explore right and wrong And may be out of it make a song? What would it take for me To not bother how I look? To not bother how my friends speak? What would it take for me To see me as just me. To be me, Just ME?

It was a place of lush greenery all around. Birds chirping away, smell of wet earth from the distance, a peacock's voice could be heard in the distance every once in a while. He always felt privileged to be in the lap of mother earth; something not everyone enjoyed. Tall grass and Lantana all around, it was the space of the kings and queens who ruled the place. He had to be careful. He was a mere visitor after all. He would take one step after another, being extra cautious to not disturb even the smallest of animals, lest it disturbed the ecological balance of the place! Walking through the jungle today, amidst barren land that wouldn't have vegetation on it for at least a few years, he suddenly saw a carcass. Walking through the graveyard of what was once a forest, the Tiger's charred carcass was still too much for him to take. He knew it wasn't natural. His body shivered with rage, eyes red with fury. Here's a beautiful being, disfigured beyond recognition, owing

You are perfect! You! Yes, You! What if there's no fat or thin? No fair or dark skin? What if we are all just a spec of light? In a Universe so bright? So what if we know nothing? Or specialized in everything? So what if you are a killer A thief or a burglar? So what if the world revered you or loathed you? After all, the stopped clock is twice right too!    What if everything's just a choice? And you could change and transform like River to Ice? Would you choose to lose? Would you choose to choose?

Let's Blow those Candles And Cut that Cake! Bring out the expensive cutlery For the porridge I make! I can't wait for Christmas! My birthday is too far! I gotta celebrate NOW! Cos NOW is all I got! If yesterday I was waiting for today And today I wait for tomorrow Then where is the day I have fun? From whom should I borrow?  I saved as a child For I'd grow old one day. I'm saving as an adult now For I'd grow older the next day! I imagined I'd die rich With a huge house and much wiser! But may be I'd die an old witch! Who could be nothing but a miser! So bring on that costly gown! All the expensive accessories! All the luxuries this planet has to offer! All the yachts and ferries! Cos Today's all I got! Cos tomorrow is another day. Cos NOW is all I got! And I gotta celebrate it my way!

"Why did you decide to Home-school your child?" is a question I have been asked very often. I have given different answers to different people, but the honest answer is, I knew no better. Bam! I said it! I really couldn't have it any other way! Just like for some the natural and obvious thing to do is to put kids in school, this was my natural organic way of doing things! I got introduced to Breastfeeding as the natural way, followed by a number of things that I followed, like Baby-led weaning (children self-feeding from the age of 6 months), Baby-wearing, Cloth-diapering, Gentle Parenting, Natural term weaning (I nurtured my child till he was 4.5years old) and in the same scheme of things, the concept of Homeschooling. For me, Homeschooling was just the natural progression from all of these that I was already following. I still remember one of the first homeschoolers I met, to whom I asked what is homeschooling? What she said was so simple, yet as an after thought, so p