Short Imaginary Vacations

As I sit here trying to find something meaningful to write and read, with my laptop open and mindlessly scratching my left hand, can’t think of anything to write about, nothing to read. I look through some old pictures to remember some real good times. The itch on my left annoys me and this time I scratch it harder than before, as I close my eyes to sit and imagine a place.
It’s the mountains with full of lush greenery and brown which comes to my mind. Mountains make me feel very safe, yes they do!! They stand there over the centuries and they represent permanence and they might change over the years but they never go away. They never leave.
The thought of travelling to a new place excites me and you never know what stories you might get to hear on the way and what stories you might end up telling. It depends on the part of you that the place awakens and touches. Some places makes me feel like a child and induces a spirit within and some places make you feel like a matured adult, so you are a different person to each of these two places. You have a relationship with each of this city which only the city and you can understand.

Some places I find myself in someone else’s conversation. I meet myself there and we explore parallel universes, and I return home and so does my other self … to the story where it lives. I love meeting a different me every time I travel with my hubby, I surprise myself sometimes.
I sense a different of myself (Maybe I might travel shortly with my hubby) and I need to encounter it, conquer it…. May be a story is waiting out there. I must go to meet myself somewhere on the winding path that leads to the peak. I am lost under the watchful eyes of the beautiful and massive eyes of the mountains. I come back from a short vacation of mine, and now here I am sitting on the sofa with my laptop still open and with my thoughts taken a form of words….

We all live in a busy and hectic schedules these days and we fail to take a holiday or rediscover ourselves and sometimes we don’t have time for our hobbies and for our loved ones, not everyday can we have a vacation though we wish to, it is at these times we can imagine a place of choice whihc will rejuvenate our energy, and imagine a short vacation, travel there in our imagination and later plunge into the reality…………… these short vacations gives mind a break from the routine….

What are you waiting for, take a break and get ready for your short vacation :)

Autism at a glance

Myself and my hubby darling planned to have our dinner in hotel, (either I am tired of cooking or he is bored of my cooking  ). Deciding what to have from the menu is one of the challenging tasks for me, well we decided after 5 – 10mins what will be on our plates for the night.
As we were talking my hubby told me that recently he met one of his colleague’s child who was suffering from autism, when he was about to explain more, our aromatic food came and thus in no time we finished it and had a good time talking and not knowing that time was going ahead of us, we were laughing and talking and then decided to return home when we felt it was late… driving back home, of all the things we spoke wanting to know more about autism was in my mind…. I asked my hubby darling what exactly happens to the children suffering from autism, to which he replied ‘nandu if I keep explaining everything to you, there will be no fun, why don’t you look upto yourself’ I felt he had a point, I felt a need to find myself and let him know about my small knowledge.
First thing what I came to know about autism after checking lot of references was it is a disorder in neural development which impairs social interaction and communication, at the tender of 3 years or below. In simple it is a disorder in brain restricting the children in behaving and adjusting according to the social environment. Most of them think they are mentally challenged, which is not true. When most of them think it’s a difference in a behavior of a child, other set of people think it is a disorder, for everything we have pros and cons in the world, which isn’t unusual…. Parents of autistic children certainly have many worries. They wonder if their children will be able to achieve, if they will be able to be independent, and if they will be able to be happy and enjoy life.
Repetitive behavior is a common factor with the children having autism syndrome disorder (ASD). Some people are affected with fairly mild symptoms and signs of autism. Many of these individuals learn to live independent lives. Others are more severely affected and require lifelong care and supervision. Some people are affected with fairly mild symptoms and signs of autism. Many of these individuals learn to live independent lives. Others are more severely affected and require lifelong care and supervision. There is no specific reason what causes Autism, apart from the fact that it is a complex disorder. The common myth surrounding autism is people with autism never smile, never express their emotion or never make an eye contact, just as every person is unique, so does a person with autism manifest his/her feelings in a different way.
It is believed that in most cases brains of autistic children grow faster than usual which is followed by slower or normal growth in the childhood. Various studies and research have been done to understand Autism better, and all these prove just one thing, that Autism is a disorder in the brain which affects the child in various ways. Important thing to be noted here is race, ethnicity and socio-economic background of an individual doesn’t affect in the occurrence of autism.

No proper cure is known for autism, nor a therapy which works for all those with autism. Accepted interventions may or may not work for some. When parents notice the below things, it’s more or less the right time to seek a treatment or an advice.
Not gestured, pointed, or waved as an infant, by age 1 year.

Not spoken a single word by age 16 months
Not spoken a 2-word phrase by age 2 years
Experiences any loss of language or social skills at any age
The above signs must alarm the parents instead of just watch and see attitude. These signals might a type of disability if not autism. Prompt diagnosis and intervention at an early stage is important for all kinds of developmental disorders including autism.
According to me, the two most important questions which parents should ask the doctor without fail during consultation are:
Are the child’s social skills developing?
Are there any resources available to support the child?
There is an interesting therapy for autism which is also known as complementary therapy, this provides an opportunity for the child to develop social and communication skills. Although there is little scientific evidence that these therapies increase skills, many parents and therapists describe noticeable improvements in a child's behavior and communication abilities, as well as a sense of enjoyment.

•Art therapy offers the child a nonverbal way to express his or her feelings.


•Music therapy involving singing helps develop the child's speech and language skills.
•Animal therapy, such as horseback riding and swimming with dolphins, improves the child's motor skills while increasing self-confidence.


•Sensory integration focuses on normalizing extreme reactions to sensory input. It tries to help the child reorganize and integrate his or her sensory information so he or she can better understand the external world.

Parents having child autism needs to understand the feelings of the child and must be patient at all times, though it is difficult and provide the continuous support and motivation to the child, this way the child might find it easy to mingle in the social world and find friends, though support from the family is advisable at all time.

Let’s be more aware of autism, and when we come across children with autism, let’s have a positive approach towards them and lets treat them with compassion.

Old Age Home

Off late there has been a steady increase in the old age homes everywhere. There was one such old age home in Bangalore where I used to visit as and when time permits. The first time I went to this old age home I could see lot of aged people, involved themselves in various activities like reading, talking to each other or just seeing and some were playing carom, but really caught my attention was an old lady who was sitting alone and lost in her world… her face had a lot of wrinkles and her deep eyes spoke a lot of her sorrow, which clearly proved that she had seen a lot of life..


I went to this lady and sat next to her and held her hand in mine, she did not to pay any attention to my presence nor acknowledge my touch, and she was still the same lost in her own thoughts... after a minute or two she held my hand tightly and not wanting to let it go from her. She smiled at me and apologized for not speaking earlier to me, to which I reverted back saying, she doesn’t have to apologize to me and smiled back.
From the small conversation which I had with this lady I came to know that her name was gowri and as the signs of ageing slowly arrived on her face she was addressed as gowramma by her near ones. She had lost her husband when her son was still 5years, and currently he was working as a Doctor in one of the renowned hospitals in Bangalore. Her son did not have much time to spend with his mother or shall I say he didn’t wanted to give his precious time or anything of his to his mother, old age was considered as a curse and burden and hence she had landed here… like all the mothers she had also taken special care and had showered unconditional love on her son, not knowing that she would be spending her last days in an old age home with others who have landed just like her. Every day she would think of her son and pray god for his well being…. This is why time and again I say mothers are no doubts angels.

After interacting with her I gave her a hug and told I will visit her as and when I get time and left the place. As I was stepping out of the place gowramma was still in my thoughts and more so the old age home….. Why is that we are seeing sudden rise in old ages homes ?? Reason is very simple because of few people who are incapable of looking after their parents (and in laws) and justifying the same with plenty of excuses, well none of them are convincing to me any day.

One usual excuse I have come across for joining old people to old age home is, ‘oh I have had enough with this lady/man(suddenly mother or father becomes just a lady or a man) he/she doesn’t hear me anymore I need to repeat things which is very irritating and can’t see properly and keeps breaking things’ . Didn’t we all do the same as toddlers trying to speak and learning to walk, our parents didn’t get irritated with us nor did they give up on us thinking we were a burden to them….
If everyone looks after the old people in their home with utmost care and love, eventually the old age homes will diminish, why do we want someone else to look after our parents when we know we can do it the best??

Old age is like another childhood, so let’s cultivate patience within ourselves and let’s take care of our parents and for those who are already in old age homes, let’s give them our time and affection.
Visit old age homes once in a while and spending time with elderly people not only gives them comfort feel but also gives us lot of wisdom which comes from interacting with them.
Let not our parents and elderly people join an old age home and let us not justify it by telling they deserve to be there…. It is a sorry sight to see an elderly person like gowramma in an old age home yearning for nothing but affection and love from their children….

Irrespective of our small arguments and little angers with our parents they always deserve our undying love, lets not leave our parents in an old age home and make them lonely..