Bring back the touch everyday – day after day!

Husbands and wives share a very cute as well as a complex relationship! In the start it’s all lovey dovey, the phone calls, the texts, the gifts and the cards! It seems like a dream, especially for a girl, as if her prince from the fairy tales has entered her life; hence it’s going to be joyous ride ahead! But soon after the wedding, reality strikes in. You are not only responsible for yourself now, but also for the lost socks of your husband, the fuel in the car, the milk in the refrigerator, the salary of your maid and the file on his desk! You may be forgiven several times for your mistakes but you can read the expectations in everybody’s eyes! Few weeks earlier you were the most pampered, spoilt, daddy’s little girl and now you are a wife, a daughter in law and a sister in law! You may not even get the time to talk to your parents and friends back home, you are in a learning process, trying to fit in the new life, new work, new relationships, and a different home, different atmosphere. It’s  like every day you are given a task and you have to do it within a time frame, more so every time you try you have to face a different circumstance, and that’s when you realize “ Did I marry to do all this?” well, you can never answer to this question honestly and lie to yourself and move on!

Amidst all this confusion, you hardly get time for your spouse, and with the little time you get, you have choices, either to sleep, or watch T.V. or to chit chat. And then your mood and the need decides, what you opt for, then if you opt sleeping you feel bad, if you watch T.V. instead, you feel guilty! And when you talk, although you love it, but you feel as if some things in life are being missed, you have no time to have fun, you can only have fun with permission (which according to me kills the fun part).You start to miss your previous life, that careless behavior, all night long watching T.V. , those fun rides and carefree times with friends and those sleepovers, you badly miss all of it!

But when you get ready for the office together, and when you drive to the same office with each other, (couples can give anything for this), when he changes the gear and you hold his hand, that sensation makes you forget the tough times, sneaking a kiss after lunch, takes you to another world and keeps reminding you, you have a companion now, who cares for you wholeheartedly! Driving back home late, practically going for a long driver every night is priceless! The way he holds your hand while you are driving, reignites the spark, reminds you of the very first time when he held your hands before the wedding, and I get Goosebumps! And not only this, when one is annoyed with other and the other person initiates the holding of hand, and then start the conversation and clear it up! For me, to keep the spark alive, we need to work upon it, not miss a single opportunity of rekindling the chemistry, and make it a point that we try every day, harder than the previous day!

Never leave my hand!

A beautiful relationship calls for a soft heart and a thinking which might not be logical or rational, but this is how it is! But every night when you get to sleep in the arms of your spouse, I think that touch,  that feeling is worth all the agony, hardship, heartbreak, disappointment, effort and breathlessness I guess some things  are more important in life.

Words can lie. Looks can deceive. But a touch... it reveals the truth.
In the rush to keep up with life, couples can become blind to simple things which can keep the spark alive. It’s not the lack of love, but a lack of passion. One way to reignite the spark is through the sensual experience of touch. ParachuteAdvansed Body Lotion believes you can #BringBackTheTouch. But first you need to awaken your sensual self. Touch, feel, caress, discover, #BringBackTheTouch. See more here.

This post is a part of Indiblogger happy hours #Bringbackthetouch

# Toilet for Babli

We wake up in the morning and whine about that dress we wanted to wear to the office, and the servant has not gotten it from the dry cleaners, we can’t choose a pair of sandals because we have so many of them that it takes time to decide and hence we feel, such an awful morning it is! The kid in the house is at the breakfast table and wants to eat spaghetti, and says no to fruits and healthy snacks, and complains that he can’t even have his favorite meal for breakfast, mom! You ruined my day!The little brat of the house is fighting for the remote, because he wants to watch a particular cartoon and his little brother is watching something else.

The wife is being sarcastic to her husband about their trip to Europe, which has been postponed due to certain commitments! The husband owns a decent car, but the neighbor’s friend has a better one and has booked the same for himself, still is sad, because he has to attend a party tomorrow and has to use the old car. And thinks, God!  I live in such a misery.The next morning the wife demands, “Darling, I want a Jacuzzi, You know it has so many benefits, from massaging to relaxation to a calm mind” The husband gently nods!

A healthy and wealthy family, indeed!! Having house help of around 6 people! One of them is Babli, around 13-14 years old! Works with her mother in this house, basically helps her mother and also plays with the children of the house. She is a very sensible child, very sincere with her work and whenever finds time, she takes out the books of 10 year old and tries to read and learn. She left school when she was 8, stays at a neighboring slum. She likes to learn English and listens carefully when the family is conversing in it! She never envies the expensive gadgets, the branded clothes or the home theater or play stations!

All she craves to own is the servant’s toilet of the house, which a basic toilet with running water facility. Because there is no public toilet in the locality, they are forced to go out in the fields, and since she has started to menstruate, it is more problematic for her in those days. And during the night, she needs to accompany herself with a friend or two before stepping out in the fields. She also wants to rejoin her school, so that she can study and apart from the school timings she is can help her mother with the work.

How sad it is, that a child whose fate leads her to take birth in a poor family, subsequently, she has no right to have education, and no right to have even a public toilet in her locality, cleanliness of toilets is altogether a different issue. Even if certain rural areas now have toilets, they do not have running water, people have to fill buckets of water and take it there, and of course no cleaning which only leads to diseases and is very unsafe for females.

And what do we do? We are so self centered that we can’t even share our things with family and friends, forget about helping someone unknown, we all are so busy with our lives, earning more and more, that we don’t have time for charity! We can donate certain facilities at least to our maids, , who help us throughout! But no! when we are already dissatisfied with our lives, even after having all the fancy things, we don’t have time to offer help to those in need! We are busy competing with our friends and relatives, not being thankful for what we already have. No wonder, we feel restless and displeased.

Thanks to various NGOs and certain communities which are working towards it, and take it as their social responsibility. In a similar way, The  Toilet Academy,Domex,HUL’s flagship sanitation brand, currently runs the Domex Toilet Academy (DTA) programme. Domex Toilet Academy was launched on 19th November 2013. It aims to become a sustainable and long-term solution to provide sanitation that benefits the local community and helps stimulate the local economy. The Toilet Academy makes toilets accessible and affordable, while promoting the benefits of clean toilets & good hygiene. Our effort has resulted in bringing the change in the villages of Maharashtra and Orissa and we aim to build 24000 toilets by 2015 in rural areas faced with the problem of open defecation.

India, in the 21st century, still has 597 million people defecating in the open. This is mainly due to lack of sanitation facilities. Lack of toilets and the lack of hygiene amenities are the reason for feeble health and a rise in ailments. Women are most impacted by the lack of sanitation facilities in our country. They face major issues related to health and safety which also impacts their dignity. Blog about #ToiletForBabli and join Domex in their latest initiative to help make villages ‘open-defecation’ free.

This post is a part of the initiative #Toilet for Babli taken by Indiblogger.

Daddy's little girl!

Kids take pleasure from little things in life. Their achievements are winning a silly game, racing till the school, getting that answer in math class accurate, be teacher’s pet, be the first one to raise their hand when they know the answer, telling mom, stories from the school and the playground, building that sand castle, drawing that lovely picture and gifting it to a relative, cutting a birthday cake, opening up gifts, licking the ice-cream, eating their favorite chocolate, doing something naughty and blaming the elder sibling for it, never stop competing with the people around them, watch their favorite cartoon, craving for that extra love from parents , waiting for a praise and feel like the king of the world, getting their arms bruised and pretend in front of friends that they are not in pain and how brave they are! (Although going back home and crying in mom’s lap). Nothing in the world can replace this pleasure not even money or power. It is their innocence which takes pride in accomplishing petite things and enjoying life to the fullest.

A family is complete when you see kids running around. But when kids are not at home, every nook and corner echoes their shrieks and laughter and their presence is missed. However kids can be tough at times. Not to blame them, it’s with age when they realize what is right and what is not so right, for them. That’s what parents are for! (Oops!). Speaking of a difficult child to raise, I was one of them (Though, not proud of it). My brother and I were the life of the house, apple of my parent’s eyes. My laughter could be heard even a few blocks away. I was the naughty one and always came up with something to attract everyone’s attention. I was the youngest in the family hence the most pampered one. My dad spoilt me the most, by fulfilling all my desires.Everyone adored me. And my brother was the quiet one, so he was praised a lot and I always used to be jealous of him.

The sweet elder brother and the spoilt brat!

 But I was very finicky when it came to food. I was only fond of cold drinks, ice cream, chocolates and Maggi! I used to loathe to eat vegetables, so I hardly ate any (Yes, I was that fussy). I did not like to drink milk either. For apparent reasons my power of immunity was very low and even my height was not at par with my friends. Because of my wrong food habits, my eyesight became weak and soon I had to wear glasses. I couldn’t play outdoors because even a scratch on my arm would take months to heal. So, whenever I played in the open, if I fell it used to be a hassle. All this was a result of my unhealthy eating habits and because of my stubborn attitude nobody could force feed me.

 My parents were highly concerned since my health was suffering. To begin with, my parents lovingly explained me the issues I was facing and the ways of getting rid of them. I could understand that what they are saying is for my good but I used to take a sense of joy in over ruling them (silly me!), so I didn’t listen to them.

Then I did not leave them with any option than being strict with me. They made a diet routine for me and I had to follow it without fail, which included a glass of milk in the morning with almonds, fruits at noon, proper meal in the afternoon and night, and a spoon full of Chyawanprash with milk at bedtime. It was not so easy to adapt it but slowly gradually it became a habit for me and started to like it.

 I was allowed to cheat on weekends when I could have pastries and chocolates and maggi! Within months I stopped falling sick so often, started to play around merrily. I was not among the weak children anymore; I could enjoy the rains, splash in the puddles without falling ill. I made new friends, did not bunk school because of being unwell, could be more attentive and need not worry about my health. I became hale and hearty. All this took me a healthy diet and regular intake of Dabur Chyawanprash.

As it is difficult for children to stay under constant pressure of school and studies and several other competitions, it is equally challenging for parents to manage everything, they give us enough space to discover our own talent and keep reminding us, the necessary things in life.

Parents raise their children in such a way that they should be happy at the moment and even their future should be safe and secured. Because sometimes what happens is, at the cost of today’s happiness the child may risk his future but parents have that art of balancing both the things. The child is allowed to do whatever he wants to, so that he is happy doing it but also make sure that in coming days he won’t regret it and be equally happy. The love, care and affection which a parent has for a child is unconditional, a parent leaves no stone unturned when it comes to raising their child in the best possible manner.

This post is written for Dabur's contest on Indiblogger "a healthy child makes a happy home" drawing from personal experience and tell how a healthy child makes for a happy home.