Creative Musings

As the month of April draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the causes and commemorations which made headlines through the month like Earth Day and World Health Day. It is also a time to reflect on some other causes which sadly did not grab the spotlight but are nonetheless equally significant. One such cause is Cesarean Awareness . April marks the Cesarean Awareness month called upon by the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) every year. With one in every three births around the world taking place by Cesarean Delivery, the subject touches the lives of millions of women worldwide. It is thus not wise to engage in moral tirades about C-sections anymore, it is also not prudent to shy away from the subject. The awareness month is a time for women to acknowledge the inevitability of the Cesarean birthing process in certain cases and to question its probability in some others. It is a time for mothers to separate the myths from the facts and make informed choices about th...

My son, all of 3 years and 10 months has suddenly developed a soft corner for tiny tots and gushes over the thumb –sucking sweeties in the playground, in shopping complexes and even in the MRT! Everybody who has noticed his behavior of late has been warning me not to ignore these tell-tale signs of a child yearning for a sibling and that “I should go for it.” My husband and I have conceded as much. My son does seem lonely at times, even sad as he asks innocently whom he can share his toys and his room with and who he can take care of like we take care of him”. Once he candidly demanded,” when is the baby is coming out of Mama's tummy?" which caused my husband and me both to panic at the urgency of the situation! To be honest, with my biological clock going tick tock tick, we had been thinking of another baby ourselves. But we were still debating the pros and cons, actually mostly cons, now for a year and a half. There were definitely some major issues to contend with. W...

Two weeks ago, on the 7th April, 2011, the world celebrated World Health Day and joined WHO in its battle against drug-resistant super bugs . The theme chosen for action this year by the World Health Organization (W.H.O) is Antimicrobial Resistance and its global spread. If the theme sounds intimidating to you, hear this. Bugs (bacteria, viruses, fungi and other parasitic microbes) are mutating (changing their composition) at a rapid pace globally and as the medical fraternity and mankind scramble to counter this phenomenon; these smart bugs are turning themselves into super-bugs. Super Bugs is the term used to describe microbes who become resistant to existent drugs like antibiotics which, in layman terms means that if this bug were to ‘bug someone,’ he would have to look for some out -worldly intervention as there is no known cure to treat the infection/disease caused by this bug on the planet. Some of the commonly known Super bugs which have wreaked havoc in recent times include t...

Reading aloud is one of the most underrated educational, inspirational and fun activity of our times. Not only does the simple, sweet and natural act of reading aloud help in sharing and bonding between adults and children, it helps build vital skills for life, namely, skills of reading, comprehension, summarising, perception and the very obvious ones : vocabulary and punctuation. The world celebrated World Read Aloud Day ( WRAD ) on March 9 th organised by Litworld - a non -profit organization promoting literacy around the globe while America celebrated its beloved children books' author, Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2 nd in the form of Read across Am erica Day; libraries held story telling sessions for its young patrons and lot of web publishers marked the days, week and the whole month of March with contests related to reading. One online content publisher, Helium. com invited its writers to share with readers and the world what they think are the benefits of reading a...

This is an ode to one of the oldest traditional dresses to adorn the Indian sub continent...the humble kurta pyjama (कुरता प्यजमा) along with its variants; the salwar kameez (सलवार कमीज़)and the churidar कुरता (चुरीदार कुरता). I call it humble as it has never really been given its due unlike the Indian saree (सारी)which receives a lot attention word wide and is hailed as the sacred unstitched seven-yard clothing that seems to epitomize the Indian woman. In a week that saw Aishwarya Rai Bacchan adorning an elegant churidar kurta at an award ceremony in Mumbai, I try to showcase just why the churidar kurta/salwar kameez is one of the most under-rated garments ever and why me and my kurtis are simply inseparable! Why I love the Kurta Pyjama/ Salwar Kameez? The first reason is because I belong to Lucknow, the city of Nawabs and also the city of Chikankari -चिकनकारी (traditional hand-embroidery) which meant that I saw a lot of the kurta pyjamas and the salwar kameezes on both men...

In a society which zealously protects its modesty and shies away from discussing the 'birds and the bees' openly; Indians ironically, grow up watching adverts of contraceptives and Family planning tips on Television. Every child can identify the sign of Nirodh (highly subsidised condoms promoted and distributed by NACO in India), sing to the tune of 'एक गोली' (referring to the one-a day birth control pill) and say 'हम दो, हमारे दो' (meaning a couple with two children) which later became 'hum दो, हमारे एक ( a happy couple with one child) even before he knows his multiplication tables. Indian Government in a tizzy over the population explosion used the only effective medium of television, to convey the all important message of birth control and family planning to its milions making a lasting impression with catchy slogans and eye catching adverts such as the ''jo bola wohi sikander -nirodh commercial'', as even those in slum dwellings who lack ...

My last blog post on Tiger mommies and Asian parenting has been copied word by word, ditto, verbatim by a nondescript user Jp6363 on a site called just4mums.net which has no contact info whatsoever .....within hours of my post having been published. No link has been provided to my blog and even my blog name 'creative musings' has been picked up. In fact the cheek of it is that my blog heading has been created with a permalink to that very bogus site. The blatant act is so mindless (or maybe the work of a software) that not even a single 'I' has been changed. So user Jp6363 I assume is a mother of a boy like me, is an Asian parent like me and has moved from India, to UK to Singapore like me - right user Jp6363??? Would you like to copy this blog post too?