Parenthood can be quite a ride. There are moments of intuition, flashes of wisdom, exhausting weeks, exciting moments and interesting milestones with the baby. I know there are more of those pleasant and not-so-pleasant experiences coming up on the parenthood channel. For now, I am content looking back at the how far I have come and thanking God for all the blessings.

It is no big thing that a child is affectionate towards its mother - after all, we carry them around as a foetus for almost a year and nurse them for another long year. But with the father, it is different. Despite not having the closeness a mother shares with her child, the father still is such a huge influence on the little one. I look in wonder when my daughter looks up at her father. I remember the day my daughter was born. She was crying as I held her in my arms. My mother picked her up and she was crying, she was crying when my father held her. She kept crying as she was passed from one pair of hands to another. Then my mother gave her to my husband, her father. She stopped crying instantly. I know I was pretty harmonal at that point of time. But still it was way too touching. I think she felt her father's warmth and love. All through the first few months of her life, she continued to do that. She would be crying uncontrollably and the moment dad walked close to her, she would feel comforted. The bonding was unbelievable. She is now in her twos and nothing has changed. Mom is the bad cop and dad is the good one. She rushes to him the minute he is back from work. She offers to carry his bag and put it in its place. She loves playing toddler tennis with her dad. She hangs on to every word that he says. On days that she is really grumpy and would not want even a bite of food, she will willingly eat if her father feeds her. She misses him when he is out of town. Most days, the first word in the morning after she wakes up is "appa"!

I can only feel wonder at this bonding. Well, since motherhood came by, wonder is all that I feel most of the time.

There is a song deep inside you. You are born to sing a song and you are preparing. You are moving around in the stage with your dresses, but you are forgetting to sing---holding the mike, too, but you are keeping silent. 'Til that time, you'll be restless---until you can sing that song which you have come on the stage to sing. Doesn't matter if you feel a little out of tune for one minute or two. Go ahead. Sing. - Sri Sri Ravishankar

They are born knowing "Object Impermanence" and then slowly learn "Object Permanence". Eventually they will have to unlearn that, for there is really no permanence in this transient world.

These were my thoughts when I was reading a BabyCenter newsletter on how 8 month olds develop awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible. :-).

Sanskrit is a divine language that evolved from sounds in nature. From birds, from rivers, from planets, from space, from air, from land, from the entire cosmos.

Sanskrit is a language built to last, even when people will hardly speak or understand the language. The reason is, the vibration of Sanskrit words do not need understanding at an intellectual level - they reach the being at a subtler level. This is again because the language is in harmony with the universe. It makes the being within us vibrate in resonance. Now we know why sitting amidst Vedic chanting calms down the mind and uplifts us. I have also noticed that as you keep chanting, the meaning just comes to you at the intellectual level too!

Sanskrit is also a language friendly to the modern computers. Well, it was the language of the omniscient Gods, people who had transcended time.

Google has made our otherwise monotonous lives so peppy! First it was the intuitive search results, and now it is the clutter free, light and friendly gmail! Very soon we will be saying gmail me, not email me :-).

I am now a big fan of the Planets theme! For the uninitiated, Gmail themes can be accessed from the Settings link that appears on the top right corner when signed into gmail. You can choose the theme that you want to see as a backdrop when you are gmailing, chatting or exploring. Planets is my favorite. I love the way the backdrop changes, almost makes it like a trip to space. I love the beautiful deep colors of the lunar craters, the saturn rings and the bright blue stars. If I gaze at it for long enough, I feel transported to far off and can almost feel the vast expanse of space around me with a meteor shooting by.

I know the whole last paragraph sounds a little too dramatic. But that is exactly my point. Gmail has infused more color and pep into my otherwise monotonous life. Atleast my mind wanders further from my laptop now. And wow, it shoots right into space!!

Thank you Google. Your efforts are appreciated and creativity admired!

The five signs of a Guru are :

Dukhakshaya: Misery disappears.
Sukha avirvhava: Joy swells up in His presence.
Gyanaraksha: Knowledge dawns.
Sarva Samvardhana: You become more talented.
Samriddhi: You will have plenty.

How True!