Throwing a party for a kid is not a child's play. And if that kid is a tween and the party happens to be a birthday celebration, then as a parent (mom especially) you are doomed.

Mommies of younger kids, I don't mean to scare you but it is what it is. Dealing a pre teen is a Herculean task and they are that sassy creatures whom you can neither ignore, nor give in to their demands. My elder one just turned ten and planning her party was a big headache. I love party planning but sometimes it becomes overwhelming with 2 birthday celebrations in a span of 2 months.

Disclaimer: When I say party planning, I mean the homely ones. Please do not mistake my prowess for those over the top, extravagant and very gawdy celebrations. I am a simple person and so is my family. I love to organise a small party at home with our near and dear ones and keep everything minimal and intimate.

Usually, we love a good theme. In fact only her 1st birthday party was without a theme. After that I became mature enough to keep the celebrations cohesive. 

We have had grand celebrations a couple of times but I have learnt that most of the guests whom we invite aren't even that close to the birthday child emotionaly. And don't get me started on the heaps of gifts that are received. Opening, sorting and taking care of those is another task altogether.  So we decided to have intimate celebrations, inviting only them who really matter to us. 

My elder daughter turned 10 and this tween has been a "blink " for the past couple of years. For the uninitiated, "Blink" is a term used for the kiddos who are ardent fans of the band "Black Pink". Yes that all girl band from South Korea who have had a series of chartbusters. Not gonna lie, I too love their songs. We usually decide a theme months before, and for this year we had zeroed down to Black Pink.

I sent out themed invites (I had designed it myself) and started planning on the decor, because that's what matters most. This year we just got foil balloons. We got hearts and stars in pink and black. Foil balloons don't create a mess when burst, unlike latex ones though the price difference is stark. 

The cake was really appreciated by the birthday girl. She likes to keep it as a surprise, because she says that she has full faith in the party planner ie me. I loved how the name was 3 D.

I requested the guests to adhere to a black or pink outfit choice. Most of them obliged, barring one or two people. Anyways, the party turned out to be fantabulous! The guests loved my cooking and it was one hell of dance/ gaming party! Having my elder daughter getting cheered on my her closest friends and being blessed by elders who really love our family was a blessing indeed!

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024.

I wrote because I loved storytelling and of course photography. The blogverse was an immensely inspirational space. I kept writing without any expectation in return but my joy knew no bounds when I got invited for my first bloggers meet, the launch of Skyscanner in India. I was pregnant AF and ready to pop but that opened my eyes as to what this universe was about.

As years passed by , I carried on blogging (both organic and sponsored) along with my full time clinic and motherhood. In 2017, I realised that I am slacking on my child's upbringing and missing out on those precious moments because I was so consumed in both of my jobs. I realised that slogging at other's establishment won't help me; other than clinical work experience. Also, I was beginning to fathom the sky high potential of blogging. So I quit my job, started my own part time clinic and concentrated on blogging. Initially it was isolating as it was my first tryst with self employment and sometimes very frustrating too, as there was no fixed paycheck. However, I started falling in love with the independence and flexibility in my life. 

I consider the year 2018 to be my happiest self. My elder one turned 4, I conceived my 2 nd child and did the best campaigns of my life with the brands I love. I got featured in AD shoots and my future looked really promising. Come 2019, I was with a new born and I got many campaigns of a new mother. I was a seasoned mom blogger by then, but the industry had already started shifting from the web to Instagram.

I started earning more from Instagram than my blog baby and this required more presence in front of the camera. Event appearances had to be made and it was more about shoots than writing. It was definitely challenging with a new born and a toddler but immensely satisfying nevertheless. I was immensely grateful that I was living my dream life by being my own boss .

The next year, the unprecedented pandemic struck. Weirdly, it was a boost for my career. I was extremely struggling on the household front, juggling a household of 6 single handedly and my influencer career was the only thing that was taking care of me (in the form of money, goodies and creative challenges). However the industry took an 180 degree turn with the explosion of reels. Now everyone wanted reels at the price of static posts. However, it was novel and no one was complaining.

2021 was the biggest year of my influencing career in terms of campaigns done and money earned. Even my father was astonished when he was filing my ITR. Anyways, that was the year by end of which the world again started doing events and appearances became mandatory. And the glitterati of the social circles had turned into influencers.

From 2022, work from home became almost minimal. And the fakeism in the influencer world started rising. Mom bloggers started borrowing young children from neighbours and friends for campaigns. Fake engagement started roaring (God knows why pump so much money to show engagement) and shallowness reached its maximum depth. It was not about expression or personal views anymore, only glitz and glamour and the ability to invest. 

Fast forward 2024, 90% of my colleagues(who started around my time) have quit. In this journey of 11+ years, I have witnessed big blogging communities getting dissolved, agencies being shut down and blogger friends quitting. Out of the innumerable accolades and achievements, I have faced multiple setbacks, but never for once I considered quitting, except for this week.

The mommy blogger industry has been taken over by filthy rich women who just happened to give birth. They neither take care of their kids or household, nor do any motherly activities. I don't have any grudge towards privilege, but when does money equate to being the most inspirational mother? Most of us mommies are REALLY working hard, trying to balance motherhood and career and maintaining sanity in between. Most of us don't have an army of help: read nanny, cook, full time maid, make up artists and a social media management team. The very reason why the influencer industry boomed was for its "REALNESS" and ironically, it's the fakest section of the society.

So this very big yet controversial brand (whom I have supported since day 1) organised a huge meet in Gurgaon, after 5 years. Their first meet was way back in 2018, celebrating 125 years of their brand. They flew me and my little one to Mumbai, we stayed in Renaissance, and it was fantastic. After that, we (me and Mohi) flew to Mumbai twice, and had loyally supported the brand, not just worked with them. Because most of the mommy bloggers I know, they don't use their products on their kids, they attend events only for the money. I didn't attend this event because they refused to pay me my worth. Of course they paid lakhs to the "Real mums".

Now this kind of double standards have plagued the entire industry. The "successful" mommy influencers don't write their script, they have scriptwriters. Of course they don't shoot or edit. They don't even do their hair and makeup! They have thrown their money at literally everything in trying to portray a "real life" on screen. These mommies who can't even lift a spoon, get the biggest cooking and cleaning campaigns. That's what the brands want. 

Never before in my life have I doubted my capabilities so much. I have come to realise that I just need to have resources to make things work, not talent. So why not I put all my resources into building a nursing home which will help the society instead of something so superficial! I have stayed in this field for my love for creativity, but it's just becoming way too stressful for me. It's better that I stress over on my patient's health rather than how to look a certain way or my reel insights. 

Maybe this is my midlife crisis speaking. Or maybe I should seriously quit. I accept defeat. Rant over. 

PS I will continue writing nevertheless because this is who I am. 

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024.

There is something really exciting about night markets. When all the souvenir shops and local eateries shut down and the streets become deserted, you have the night market which is full of lights, hustle bustle and hoi polloi. Thailand is known for its night markets because unlike European countries, we Asians go to bed late.

There are many night markets in the beach town of Krabi. We were staying in Ao Nang, which is kind of a hot spot in Krabi. Now the biggest and the best night market is the Landmark Night market, which is situated on the Noppharat Thara beach. There are a number of night markets all over, including one that's just before this Landmark one, if you are coming from the Ao Nang side. However this one is spread over a very vast area and is a happening one. By that I mean huge food court with tables and chairs, live music and shows like adrenaline thumping fire shows.

The vibe is to die for... especially if you are fond of the bustling tourist scenario. There are hundreds of food stalls selling all kinds of food. From local Thai food and delicacies from other parts of Asia to Western dishes, from fresh se food to performance based preparations like fried ice creams, the list is endless. And they are very moderately priced which means you can try a lot of variety. 

There are hundreds of souvenir shops too. Although I won't say they are cheap. The prices are at par with other shops in the market although cheaper than beach stalls. However the variety is unmatched. If you want to buy gifts to take home for everyone, this is the place you should buy from.

One of the most memorable performances to remember here was the jaw dropping fire show. Playing with fire seems to come naturally to the people in Thailand and they take it very seriously. I have noticed young boys (less than 10 years) practicing on the beach. The team is huge and then at the later end, they include people from the audience. Our elder daughter's jaw totally dropped when she witnessed the entire show.

It might be hot at night too, given a beach town is humid. So it's safe to carry enough water, because you don't want to spend your food budget on juices and drinking water.

The market stays open till 11 PM. It starts opening at 4. The best part is that you can visit this place after a long day of sightseeing. Definitely a must visit!

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024

I completed 36 years of my existence on this earth this June end. While my blog is all about happy things and I pro actively try to keep everything on a positive note, sometimes I feel that I shouldn't be lying. Actually I was listening to a podcast by a keynote speaker (Sina Port, if you are interested) and she  emphasised on the fact that as a content creator, we should be "honest" to our audience. Because that is how our audience gets connected to us. While I, myself, don't like consuming too much "relatable content", like the struggles of motherhood and marriage. This is because personally I think that if I am spending my time on screen, it would rather be something that inspires me and not make me wail further. And secondly, a mom influencer whom I really admire (Brooke Raybould) had mentioned a number of time that watching such kind of content has scientifically proven to demotivate us and hence not conducive to our growth.

Don't get me wrong. I am forced to watch such content+ cringe ones (couple humour and tiffs with in laws et al) from time to time via the endless reels that my friends forward to me. Although they never "like" any post of mine; which is a different context altogether, which I am sure we all creators would be able to relate. 

Cutting to the chase, why I started rambling in the very first place was to rant out my findings from my 36 years of breathing and learning on this planet. I have been counselling people since I was very young (high school) and hence it's the favourite part of my medical practice. As I became professionally skilled, my counselling became of course more result oriented and effective, however I haven't been able to implement it on myself. That's understandable because even a shrink has a shrink. However I haven't reached out to any professional help till now because I never got the opportunity to. So long story short, I have diagnosed myself as having a mid life crisis.

Most people with emotions ( not those who are on auto pilot mode like my father, husband, etc) go through such crisis at one point of time or another. My struggles have been multiplying over the years: managing household single handedly (because it's a patriarchal society and husband is too busy with his career), demands of growing children, my struggle with forever increasing weight and dissatisfaction with my profession(s). Maybe this is just a phase (for more than 6 years if I recall) or maybe life is going to remain like this. Maybe I will learn to deal with my crises in a better manner over time or maybe I will lose my sh*t at the end of the day. Sometimes the future looks very bleak. However I have managed to finally find the purpose of my life.

I had been struggling with my ultimate goal for quite sometime but thankfully I have realised that the only thing that would keep me going are my two girls. Their proper upbringing and nurturing them into kind, happy human beings is the ultimate purpose of my life. 

There I have said it. Putting these thoughts out in the world so that I can hold myself accountable. Wow this felt great! Just like good old blogging days where we used to share our joys and sorrows with our readers. 

PS My ultimate finding has been that social media is a myth, the greatest facade. Never compare your life with someone else's SM image nor judge anyone by their feed. That's all for today.

 This post was created for the Blogaberry Creative (Monthly) Challenge.

Title: Mother India 

Author: Prayaag Akbar 

Genre: Contemporary fiction 

Publisher: Harper Collins 

Pages: 168

Before I dive into the review, let's take a moment to appreciate the book cover. It has been designed by Bonita Vaz Shimray and is nothing less than sheer brilliance. The Instagram grid is of the exact dimensions of a standard mobile smart phone and  it immediately hints about the role of social media in this story. Saying that it's a beautiful hard bound book would be an understatement, you are bound to pick it up from the shelves by the mere look of the cover.

About the author: Prayaag Akbar is an award winning scriber whose "Leila" won critical acclaim and awards in 2017. While I didn't get the chance to read Leila, I was well aware that his award winning novel was a base for a Netflix show. 

Alert: There are spoilers .

Mother India is a brilliant book set in the backdrop of modern India: AI, Social media, work romances, corruption etc. The protagonists of the story are Mayank, a guy who works for a You Tuber, who didn't go to college to make ends meet and Nisha, a pretty Pahadi girl who works in a high end Japanese chocolate retail store. Both are totally unrelated although they manage to change each other's lives forever.

This story is about how technology and social media has started playing with human lives. It's a very realistic story with how someone's image is stolen from their Instagram grid without consent and processed by AI to create a viral gif. I mean the repercussions can be life altering.

This story has so many political sides to it also. The collapsing of a flyover because of faulty construction, corrupt ministers, people destroying nature for personal gains, harming an honest journalist, and so on.

While Mother India mainly points to the gif, there are numerous aspects of motherhood in the story. Nisha getting pregnant, how Nisha's  elder sister is considerate towards her, Mayank taking care of street dogs like his own, dotting Mayank's mom and she guiding Mayank into doing the right thing and of course, the intricacies of our very own motherland.

The novel is a brilliant piece of work. It's fast paced and very relatable with today's scenario. It has elements of everything; from romance to thrill, tragedy to sarcasm. Set up in Delhi, I could precisely relate to all the locations where the story takes place.

The writing is superb and there are two sentences in the entire story that are of the length of a whole page!

Mr Akbar has done a fantastic job and this book is a must read for contemporary fiction lovers 

PS this story would make an entertaining Netflix limited series too. OTT people, are you listening?

This review is powered by Blogchatter Book Review Program