Parenting

One Advice You Would Give to Your Younger Self is

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 26, 2017 20

One advice you would give to your younger self is an unpopular topic.

Do you ever listen to advice however well meaning? Have you read Lord Krishna’s version of it?(I couldn’t find the exact quote,just what I remember )

[bctt tweet=”You can only help those who want to be helped and are ready for it !” username=”misra_amrita”]

Time travel this week on Blogadda.This topic makes me very thoughtful.I would like to say so many things to my younger self.But if it’s one thing, I want to say continue studying hard.

I won the wow badge by Blogadda — I won the WOW badge by Blogadda

”Continue studying hard, even history geography, civics, and languages which appear, not in line with your dreams.They will help you one day.They will make you a more compassionate person.They will help you wrIte your stories.”

When I see people worrying about study load and how hard schools are I wonder what to say.My mom never forced me.She just told me,

”If you want your dreams to come true.You have to work for it.”

No one gives you something for nothing.If you are useful, people will cherish your services, if you are innovative industries will employ you.If you are a storyteller people will want to hear your stories.But your earning capacity is directly proportional to how many people you help and serve.Not easy right?

Read all you can, as much as you can exactly how you are doing now.Maybe not exactly.Stop hiding those Agatha Christie’s in your history book.It’s not helping you.Just quickly get those studies over and then you can read all you want.

via GIPHY

Go on reading those self-help books and articles and solving those papers.Everything will help one day.As the world changes, so do traditional ways of earning and making a difference.You don’t know when your extra curricular lets you earn more than your profession.

[bctt tweet=”Have faith in God and believe.Studying hard will help you so don’t stop.” username=”misra_amrita”]

This is not a popular advice nor is an easy one.But there’s [bctt tweet=”no shortcut for doing well in life.” username=”misra_amrita”]The route is through algebra trigonometry, geometry, civics, and history depending on your nemesis.

Also, everything Taare Zameen pe said is not necessarily Gold!

One advice you would give to your younger self is

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Linking to #mg

A Day in the Life of a Doctor Mommy with Crazy miracles

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 8, 2017 27

A day in my life is a Miracle.

The miracle that things get done.Beds get made food gets cooked, posts get written and hospital work gets done.All the while being mommy to my five-year-old angel.

I pray to God every day and thank him every night because:

My mommy taught me to cook and survival skills even though I resisted.
For giving me an amazing friend and life partner, with whom clearing out dust under the bed, becomes fun too!
For giving me an angel of a daughter. Who tells me to stop listening to my naughty brain when I am creating a ruckus.By the way, she is five and I am not!

With introductions done, now about how things get done, let me give an overview.Don’t want you to think I am mad,but in our home we both juggle roles every day!

The mad schedule

Wake up in the morning together.
Breakfast is made and plants watered.We switch chores alternately.I get bored easily and can burn everything in the morning.
Get Rai’s Tiffin ready
Wake Rai up.Breakfast together.
Get Rai ready together.Often playing tag and with plenty of cuddles.
Off to school.Preschooler dropped off.
Four and a half hours at school.That’s the golden time span.

Go back home.Hubby to the hospital for his morning rounds.Get lunch ready while checking e-mail, reading and sharing on mobile while fish and rice gets cooked.I also check to see whether scheduled post got published.I try to focus on the task at hand in 10-minute parcels.
Make beds and put things in order while waiting for my friendly maid to turn up and help me along.
House work done.

Off to the hospital to log in, attendance with the Biometric nonhuman.
Fight my way through deodorant challenged humanity to reach the elevators.Trying to flash my ID at the same time.
Reach the 8th floor of my OPD to see teeming crowds standing
It never fails to surprise me how so many people have ENT problems.Greeting my juniors, who are the biggest help.Mad rush starts!

Some days it’s the cool interiors of the operation theatre.Those days I am happier.
After few hours at the OPD, indoor rounds or emergency surgery (depends on what the Gods have decided), it’s time to go home for lunch.I live 10 minutes away from the hospital. Perks of small town life.
Hubby has picked up Rai from school in the meanwhile and gives her lunch while I get the salad ready for ours.Lunch over and playtime starts with Daddy, while mommy goes to take an afternoon lecture class for undergraduates.This luckily is not on schedule every day.Sometimes hubby has a class too.When we can’t manage my sis in law baby sits Rai.Blessings !

Now the current healthcare scenario and mob mentality are making operation theatres breeding ground for stress.Who can predict the future with hundred percent accuracy?If you can, do apply for jobs at the hospital.Predictions before admission will make it easier.Maybe!

Come back home to tea and gup-shup.Thank God my cook is back after a 2 months break(she broke her wrist) and I can actually think and write.Otherwise, for last two months, I felt I was sleepwalking through chores and writing.On Tuesday’s like today, I am on call 24 hours.That means I am a bundle of nerves.This where my trusty treadmill and writing alone can help me calm down.Then it’s Daddy’s turn to go to the hospital.

We are both working and get things done because our duties are adjusted.We try to schedule duties so that one of us gets to be at home with Rai.In the evening she goes for her extra curricular activities and I get an hour to get exercising and write my post for the next day.

Everything else gets written after 9.30pm when Rai goes to bed.Off to bed at 11.30pm.

It’s a mad world and the only reason it works is God’s blessing, no commute troubles being a small town, flexible work hours, loads of sacrifices on both our parts and help from several people.

We have one objective in mind.Be there for each other and for the little angel, God has blessed us with.

(Affiliate Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you, but helps support this website.Read more here. )

I must mention the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss which is one of my favorite reads. Inspired by it.But till now Workweeks refuse to be limited to four hours.

If I could start my parenting journey what would I do differently:#MondayMommyMoments 27

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on July 3, 2017 21

If I could start my parenting journey what would I do differently?

Interesting question.Honestly, I would rather not start again.I have covered a little ground and it has been great.Ups and downs, overall wonderful.But when I think hard about this I realize a few ground work, real and wishful, could definitely make the journey easier.

My 10 point Checklist

1)I would attend the practice breastfeeding session and breast pump practice session(are there those anywhere in Kolkata?).Who knew it would be so difficult? At least it was for me.

2)Make a list of all snacks I could make for Tiffin every day.It has to be different, tasty, nutritious nonmessy. look pretty, not get spoilt and a few more things which I have forgotten!This one is like overcoming a sudoku puzzle.

3)Make playsheets, worksheets, activity sheets according to age.I am making them now, but it’s a race against time. The best way to keep children happy (and mommy gets housework done), is to keep them interested.For that, a lot of research is needed.It’s no less than astrophysics!I wish I could have researched this when she was still inside.

Your children learn to smile with you.Are you smiling enough ?

4)No shouting at all in front of the baby. This I rarely do but, even when I do I wish I wouldn’t.

5)Plant more trees in our locality, town, city, country, world.Make the earth cleaner. The air cleaner and greener.

6)Find more moms I like, hoping the children will turn out like them.Then Rai could have good friends.Finding well behaved good playmates, that’s a challenge!

7)Grow ten hands and three heads.Mommy head,Doctor head ,daughter,wife,blogger,author,gardener, et cetera head.Can you do that?Grow heads and hands?I am still researching this one.Very important for coping.

Painting our plant pots together make for some fun family times .

Playsheets .Activity sheets.Creative challenges are very important for the little ones growing brain .It's always a nagging worry at the back of my mind.Am I doing enough? — Playsheets .Activity sheets.Creative challenges are very important for the little ones growing brain.It’s always a nagging worry at the back of my mind.Am I doing enough?

8)Learn martial arts, fighting skills like Devsena(the Bahubali femme fatale).Then I can teach my daughter.I can’t find age appropriate Coaching Centre where I live.Now youtube videos are our best bet.

9)Read even more to her slowly.I tend to read at full speed.This I am trying even now.It has helped develop her vocabulary .language skills, good .story telling skills with little effort.

10)Stress less and Pray more.All will good.

What would you do differently if you could start your parenting journey again?

Writing this for #MondayMommyMoments.

Monday Mommy Moments Week 27

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on July 3, 2017 0

Monday Mommy Moments is my online memory keeper. What I think, feel, do about this interesting Life lesson called Motherhood. Someone once asked what happens on a linky party?

We link to each other, that’s good for SEO, but what else?

Monday mommy moments we have a brain pool every Monday. We feel the joys, pains, sorrows, challenges, hopes dreams and aspirations of the moms through their writing.

On the prompt or without the prompt, I enjoy reading those who link up.It is the best way make online friends.

Tangible or intangible friendships matter. Whatever happens in life, it’s because someone somewhere has been kind to you. Don’t forget to read my post linked in the linky on today’s prompt.

Today’s Prompt:

If I could start my parenting journey what would you do differently?

How to link up?

We have simple rules.

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This is not just a blog hop.This is a journey.

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Write the post and Link Up with Amrita or Deepa.

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Copy the badge code and put it at the end of your post.

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Prompts will be announced every Sunday at 21.00 hrs IST.Linky opens till Sunday 21.00 hours.We always visit the blogs and promote them as much as possible.It’s like your own blog promo.What’s not to love?

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Featured blogger this week:

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MondayMommyMoments :Why I started a Mommy Blog(23)

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on June 5, 2017 22

Once upon a time I was bored .Very bored.Just surfing the net for buying more stuff ,which I may or may not need.Of being unable to leave my 9 months old baby ,to the local untrained nanny to go for conferences and workshops.Missing the vibrant atmosphere of academic discussion at my earlier institutes ,I was destined to grow mold.Until inspiration struck.Why not write about what I do best ,professionally and personally .It will help others and help me .

Double boon .

That’s when I thought of starting a blog.Writing books came later after 2 and a half years.

When I was deciding on my blog audience and niche I knew I wanted to talk to my girlfriends ,the girl gang who hangs out together discussing everything under the sun.

That’s whom I know .That’s whom I can identify with.

I am a chatterbox so having very few people to talk to ,made me write more.

What do I know professionally?

Here I had a wide range to choose from.But I was passionate about sharing health and lifestyle information which affects women and children.Living healthy and feeling good is a journey and is not a single point destination.

That’s why I had the health in my blog name.

Personally, I have always felt people are silly about money.They know they need money.they know they want money.But they feel it’s bad to earn more and are stuck on the hamster wheel.Money is energy.It’s God’s way of ensuring you can get what you want.But what you want is in your hands.God blesses our actions and thoughts but you are responsible for them.Sounds confusing?Not really.It’s all about perspective.

If you want to live well , happily .learn something which people value and willhappily.Otherwise it’s a struggle.Life lessons from my mom.That stuck in my head.I have seen too many times how cash crunch can take away your peace of mind.That’s a boat I never ever want to ride.

The reason behind the wealth part of my name.I want to help people get rid of the fear of earning well.Of self-sabotaging their way to financial freedom.I am on a journey and I want as many people as possible to be there with me.

5 Reasons I started a Mommy Blog

I wanted to help women and other moms cope with living healthy.

I wanted to help them find their goals in life.

I wanted to help myself, by writing about my fears, worries, and struggles and find a way to solve them.That way more people could be helped.

I wanted to do a social experiment.I wanted to try the hacks suggested, in the 4 hour work week.Now my professional obligations make the 4-hour thing impossible.But the concept holds good. If you are not afraid to learn, are moderately net savvy and love story-telling, you can start to earn online without selling snake oil or doing something icky.

I wanted to learn how people can earn online .If you are educated it should help right?

I have always felt knowledge and education is looked at in an upside down way.Its important that you study hard and get your degrees .What is even more important, is the education should help you become independent .If your education doesn’t help you become employable or independent in financial ways, the rest is going to be difficult.

I am employed full-time as a medical teacher and ENT surgeon .My dream of setting up a blog to learn the ropes is well on its way .I would like to support education of girl child, ensure clean air water and basic education for all and support our army wives and children.I know it’s sounding pretty impossible with this itty bitty blog .

It’s a tall order and when I told my hubby, he looked a little shocked with my plans for this little blog .But whats life without hard-to-get goals.

If I can help even one person rewire their thinking and try more, I would have met my daily goal .

During revisions of my study materials I focus on the big parts .Then break them down into bite sized parts .Then do them one after another .Till you have done all.Simple .

Everything in life has happened because of my continuing conversation with God .If you can look inside yourself and find your answers, you will never falter.You may make mistakes, will probably do, but the mistakes are also a part of the bigger plan.

What you do you do ,what happens is destiny .

This year I have received the Work At Home Bundle from the Ultimate bundles people.Its ready to get launched soon.I am going through it and making notes.If you do buy the bundle, you can access my quick summaries of the material and choose to focus early on the important areas.This bundle couldn’t have come at a better time.

I have felt moms need a way to be independent even when they take care of children.Children are our future, they will be like the influence they have.Quality and quantity both are important.What we need to work on is more Government and corporate help, to make moms working schedules flexible.

[bctt tweet=”If money can go digital, why not work for moms? #MondayMommyMoments @Deepagandhi.Let me know your answer” username=”misra_amrita”]

W riting this for #MondayMommyMoments this week.

Monday Mommy Moments week 17 :Are you kind mommy?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 24, 2017 18

Kindness cannot be taught ,it has to be felt. Children are like sponges.They respond to loving and cuddles in the same way you would.Plus they learn from you to be whatever way works.

If perseverance is a quality I want her to develop for her success in life.The kindness I want her to learn to enjoy that success with people who love her.

Kindness begets kindness.While it’s not possible to be kind to everyone at heart , our words should never be unkind.Harsh words can scar deeper than swords.Once when Rai was upset about a sketch pen set I couldn’t find she looked mutinous and said,

No you have to find it.You are a bad mommy!

I knew it was a momentary thing for the little one, it still it broke my heart.I thought back to the times I have told her she is being a naughty girl.Since patience is a virtue which has long since been a personal struggle I decided to have a talk with my hubby.My hubby is one of the kindest most patient people I know.He can speak kindly even when angry.So here I was waiting for some wisdom to be revealed.

He said something very simple.

Whenever you want to say something harsh to someone, just take a deep breath, and in that moment think.Would you want to hear the same if the tables were turned?

Interesting !In moments of self-congratulatory righteousness, we often forget how the other person feels.That’s empathy when we feel others pain by Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

Random acts of kindness:Are they useful?

Mommy learnings about kindness

While scolding Rai I try to show firmness and kindness.I criticize the action.Not the little person our future adult.

I have a monthly ritual.I make her choose the games and toys she wants to gift to another child who has less.This way she will learn (hopefully) that, what she has is a blessing.Many children live with less.Teaching them thankfulness is a good way to raise happy, well-adjusted children.

Rai has been watering plants and helping me in the garden since she learned to walk.So she knows about taking care of living things.She has never torn a flower or a leaf without my permission.Occasionally she does want to pluck flowers, which I allow if they are at least one day old.Tearing leaves, not watering the plants is being unkind to them.This I think was easy to instill in her, as she saw me always taking care of plants.

We have an aquarium.Initially, she used to tap at the wall of the aquarium forcefully and the little goldfish hid from her.But once I reminded her about her fear of the doorbell ringing loudly and loud firecrackers, she understood.Now she gently taps on the walls.A few plants and pets help children appreciate life and teach them about kindness, by doing.Vague gyaan rarely works on children.They need to see and feel the effect of kindness.I am a plant and fish mommy too.Rai knows she has plant and fish sisters & brothers !

Always being kind to people who help us.The grocer, maid, gateman, driver, neighborhood shop uncle everyone needs to be thanked.I ask her to use the three magic words, please, thank you and sorry and mean it!Make them understand, the important service these people give and what would happen if they disappeared.Imagine the workload, when your maid does a disappearing act!You will see an instant lowering of voice.

[bctt tweet=”Three magic words, please, thank you and sorry. Do you teach your children to use them? #MMM #HWB ” username=”misra_amrita”]

KINDNESS online and offline is the need of the hour

I avoid arguing about volatile topics, in front of Rai.Occasional disagreements are okay.But if I am afraid of turning into a screeching banshee, I keep it for after she sleeps.Okay, not the best solution.But the only thing I can manage now! The most difficult part of being kind is when you are angry.

Are you kind when you are angry?As a parent, my challenge is to walk the talk.So difficult.It’s a tough battle when I need to work on me before I can tell Rai to be good.But that’s the best, as well as the challenging part of motherhood.It’s a learning journey where self-improvement is one of the definite results.No mom wants their child to grow up unkind and vitriolic.So mommy needs to watch that tongue.

Writing this for #MondayMommymoments prompt this week.

[bctt tweet=”Share using our #MondayaMommyMoments or #MMM and we will RT always. #contest in April .Write,link up and share ” username=”misra_amrita”]

Prompt this week:

Do you teach your children about kindness and empathy ?

Share your tips with us in the # MomdayMommyMoments week 17 linky!

[bctt tweet=”Do you teach your children about kindness and empathy? #MondayMommyMoments week 17 @Deepagandhi1″ username=”misra_amrita”]

Celebrate random acts of kindness day with us

Mothers if you are blogging for 26 days in April , don’t forget to link up with us.We have two gift vouchers up for grabs this April.

What do you need to do to win?

Write and link up.Daily if you are doing the challenge.
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Invite 1 friend by tagging.Dont forget to tag us .
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If you are a mommy and doing AtoZ challenge we would love to help you.We know how difficult and crazy things can get. Just input your details in this form and we will keep you in the loop about all other mommies who will be doing the challenge with you.

#MondayMommyMoments week 16 winners this week:

[bctt tweet=”Featured winner for being a superb #MMM #AtoZChallenge mommy @Geethica2 Read winning posts here http://bit.ly/2pndO9C” username=”misra_amrita”]

[bctt tweet=”Featured winner for blogging on prompt @mahathi_ramya #MondayMommyMoments @Deepagandhi & me ,we loved it !” username=”misra_amrita”]

MondayMommyMoments week 16 Mahathi Ramya

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