A JOURNEY CALLED LIFE

I just came back from a forbidden country,. I am deliberately not mentioning its name to avoid undue trouble . I was sent there to perform surgeries and was there for a week. When I landed safely in India, not only me but my family and all those related to me breathed a sigh of relief. Yes I was back, safely in one piece. Whenever such experiences happen, I feel so safe in my own country. Homeland is like a mother in whose lap you can cuddle and forget all the worldly problems. India nurtures us like any other mother. It feeds us, keep us safe and provides with all the amenities one requires to lead a good life. I in turn serve my country by treating the sick. There are many ways by which we can serve our country. Joining the army, not wasting food, resources, keeping the surroundings clean are few of them. Here I am discussing about saving our resources. As you all know, fossil fuels like coal and petroleum have limited reserves. We are a country of 1.2 billion p

What did come to your mind when you read the title? Okay I am not talking about New York or Tokyo. Think within your country too. We have two such cities which are in the list of biggest cities in the world...Delhi and Mumbai. Thankfully I have been to several other cities which feature in the top 20 largest cities..Manila, Bangkok, Dubai etc. But my heart lies where my home is. After travelling to eight countries, my favourite city in the world is non other than Delhi. I have not been brought up in Delhi. My primary education has been in Varanasi and secondary in Lucknow. But I moved to Delhi after I completed medicine in search of work and have never looked back since. Wide roads and beautiful architecture...my favourite city: Delhi This is almost my tenth year in Delhi and now I am fully settled here. I have a voter ID and car registration of Delhi. That makes me a true Delhiite. I believe when it comes to drive, design and connect, nothing can beat Delhi. Delhi has

So how many of you have sweet tooth? For starters, I did not have one. In fact I used to detest sweets. Before meeting my fiance, I loved only Rasgulla and Kheer Kadam. But I don't know what happened after my marriage, I started gorging on sweets like anything! You must have known by now that I am a terrible cook. I cannot be called a cook even. I don't even know how to make a nice cup of tea. But the blogger in me evokes the strangest of desires in me. I ventured into pasta previously for the sake of blogging and now I am into desserts! For this one my wife taught me a super simple recipe which turned out to be ehm super delicious! My wife was so proud of me! People may tend to avoid desserts because of various reasons...calorie conscious, weight losers, diabetic and other lifestyle disorder sufferers. My recipe is for all as I have substituted sugar with Sugar Free Natura . It contains sucralose and is a healthier alternative to sugar. The taste remains impecca

What is the toughest part of bringing up a baby? I think its their safety and health. There are so many things that concern baby care. Fatherhood has infused tonnes of questions in me that I thought never existed. Babies bring so much responsibility. As much as they are bundles of joy, they bring with them bundles of stress too. However 20 months of fatherhood has taught me certain things that keep parenting stress at bay. The first and the foremost thing is how to keep baby skin safe and soft. Baby skin is way thinner and delicate than adult skin. So it needs utmost care. The commonest concern for baby skin is diaper rash. In this civilized world, it is impossible to leave your baby free. We put them in constricting diapers all day long and don't let baby skin breathe. As a result of constant friction, the skin gets eroded. Change the diaper frequently. Let the baby diaper free during daytime. Baby skin is more to skin allergies, sun burn, eczema and stuff. It is importan

There are so many people that one comes across in life. There are even a greater number of people that one gets inspired from.It may or may not be surprising but I have come across a huge number of people in my 30 years of existence. Part of it because of my profession and upbringing, part of it because I am a very social person. I have lived at 6 different cities (I am not calculating the different towns of those cities) and I have had different schools, medical colleges and hospitals. In all this process I have met thousands of people. Some of them have been filthy rich, some extreme survivors, some legends (whether in the medical profession or in general) and some of them extremely happy no matter what their circumstances are. I have been inspired by all the people I have met. But one person continues to top the list in-spite of everything. She is my mother. I know it may sound cliched that my mother is the most inspiring person of my life. Every person finds his/her mother

What comes to your mind when you think of babies? For me its the softness and coochy coo and the incredible smell that come along with the babies. I have been fond of babies right from the beginning. So when I became a father, my joy knew no bounds! Along with the joys of having a baby come lots of woes too. Babies are tough to handle and even tougher to take care of. They are so delicate that they need the tenderest care and products to keep them healthy and happy. After I became a father I realised that the toughest part in the baby care regime is taking care of their delicate skin. Okay I agree that feeding babies is the most challenging part.  The second challenge is how to keep their skin soft. Baby skin is three times thinner than adult skin. Therefore it is more prone to damage. Baby skin is moist looking because it is new; it does not mean that they do not need external hydration. In fact they need more hydration to lock their innate moisture. Five ways to kee

I am not much of a fashion person. I mean who has got the time? Between my hectic hospital schedule, fatherhood and cricket, I am left with no time for socialising leave dressing up! But being the husband of a fashionista, I have to take care of myself. Okay I would speak the truth. My wife sets up my wardrobe for me. Its her who decides what I would wear whether its a conference or wedding or festival! Being a surgeon I am either in my operation theater dress or in a suit. So festivals are the time when I can don ethnic attire. Diwali is my favourite time of the year when I can flaunt my heavy sherwanis et al. This time too I had bought something that screams festive. When Jabong.com came up with #traditionmyway contest, I grew all the way more excited to show my look! Me with the 'aarti' thali for the Diwali puja Usually black is not a festive colour. But I love black. It makes not only me but every guy look dapper. So I chose this black kurta with golden buttons for

Who in this world does not like gifts? I am a person with very less demands but I love a good gift nonetheless. My wife often complains that it is very difficult to buy gifts for men.   I don't know why she says so. I mean we love so many things...don't we? From X box to golf clubs to fitness bands, we love them all! But unlike girls, our taste is a bit mature and practical when it comes to gifts. And I definitely agree that our choice is definitely on the higher side of economics. Speaking from a man's point of view, I have shortlisted quite a few gifts for him . And there are a number of gifts which we truly love...Are you listening ladies? Clothes: Every man loves a good crisp shirt. Loafers: Be it suede or leather, we all love a pair of kicks. Headphones: Whether it is unwinding at the end of a tiring day or casually listening songs, a pair of headphones or a music player comes a long way. Tool box: We men love macho things. And a tool box proves that we can fix

It had been quite a long time that I did something with my entire family. I mean long...long time. I had left home at the age of sixteen to pursue my medical career and had never looked back since then. My life was filled with patients, surgeries and the constant ringing of my phone.It had been 14 years that I had done something with my family. Now family held a different meaning. It did not have only my parents and didi but my wife and my unborn child too. It was my thirtieth birthday and hence it was very special. Not only I was stepping into a new decade but I had my entire world together for the first time in my life. Last birthday my parents were not with me and next birthday life would be different...My child would be with me. So this year it needed to be big. I have loved travelling from times immemorial. My parents do too. But they were so much caught up in bringing me and my didi up that they never had time for themselves. I mean who does not love visiting beautiful

Being a father of an eighteen months old has taught me quite a lot of things. First baby care is a combined effort. I mean mothers alone cannot take care of the baby. God made two caregivers for a reason! Initially my wife used to get crazy when handling our baby all by herself. She was not well herself. And our baby drained the entire energy left in her. She was unable to sleep even for a single minute. Thats when I realised that I needed to take care of things. It was not that I was fresh; I came back home tired from the hospital but still was at a better position than my wife! That's when I learnt myriads of things about baby care. Though feeding the baby was exclusively the mother's domain, I could offer a helping hand in changing diapers which was quite a job too. I started out with Pampers Active baby but slowly switched to pants. I brought it on an experimental basis and realised that it a lot easy to put on and my baby was unable to remove its flaps! My naughty

In India we have a tendency to think that baby sitting is a woman's job only. But I am not one of those chauvinistic people. I believe that baby care is equally a father's job. I am a proud father of my 18 month old daughter. I love to take care of her (whenever I find time) and enjoy taking part in activities like changing diapers and all. On Tuesday I got a mail from Blogadda about the launch of Pampers premium care pants. Well if it was two years back, I would not have understood the difference between diapers or pants or extra soft diapers etc. But since I am a new Dad, I very well knew what it meant. WE started wit conventional diapers for our daughter but as she is very naughty, she could easily remove the flaps and become diaper free. So we switched to diaper pants. The invite was about super soft pants and I was quite interested as it sounded very promising for my baby. It was a Tuesday afternoon. I wrapped up my hospital duties as fast as possible and managed to s

Remember that coffee ad?A stand up comedian stammers all the way to his jokes? Well the truth is that laughter is the essence of life. Its the best medicine indeed. And the harder truth is that laughter is a serious business! There are various ways to evoke laughter..mainly harmless ways. There are a lot of comedy shows on television, laughter clubs, jokes on social media and live comedy. I believe the toughest part is the live one...the stand up comedy genre. I mean it actually requires guts to face a live audience and make them laugh! I have been fond of stand up comedy for some time now. There are many faces who are very well known and I often frequent pubs or restaurants to witness the funnyman act.   Today with advent of millions of websites and social media its really easy to find something you love. Cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune etc are throbbing with nightlife . Take the example of LiveinStyle.com  An website dedicated to the parties and nightlife, it has got

I have been brought up in a very close knit family. But as the child of working parents, I got very less time from my father and mother. I am the younger of the two siblings and hence my elder sister has been a mother to me. Though she is just three years older to me, but maybe its the maternal gene or pure love that she has always treated me like a baby. When I was just three and she six, she used to comb my hair, tie up my shoe laces just like a mother would do while going to school. So I am more of a sister's boy than a mamma's boy.  As we grew up we drifted apart physically but got fonder of each other. We were in different medical colleges in two different cities. But there used to be two days in the calender when nothing could keep us apart...her birthday and of course Rakshabandhan. When Jabong.com announced the #Selfiewithsibling contest, I dug into my Rakhee diaries and got nostalgic. About twenty years ago when we were in school, my didi had gone to NCC