My first Stall!

This was a very first time I had a stall of my own at one of the local Dassera/Navaratri events, something close to my heart and yes it was a stall related to Painting and most importantly for the kids!

I did prepare well to establish this stall which had various painting activities, all tailored for the young minds, it was very whelming to see kids take part, there were all types of parents and children and the way they negotiated to try what they wanted/liked to.

Mostly every parent’s desire and wish was that their kids get to do some activity rather than get a face painting done from another stall.
I could see how a child got dejected for not being able to do what the heart told them to…

Some parents were more than happy to just let the kid do anything as long as they get some time to wander about around other stalls.

There was one mom with a 20m old kid who really wanted to get her daughter try her hands on some of the activities, felt really happy seeing the way she was motivating her and encouraging her to feel and see colours, she was not worried about the paint sticking on to her DD’s little fingers or smudge over her face, all she wanted was her kid to experience it!

Another dad got pulled by his son who was 3yrs - who desperately wanted to paint something but I saw dad was happy but so paranoid about the mess the son would make and constantly behind pulling the wipes and wiping his hands and table, upon saying, " it’s ok, I shall take care of that later”, he then arrogantly said me to clean the boy after the activity, all I did was stand there with a grin! Phew! But good thing was he did let his son do what we wanted to!

There was another couple who made sure their son was comfortable, left him on his own to ponder and think about what he wanted to do to the best of his imagination and before going around to other stalls both mom and dad assured of getting back and he would do his best at the activity corner and make use of the colours and props available. I have to admit, the kid did quite well.

There were a few parents who were trying to escape when it came to paying for the activity, this I really felt so absurd, and I had to demand to make the payment, I don’t understand this, they are all happy to pay for food for clothes, for all the pomp and glory, etc etc, but not for the activity the child enjoyed and learnt?! In fact they let them do, but not pay for it, its not the activity but its the money they don’t like to shed on!

There were parents who asked their kids to share one activity, while the younger one did not manage to get a chance in the go and she was totally interested in another activity while the Dad was particular in them doing another. With a lot of negotiation, the kid gave up but still she longed to do the other one.

There were two other interesting teenagers who both knew what they wanted to and at the right time when the stall was empty got their activity sorted and all well done, I wonder how kids grow up and they are quite clear what they want!

The girl was in her pre-teens came and enquired about the pricing and she also checked if I would reduce the price if she got it done at a lesser time.

I was so impressed, she was quite smart and already knew how to manage her expenses!

Applause to such kids and parenting, I saw that their parents had left them choose what they wanted to do but with a limited budget for the event/day.

All in all, a very good day to see different types and scenarios and situations and of course parenting apart from the pleasure of following my passion and a stall related to it for the first time!

And  I was telling, “Please let the kid decide”, of course that was my mind’s voice!  What a day :)

Green beauty - Skandavale

I need to really tell you about this wonderful hike which we as a family did over the last weekend end at Wales, initially we weren’t sure how it would turn up with a 3 year old hyper active kid.

All we knew was that there was a beautiful temple amidst nature. 

So was it...

And we were warned about the narrow un-asphalted roads, so the drive began all the way from almost London until Carmarthen in Wales, with few pit stops in between, the time came to enter the narrow roads within the woods, Green boulevard were a lovely sight to see…

Nevertheless it was frightening to an extent, as it was a wild elephant zone, mostly a forest zone, slowly we crept along on the sinusoidal wavy road up the hill, all to witness a very DIVINE place...A Spiritual place in tranquility and peaceful hill top, ‘Skandavale’

We had to park our car at the temple entrance and hike up further for about approximately 30 min and all of us including my parents (Senior citizens) and our lovely every active 3 year old daughter, enjoyed thoroughly, the green - NATURE!
As I always believe Nature is the most beautiful thing.

We looked high up to see the tall trees kissing the clear blue skies, the climbers dancing and prancing, some of them tightly embracing the tree logs, there were all shades of green, the dark green, the light, the yellow - mellow green and much more it was so rich and lucid, we all enjoyed the glorious sight of green, all of us were spell bound except our little one, who just happens to talk a lot when excited and happy - which she did! 

We hugged the trees and I had read somewhere what it feels like hugging a tree and it suddenly struck to me that I need to experience this and I did this.
Somehow when I did it, some sort of happiness, adrenaline oozed inside me, I was feeling overwhelmingly happy! I closed my eyes, could feel the sunshine upon me, the cool breeze blowing over my face, chirping birds, the smell of the pines and grass, it was all fascinating, in no time I was feeling much calmer, I felt that I could connect to something, I could connect to the tree… the Nature… 

May be all we need is to open our materialistic eyes and see the world through reality, to be simplistic and grounded, coz happiness is everything at last - The real happiness!

Finally we reached the Durga Temple up hill and what could get better than having to chant mantras which had real spiritual and divine vibrations amongst the serene mountains! Was definitely a goosebump moment for an instance!

Hiked back to the temple entrance, finished the darshan of all the deities and had a wholesome scrumptious prasdam and started to our hotel after a long drive.

Having a smile on our face and happiness inside the heart, feeling merry and light and that was our night and a very lovely day indeed.