Motherhood

Motherhood is a state of being mother. I had thought that this state lasts for a couple of years after a child is born. I realised that I was wrong. I feel the relationship between a mother and offspring is eternal and immortal. It cannot be expressed in mere words as it is a special bond in human being's life. All these things come to mind when I observe my son's growth and development on daily basis.

In a nutshell, I can say that motherhood has changed me a lot. My personality, perspectives, opinions and so on have undergone tremendous change. Being a mother,I have learnt many things like to be patient, managing uncomfortable situations, handling tantrums, etc. I have become sympathetic towards the underprivileged, poor and so on. These days, I am moved by  fellow human being's plight, discomfort, etc. easily

I have realised that I have made a lot of changes in my lifestyle from the day I have become a mother. Some of these changes are intentional while some have come up unintentionally. Whenever I get nostalgic, I find myself altogether as a new person after giving birth to my son. The priorities and preferences in my life have changed and my world revolves round Shreesh, my kid.

I'm thoroughly enjoying this phase of my life with my dear husband. Motherhood has taught many lessons and each day is a learning for me. Sometimes, I miserably fail but I do not give up and then come out as a real winner after some attempts while nurturing my son. Being a mother has made me a good human being. I know there is a long way to go but I am sure I will give my best and try to reach new milestones every now and then in the process of mothering Shreesh.

Strategies for Building Vocabulary

Every person wants his or her presentation, speech, talk, etc. to be different and meaningful. In order to fulfill these needs, one has to have great vocabulary. Vocabulary is a set of words in a language that an individual is familiar with. To have good vocabulary, one has to have plethora of words. This can be achieved only if you keep on working on this area. It is a tough task but you can succeed; if you try hard. Building vocabulary is a continuous process, which starts right from the day a toddler starts to speak. 

Lets us have a look at some of the strategies for building vocabulary:

·         Voracious Reading- Reading is the easiest way of building vocabulary. You can read newspapers, magazines, books, etc. Once you get a hang of reading, you will be interested in it and you will not understand how effectively you have learnt words unknowingly. Reading helps us to understand meaning of words in that context, so that you can use it later in a situation that demands it. Start reading with simple things and then progress to complex, once you are sure of your level of understanding vocabulary.

·         Learning a new word everyday- Learning a new word daily can be one of the strategies to strengthen your vocabulary. You can find a new word daily in various situations like while watching television, listening to radio, reading a bill-board, searching for information on internet, etc. There are some websites that provide you a new word on a daily basis. If you take up this then in no time you will have enough new words without even realizing it. This is an easy method to learn new words

·         Optimal Use of Dictionary- A person who is learning a new language has to get a good dictionary. He or she has to use dictionary optimally. Dictionary gives you meaning of the word that is new for you. It also helps you in root word, parts of speech, how to use the word in a context, spelling, pronunciation and so on. You should know how to use dictionary effectively to build vocabulary. You should have a good dictionary and thesaurus in your personal collection of books.

·         Understanding the meaning of words- One should not just memorize the word but he or she has to understand the true meaning of the word. The use of that word of in different context, its synonyms and antonyms, how to use it in various context, prefixes-suffixes and do on has to be considered. This will help you in effectively building your vocabulary in no time. The logic behind using a particular word helps in learning and understanding the word.

  

Writing an article

Many of us love to read fabulous articles in newspapers, magazines on a daily basis. I too follow Vikram Doctor's articles in Corporate Dossier, a supplement of  The Economic Times. The author has a column named "Little Luxuries" in the supplement, which comes on Friday. His style of writing is lucid and reader friendly.

How to write an article for a newspaper and  magazine? This is a common question asked by many people. The answer to this question is quite simple.You just need to have an idea which can be expanded in an article. One needs to have flair for writing. Some are born with  this flair while others have to work on it. An idea is the most important facet when it comes to article writing. Once you have an idea, you just need to work on how should one express it verbally.

Before writing an article, you need to keep following things in mind:

• Your target audience
• Needs of your reader
• Be unique in your expression
• Be passionate about the topic

If you consider these things seriously before writing then you article will be well-received. You need to adjust your style of writing according to print and electronic medium. Once you decide to write, you need to research  the topic  that you have chosen. You can use resources like websites, newspapers, research papers and so on. Good research will help you to  give various perspectives about a topic in your article. This will make your article multi-dimensional. 

Once you are through with research and you are ready with required information; you start to work on the actual process of writing. 

The process of writing involves following steps:

• Brainstorm
• Rough Draft
• Edit
• Review from peers/editor
• Final Draft

The basic framework of article should be kept simple, which will help reader in better understanding of your perspective that you have highlighted in your article. The organization of content is of utmost importance. The organization has to be systematic and has to prioritized. You article should have good opening, body and ending. The opening has to be striking and catchy, which will make the reader to sit back and read your article.The content should be organized in short paragraphs and bullets wherever necessary. That will make your article easy to read.

The length of the article depends on various factors like topic, medium you are writing for, type of article and so on. The language used in the article can be of two types like formal and informal. It again depends on the type of your article. Many of website articles use informal language while academic and newspaper articles use formal language. Your article should be free from grammatical, spelling and typographical error. You need to edit your article thoroughly before it goes for printing or publishing.

Being passionate and sincere in your efforts will help you to deliver your best and you will come out with a reader-friendly article.  

Reading

People in this world have numerous hobbies like watching movies, listening to music, collecting stamps, gardening,  playing and watching cricket, reading, cooking and so on. These hobbies help us to spend our leisure time constructively and give us happiness. I love to do many things in my leisure time, which I rarely get now. I really work hard to find some time for myself in my busy schedule. A toddler , 9-6 job and a house to manage leaves no time for myself; these days. Yet, I become nostalgic and think of those great days when I pursued reading as my hobby.

Reading is something that I love and is in my genes as my father is a voracious reader and my mother also loves to read fiction. So, right from my childhood; I loved to spend my time reading story books, newspapers,  magazines and later on English fiction, classics in English as well as some books in Marathi. My habit of reading really picked up during my college days. I use to get a lot of free time and I was exposed to various genres of literature as I was an Arts student specializing in English literature. It was great fun to read English drama, poetry, non- fiction along with American English fiction, Indian English novels , Commonwealth literature and so on. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, S.T. Coleridge, O.Henry, D.H. Lawrence, Bernard Shaw, Albert Camus, Kafka, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka,  Ayn Rand, Paula Coelho, Amitav Ghosh and the list goes on. 

An ideal holiday for me would be lying on a couch reading an interesting  book with a cup of coffee. I can spend lot of days doing that without venturing in the outside world. I'm waiting for such a day, when I can really enjoy this treat without guilt. These days, my reading is limited to websites  that I go through for getting current news, help me to train my students and so on. It is for practical purpose and not for  the fun of reading it. I go through newspapers if time permits after household chores and mundane activities. Still, I make it  a point at least to read Sunday's Times of India. 

Conflict

Every woman goes through a common conflict in her life that is choosing between her professional  life and personal life. She tries everything possible to balance both her professional and personal aspirations. She is passionate about her home,children,family and simultaneously about her profession, which gives her an identity. The profession helps to make her own identity apart from being a daughter, wife, mother, etc.  A woman is always proud of her personal relations; yet she wants to go out and explore her potential as a teacher, an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, trainer and so on. At times, she  has to deal with stress and guilt when she tries to manage both her personal and professional front.

Many a times, I face this conflict of how to manage both the worlds as they are inseparable part of my personality.  I enjoy to cook food for my family, take care of my husband and nurture my kid but at same time, I love to develop content for website or train students in communication. When I got married, I had a lot of dreams about new life that will come my way. The new life gave me a lot of joys as well as responsibilities to handle. I was trying to manage both my professional and personal life and sail smoothly. At that time, I got an interesting offer to work with a MNC. It was a dream come true for me as I was getting an opportunity to work with a brand name, a good package and to understand the nuances of corporate world.

I was in great spirits and at that very time, I got another good news that I was pregnant. I was waiting for both my baby and a good career opportunity. Both the things happened simultaneously and I had to choose one out of the two.Due to medical complications, my doctor had asked me not to travel and had advised me bed rest during the first trimester of my pregnancy. Due to that, I  had to let go my job and take rest at home.  I had a lot of confusion while taking this decision. At the end, my maternal instinct won as I wanted motherhood more at that time than my career.

Today, when I look back at that decision, I feel that I made a right choice on my personal front but somewhere my professional life is lagging behind. This is part and parcel of every woman's life as she has to compromise with many things for her relationship , family and profession

Language as a tool of communication

Many people feel communication is a simple process but I do not think so. It is quite a complicated process, which needs a lot of efforts from the parties who are participating. I started deeply thinking about communication, when I took up a job as a trainer in communication department in one of the management colleges. I had a lot of difficulty to deal with many students as they were not exposed to English, the language needed for communication. They had a lot of mother tongue influence in their Spoken English. Many of the students had innovative thinking, creativity as well as analytical skills but they could not present that because they lacked the power to communicate in English.

When I faced this issue, I started thinking why language is so important in our lives. I believed that language is one of the things that makes us different from all the animals present in this world. Language is a medium through which you can express complicated emotions in this human world. All that is fine! But what about those who cannot express in a particular language like for instance English. The person needs to put in lot of efforts to understand the nuances of the language he or she is trying to learn. it can be done only through continuous practice.

Non-verbal communication in form of eye contact, gestures, posture, hand and leg movements does help in communication but it has some limitations. To express some difficult things; one needs the help of language as words assist you in all situations and place. Communication does play an important role in our professional as well as personal relations. Effective communication is needed to succeed in today's competitive world. Just mere emotions are not enough, you need to express these feelings through words to your loved ones, friends and family. 

Verbal communication plays a vital role in building strong relation between spouses, parents and children, friends  and so on. In your professional life too, you need to communicate with your colleagues, clients, etc. You can create a place for yourself only if you express valid and logical points needed in a given situation in your personal as well as work life.

Being confident is important to communicate in any language. Make sure that you practice well so that you will not face any barriers while communicating with people.

The potential of a woman

The recent news of sexual attacks on woman across our country are outrageous and I feel dejected reading or watching them. I started to introspect what is it that is making women so susceptible for such attacks.Then I realized that the root cause lies in the upbringing of girls in our society. The parents try their best to shield and protect their daughters even to an extent that they are asked to stay at home after finishing their schools in some parts of our country. Once, the daughter grows to a marriageable age, she is married off and now, the husband is the one who protects her. As time passes, the son is handed over the responsibility of protecting his mother. I'm not against this  but I do not completely agree with it. 

As a woman, I feel I need to be strong and brave enough to protect myself. As a woman, I feel that I need to work for upliftment and emancipation of the woman. How can I do that? Just by making them aware of their potential and innate power, which they have in abundance.She only needs to open up and be courageous so that she can fight all the odds that come her way.. The women is not fragile; our society has made her look feeble. It is the society's hidden agenda to suppress her talent. Women is an immensely beautiful human being created by god. We as a society should protect, respect and let her blossom into an independent women, who has her own views and perspectives about things going around. 

I will start this through interacting with young girls and making them aware of their potential. Once, that is done, they themselves will learn how to explore their potential and make a mark for themselves in this society.You need to make them aware  of their talent and how they can use it for their emancipation.