Preeti Shenoy's blog.

As promised in my last post, here are the flowers from my garden.

Why do some people have such a happy influence on us? They cheer us up by just being there. They seem to have some secret magic happiness powder which they have sprinkled all around them and it is hard to not feel enthusiastic and happy when they are around. They are not necessarily boisterous, loud and oh-I’m-so-happy-all-the-time- isn’t-life-great kind of irritating people who seem to think that they know the cure for all of your problems. I don’t mean those extra-jolly types. (though some people naturally are that way—they cannot help it). In contrast, there are some people who drain us completely and make us feel so miserable. I have even written a chapter ‘Radiators and Drains’ in my first book which touches upon this. I had also written about ‘prickers’ in one of my earlier posts . But the fact is, even if these people haven’t said anything or done anything, one feels so down in the dumps, after any kind of interaction with them, even if they have been really n

I might have become a published author . I might even call myself a n avid writer. I might be able to say that I make good portraits . (click on link to see my latest pictures) But nothing, absolutely nothing I do, can ever match up to this !(click on image to enlarge) Awwwwww...!! I couldn't help sharing this. I  felt totally blessed and felt like the luckiest person in the world! I saw myself through my daughter's eight year old eyes. To her, I am perfect. (for now.) Who am I to deny?!

We went to Madame Tussauds in London last weekend. It got me thinking. Nopes, I didn't think about how lifelike the wax statues of Will Smith or Michael Jackson and numerous other celebrities were. I also didn't think of how in the world they made  Aishwairya's hair a shade of dirty unwashed brown, as opposed to the gleaming black tresses of glory, one sees her seductively flicking, on the silver screen.I didn't even think about how Satish managed to make me look like a bloated, blushing matron  in a photograph of me posing next to Sallu-bhai  ( he blamed it on the lighting and what a coincidence, he hates Salman too!)  where as I managed to make him look absolutely stunning in a snap I clicked of him posing next to some feisty, busty 5'10" Barbie doll lady with a waist size of 24", in the  very same lighting. I  instead thought and concluded that being born as a man must be tough. It had nothing to do with the feisty busty lady or Sallu-bhai. But what

Have unexplainable coincidences ever happened to you? You think of a friend whom you have not been in contact with  for years and that very day the friend calls you. You make a special dish which you make very rarely, to surprise your  spouse and your spouse tells you that, that very morning he had wanted to ask you to make that dish.  During a break from office you see an item of clothing you like, but you do not buy it thinking it is an extravagance and you don't even mention it to anyone. But that very weekend your boyfriend surprises you by gifting you the same and hoping you will like it. You need money desperately and some money which is a dividend from shares which you had invested in and forgotten all about, arrives unexpectedly in the mail.  You get the kind of coincidences I am talking about. Science has no explanations for them and there is no logic or reason behind them. Hence they are  dismissed as 'mere coincidences.' Yet, throughout history strangest of coinc

      I made these last night on the back of my old business cards. More of these to come soon. :-)

Really sorry--I have had to remove this post as it will soon appear in a book. Making it available online would have been very unfair to my publisher who has placed so much trust in me. I hope you enjoy the other posts as much as you enjoyed this one. A heartfelt thanks for your support and understanding.Thanks for continuing to read what I write.

Sometime back I had written a post (On role of a whiteboard in raising a child) which had got a huge response asking me to write more such posts on parenting. This is the second in probably what will be a series. Please read the disclaimer in the above mentioned post if you're new around here . If you already know me by now, read on! A few years ago, when my children were much younger (my son was about 4 and my daughter was just a 6 month old baby) I joined a 'Reading group'. It was not a formal group but just a few of us, mothers, with children in the same group who had got together and formed this group. There were a few common factors which bound us tighter than Fevicol, apart from the common love of books.  Firstly we were all stay at home mothers, who had given up Corporate careers because we wanted to be at home when the children were growing up and secondly we were women who truly understood what it meant to take care of two children all by yourself , being on