Preeti Shenoy's blog.

Over the years certain things I have learnt and accepted have stood me in great stead when things in my life went awfully wrong. Here are five maxims that I live by and swear by!




1.There is NOBODY who will understand you perfectly except yourself. Not your soul mate, not your best friend, not your parent, not your spouse, not your children..Nobody. Yes, they may understand you up to a large extent, they may say they understand and sometimes you just have to accept that it is good enough.
2.Everybody learns only if they themselves live the lesson. You learn only when you go through it yourself. Your friends may describe what it is like based on what they went through. Your parents may have their own views. But only when one experiences it for oneself does one truly understand. There is no point trying to make someone understand what it really is like, because they have never been there. 
3.Beyond a point you cannot take responsibility for your parents happiness. Your parents are adult…

Like I mentioned in my previous post, the children are having their hols and TV is a BIG no-no in our household. (I do not watch TV myself) So naturally the onus of keeping kids creatively occupied, falls on me as I am the stay-at-home parent. There are many things that one can do to make good use of time instead of parking them in front of an X-box or TV.

 Cooking is a great way to keep kids occupied especially if they are allowed to do stuff. Today we made Apple crumble. The Apple crumble turned out really scrumptious! It was heavenly!



Here is a close up of it! (I baked it in a cake tray and made the heart after taking it out while it was still warm)



And this is how it has to be served. You could heat up a little crumble in the microwave and then top it with delicious Vanilla custard sauce. (click on the link to be taken to a very simple easy to make recipe!)You can also serve it with ice cream!




And in case you want to know how we made it--we just followed the  recipe in the link …

The Diwali vacations are on for my children and this morning  my daughter wanted me to do something fun with her. I never say a no for doing anything creative and we made Mr.Moshi (a key chain buddy)  today!

This is how we did it.


You need felt cloth, key ring,yarn and polyfibre stuffing. (Ours came in a kit but you can easily buy all of it in a craft store)



Next we stitched the eye patch and the stomach patch on to  one piece. Then we made a loop from the long rectangular piece and passed the key ring through it. We also kept the ear pieces in before stitching all around and we left a small piece open for stuffing the wadding.




We stuffed the wadding from the side  and we used a pencil to push it all the way into the arms and legs. Then we closed him up by stitching all around.

And Lo Behold! Mr.Moshi came alive before our very eyes! :)

My daughter is delighted with him. So am I :) Now we will never misplace our keys as it's defintitely hard to miss Mr.Moshi :)

Sweet isn't it…

Sometime back I had put this as a status update on my Facebook page


It takes two years and months and months of research and hours of writing, re writing and writing and editing to produce a book. And then there are people who read it and TRASH it in a few seconds without even having written one measly article for a newspaper, let alone a book themselves! And they hide under the disguise of 'constructive criticism'. No wonder Christopher Hampton said "Asking a working writer what he feels about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs" :DThis status update of mine got a record number of impressions (3000 +) and likes. Often when I meet people, they tell me "I always wanted to write a book." For any one of you who is reading this and who wants to write a book,  this videois a must watch. It tells you exactly like it is. A writer's job is a very intense job. It is truly not easy to sit alone in a room, just with your computer …

Sometimes there is only that much you can do about a particular situation in your life.(am not talking about issues related to health or fitness here)
You might have tried your best to resolve the problem. If it involves a person (and most problems sooner or later do!), you might have tried your best to reason with them, cajole them, persuade them to make them see things your way, especially because you know you are right and they are making a mistake.
You might have been reasonable, you might have fought, you might have wanted things to go your way. But things refuse to change. It is the same vicious circle over and over again.
What do you do in times like that? You let go. Accept that for now, this is the situation and nothing you say or do will make a difference.
Focus on other things where you can do something.
Do not think about the problem for now. Box it up. Put away the box.Do not get affected by the contents of the box.
Give it time.
And after about two months, open the box…

This morning it was a hurriedly mad rush. I am single parenting as Satish is abroad. Two children( that too one a teen and one a pre-teen!) and a large dog, plus a home to handle, apart from my writing (on a tight deadline for my third book! Details soon!) does at times  does make me want  to run away to Santorini (with some nice looking Greek God) and never ever come back.

But even in the  crazy, super-stressed moments laughter creeps up surreptitiously like a little thief, making you glad for life's little blessings.

There were just ten minutes left for the school bus to arrive this morning (and all parents know what a nightmare missing the school bus is, because you will then have to drive the child to school in the mad morning traffic) and I had made them Paneer paranthas for lunch (yum! I do make them well) but had not yet put it into their lunch boxes.

I was hurriedly making their breakfast and so I took out a pickle bottle from the cupboard and  told my daughter to pack so…

Whatever brought you to where you are today did not come about by chance. You rose because of the decisions you made. You might have made a few choices which seemed absurdly silly and foolish  in retrospect. There might have been things that went out of your control no matter how much you tried to make it go the way you wanted it to.

You might have spent sleepless nights over the outcome, crying (maybe internally), asking questions, wondering, suffering, wishing to be somewhere else but where you are.

But each one of those times, when your prayers were not answered, when your hopes were dashed, when people you depended on left you stranded, when you were suffering , you without your knowledge were growing in character, in mental strength and fortitude. You were learning life's lessons, as hard as it might have seemed at that time.

The older I get, the more convinced I am about it.We make mistakes.We're here to learn.

Forgive those who caused you hurt. It might be hard. But th…

Outside my window, right now there is the sound of crickets and a myriad other insects, chirping in disarrayed harmony, yet blending together to create  sounds that soothe the soul, fascinate the mind and  makes you pause and listen as you suspend whatever you are doing, putting everything on hold to just listen. And that is precisely what I am doing right now as I pause from my typing. Listening to nature's exclusive soundtrack.


Am on a vacation near  Mc.Leod ganj which is very close to  Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. Mc.Leod is a fascinating mountain town, 6800 feet above sea level. It is filled with Tibetan refugees. There are many monasteries and yesterday we visited the official residence of the Dalai lama.




We walked around the languid town, ate momos, watched the monks dressed in maroon robes, in quiet admiration, a privilege to peep into their world. It all feels very surreal and Tibet is alive in these lanes, hopes of a free Tibet fill the air and it is hard to not get c…