How about a Reality Check??

Few days back, the tagline of an article in the newspaper supplement caught my eye. It went like this - "If your family doesn't deserve your best behaviour, who does?"
This caption managed to perfectly capture the vague thoughts running in my mind off late.

The Article went on to say - "A big stress factor in today's families is that while we take pains to excel at people management at our workplaces , we forget all those rules and niceties when it comes to our homes. I've seen many friends and colleagues who put a lot of effort in self-grooming, both in terms of outward appearance and behaviour, to be the best at their work...but the moment they reach back home in the evening, turn into totally different people. Mostly under a lame excuse that 'At least I can be my true self in front of my own family and in my personal space'. Well, noone's asking you to be fake, my friend, but tell me, dont' your loved ones deserve to see a side of you that you've carefully developed to leave a good impression on others."

Isn't this so very true & well applicable to each one of us??? How wonderfully we take care to create a remarkably perfect person in front of people who don't really matter to us... and just how conveniently we manage to ocassionally/frequently hurt, abuse & harass those who are an inseparable and indispensable part of our lives.
We mostly extend the 'I can be myself at home' argument to ourselves , especially after an unwarranted & unreasonable bout of misbehaviour, simply to save us all the guilt. But instead, aren't we guilty of having emotionally wounded our loved ones???
We often hide the latter variant of guilt under the guise of another line of thought - that my family does (and they most certainly should) understand any kind of inappropriate behaviour on my part, almost as an unspoken obligation. Could we be any more wrong???? It might be their responsibility to support us , to embrace our sorrows, to comfort our pain, to listen to the constant woes, or to deal with the childish tantrums but it definitely isn't their duty to again & again bear any kind of impolite trash. Our bottled up frustrations & pent up anger need not always poison its way into the utmost precious relationships.
Its imperative that we sit down and introspect and make a promise to be the bestest person to all those who love us coz 'if they don't deserve my best behavior, who does'.... Let us transform the anger into love... replace frowns with beautiful smiles... reform the perpetual nagging into gratitude...and turn the curses into kisses... :)

Reverting to Old Hobbies & Habits (An Attempt)

After many a unfinished unopened texts, I have finally managed to pick up a book - a fat I must add!!! To add to that, I even ended up reading a few pages in the comforts of a warm blanket & cozy pillows (just the way I love to read). It felt soooooooo nice!! Why you may ask? What's so remarkable about reading a book huh? Nothing really for you or for anyone else. But it certainly is extraordinary for me!!

I have always loved to read (wouldn't particularly label myself as a voracious reader but yes I'm extremely fond of reading) and have always taken out time to do so..

I dont know the hows & whys of it but somewhere I'd lost the will to read. :( The only thing I somehow managed in the last few years was glancing through the newspaper. I did make several book purchases and made ocassional visits to the bookstores all this while but ended up reading nothing (the only exception being a book gifted by a special someone). I missed my habit of reading up late into the night till it put me to sleep.. I truly missed the constant urges to chuck all work at hand and to simply settle for the current read... I missed it all!! More so, it made me feel that something somewhere is really wrong with me (though ther's plenty more to this feeling and I am definitely going to write about it soon)

Anyhow, the bottomline is that I am currently reading a book and happily doing so. Going merely by the count of pages, I've managed to complete one-sixth of it (Duhh!! I'm making it sound like a school work now) and I intend to ring the victory bells soon. :)

(P.S. - I'm also attempting to get back to writing a little each day, however nonsensical it may be, I know it'd matter a lot to me)

Its a cold and bright sunny afternoon. I find myself sitting in front of the desktop with a hot cuppa tea, sneezing and coughing at irregular intervals and at the same time silently chanting prayers - so that a goal is accomplished..a desire stands fulfilled. It might appear childish to some but I do believe in the power of Prayer.

As I sit here alone, in my quiet cozy home - there's plenty happening in the lives of the ones I love. I hope & wish for only good things to happen in the coming future for all of us...