Parenting or should we say mothering teenagers has been a challenge through ages. We prefer to use mothering, as generally dads are busy with making moolah while the moms, even though working, deal directly with their teenage children. Now talking about challenges, it’s a bigger challenge in a country like India with its ever evolving culture and society. As we open to global (read western) ways of life, our teenagers are becoming more independent and liberal. Though there’s also a culture of more teenagers picking up vocational jobs, but that’s just vocational, limited to a couple of months. For the rest of the year, they depend on pocket money to take care of their ever increasing needs. In such a scenario, it’s not wise to deny th...

God, Allah, Father, Mother Nature, Lord, Abba, Jah, Jesus, the Universe, life force, Yahweh, Eli, Love, True Objectivity, Truth. It's all the same thing innit? As a Christian, I have found people have judged me on the language I use.  This is tragic. Words are not truth.  They can only point to truth. Truth is a constant.  What alters is the language we choose to define it by.  Our cultures, religions, choice of vocabulary and perceptions of what those all mean is unique to each of us.  The time has come to look beyond the words and realise that those who are listening to the song of their soul are all singing the same song. Please comment! Feedback unites us.

When I think about my own childhood and the memories of my own acheivement, my father had an approach to praise that used to baffle me. He would never outwardly demonstrate his pleasure about any of my acheivements, whether it be academic, vocational or as a sporting champion. So we never celebrated any of my results. The outcome of this was that in years to come, I never told my parents about my many achievements and the goals I'd reached. This included the hundreds of Martial Arts competitions I fought it in or the many little successes I enjoyed. The contrast between the relationship between my father and me and that between my children and myself is as stark as you can get. As a child, the communication between my father and I w...

Growing up in rural Bangladesh is no mean feat even today. This was especially the case in the 1940's at the time when the British left a devastated India, where our little hero started his journey. Our hero was the youngest of three sons. He also had two younger sisters of 6 months and 3 years of age. At around the age of 8, both his parents - an elderly father and an ill mother - died quite suddenly. This left the young children in shock and completely displaced. Growing up with family in that era was tough enough. Being an orphan was traumatising for our hero. His only immediate family were two older brothers of 10 and 12 years of age and the two younger sisters. Every day was survival. At moments, he was being cared for and nur...