That first flutter of Adolescence!!

The recent Dove hair fall therapy commercial brought all the good ole memories back into action for me. Those who know me from my college times might know me even as that "Long beautiful hair girl". It wasn't my choice to chop my lovely long hair short and adapt the contemporary look I have now. It came as part of lifestyle changes and also a side effect of ever changing shampoos. 

As a small girl, I used to be always attracted towards those long strands they showed in the shampoo commercials. I had beautiful hair, but nothing close to what they showed in the commercials and I was quite convinced that it was some photo trick which made them so shinny, thick and lovely. And with my out of the world Mumma, literally out of the world as she never thought using shampoo/conditioner for hair was a good idea. She insisted on using natural Mehendi, Rita, Hibiscus etc for washing hair and keeping the hair oiled almost everytime.So till I was exposed to the world of fashion, the world outside my house where looking good was very important, I followed my mother diligently. 

There was nothing different in that morning. As usual, I shampooed my hair and braided them neatly in one long plait and went to school. I must have been in std 9 that time. Age where you are just getting over your childhood and stepping into a beautiful world of adolescence. You are still a teenager, but that flutter of youth passes by every now and then. For guys, these are the days when their voice cracks and they start seeing slight moustache on their face. Age where you discover your personality. Age of attractions, age of revolt, age of miracles, age of that pehla nasha of your life!!

So coming back to that day. We had finished half day of our school and it was our English class. Our teacher in her process of improving our communication skills had given a topic "Compliment your bench partner". So all the classmates told various funny, nice, boring and some offensive things about each other. Then it was my bench partners turn, he told "Aditi is very beautiful, she has lovely smile, lovely long hair!". I never thought that compliment from my class buddy would change my entire perspective towards myself. I never thought I was beautiful till then. I never thought I had lovely long hair. I was just an average rather below average girl till that point of time. 

Suddenly, after the school, I saw myself for the first time in the mirror. I wasnt the same Aditi who has left in the morning from home. I was beautiful. I opened my braided hair and noticed they were beautiful. I discovered that I could have been a potential model for that shampoo commercial. I smiled at the reflection I saw in the mirror and was surprised at my ignorance. That day, my hair became my most priced possesion.

They were the best assets for me now. I received alot of praise in my college days too for my hair.
But as they say "Change is the only permanent thing!"

Slowly life became hectic, with work, stress, deadlines, I started having split ends. Hair began to fall and I had to cut my hair short regretfully. All these days I had no time to reflect about what I had lost. I have discovered myself, my inner beauty. It doesn't matter now whether I am beautiful for the world or not, I have gained all the self confidence to face the compliments and criticism with a smile. I have a beautiful world around me, where I can be myself. Ironically, my short hair/bad hair/thin hair doesn't matter to the world around me now, but I have an emotional connect to my hair. I have discovered myself through them, they have been my backbone when I was learning to stand straight and face the world. When you never forget people who have helped you in your wonderful journey called life, how can I forget my priced possession?   And today when I read about this "Beautiful end to your beautiful braid" I couldnt stop myself of reliving those priceless moments of my life.

"Like the musk deer never knows its worth, we humans always look ourselves with others perspective. I am glad I was able to discover my musk bag so beautifully!!"

This post is part of the Beautiful Ends to Your Beautiful Braids! Contest on Indiblogger.in, in collaboration with Dove Split Ends Rescue System.

Kids Room Wall Painting - Dora and Boots

This is my first attempt of Wall Painting for the kids room.
Steps to do similar wall painting
1. Choose your kids favorite cartoon character/ backdrop and find a nice picture of it
2. Select a big enough wall which is not hidden by furniture, curtains or book shelves in the kids room
3. Make sure the wall is well painted, a wall with stains would not be the best choice for your hardwork!
3. Draw grids (lines) of a square feet long and try to scale the picture in the grid using a light pencil (as it can be rubbed)
4. Draw a draft sketch on the wall while keeping in mind the scale of the image. Grids will help you keep up the scale
5. Also sketch the details like eyes, ears, jwellery, cap as it is in the picture
6. After the sketching is done, check the whole picture once again and whatever modifications needs to be done, do it before starting the painting
7. Use normal oil paint colors which students use for the school work (not the water colors or the fabric colors, they dont give the same getup). You will need the required oil paint tubes, brushes of different sizes, turpentine/lenseed oil
8. Start covering the major areas, like body, hair, skin initially. It takes 2-3 days for the oil paint to dry, so do all the base colors at one go. If you want to do some shading (not a must but if you feel more artistic you can do that) do it now, once the color dries up, you wont be able to mix it. When you paint, you need to take enough colors and be uniform with the direction of strokes. Oil paint colors are a little more difficult to work with, so avoid reworks as much as possible.
9. After two days, you can start detailing the picture. Eyes, ornaments, cap, folds etc needs to be done very carefully with alot of patience. You would be able to see faintly the pencil sketch you have done, it will help you to be neat and proportionate with the job.
You can draw grass, flowers, birds, sun with a free hand to cover the complete wall. If you cover the complete wall, it would look as part of your room else it will be disconnected with the room, so background is another important thing in any wall painting.
10. Once the picture is complete, dont forget to outline with the black color or the same color.(I prefer black color though) Outlining is very imporatant to give it a proper finishing touch.
11. Let it dry for 3-4 days and the wall is ready for having fun with your kids.

Khushi's dose of the day!! (4th March 2013)

Khushi's dose of the day!!

Mummy :Khushi, give this envelope to Papa.
Khushi : This one?
Mummy : Yes
Khushi : This CRUZE's envelope?
Mummy : Well yes, that Cruze envelope
Mummy (confused and thinking): How did she come to know those are CRUZE CAR papers?
A 4 year old (almost) recognizes the logo (+ logo of Chevrolet) on the car and can correctly figure out what that stands for!! How many of us, even today know the logo of our cars? Dont be surprised if tomorrow your kid draws the car along with its logo in your family picture. They already are very BRAND CONSCIOUS :P

Unlike my little Toy world!!

We have always heard that toys, cartoon characters, puppets are all the closest friends of kids. When I saw my little girl (3 year old) daughter paranoid of her favorite cartoon character Mickey Mouse in the mall, I failed to understand what would have been the cause of it. So, trying to think from a 3 yr old girl's perspective...

"A little block toppled down my head from the toy rack. The Winnie the Pooh lying on top of my Dolly was smiling at me. Slowly and steadily the colourful, jumpy and noisy creatures hovering around me from so long had started making sense.

Mommy told me that I have a little friend Dolly. Initially I did not like her because she used to imitate me and make fun of me and cry all the time. But now she is my best buddy, we eat together, we sleep together, we talk about Eyeore who keeps on crying and we also tell each other about fashion these days. Overall, as Mumma said, she has become my best friend.

Another favorite friend of mine is the Micky Mouse. He comes to my house everyday along with his friends in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. And he is also friends with my Dad. He comes to his office and tells him whether he is going to come tonight to our house or not. I get really sad when he doesn't come to meet me. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Donald duck all are my buddies, they are even of my age. Mummy tells me they live in Disney Land which is in America. We plan to go there when I am a little more big.

You know once what happened? Mickey mouse look alike visited a mall nearby. He was SOO BIG, almost the size of my DAD. Mom dad told me we are going to meet Mickey Mouse, but when I went there, it wasnt the real Mickey Mouse u see.

Mickey is of my age, so how can he be soo big. I was soo scared to see him. He tried to hug me and play with me. But I told him, you are not my friend. You cannot be Mickey, he is little (small in height) and he comes everyday at my house so I know it is not you. And if you are really Mickey where is Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Pluto?

I even told my Mumma, he is not REAL REAL Mickey, tell him to go away!! He is some monster!! My little world of friends has no place for such BIG MONSTERS! Actually he looks like that big Uncle who take away kids. How can he be my friend Mickey who is so subtle and lovely?

My little friends, dont go to the mall again! That big monster who calls himself as Mickey is not really our friend Mickey mouse!!""


This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda