Having deposited me at the hospital after I went into labor with my firstborn, my husband snuck around the corner with my father to grab some Indian food. Everyone had missed dinner given the excitement of my water breaking.
When Papa suggested that they order a bottle of red, my husband looked at him like he was from another planet. It was going to be a long night at the hospital; wine was certainly out of the question. Caught in a severe generation gap, my father thought that his son-in-law gone stark-raving mad. How did a night at the hospital, long or short, concern him? Birthing a child was a mother’s work and seeing her through the process was her mother’s work.
Traditional Versus Modern
Old northern Indian custom dictates that a woman return (from her husband’s home) to her maayka or mother’s home to give birth to her first child. In previous generations the birthing room was a strictly female zone flanked by the women of the household. It was considered taboo for any man (including the father-to-be) to be near enough to witness the ‘sounds’ of a woman’s labor. Both my parents were thrilled to host this time-honored tradition but had not yet come to terms with the reality of the modern age in which husbands typically ‘manage’ the birth process.
Thanks goodness though for the modern age. Considering my own mother had borne three children of her own, she was considerably squeamish about the procedure. Please can I stand on the head side, she begged. Amused by her reticence given her usually confident personality, I remained content with her sitting next to me and stroking my hair through contractions. Although she felt guilty later, it was a blessing to feel her hand tightly clutching mine as she recited the Gayatri Mantra, an ancient vedic prayer, throughout the birth process. It built one of the most important memories of my life, one that highlights the value of a mother’s love for her daughter.
All References Point to Mom
I have a deep affinity for the land of my birth. An Oedipal society, we grow up respecting India as our true mother and like most Indians I know, I am a strong believer in that life produces no coincidences. Ilya, my own daughter, was born the next morning to the musical rhapsody of A.R. Rahman’s famous patriotic song Ma Tujhe Salaam (we salute you our mother i.e. referring to ‘Mother India’). Nothing could have been more appropriate…it was India’s fifty-first anniversary of independence. All references that day pointed to mom!
Goddess Energy
My grandma, who had spent most of the night guarding the door to the birthing room in her best effort to maintain the tradition of the female birthing zone, stepped in to comment on her great granddaughter’s lusty cry. To her it showed promise of another confident girl-child to continue the line of strong women in our family. She gave her the middle name Devi, after that of her own mother. Devi, translates as ‘goddess.’ My grandma has a soft spot for female offspring; she believes that they symbolize the auspiciousness of goddess energy coming into your home.
My husband clicked a photo that morning that never fails to remind me of the interconnected bonds between daughters and mothers. The picture shows four generations of the women in our family: Pushpa (my grandmother), Veena (my mother),Reenita(myself) and Ilya Devi (my daughter). We are each a product of our mother’s work.
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Hollywood celebrities are trying their hand at Rakta Moksha detox techniques too. While most people squirm at the thought of blood sucking leeches, celebrities like Demi Moore are swearing by leech therapy to keep themselves toxin free and youthful. According to US Magazine, leeches are Demi Moore’s secret to looking sexy at the age of 45.
“I feel like I’ve always been someone looking for the cutting edge of things that optimize your health and healing,” she told David Letterman when she appeared as a guest on his show a few months ago. Demi describes how four leeches got drunk on her blood, starting from her bellybutton, and how they don’t like hair and prefer waxed or shaved skin.
While Moore actually appeared on Letterman’s show to promote her movie Flawless, most of the conversation focused on how leech therapy has kept her health flawless. Check out the video for yourself:
I have received a series of questions from various folks following my recent post Leeches Help You Live Longer. Although a bizarre concept for many, this detox ritual has been a mainstay of Indian medicine for centuries. Banaras Hindu University recently released a news video showing leech therapy procedures for treating certain types of hair loss.
Since I know that many of you are curious, I decided to post the video for greater visibility. Even though it is in Hindi, it has universal appeal. After all, moving pictures say so much more than words…!
India might be one of the fastest growing economies in the world but how does an economy keep up with the rest of the world if it cannot fulfill basic human needs that are critical for economic growth? Food and population problems aside, the country faces a massive shortfall of qualified teachers at all levels of primary and secondary education.
According to the Times of India , the country face a shortage of about 800,000 primary and middle school teachers. Given India’s youthful population, the situation doesn’t look promising: 6.5% of India’s teachers retire every year; at this rate the country will be left with 350,000 primary and middle school teachers by 2011 (source: Times of India:India Faces a Drought of Teachers, July 5th 2008).
So how do we address this very serious issue? The Times of India and over sixty Indian NGOs, corporates, schools and social organizations believe that the answer lies in the hands of educated citizens. They have recently put their heads together to launch Teach India, a social initiative from the Times of India that brings together children in need of education and people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them.
Teach India has put a call out to ordinary citizens to spend two hours a week for a minimum of three months to teach underprivileged children who are willing to learn. The initiative aims to help undereducated children through a variety of programmes, including basic education, support classes and even story-telling. It emphasizes easy to teach programmes in which simple topics are taught to primary school children either on a one-on-one or small group basis.
Given the logistics of matching up teachers with students, the program is available only to those who can stay in India long enough to give a three month commitment. Alas, this is one of the times, when I wish I had the opportunity to go back home and put my skills to use. For more information you can visit www.teach.timesofindia.com.
Many people ask me about Ayurveda - how it is applicable to modern life…is it applicable at all? While it might be hard to fathom how a system of medicine 5,000 years old can apply to us today, as an Ayurvedic traditionalist, I find comfort in knowing that although we have evolved as a race, our basic health needs and wants have not changed drastically over the course of civilization. And trherein lies the healing power of Ayurveda. I refer to it as a wisdom practice because its tried and tested methods have been passed down the ages as healing wisdom.
Because Ayurveda is the Science of Life, it provides a set of tools that help you live in harmony with your natural environment. When this happens you can truly maintain a state of balance. Although mothering children is a historical tradition, our patterns of living are much more complex than those of our forefathers. Which is why when we make the transition to motherhood, many of us are often jolted out of balance. Wisdom practices such as Ayurveda can come in handy to help you re-allign yourself to maintain a more positive state of emotional and physical health.
A continuous increase in global population rates could have an alarming impact on climate change. Leonardo Di Caprio’s documentary The 11th Hour, tells us that “the real problem is that there are too many of us - using too many resources - too fast.” CNN news reporter Anderson Cooper, recently produced a documentary film called Planet in Peril which points out the perils of overpopulation on our planet. “Overpopulation could be people, planet problem.”
But are contraceptives the answer? Not according to Pett Corby, author of e-book, ‘How to Avoid Unplanned Pregnancy Every Time You Have Sex - WITHOUT Using Contraceptive Drugs.’ Corby is actively encouraging women to be aware of the health risks of using contraceptives, especially in the younger years. Her deliberately short book offers insight into researched natural contraceptive methods that offer women advice about avoiding unplanned pregnancies without toxic side-effects. Corby has recently launched an awareness mission on MySpace to inform women around the world about the choices they have. I blogged about on www.ecoworldly.com.
And since it is World Population Day, what better time than now to check out the trailer of The 11th Hour.
Eco Child’s Playrecently ran a series of stories about women’s birth experiences. As a writer for the column I contributed. Not specifically to share my own childbirth story (I am sure everybody would be happier if I spared the details) but because it drew light on something else: the interconnected bonds between mothers and daughters. Like most incidences in my personal history, my daughter’s birth…ten years ago, was a series of episodes in dysfunctional family behavior. That it engendered another intense mother-daughter relationship in our family is something which I have only recently begun to realize.
My own mother does not visit us as often as I would like. However when she does, then my husband blatantly observes that her highly charged interaction with our daughter and myself, resembles three generations of the same woman debating with herself after a Grande size order of strong coffee. It is enough to make him reconsider his presence and exit for relief through yoga.
My story was picked up by Reuters. So I decided to post the story on my site. Check out the story on Reuters: Labor of Love, A Mother’s Work.
Style anyone? Style with eco-friendly values that is. Gone are the days when the term ‘eco-friendly’ fashion could only be equated with hippie style. Now I am not defending myself just because I am San Franciscan…. the style that is coming out of eco-friendly fashion houses these days promises to set Paris and Milan on fire.
Along with a bunch of other Green Style writers, I have been putting together a bunch of posts related to this on Feel Good Style. Here is a recent post about Eco Zen Boutique, eco-friendly shopping site offers eco chic clothing, organic cosmetics, recycled handbags, earth friendly jewelry and green gifts and goodies at competitive prices.
Are you looking to invest in real estate but find the logistics too cumbersome? You might want to consider buying a slice of property on paper. Although the Indian stock market has dipped recently, real estate investment funds continue to show promise. Perhaps because they are longer term investments.
In the recent years, the Indian market has become populated with a variety of commerical and residential real estate investment vehicles that have made it easier for people to reap the benefits of its growing property market without actually buying a physical piece of property. Here is an article that I wrote recently about the various investment vehicles available to you. Check it out, you might find yourself itching to invest in an information technology park or a large scale shopping mall with a multiplex theater.
On the other hand, the idea of a mango orchard is so much more appealing!
