Learn & Live - Take Home #687

 Learn as if you are going to live forever. Live as if you are going to die anytime!

A full chance!

When my favourite flowers allowed me to click, I took the full chance!

One Earth. Billions of worlds.

One Earth. Billions of worlds.

One Earth, we share.

Infinite perceptions, we create.

Billions of unique worlds, we live through.

Over 117 billion people have lived on Earth, no two ever sharing the same world.

Yet we keep wondering,

despite knowing there may be no answers,

why things are the way they are,

why people are how they are,

why we do what we do.

Perhaps, worlds are not meant to be understood, only to be lived and to let live.

My 40th birthday!

 My 40th birthday and our 12th marriage anniversary on the back to back days felt further special, seeing our children behind the lens. Here are some memorable clicks by the little hands with pure love for us and of course for their playful-interest in operating the camera!!

A year felt a lifetime at times, and it escaped in a flash some other times, all in all, meaningful & satisfying years are lived, with a few learnings to fuel the important rest of life.

Thank you everyone for sending in the wishes. Means a lot.

A click worth the wait!

 Some clicks are worth the wait! The bird incidentally joined my gang too.

My Phone Assistants - #ParenthoodDiaries 106

These days it feels as if I have two little PAs (not personal but phone assistants

) at home, who know thoroughly how to handle my calls with customized responses, especially when my phone rings while they watch some cartoon stuff on my phone!

"Amma, it's Nanna (dad) calling. Talk but don't say that phone is with us"

"Amma, it's a promotional call, you won't answer it anyway"

"Amma, your friend is calling. You call later, we have cut the call"

"Hello, Ammamma (grand-ma), bye, amma will call you later"

"Amma, we forgot to tell you...your boss called sometime ago"..

"Arrreee... Amma, why is nanna calling you so many times?

"

They have relatively lesser screen time, yet they were too quick to learn how to customize the responses!!!

Perceiving the emotions - #ParenthoodDiaries 105

I'm happy to see my extra energetic boys become ultra sensitive at times to notice simple and unshown emotions.

Recently one day, they gave a 'Laddu' (sweet) to their Silpa aunty, care-giver. She took it and kept aside, she said she would eat later.

One of the boys came to me and whispered -"Amma, Silpa aunty Laddu nahi kharahi hai, vho apne bachonkeliye Laddu leke jaarahi hai".(Amma, Silpa aunty is not eating Laddu, she is taking it home to give it to her children).

Yesterday when they wanted to give another eatable to her, which by the way they had cooked at school and brought home to let us taste it, I told them to give four so that she and her family can eat. They happily handed over, without saying that there will be less eatables remaining, which otherwise a lot of times they do say !!!

This also manifests the great bond three of them have built as she has been with us since kids were just under three years of age.

Strictly Positive #1

We may not always have the experience, confidence, competence, resources including time & money, that's needed to accomplish the task at hand. We may not be at the peak of qualities like grit, communication skill, conviction and patience. It may not be also in our capacity to arrange or cope up with all these, within the given time window.

However, there is something that we can and should always get into the way of our execution, irrespective of the circumstantial support.

That's our COMMITMENT - Not let anything intervene in our way of giving everything that we can, for what we need to accomplish.

Commitment may not always result into a positive outcome. But it always results into a positive outlook that we develop towards ourselves. Building the positive outlook from time to time is the greatest strength we can elevate ourselves with, which enables us to own and enjoy what we do, irrespective of the outcome.

Heart's birthday - #ParenthoodDiaries 104

Bharat & Bhuvan thought Valentine's day was Heart's birthday, since they had been seeing all heart symbols around! So we celebrated their little hearts with this lovely activity!

Special thanks to "blinkit" for sending the paper bags around Valentine's day theme.

School Alumni Meet 0 Jan 11th, 2026

It's been a month since we conducted the Alumni Meet in our school. We relived millions of childhood memories, throughout the time we worked for it.

On January 11th, 2026, our alumni meet brought together around 800 students and staff from the forty years of our school's operation.

In the event, I met a lot of seniors who saw me growing up and pampered me in my childhood, either when I visited our school, along with my mom who worked as a maths teacher, or when they visited our home for morning or night study. I could recognize many of them and all those wonderful childhood memories flashed across my mind, as if I was in a time-machine! I met my classmates after 26 years and juniors who lovingly considered me as their sister.

Meeting the teachers, all at once for the first time ever, was my fond memory from that day. Beyond that, something I will always cherish were the moments of joy I saw in the eyes of our teachers when they met their old students, all at once.

It was the Alumnae of a girls high school. Hence, the emotional bonding and the sensible thinking women usually have was pretty evident from the way everyone owned the event throughout. Everyone of us did what we could, also beyond.

I was brought up by many hands which I shook that day. Back in my childhood, I never felt I was a single child, probably because I was always surrounded by the students of my mother. Through the Alumni meet, I felt I had the responsibility to give great memories to all of them. I will always be grateful to everyone and the circumstances that helped me in lending my hand in conducting the Alumni Meet that took many women back to their girlhood and staff to their younger-times.

ఆ రోజు నేను కరచాలనం చేసిన చాలా మంది చేతుల్లో పెరిగిన అమ్మాయిని నేను. చిన్నప్పుడు ఒక్కదాన్నే పెరిగాను అని ఎప్పుడు అనిపించలేదు, నా చుట్టూ ఎప్పుడూ చాలామంది మా అమ్మ స్టూడెంట్స్ ఉండేవాళ్ళు. వాళ్లందరికి మంచి జ్ఞాపకాలు ఇవ్వాల్సిన బాధ్యత నాకు వుంది అని అనుకున్నాను. మా అందరిని మా చిన్నతనం లోకి, మా గురువులను వారి చిన్న వయసు జ్ఞాపకాలలోకి వెళ్లేలా చేసిన మా పూర్వ విద్యార్థినుల ఆత్మీయ సమ్మేళనం జరగడంలో నా వంతు చేయి వేయగలిగేలా నాకు సహకరించిన వారు అందరికి, సహకరించిన పరిస్థితులకు ఎప్పటికి కృతజ్ఞతతో వుంటాను.

I reserve the rest to say sometime later. If at all, when I write my story I will dedicate a chapter to writing about the event.

Thanks to social media and what's app applications that enabled us to gather and connect with almost 1200 old students and school staff.

Special thanks to my dad, Meduri Satyanarayana , who stood rock-solid behind me and our organizing team, for guiding and encouraging us throughout, also for investing his valuable time in writing the book about our school's history.

I know that I cannot thank my mom enough. I did what I could, but it was her committed career that enabled me to do what I did and experience the magical pleasure of volunteering.

Sport, my biggest passion and greatest distraction - SchoolAlumniMeetJan2026

Sport has been the biggest passion of mine. At the same time, it has also been the strongest distraction that I continue to deal with. Everything started with the district level sports meets I used to participate in, representing our school.

I was not a round-the-year player. I used to practice and play for only the duration around the sports meet, maybe maximum for a month. Yet, we never missed bringing the trophy to our school. Out of four times, we were runners up for three times and winners during the last outing I had on behalf of our school. Badminton and Tennikoit were the sports I played along with my talented doubles partners.

I will forever remember the way the PETs (Physical Education Teachers) of other schools shook my hands in appreciation after we won the last sports meet, in Tennikoit, back in 1999. That year was the toughest draw we ever faced compared to all precious tournaments, yet we finished on a winning note. When they all shook my hand and told me that I had played exceptionally well, I felt honoured. They knew that it would be my last tournament, since I was in my tenth standard. They had been seeing me for four years.

One day after a sports meet, probably when I was in my 9th standard, I heard our PET sir telling someone that a Tennikoit coach asked to send me along with him so that I could be trained for the national level competitions. Since I was a merit student and not a dedicated sports players, our PET sir didn't pursue the offer.

Years later, our PET sir got my name written on our school wall along with the other sports players who won many tournaments or medals at state, national and international levels. Against my name, he wrote - విశిష్ట క్రీడాకారిణి (Distinct Player). That's the biggest honour as far as sports is concenred in my life.

I never realized my passion for sports in school days, though I used to play exceptionally well. Only years later, in my adulthood I realized how much my mind had love for sports. Now I know that I missed an opportunity to build my career in sports, which has been my biggest passion. Hence it also has been my biggest distraction. Despite this deep sense of missing to become a sports player, I have always been successful in drawing a lot of learning and motivation for myself from sports that I have watched and followed.

I hardly miss any opportunity to take part in sport events. Chess, Tennikoit and Badminton are the sports that I have been participating in, be it in my Intermediate college days, engineering days, in the corporate organizations that I worked or working, and now in our housing society competitions.

All credit to our PET sir back in school, Kari Ammaiah garu, for the way he introduced 'sport' to me. I met him in the Alumni Meet we conducted recently in our school and didn't miss a chance to click the photo with him amidst the busy run I was having during the event.

By far, this is my favourite post from this series and hence I chose it to be the last.

NCC journey - School Alumni Meet

National Cadet Corps (India), also known as NCC, started in our school in 1994. Kumari Kjr  madam was the Associate NCC Officer in our school and she worked for almost 28 years in that capacity, and helped around 800 cadets to get A-Certification at school level. I'm proud to say that I'm one of them.

We had the opportunity to attend multiple camps. My parents allowed me to go, irrespective of my tender age or early years of puberty. 

I had been to the NCC camps held in Chirala, Bapatla, Suryalanka and Secunderabad during my ninth standard. During the camp in Secunderabad in the then combined state of Andhra Pradesh, our Guntur junior battalion won first prize in mass drill. It was a wonderful moment and a heart-pouring achievement.

Adjusting to the conditions in the camps used to be very challenging. My fellow cadets from our school accompanied me in all camps.

Rajyalakshmi madam, who was our group commander for Guntur girls battalion, used to take care of all the girls during the camps. I'm very thankful to her for the way she took care of me as well. She used to consider and support me as one of the promising cadets to get selected for the Republic Day Parade - 1999. Unfortunately I couldn't get selected and that remained as the biggest disappointment from my school days. 

Being an NCC cadet, I served for the Pulse Polio campaign in our village in the Polio booth for one day, and I earned 5 Rs. That was my first salary-like. 

I don't have a single photo in NCC dress or from any of those camps. I do have few camp certificates and tons of beautiful memories spent with fellow cadets during the camps. 

NCC indeed nurtured the leader in me at an early age, helped me find my confidence and composure. It's a great initiative by the Indian Government - Ministry of Defence. I'm thankful to everyone who supported me during my NCC journey.

The first question - ParenthoodDiaries #103

First question on my mind when I was 7.5 years old - "When are the holidays starting?"

First question on my mind now when my kids are 7.5 years old - "When is the school restarting?"

Same life but different responsibilities, different circumstances, different perspectives.

Well, I'm looking forward to again making holidays memorable for our boys. My creative brain needs to work in full throttle to keep them away from screens as much as possible. As they grow, it's getting utterly difficult to keep them away from screens.

These days they ask me - "You want us to not look at mobile, why do you keep looking at it...?

So these days I've come into an agreement that i won't look at mobile as well (in front of then though). So, i'm innovating ways to use mobile without kids noticing me doing so, since a lot of work happens on smart phones these days!!!

School Alumni Meet - The pretty gift I won

I won the below pretty box as a shared first prize along with my best friend Arifa, in our 10th class, in an elocution competition on the AIDS day. I still preserve this treasure, safe guarded it from the breaking skills of my children.

Our teachers used to conduct a lot of elocution competitions and used to support us with the preparation, to participate in other schools as well. Those were the days without smart phones, google usage or e-books. We and teachers used to refer books to prepare our content.

I'd say that those competitive moments and opportunities contributed towards the development of my communication skills and speech skills. I'll always be grateful to our school management and staff for such wonderful coaching.

When Genes kick-in - ParenthoodDiaries #102

When Genes kick in, we take it with smiles. And finally, there was something that we had to choose definitely different for both of them - The Spectacles (since the power is different).

It was after my fifth standard that I was taken to eye hospital and by then, the number of my short sight grew to (-3). I used to struggle to read what was written on the board and I used to think that's how everyone else would see .

My boys now were vocal enough to say they couldn't read from a distance. And they said it early, before the number would grow.

Now they look as studious as me, that's how I smile about it and move on.

Our first air travel - ParenthoodDiaries #101

We recently took Bharat & Bhuvan on an air travel for the very first time and here are some of the questions they asked. They asked every question at least thrice..

1. How the checked-in baggage will come? Is it coming behind us on a separate luggage-aircraft?

2. They saw the wing through the rear windows, and asked why "that part" was travelling along with us?

3. Are we above the clouds and hence are we in space?

4. The staircase through which we got into the aircraft, is is coming along too behind us, so that we get down again when we land?

Their inquisitiveness kept me busy and helped me in not feeling the turbulence, which otherwise would have occupied my mind throughout the travel time.

By the way, it was not just Bharat and Bhuvan's first air travel. It was also Ravi and my air travel TOGETHER for the first time ever in all the last 20 years. I too realize this, as I write this. On the day of travel, it was all about giving the first experience to kids. We didn't realize it was our first air travel together too.

Seasons change and so do we!

 

School Alumni Meet - Essay writing competition

It was the '1997-98 academic year' and I was studying 8th standard. Six topics were announced by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, to prepare for the essay writing competition at district level, on the occasion of 50th Independence Day of India.

During the summer holidays, I read through a lot of books myself and prepared essays for five of the six topics. My mom helped me with a few pointers for the essays and a short poem to end a few of those five topics.

My dad took me and a few of my school seniors to the competition in Ongole. The topic would be announced in the writing hall, after distributing a few blank papers. I was prepared for five of six!! But they announced the "sixth topic" as the one for the essay writing competition that day. The typical experience some of us may have about getting questions from those left-out topics in exams!!!

I comprehended all the books which I studied during the holidays and crafted an essay out of that experience & knowledge. I was completely on my own in that one hour and that probably brought the best out of me if I think about it now, my natural instincts in writing were not perceived by me then, but I was fond of writing.

I somehow wrote the essay in a way that I could end it with the same lines my mom had written for me earlier.

After the competition, we didn't wait to see the results, since the topic was very hard and we never prepared for. Also, there were a lot of senior students from 9th and 10th classes participated.

The next day when I went to school and while I was parking my bicycle, one of the school seniors who had come with me for the competition wished me saying that I had won first prize in the seniors category at district level.

I was spellbound. For a moment, I didn't believe it. She then showed me the newspaper article in which the winners names were mentioned. In those days, we didn't have phones, otherwise I would have clicked that article and kept it as a memory.

Later, on the day of the prize distribution my mamayya, Jagan, took me to Ongole. The then district collector Dasari Sreenivasulu garu presented me with the GOLD medal and a certificate.

This whole experience was one of the first encouraging moments for the writer in me.

I still remember the lines I ended the essay with, which my mom had written.

రావాలి రావాలి సమసమాజం.

తేవాలి తేవాలి సమాజం లో నిండు వెన్నెల.

కురవాలి కురవాలి ఆనంద జల్లు.

Running race and the timer - ParenthoodDiaries #100

 

Technology usage by kids - ParenthoodDiaries #99

"I will be shifting to my friend's home. His parents allow him to watch mobile phone and TV"...

Is it sounding familiar to few parents at least?.

Keeping Bharat & Bhuvan away from screen has been a major task for Ravi and myself. As we do it, we get to enjoy a lot of drama & dialogues, one sample is mentioned above.

They have now started saying to us - "You both keep looking at your laptops (while working from home). You Tube works in your laptops and the same comes in TV and mobile as well, how's TV or mobile different from your laptops?".

When I say that I work in my laptop, they say that watching TV is their work.

Games in mobile is another bond-breaker stuff. How much ever we try to not expose them to digital games, they hear everything during their play time with other children.

At the same time, they make wonderful drawings, learn complicated vocals and learn multiple languages by watching you tube videos.

Technology is about how we use it and it comes with its pros and cons, like anything else.

Varanasi - Title Glimpse

Again and again and again if a team is being positively impactful, it's the indication that they are meticulously executing what they are absolutely passionate about. Kudos once again to S.S. Rajamouli and team. Take a bow, Shruti Haasan.

Victory leads to transformation!

When Shreya Ghoshal sang India's National Anthem in the opening ceremony of the ICC women's world cup 2025 to a few vacant stands, who thought that Sunidhi Chauhan would be singing the Anthem to a fully packed stadium on the finale day!

That's what inspiring performances do. Hard-fought victories do. They transform the way things are perceived. Of all, the most important is that they transform the thought process.

Hope the world cup victory by the Indian women's cricket team helps in transforming the perception about women choosing sports as their career in India.

Hearty congratulations to the team and fellow admirers of sports in India.

School Alumni Meet - Aided schools and the emotions!

Aided school is more than a school. Having closely seen the one I studied in, which is an aided girls high school, I can proudly say that it's FAMILY.

Aided schools are management-run schools, with salaries funded by the government. Unless the government fills the positions, the retired teacher posts are filled by the management-funded amount. The rest of the infrastructure is largely either through management's cost or donations. The school itself was founded by donors and not government.

Teachers have no transfers, so they grow together. Any old student visiting the school can meet their teachers every time until they retire. All the retired staff are invited to any main event.

I'm a regular visitor to school, more so because my mom works there. The love and affection I feel every time, is unexplainable. Teachers are like forever family friends. And students are their only legacy. Management is the backbone.

Our school especially has a special reputation in our area with a phenomenal staff and their ever encouraging commitment, so much that despite dealing with low staff post retirements and aging main teaching staff, they have recently started to teach in english medium to comepte with the growing demand.

Hence, the upcoming Alumni Meet is nothing less than a highly-celebrated family event for the teachers, students and myself especially

School Alumni Meet - Childhood memories

Childhood memories are extremely special. Some prizes we win remain in our hearts forever.

Below plates were the prizes I received after winning few competitions, during the annual day event in our school.

Now, I serve food to my kids, sometimes, in these plates and it feels just awesome. Glad that I won two plates back then...

School Alumni Meet - A sweet memory from 1999!!

We won in the district level quiz competition conducted by our school. However, we were denied the rolling trophy, since there had been a vow taken by our school management to not accept the trophy if our school itself won it.

There was a rule that the rolling trophy would permanently go to the school that would win three consecutive years. The school team that was runners up this time, had won two consecutive years earlier and we were quite happy that the trophy would remain in our school, since we won. But the fact that the trophy wouldn't be given to us hit me hard, though I had been made aware about the management's vow before the competition itself.

The noble reason behind that vow was not understandable at that tender age and I started crying. My team mates followed. It all felt quite disappointing.

The teacher who came along with the school team that was runners up, who would eventually take away the trophy permanently, came forward with a great gesture towards us. He presented us some amount as a gift. It felt like a consolation that day, but as I think about it now, it's a great memory and a beautiful gesture by that teacher.

It was one of the first lessons for me to stick to the vows, no matter what the consequences would be. These little pieces of wisdom are something that school life teaches us, teachers teach us. We owe a lot to them.