*Confession Time*

I have tried it before, I tried it again, but finding time to regularly blog has been tough for me. So today, I am going to try to capture the headlines of some of the many events going on in my life. Yes, I am fully aware, that each of these topics deserve a full post dedicated to them (which in my mind, I am hopeful of writing someday). But, until that becomes a reality, let’s not miss out on taking note of all the events that happened recently.

1. In the past few months in the new school, Pari has grown in many ways. If I were to look at her hardly 5 months back and compare her to what she is today, I’d be amazed to see how far my baby has come. She has come to be more independent, has started making a conscious effort to learn something new on a daily basis, has taken her love for dance to a whole new level, fallen in love with swimming and has come a long way as far her writing skills go.
2. We’ve just been through the most scary part of the year. The time, when my mum’s annual scans ( though she has regular scans & tests on a monthly/ quarterly & semi-annual basis too) but the PET-CT scan, done annually, scares me to death from days before it’s done. The PET-CT scan is in layman terms, done to check for any spread of the cancer cells in any other parts of the body besides the area of cancer origin. This is crucial because my mother has had malignant breast cancer. By God’s grace & prayers of the many wonderful people who’ve been part of my journey through this blog and otherwise, mum has come out clean.
3. My battle against Patriarchy is at its worst. I am at a stage in life, where, everything I see, say or think, appears to be in a direct conflict to the way the rest of my family sees it. Every single day, in my mind, I scribble a 1,000 word post. This happens while I am trying to push myself to calm down. Life has been very trying and at these hours of crisis, two quotes in particular (among the many that I read on a daily basis) have stuck around for me. (“He who angers you, conquers you.” ~ Elizabeth Kenny) and (“When you’re going through hell, keep going.” ~ Winston Churchill).
4. Car driving has been one of the major challenges in my life ( this in particular needs an elaborate post for full understanding). I have graduated from being scared to learn to drive to miraculously bagging the driver’s licence, impressing the driving test instructors across continents, to being scared to death of driving to driving like I was born to drive at 150 kmph to where I am stuck today. All details coming up super soon.
5. Just in case, you think I waste all my online time on Twitter, let me tell you, I am also spending time here. So just in case, if you are using the Viber app (which is absolutely free) please do connect on my Public chat and see what I have been up to.
6. Something weird has happened to my laptop. At first the right click died a slow, painful death ( which I had the service center attend to, but they failed to find a hardware or otherwise fault) and just a couple of days ago, after Pari decided to play with my laptop keys like Tom plays the piano, the left side of the mouse has died a sudden death. By God’s grace, I have a wireless mouse that has come to my rescue. But, deep in my heart, I am scared of the possibility of having to shell out a good 50,000+ rupees for a new laptop. Very honestly speaking, I don’t have that kind of extra money at the moment.
7. I know, I have been forever making excuses of not finding enough time to scribble a proper blog-post but have been churning out many book reviews one after the other. This deserves a new series of posts, but in a nutshell, the book reviews I do on the blog are taking care of the fact, I read more than I usually do and carefully enough. I can never ignore the fact that while reviewing, I have an author’s dream, perhaps work of a lifetime in my hands to judge in an unbiased way. Thank you kind people, for bearing with the surging number of book reviews, because they are here to stay.
8. Regular exercise, check on the carbohydrates ( to some extent) and losing a couple more kilos is the scene on the fitness front. Though I am really trying to squeeze in a brisk walk for half an hour in my schedule but the hot weather has been keeping it from becoming a reality so far.
9. These days, I am busy watching the Masterchef Australia, Season 7. I have seen it from season 1, so it is always very special to me (being the only reality show I watch religiously). I might not have picked up any great recipes from the show but Pari is surely smitten and tries to practice what she gets to see ( if she’s awake as the show airs at 9 pm) with her kitchen set. The only twist is, she uses real ingredients, plays my boss, pushing me to cook as she instructs and making me eat it. Yes, she refuses to taste it herself and I am not allowed to refuse to taste.
10. My love for Green tea is going strong and to add to it I have added the Mango & Strawberry Tea and the Blackberry & Vanilla Tea. The latter two from Twinings are a delight for someone who loves an aromatic experience. They’re very light, tasty and makes me feel fresh almost instantly. Though I found the acidity of strawberries in the Mango & Strawberry tea overpowering, but it took me two days to fall in love with it. I highly recommend it, if you love light, aromatic teas and have green tea without any additives like honey.
11. At the risk of repeating myself, with the little lost weight, I have come to look at least 5 years younger than I did in my cousin’s wedding in June. Well, pictures are the proof. And I have recently fallen in love with taking selfies. Though I never share any of these on the Internet, but they are great to help me compare results in my healthy lifestyle journey.

Just in case if you’re wondering, why didn’t I stop at ten points or didn’t include this last bit in a number twelve, I’d started this post with an intention of doing an odd number of points as a mark of jotting down the odds of my life. That’s exactly what I have done.

The song on my mind: Manzilein apni jagah hain ~ Sharabi