Different Facets of ME! – Week 10, 2021 – Project 365

Week 10 of 2021 Alhamdulilah! Sharing a picture daily from our small world as part of Project 365

In my head, this week is called my week 😀 – Dentist’s Day, Women’s Day and my B’day all come in the same week 😀 (Though I don’t really celebrate any of these days as such, just a sense of contentment!)

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Oru chaaya kudichaluo?!(How about a tea break?!) – A recreated teashop (from villages of Kerala) in a mall in Qatar

These chaayakada (tea shops) are so common in the villages of Kerala where elders (read males) go for their chaya/tea and daily dose of gossip.

Today was National Dentist’s Day – a day to show appreciation and gratitude to dentists around the world, especially during this year of Covid for stepping up their professional activities in spite of the risk and challenges.

Sunday, March 7, 2021

These Picasso Tiles feature a lot in our kids day to day activities!

Do you feel this year is also going to be of same-days-all-merged-into-one sort of living?

Monday, March 8, 2021

Today is International Women’s Day

The only word to describe my day was – Monotonous!

…and the slow acceptance of the fact that pandemic has altered our plans and it might probably be not realized in the near future or maybe ever.

Today I do not feel inspired or inspiring or empowered or empowering and all the beautiful words that dominated social media feeds.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

I did not even feel like clicking a picture today. I had promised myself, I would click atleast the steps count if I did nothing else.

Doing just that, for me, for myself.

Happy Women’s Day. Don’t forget to do something for yourself today -for you, by you!

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

I have had two conflicting thoughts today.

One, a sense of grief over my professional journey. Yes, I am quite happy with my part time/flexible/adaptable timings in clinic for now, yet I am not where I want to be yet. I am not where I envisioned I would be when I graduated ten years ago. The thought often makes me sad, frustrated and depressed – a story that no one knows other than my husband, parents and siblings. The career dream which I have seen for myself often ended up in failures. Then came the pandemic which put a complete stop to that dream of mine. A senior dentist whom I met in this online world told me , ‘You have failed only when you have quit trying. As long as you are trying, you are not a failure but a success-story-in-journey’ Such wise words. I really hope so, inshAllah.

The other extreme end of this thought is – A sense of contentment- I am where I am supposed to be right now in this phase of life. My flexibility in timings allows me to spend a lot of time with my kids. Their childhood is going to happen only once. And I am with them for most of the time during this period. This is their season of climbing over me, playing with me, asking me for brownies, and snacks and chips and say again ‘still hungry’ after eating all the snacks in the world. Even on days I have completely lost it, they still consider me their best friend. This phase wont last long. This season is not forever. So I should enjoy it.

This grief vs contenment over my professional journey vs my mothering journey is an emotional game that happens everyday in my mind. Somedays there are smiles. Other days, tears.

I am 33 today. A friend remarked – it is the age of people in Jannah. ❤️

Alhamdulilah for being alive. Alhamdulilah for seeing 33 for a baby who was born at 34 weeks in a place and time where there were no NICU. Alhamdulilah for the family I was born into. Alhamdulilah for the family we created. Alhamdulilah for the love of my life. Alhamdulilah for everything ❤️

PS: The kids wanted brownies. Licking clean the bowl and the whisk respectively. They enjoy doing this more than eating the brownies 😃

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

We didn’t have net for most of the day. So well, guess what the kids picked up – Books!

We do have a lot of toddler books but my 5 year old has outgrown them and I haven’t been able to update her book collection.

So when she asked me for books today, I gave her one book from my Enid Blyton collection. She flips through and said,

‘Mama, these books are grey and brown. There are no pictures!’

…and I realised I should really update her book collection soon!! (Any suggestions?)

Thursday, March 11, 2021

On March 9, 2020, Qatar announced closure of all schools and educational center due to the Covid Pandemic. My daughter has been to school only for one week since then.

It has been one exact year of online learning.

These kids will have such great stories to tell their grandkids of the time ‘school came home’!

Friday, March 12, 2021

Today was such a busy day since we went to see my parents after maybe two months (or more!) The kids are so overexcited when we go to the grandparent’s house. They really dont remember (especially my youngest) spending time with their grandparents. We have avoided going often since the pandemic started for obvious reasons and since we felt that was the right thing to do. Now that they are vaccinated hopefully we can visit more often! Damn the Pandemic! I feel it has altered the grandparent-grandchildren relationships a lot!

It was such a busy day that I forgot to click a picture until I found this cute autorickshaw in Rawnaq to send my brother. Growing up all he wanted was an autorickshaw toy and to become an autorickshaw driver! 😄

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16 Replies to “Different Facets of ME! – Week 10, 2021 – Project 365”

  1. How interesting. I didn’t know there was such a thing as National Dentist’s Day.
    Happy belated birthday to you. The cake looks fab!
    Oh no! That is rubbish news about the schools closing again. I suppose it’s for the best to keep everyone safe. x

  2. The Picasso tiles look like fun. I can understand that conflict of grief over your professional journey vs contentment over the flexibility you have and being able to be with your children while they are little. That advice from the senior dentist is so good. Something I should try and hold on to more too. The comment from your 5 year old about the book being grey and brown with no pictures made me smile – it’s only recently that Sophie’s started accepting fewer pictures in books so we’ve had a few comments like that too! #project365

  3. Love the rickshaw toy. Good that you can see your parents, it’s been so hard for the kds with their grandparents hasn’t it. My son hasn’t seen my parents for over two years now 🙁 We are finally getting to see our dentist at the end of next month, for the first time in my life I’m excited to be going – I’ve suffered with major dentist trauma for years #365

  4. I need to get some of those Picasso tiles for my little boy. He’ll love them. I don’t think mum guilt ever leaves us no matter what choices we make but time does fly so we need to make the most of our kids when they’re young 🙂

  5. There is a hell of a balance between raising kids and being able to devote 100% to both. Most of us are able to enjoy a career and raise a family, I did, not qualifying as a teacher until after my last child was in primary school, I wanted to work in a career earlier but couldn’t, now I have all the time in the world, no kids and no job (through choice) you’ll get the right balance, you sound like you’re doing very well as you are

  6. Goodness, sounds like your education system for the last year has been worse that ours in the UK. We’re back in for the second time but waiting for another spike in cases 🙁 I hope you felt a little happiness at the special events this week even if you don’t really celebrate them #project365

  7. Happy Birthday. We have those tiles only call them Magna tiles here and both boys still play with them including the eldest. I can relate to your feelings about career and motherhood it is something that I also struggle with.

  8. Happy “MY” Week, hope you had a good birthday. Sorry to hear you have been struggling with work. Hopefully the pandemic is just a blip and you can resume your pursuit of your dreams soon

  9. Happy belated birthday! 33 is a young age to be stressed, thinking of your career as not successful, you still have so much time ahead, and as you wisely point out, childhood doesn’t last forever.
    Picasso tiles look so pretty. And yes, licking the spoon/whisk is the best bit, when baking sweet things.

  10. Hope you had a lovely birthday and at only 33 you have plenty of time to pursue your dreams. Try not to feel down about it, you have already achieved so much with your beautiful children. The pandemic hopefully won’t last too much longer and you can get back on track.

  11. I have never heard of national dentist day. Don’t get stressed at 33 you are doing an amazing job. Sorry to hear you have school closures again. Lots of backwards and forwards with plans at the moment! #365

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