How does it feel when you are able to see where you want to be say 20 years from now?
I met this awesome French lady "Lawrette" who had come to take one of the travel domain trainings in office. Though the training was for 4 days but because of work pressure, I could not attend after 1st day.
Feeling sad (and guilty for unnecesseralily occupying a seat) I went the next day to apologize.
Before I tell you what we talked about, I would like to tell you my first impression of Lawrette.
I enter the training room, one nice middle aged french lady is already sitting in the room.
Blue eye shades, dark grey mascara, very pretty haircut, to top it all a very smooth and glowy skin...i never could imagine she was 59 if i had never talked to her about personal life. She was old, yet so pretty. Weird combination? O, you should see her once to believe me.
So, I go ahead and apologise having to miss such an informative session where she was not only sharing knowledge on the given topic but also her experience in various travel related organisation and associations. One topic led into another and so on, I did not realize when we had actually started talking about home, kids, husband - LIFE.
And why instantly we connected is because when I told her I have a 20 month old baby, she also started telling me about her life experiences when both her kids were small. She loved raising them, teaching them good habits, teaching them about good behaviour and being polite, teaching them what is right what is wrong. The moment she told me this, I could so well recollect how momji insisted that we should leave Chia with her as I want to work, and how I explained to her How important it is for me to see Chia grow, teach her Sorry , please, thankyou, inculcate good habits and good language.
She liked it when she started working after her second baby. At home, there used to be no time, but at work, she could find some time to relax. She told with a naughty smile that sometimes she used to rush for work to get her space :P
And this reminded me of the first week when i started working after Chia :P
Lawrette before babies, indulged in too many adventure sports, excercise routine, reading etc; but after babies, she hardly used to get time for anything else. Sometimes even husband was forgotten for the sake of babies. People to whome I generally talk would have heard similar stories from me :)
Then I did tell her I do want to have another kid sometime in future but Ravi does not. For which she started talking about the relationship she shares with her brother. They talk a lot and discuss about almost anything and everything, so she also feels that having more than 1 kid certainly makes up for the company and kid is not rendered alone.
To this, I almost remember the statement that i always make to ravi "What fun could possible Garima have without Gaurav? And you would agree the same for Rinku without Shinu" :) :) I felt as if an older form of me was talking about my thoughts and ideology :P
She says "That phase when your kids are small and need all your attention, is like a tunnel. If you plan for a second one, you may think of the tunnel to become a little longer.
In your age, spending those 2-3 extra years would mean something, but you should take it like this: Say your baby is 3 years, and you talk about her 1 year, it's 1/3rd of a lifespan that you are talking about, so it's huge; but at my age, if i talk about 1 year, the % is much smaller and hence that 1 year is nothing to me. Investing those extra years makes so much sense to me now"
Wow! I never thought on these lines.
When her 2nd baby was 5 years, she decided she will start gymming again. When her baby was 9 years, she started playing Piano again which used to relieve her from all tension. She did start reading again, but only after 15 years.
I was little disturbed, rather scared to hear this. 15 years!!!! Man, will it happen to me too?
But then, she started explaining:
"It's just a phase of life. Although I love adventures, but when I look back the most adventurous things that I have done is raising kids. You do have to invest all yourself during the initial years, but then what you get in return, words are less to express those feelings.
It's so nice when your daughter comes to you and say "Mumma thankyou so much for whatever you have done for me."
:) :) :) "
It definitely was a goose-worm moment for me.
At 60, she does have retirement plans and much more fun and adventure plans after retirement.
I cannot think of that long, but she has definitely inspired me to be even more attached to Chia, find out time for Ravi inspite of the busy schedule and yet have time for myself to indulge in activities I like.
Tough??? Ya! looks like, but it would be interesting trying to work that out.
And why not...this is a blog after 2 years or little less, let me consider it as a start ;)
Thnaks Lawrette for making my day a happy one and giving such an inspiration.
I met this awesome French lady "Lawrette" who had come to take one of the travel domain trainings in office. Though the training was for 4 days but because of work pressure, I could not attend after 1st day.
Feeling sad (and guilty for unnecesseralily occupying a seat) I went the next day to apologize.
Before I tell you what we talked about, I would like to tell you my first impression of Lawrette.I enter the training room, one nice middle aged french lady is already sitting in the room.
Blue eye shades, dark grey mascara, very pretty haircut, to top it all a very smooth and glowy skin...i never could imagine she was 59 if i had never talked to her about personal life. She was old, yet so pretty. Weird combination? O, you should see her once to believe me.
So, I go ahead and apologise having to miss such an informative session where she was not only sharing knowledge on the given topic but also her experience in various travel related organisation and associations. One topic led into another and so on, I did not realize when we had actually started talking about home, kids, husband - LIFE.
And why instantly we connected is because when I told her I have a 20 month old baby, she also started telling me about her life experiences when both her kids were small. She loved raising them, teaching them good habits, teaching them about good behaviour and being polite, teaching them what is right what is wrong. The moment she told me this, I could so well recollect how momji insisted that we should leave Chia with her as I want to work, and how I explained to her How important it is for me to see Chia grow, teach her Sorry , please, thankyou, inculcate good habits and good language.
She liked it when she started working after her second baby. At home, there used to be no time, but at work, she could find some time to relax. She told with a naughty smile that sometimes she used to rush for work to get her space :P
And this reminded me of the first week when i started working after Chia :P
Lawrette before babies, indulged in too many adventure sports, excercise routine, reading etc; but after babies, she hardly used to get time for anything else. Sometimes even husband was forgotten for the sake of babies. People to whome I generally talk would have heard similar stories from me :)
Then I did tell her I do want to have another kid sometime in future but Ravi does not. For which she started talking about the relationship she shares with her brother. They talk a lot and discuss about almost anything and everything, so she also feels that having more than 1 kid certainly makes up for the company and kid is not rendered alone.
To this, I almost remember the statement that i always make to ravi "What fun could possible Garima have without Gaurav? And you would agree the same for Rinku without Shinu" :) :) I felt as if an older form of me was talking about my thoughts and ideology :P
She says "That phase when your kids are small and need all your attention, is like a tunnel. If you plan for a second one, you may think of the tunnel to become a little longer.
In your age, spending those 2-3 extra years would mean something, but you should take it like this: Say your baby is 3 years, and you talk about her 1 year, it's 1/3rd of a lifespan that you are talking about, so it's huge; but at my age, if i talk about 1 year, the % is much smaller and hence that 1 year is nothing to me. Investing those extra years makes so much sense to me now"
Wow! I never thought on these lines.
When her 2nd baby was 5 years, she decided she will start gymming again. When her baby was 9 years, she started playing Piano again which used to relieve her from all tension. She did start reading again, but only after 15 years.
I was little disturbed, rather scared to hear this. 15 years!!!! Man, will it happen to me too?
But then, she started explaining:
"It's just a phase of life. Although I love adventures, but when I look back the most adventurous things that I have done is raising kids. You do have to invest all yourself during the initial years, but then what you get in return, words are less to express those feelings.
It's so nice when your daughter comes to you and say "Mumma thankyou so much for whatever you have done for me."
:) :) :) "
It definitely was a goose-worm moment for me.
At 60, she does have retirement plans and much more fun and adventure plans after retirement.
I cannot think of that long, but she has definitely inspired me to be even more attached to Chia, find out time for Ravi inspite of the busy schedule and yet have time for myself to indulge in activities I like.
Tough??? Ya! looks like, but it would be interesting trying to work that out.
And why not...this is a blog after 2 years or little less, let me consider it as a start ;)
Thnaks Lawrette for making my day a happy one and giving such an inspiration.
