Lovely morning folks! So yes during planning and shifting to our new abode, writing did take a backseat, though words and ideas never left me alone even for a moment. Thus, at first leisure, here am penning down my heart to my digital diary my blog, my baby, my companion, my safe space whatever I choose to call it, most importantly my breathing corner and to you, my readers, an essential part of my life.
Let me first begin by sending a prayer of gratitude to the universe for giving me this December my kind of peaceful and full of simple joys of life kind of celebrations for our wedding anniversary. It began with seeing my baba(Sai) with my husband and feeding the hungry and ended with roses, love songs, and smiles. Nothing else I believe matters as much as true unconditional love and mutual respect. I really love ending my year on this note and also love looking back at how the past year treated you. There is always so much to learn.
2022 otherwise has been a real roller coaster in every sense. I was in Vadodara, Gujarat, one last time, for the first one and a half months, and life there was truly different and unique in several ways in terms of simplicity and culture in comparison to Delhi. I thoroughly relished my stay there and documented several special moments I would remember for the rest of my life. In fact, my book, Letters on Covid for my Future Grandchildren will always be my tribute to the kindness Gujarat has shown to us strangers.
Was back in Delhi in mid-February after celebrating Valentine's week in my own special ways(Life for me is all about living fully and celebrating every moment of life because tomorrow never comes) and then began the gradual opening, post-pandemic era, life. It was quite like being kicked out of inertia(of staying home forever) to get back to a normal routine with offices and schools opening up. But it indeed was desired as the lockdown has reduced social life to mobiles only and professional life to laptops and work from home for most people. The fear of the pandemic slowly weaned.
March kicked off with offline final exams for the kid after two years and ended with an extremely relaxing trip to Goa our usual vacation spot.
Before that, in mid-March, I had started churning my brain on how to make my 7th consecutive year in AtoZ Blogging Challenge worthwhile. I am glad that my rendezvous with ideas is almost perennial and they unfailingly hit me at 4 a.m., which is solely theirs and my time no matter how adverse the circumstances are. The pristine joy they give me is unparalleled and words fail me to weave those emotions into words.
Back from the Goan vacations, my health took a downturn with a painful endometriosis flare-up lasting for months. The crazy amount of painkillers kept me numb, and cranky and the salts in them made me gain a lot of weight. So I made the pain itself my inspiration for AtoZ and decided to weave it into poems.
April thus began on a poetic note with multiple spells of blood tests and MRIs and expert opinions on several organs removal surgery and indeed I met the best ones in the town including a Padma Shree awardee gynecologist. But something they said stuck with me and that was despite removing multiple organs at such a young age as per them the endometriosis pain may or may not go which was the only stifling symptom that paralyzed my everyday life for over a decade.
So when there was no guarantee I was not ready to go under the knife one more time without being sure of the results. Then I did what I do always when I don’t have a solution I prayed to my baba, and my Sai and in no time I could search for an Ayurvedic endometriosis specialist in Delhi. Such is He always standing by me in times of need.
Therefore in mid-May started my extensive Ayurvedic treatment with Vasti Panchkarma and here I sit in December 2022 able to manage my symptoms well with the latest reports saying that if the disease has not improved it has neither deteriorated. Of course, I eat fifteen Ayurvedic tablets in a day but this is trusting that they don’t have any side effects and are only reversing the pathology of the disease. Panchakarma is highly effective in removing the toxins in our body and is to be repeated after a fixed number of months depending on patient to patient. I have given my first-hand account of my experience in my blogpost here.
Thus, thankfully by end of May, I could plan a very special break in Fairmont Palace in Jaipur. I have a thing for Indian culture and love soaking in it every bit. Back home I got super busy with the publishing process of my seventh and my son’s second book and their release in the Blogchatter ebook carnival. This is the most productive time for us during the year and we really love all the lovely reviews that pour in and motivate us and give us a very significant reason to smile.
June was kind in the beginning when we took a jungle safari vacation in Jim Corbett of course followed by our favorite Nainital but by the end, Covid Hit us and how. I could not realize it can leave a lasting impact. I didn’t get major symptoms and was busy caregiving except I could barely eat and kept losing weight but by the tenth day I was in tears. I had acute body aches and fever every evening. I got the tests done and was detected with acute UTI and was put on heavy antibiotics for a month which made my health and fitness go for a complete toss. I was told that this is many times an after-effect of Covid.
In July and August my battle continued as post-UTI, I was advised all wisdom teeth extractions and I had never had a toothache all my life. The dentist told me she has had many post covid cases like this. So again loads of medications and painkillers and I still tried to smile through all of it, trying to fulfill all assignments I had committed to. Both our books also were released on Amazon around this time as I can never really stop working. Being busy I believed cured half the sickness and smiling the rest half. Don’t believe me try it.
Come September I started to get my groove back. There were several things going back and forth in my mind so I decided to focus. In a month’s time, I will enter my forties and I could always feel the calm in my personality. Undoubtedly, I have slowed down but it was indeed for the good. I now know exactly where to channelize my energies and have learned it the very hard way. I now steer clear of all negative energies in my life and look for only giving and receiving positive vibrations. My journey to embracing peace is all thanks to a lady I call my guru mother whom too I met again after almost a decade in September. She again taught me innumerable things which I practice every day and my heart is filled with gratitude all the more for her. I will surely write about them at length once I master the techniques so that those of you who wish to practice them can reap the benefits.
September end was again a weekend getaway time to Neemrana fort as you already know my love everything ancient in India. I also fasted Nirjala for Teej with a lot of difficulties but pulled it through perhaps one last time because my health doesn’t permit it and I can’t torture myself anymore. I will find better ways for the long life of my spouse.
October is my happy month always perhaps it is my birthday month and the kid in me refuses to grow up. In my 40s I had categorically decided that my three loves were, are, and will always be writing, reading, and traveling apart from the two men in my life. I am no more a party girl and prefer solitude. For my birthday I originally wanted to fly to Udaipur Palaces but that plan did not materialize and last minute I went to the Taj in Agra to relive all my precious childhood memories. My birthday was a serene, peaceful, and happy day for me when I did everything I love. Karvachauth was without hubby who was busy receiving an award in Capetown while I commenced writing my eighth book here along with mommy duties. From this Karvachauth, I customized my Nirjala fasts in accordance with what a fifth-stage endometriosis patient can bear, and am happy God accepted my prayers and gave me many signs that he did. I had always been the rebel but now suddenly I find enough energy to take big decisions which I truly believe in without worrying about the results.
November went basking in festivities and battling the loss of immunity(thus many ups and downs in health) and also personal advancements in terms of a new office and a new abode. Dec 1 we shifted to our new abode and as soon as I was settled, I kept my promise to the old students of my academy and announced the restarting of the same. I was itching to revive it and it gives me immense joy I could do it despite all odds. My students are my lifeline and without them, I felt so incomplete. Though I did teach in an NGO for a few months my real heart lay in grooming 6 to 60-year-olds, in fulfilling their dreams, and I am back to what I love doing the most apart from my three loves mentioned above. I am glad I am back to doing what I love and life has come full circle. I am also grateful to 2022 for making me meet some very pure souls who felt like family as soon as I met them. I am sure these meaningful bonds given to me by my baba shall only grow.
In the last week of 2022, I am so glad I sat down to look back at the gone by year and I can proudly say amidst all the upheaval, it taught me a lot. It uprooted me several times only for me to dig deeper and give firmer roots to my dreams. It tested me more and more to let me know my inner power to endure and to make me capable enough to welcome and embrace 2023 much stronger and more prepared.
2023 indeed will be a year with specific health and life goals for me and I will achieve them at all costs! I need your blessings and wishes for the same my dears do send out a prayer, a wish for me to the universe. I too wish you love, luck and light in the coming year, stay blessed.
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