The Expression Hub

  • Can being a mother be difficult ?

    Published by

    Roshani Patil

    on

    “Only a mother who loses a child can know the depths of grief.”

    Anonymous

    Its the month of May, a month in which we will be celebrating the spirit of motherhood in all forms. Being a mother is supposed to be such a great feeling after all it is supposed to be an experience which is supposed to be life changing for the woman who is married for some years and then experiences a new phase or a chapter in her life. When asked to describe the feeling of being a mother, a lot of us might have ended up hearing this, “its a feeling which cannot be described but should only be experienced”. Maybe that might be true after all the feeling of raising someone in your stomach for nine months and enduring it all for that soul might have some significance. I can comment on this in the near future but not right now :p Right now, I am in a very happy space being content on the idea of radiating love on myself and working on to being a highly independent woman and want to focus entirely on that.

    But there are a lot of times when being a mother can be difficult or super-challenging. There might also be times when you might want to experience the feeling of being one but you cannot do so due to some or the other reasons. And we humans are a ball of emotions. So, just imagine the situation where you would want to experience something wonderful but are not able to. Heartbreaking isn’t it? After all we do have the tendency to compare our lives with others as human beings even though we are aware of its impact on our mental health. But who doesn’t love the feeling of being validated once in a while?

    Some women embrace the feeling of being a mother naturally. But there are some mothers who feel the journey is super difficult and taxing. After all being a mother means letting go of your needs a lot of times and prioritizing the needs of your children first. Then be it as simple as feeding your baby on time to changing diapers on time to maybe attending your children’s events. Also, there are some who find the journey difficult as they might have been bereaved of their motherhood due to some reasons. Some reasons might include infertility, stress, weight issues or maybe even something due to called SIDS which stands for Sudden Infant Syndrome.

    Today is the first Sunday of May and is celebrated as the International Bereaved Mother’s Day. Grief as an emotion cannot be celebrated especially if it is related to something special like motherhood. But life is such that there are supposed to be difficult moments . Moments which we need to endure even if we do not wish to. This day tries to acknowledge and bring to the surface the invisible pain a grieving mother faces. The journey of being a mother can be super challenging. But what is more challenging is the pain of child loss whose grief lingers over a long period of time and might be difficult to overcome. Nothing can replace a loss but maybe by tapping into our emotions of compassion and empathy we can help give strength to a grieving parent. This is a day when the grieving parents want that their child should never be forgotten by the realms of time. They just want their child to be remembered and acknowledged. So, let us reach out to a grieving mother and let her recount her best times she had with her child. Motherhood is supposed to be a beautiful experience. But it is high time that we do let allow grief to be a medium of expression and be a safe compassionate space for people especially mothers to grieve.

    Continue reading →: Can being a mother be difficult ?

  • A growth stimulator?

    Published by

    Roshani Patil

    on

    Author: Chandramouli Venkatasan

    Genre: Self help/career management

    “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”

    E.E. Cummings

    Sincerest apologies for not posting last week. I just got down with a cold that was actually preventable but I still ended up having. Now, that I am feeling better and have almost made a recovery, I decided to pen my thoughts on time. Wish I can be more disciplined in delivering my posts on time. Maybe you guys can suggest me with ways to become more disciplined in my life. Discipline is important in every job of our lives whether it be as small as cleaning something or having your work done on time. The reason is simple when you get your work done on time, you kinda feel relieved. For me, it is a huge relief whenever I finish a blog post. Not because it is exhausting, but it kind of makes me feel at ease. Until my blog post does not go up, I just feel a knot in my stomach as if I am missing something big in my life. Maybe the accountability I feel I have for my readers just keeps me on the toes. Another reason might be that I just feel if the blog post does not go up is that maybe I am not being honest towards my baby project which hopefully will grow up into something big in the upcoming years. Fingers crossed for that dream to fruit. Though I just know one thing-that I can only control what I have in my hands. The rest will eventually follow. So, I need to keep doing the work and give my best shot each and every time I try to express myself.

    Now that I am done giving my reasons, I need to focus on the task undertaken and that is to reveal the pick of this week. This week’s pick revolves around the theme of career management. We all feel career is an integral part of our lives. After all, it is one of the defining aspects of our personality apart from our education . Isn’t it? We all feel we should be good at what we do and should just slay whatever is to achieve our goals. But are we doing the same? Should we just focus on our personal growth in our careers or should our careers be something more than our personal growth?The pick of the week tries to answer this question and much more. Lets find out-

    About the book: Catalyst:The ultimate strategies on how to win at work and in life is a book written by the late Chandramouli Venkatesan who donned several roles in his 27 year long corporate experience in several sectors. Until recently he was the CEO(special projects) at the Pidilite Industries while also mentoring several businesses and functions. He explains that career growth is a direct function of one’s individual growth. But what are the factors that constitute an individual’s growth? According to him, an individual’s growth constitutes of three parts namely- experience and productivity,career management and life and values. In the experience and productivity part, he explains that it is a myth that the number of years an individual spends is experience. But in reality, experience refers to the thought process that one builds within oneself which is developed by continuous learning . If one has to continuous learn, he advocates the TMRR process.What is this TMRR process and how to apply it in your respective lives that I won’t reveal but instead ask you to find it out yourself.

    Other interesting aspects include how you should be dividing your career into two parts and work harder in the second part than the first part as the second part or phase of your career is more tougher than the first half. He says that you should focus on strengthening your foundation in the first half of your career. How do you do that and how do you then traverse smoothly in the second phase of your career smoothly again a homework for you guys :p And the last part is about how you should have a hobby and a value system in place to move ahead in life. A hobby should be such that it should help you improve your career graph. While on the other hand, a robust value system helps to be a better leader. Depending upon the personality traits of a person, a value system can be put into place. This is what he discusses in the third part.

    Analysis: The book is a good attempt as well as a guide as to how one should advance in his or her career. It also attempts to bust a few myths which we tend to have in our minds like for instance we equal experience as the number of years one puts into work. While on the contrary, experience is supposed to be the skills you have acquired over the number of years while building a strong foundation. He also suggests to avoid the rat race in the first half which we all unknowingly or knowingly get into to accelerate our growth. Instead, he asks us to be a tortoise. This might be true because the faster we run, the more we have the tendency to burnout and not enjoy the work. Instead he asks us to treat career as a sprint of a marathon because we spend an extensive amount of our lives in work.

    Another good thing about the book is that he cites various examples to prove his points extensively and that you do find them relatable. Third point is that it is not a long read so you can finish it quickly if you want to.But there are times when you do find the book boring because of its pace. This is what I felt. This might not be true for other people maybe but I did find the book a laggard at some places.

    Verdict: If you are one of those who loves to read self help books then this one might be one of the choices which you can choose from. Also, if you are looking for some serious career advice , maybe this book can help after all it has been written by a corporate veteran. I enjoyed the book a bit but felt it could have been written in a more better manner and with a much nice pace. But experiences of a senior person always helps after all it contains a lot of wisdom which is collected over years .

    Cite Bite: “Values are a huge driver of career success.”

    The book cover

    Que: What does productivity not include?

    a. Time management

    b. Discipline

    c. Art of delegation

    d. Organization

    Continue reading →: A growth stimulator?

  • A trip down the memory lane

    Published by

    Roshani Patil

    on

    Genre: Comedy-Drama

    No. of episodes: 7

    Presented by: The Viral Fever

    ” A happy childhood is perhaps the most fortunate gift in life.”

    Dorothy Richardson

    Yet another week and another pick. This time we will be taking a trip down the memory lane when we were children. We all have our favorite childhood memories. For some, it might be a visit to our native places in the holiday season. For others, it might be a birthday party which might be the most memorable one. The list goes on from enjoying the new places we visited apart from our native place or maybe playing cricket all day long or maybe getting lost in the magical world of books or maybe watching our favorite cartoons. What was your best childhood memory? Do tell me in the comments section. I would love to listen to your thoughts.

    When we are children, this thought might have crossed everyone’s mind- wish we were adults. But when reality hits as adults we do feel we were better as kids. The reason being simple: childhood has less responsibilities to look forward. But as we grow up, the so called responsibilities increase. Isn’t it? We just sometimes wish to go back .The show which I am about to talk about chronicles what it was to be a child before the pre-Internet era. I personally feel the pre-Internet era was a time which has had the most awesome childhood memories related to it . If you have been born before the pre-Internet era in an Indian family, you will relate a lot with this show. Read on to know about the show which triggered a nostalgia in me.

    Synopsis: Yeh Meri Family is a story about an Indian middle class family. The story is told from the point of view of a 12 year old boy. Meet Harshal Gupta who lives with his parents, an elder sibling and a younger one. He is supposed to be the mischief maker of his house always getting fired by his mom for not being interested in studies. He has a best friend named Shanky from whom he always takes advice. He has a crush on a girl named Vidhya who is supposed to be a very studious girl. He encounters various situations and tribulations in his day to day life . How he deals with them and his family forms the rest of the story.

    Assessment: I might be a little biased here but believe me The Viral Fever always makes content which brings a lot of emotions in it. It will make you laugh, it will make you root for the main protagonist , it will make you feel sorry also a lot of times for the main character but most importantly it will make you feel a tad emotional at the end. This is what I personally experienced as I watched recently two shows from the same. They have the most beautiful story lines maybe not the most perfect but the emotions which they invoke in you is priceless. Plus they might give you something to think about and maybe a life lesson without sounding preachy. That is the most appealing part of the stories made by The Viral Fever. The negatives is they might contain some profanities but those also kind of integrate into the story line very easily. This show has the most beautiful memories of a kid who was born before the pre-Internet era.I, being one of them could relate to the memories that were shown in the web-series. Like for instance, the stack of comic books to be read during vacations or the famous Maruti Esteem car which has become next to extinct now but once was a symbol of prestige . Or having a stack of WWE cards if you were a boy or barbie dolls if you were a girl.Or watching cartoons like Duck Tales or Chip ‘n’ Dale.

    Many such memories which were simple yet made life meaningful before the Internet spoiled the beauty of the so called childhood. It also teaches lessons about love and care among siblings. The elder one might be the one who looks like and treats the second one like a bully most of the times but he is also the one who showers the maximum love when it is least unexpected. Or how the younger one shields the elder one if the elder one would have done something wrong. These lessons might seem small but are of great importance when it comes to family values. The dad was super cool and the mom was strict but a doting one . And the youngest sibling was such a cutie to look at .

    The only negative I found in this show was that in some scenes there were some profanities involved. But the best part was that before the beginning of any episode, there was a disclosure regarding what the episode consisted of. For example, if there were some profanities or something which might be a bit inappropriate to view it came with a disclosure that this episode contains this thing which requires viewers’ discretion. While most of the shows never take the efforts to make such disclosures, this effort or the step by The Viral Fever in this show shows responsible behavior. This effort I personally feel should be made a mandatory rule for every TV show or web series so that viewers can make better choices.

    The View: If you want to witness what life was before the Internet came to existence and children got hooked to online games or how an Indian family went with their day to day lives before mobile phones or online social life came into existence, then this one is a must watch. Watch for the beautiful story line and realistic portrayal of an Indian family.Watch for the inter-generational dynamic that was unique to that era. Watch for the life lessons it offers. This one I am sure will make you super nostalgic and help you revisit childhood memories which always occupy a special place in our hearts.

    Rating : **** stars

    Baap Dialogue: “Waise toh bade se iss universe mein humari yeh family bahut choti lagti hai lekin humare liye toh family hi humara universe hota hai.”[In this big universe of ours, our family is a very small part but for us our family feels like the entire universe.]

    Que: For what subject does Harshu’s mom insist Harshu should go to tuitions?

    a. Maths

    b. English

    c. Science

    d. Hindi

    The ideal family with a lot of memorable moments

     

     

     

    Continue reading →: A trip down the memory lane

Hello,

I’m Roshani

Welcome to The Expression Hub! I’m Roshani, who loves to express herself through the medium of writing. This blog is my little corner of the internet where I dive deep into the world of movies, books, and web series—reviewing, analyzing, and sometimes just ranting about the stories that make us laugh, cry, and question everything.

Beyond reviews, you’ll also find my personal musings—random thoughts, life reflections, and the occasional deep dive into the things that inspire me. Think of this as a space where art meets emotion, and where honest opinions matter more than star ratings.

Join me as we explore incredible stories together, one post at a time. Have a recommendation? Let’s talk—I’m always up for discovering something new!

Let’s connect

    Join the fun!

    Stay updated with my latest thoughts and ideas by joining me .

    Join the community
    Design a site like this with WordPress.com
    Get started