Stylish Spaces

 This year I turn fifty in October. Sixteenth October to be precise. Needless to say getting to half a century is a big milestone in anyone's life. Most approach it with a mix of trepidation and doom. Trepidation of the things to come or lack of and doom of declining physical and mental faculties. The sage of the world approach fifty as a powerhouse of wisdom and a license to wag their fingers and shake their heads at numerically lesser aged mortals pointing out the folly of their ways. And then they are those who go into panic mode; the famously atoned ‘midlife crisis’. They throw their family life and everything they have slowly and steadily built to the wind and abandon themselves to revisiting the follies of youth.  Being a classic sun sign Libra, I weighed the pros and cons of letting myself feel one way or another as I foray gradually towards my fiftieth birthday. After all I have the time-luxury of ten months and fifteen days to make that decision and I want to ge...

My youngest turns sixteen today.  Old enough to fill my heart with a slight pang that the day is fast approaching when she too will be looking at University brochures ready to fly the nest like her older siblings and I will have to deal with an empty nest syndrome, but still young enough to enjoy her delightful company; because a delight she definitely is. And I am not saying this with a mother’s bias because I have never been an overly gushy kinda mom. As much as I adore my children, I view them objectively as individuals; ie beautifully written but still having typos in their character-script! And what delights me about my youngest is her genuine warmth which she exudes wherever she goes. She is the kind of person who in a room full of strangers will come out bearing many friends. She is instinctively sensitive to the needs and wants of others and shows care in little unexpected ways that touches your heart. She is the one who leaves handwritten notes and bunch of flow...

There comes times in every women’s life; through charmed providence or cruel necessity; when she feels inclined either to start a new story in her life or end an existing one. This beginning and ending of stories,  however holds very little significance for men, because their entire lives, more or less, are played out in the same story with changing chapters causing ripples in their otherwise calm sea of existence. Most men set their course of life early on for their entire journey and even if they suffer tiny upheavals, it's nothing that cannot be addressed or ironed out in the next couple of chapters unfolding in their life stories. But why so many stories in a women's life? Because the emotional demands made on her are deeper and she herself changes with every major or minor change in her life. Every time she is in a relationship or gets married, or gives birth or gets divorced or cares for her aging parents, she switches into a new role and has to cultivate new sensib...