Tag: Well being

My thoughts, Parenting, Personal, Well being

Unschooling Diaries #12 :- Clashing Dates, Evening Cycle Rides, and Apartment Cats…

Pihu

This has been such a great week, with many ups and downs and twists and turns.

At the start of the week, I had submitted my form for an Ameutur Boxing Championship to be held in Banglore. It was an inter-club tournament and I was so excited, it was going to be a lot of fun. But, here is the plot twist, the boxing tournament was to be held on 1-2 October, but it got postponed to 8-9 October, and I have the State Women Open Chess Championship on those days😔.  I definitely cannot miss it because I already missed the U15 girls one. However, it was fun preparing for the boxing tournament. It has given me motivation to work harder for the next one👍.

Meanwhile I would like to state some things which made me really happy this week. 

  1. Coming home by my cycle in the evening after boxing class


It is a wonderful feeling to return home by cycle in the evening. The air will be blowing in my face, and the weather will be nice and cool. We all agree that two wheelers in the evening is just a different mood. Yes, that time there is a lot of traffic, pollution, and the roads are not good, but sometimes when I get to see a sunset followed by beautiful twilight, I forget all about the rest.

  1. The confidence and fitness boxing has given me

I am so happy and really grateful to my parents for making me join this boxing class. Because it has given me a level of fitness I never had before, and that makes me feel nice and confident.

  1. Feeding my apartment cats

I am glad, my parents don’t keep my schedule very packed and I have time to do a lot of other stuff. Like feeding the cats near my apartment. 

  1. The confidence I have to talk to people now

This week I just noticed how confident I have now become to talk to people. Before (pre-covid) I had literally had no idea how to, if some guest had come or we had gone out, I would just become speechless ( in a literal way). But now when I go to people’s houses I can talk nicely, I can entertain the guests whenever they come. In fact I am hosting a chess meetup at my place tomorrow, and I feel so proud that I have the confidence to host the entire thing on my own now.

This is the second one, we had hosted one more last week also. Don’t forget to tune in to find out what happens tomorrow. 

Please send me a few things that made you too  happy this week, I would love to hear them. 

Chess, My thoughts, Personal

Unschooling Diaries #11 : Today was a Great Day!

Pihu

Today was a great day. From many days I was struggling to find people to practise chess with. But today we connected with over 30+ plus people who live near my house and are ready to meetup to play chess! So how did this miracle happen? How we go from 0 people from months to suddenly 3 dozen people. 

So we can say one thing led to another. Last week I had gone to a chess tournament, over there we met someone and told him about our problem. So. he added us to a WhatsApp Group where all the chess parents of Bengaluru are there. He said us to post regarding our problem over there and we will probably find someone. So over one week had gone we didn’t post anything, but today we finally decided to start the conversation. All we suggested was are chess players living around Koramangala interested to meetup and play few games. That is it and under one hour the whole group was on fire! Everybody was responding. By afternoon there were 6 different groups for 6 different areas and over 100+ people in total.

Apparently everybody was facing this issue of offline playing practise. We ourselves were struggling from such a long time. And it took just a 2 simple steps to resolve it. The saying is true ” The best solutions are often simple yet unexpected.” Look around you, is there anything you are struggling with right now? Maybe talking to your neighbor, friend, or somebody will help. This is one thing I have learnt in life, and is now firmly engraved in my mind with what happened today. Talking to people always helps.

Chess, My thoughts, Parenting, Personal

My First Sparring Round

Pihu

Swami Vivekananda once said, “You will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of the Gita.”

My coach told me, when I joined him, that when he sees someone’s chess games: he gets to know the exact personality of the person. I didn’t understand him then until I saw it for myself. When a person plays any sport: Boxing, Chess, or Football, his/her personality, fears and nature is laid out like a blueprint. 

And that is one of the most beautiful things about sports: you can’t hide. Your fears and inner demons will come out and you have to face them. Isn’t it a great tool for self-betterment and analysis? To me, it is surely the next best thing to meditation!

Personal, Uncategorized

Just a Small Observation

Pihu

I wanted to post this article yesterday but I had some stuff to do and by the time I finished it, it was already 23:35.  So, anyways I will post it today. 

As you know from my previous article, I recently repotted my plant, which inspired me to take on the bigger task of starting a small vegetable garden. As I was looking for some good sunshine-receiving spots, I realized unlike before there were very few. Since we live in a flat and there is another flat attached to our east side, all the balconies are naturally west facing. Before I think in the rainy season we used to get plenty of sunlight between 13:00 upto 17:00 in all the three balconies, it was the best time for my plants. Then came winter which was the worst time for them, almost 5 died due to lack of sunlight, everyday there was just a gray, gloomy bunch of clouds hanging over the city. Sometimes when the sun used to shine though, It had slightly changed its angle and we didn’t receive as much light in the main balcony as before. In summer it has changed even more:- we have stopped getting any sunlight on all the three balconies, just a little spot in one balcony for 1-2 hours. 

Such a subtle thing I never noticed before. The sun had just changed its route in the sky a bit we can say. If you think about it, it has absolutely no effect on our daily lives, on our work, or on our routine. I don’t think so, I would have noticed it at all, if I hadn’t taken my plants more seriously. 

This is one of the many advantages of gardening. We inevitably get more in contact and knowledge about our environment. Which is actually very critical. 

So tell me if you are an avid gardener, what have you learned from it? And if you are not, do you plan to become one soon, I definitely do! 

Personal

Repotting My Plant

Pihu

My creeper was growing really well, So I decided it was time for it to move into a bigger pot. Now I must mention I had done nothing like this before, though I had a little bit of an idea because the guy in the nursery had tried to teach me how. So, I knew a few basic stuff. 

First I started off by choosing a pot, but the soil in it had gone completely dry and hard. So, I poured water when that didn’t work I turned it around and poured water from the bottom. Finally the soil came out and I transported it to yet another pot. Now, I separated the soft mud and the dry mud(which I kept for later use. After filling the pot about 3/4ths I mixed in a little compost. Then finally I added the Cocopeat, now we are all go for the final step. Miraculously and with great difficulty I managed to shift the plant in one piece. And this is the Final result.

please tell me how it is looking. 

One reason that I wrote about this was because after many days I broke the routine and tried something new. And it made me feel really happy and satisfied. As my favorite saying goes:- “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” My answer as of 1 month before would have been “ I don’t remember!”, what is your answer? Please tell me in the comment section below. See you there!