Poem- Life is a Journey

It’s been more than 2 months since I have posted on my blog and buooyy, have I missed writing!

I hope you have missed my content as much as I have missed writing here. 😀

Life happens and sometimes one isn’t in the right frame of mind to sit down and blog or sometimes there just isn’t enough time.

I have taken multiple small such breaks from writing only to realize each time how much it means to me and how much I long to get back to it as soon as I can.

I would go on about this all day :D, but today I am just going to share a simple poem for all of you.

I have been traveling quite a bit for the last one year and it’s been so much of a learning experience that I can’t even put it into words.

Nevertheless, here’s a poem for all of you, inspired by all my travel and experiences. It does have a spiritual touch to it as well. Read & enjoy!

This Life, it’s a journey

It surely is moving at a great pace

We experience wonderful times

as well as unpleasant times

We meet some fantastic co-passengers

as well as some horrendous ones

on this excursion of life….

Some stay with us till the end of our journey

Some simply drift apart

and alight to tread a different path…

Throughout it all,

Life teaches us to be a witness

to all that’s happening to us

to all that’s bothering us

Melancholy comes when we forget

that our soujourn is going to end

We all are going to alight somewhere, someplace

from this journey of life….

Where are we going, you ponder?

We are on a expedition towards the unknown

towards the infinite truth

that permeates the universe

Journey towards the unseen

Journey towards the inevitable

Journey towards the unfathomable

Our journeys surely have different paths,

But they do merge into the arms of the Divine

Who walks our paths and holds our hands

Who gives strength during tough times

and gifts us with happy times

helping us traverse this voyage of life….

I hope you all are having an amazing time enjoying this journey of your life and if you aren’t, do take a moment to appreciate your life and of course keep reading my blog!

Catch you all soon on the next post,

Till then,

Dream. Imagine. Be Crazy. Be You.

Prema’s Journey…

Hey everybody! Today we have a very special person with us.

Meet Prema Malhotra.  Prema lives in the United States of America along with her family. She has two brothers.

She is just like everyone of us. A slight difference is- Prema was adopted when she was a child.

Prema has willingly agreed to open up to us & share bits of her life.

prema malhotra

Let me tell you, after Prema came to know that she was adopted, her thirst to search for her original parents started. She travelled from USA to India, in search of her roots. She came to know that she was relinquished by her birth mother two days after her birth.

The reason was that her natural mother was abandoned and left alone by her natural father.

Later on she was adopted by her current father & mother. 

Prema then started to feel that she really should meet her birth mother.

The struggle Prema went through to search for her birth mother is something one cannot explain. Did she then, meet her natural mother???

She has done extensive research, travelled, met people & prepared an entire study and written down the details of her journey in the Autoethnographic journey of Intercountry Adoption. Here is the link- http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/malhotra63.pdf

You can go through it and find out for yourself whether Prema met her birth mother or not…!

Prema was kind enough to answer the following questions:

Me: Tell us something about yourself. What do you do?

Prema: Currently I reside in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois USA. i reside with my (adoptive) parents. I graduated with my undergraduate degree in Justice Studies (formally known as criminal justice) with a minor in Social Work from Northeastern Illinois University. I am currently back to school to earn a certificate in Paralegal Studies. I also currently work with my dad in his accounting firm as an Executive Assistant.

Me: What are your future plans?

Prema: I would want to go into the legal field and work for a law office as a paralegal and I would also like to go back to India at some point for a period of time and do some volunteer work with children. 

Me: Of all the struggle you have gone through tell me any one very tough moment for you

Prema: I think one of my tough moments for me was when I started my birth search. This was incredibly tough because searching brought so many anxieties, fears, and was a very tough moment for me. However, having gone through the birth search process, it has helped me to become a stronger and more understanding person. One of the difficulties was trying to understand the Indian culture having been raised in USA and coming to terms with why I was relinquished. Thankfully through the support I had during the time, I have come to terms with why I was relinquished. Looking at the birth search process, the whole search process had a positive affect on me, because I had to go through all the feelings I went through in order to come to a point of understanding, forgiving, and living my life with deeper understanding and gratitude. 

prema malhotra

Me: Tell me any good or nice memory related to your parents.

Prema: I have so many nice memories with my (adoptive) parents. My good memory with my (adoptive) mom was when she went to India with me during my Root/Birth Search visit in December 2011. It was nice to be able to travel with her and go out shopping and enjoy my birth country. My good memory with my (adoptive) dad has been always celebrating our birthdays together as our birthdays are very close to each other. The best memory together with both of  them is when they saw me graduate with my undergraduate degree. They have seen me go through ups and downs even educationally with studying late hours in the night and always trying to do my best. For them to see me graduate was such a positive memory and to see their smiles and joy was something words cannot even begin to describe. I love both my parents very much and they have always supported me in my life journey. 

prema malhotra

Me: Any memorable monsoon incident related to India? (Since it is monsoon here, right now)

Prema: Though I have limited memories of monsoons in India, I remember when I traveled to India in 2006 with a group of adoptees and adoptive parents, I remember we were on the bus driving through India during the monsoon season. It was so much fun to be able to experience the monsoon rains as I never experienced this before. It was so awesome to see children play in the rain. 

One thing you love about India and one thing you don’t?

Prema: I absolutely love Indian food! My favorite vegetarian dish is Channa Bhatura and my favorite non vegetarian dish is Chicken Mukani. I don’t think there is anything that I dislike about India.

 I know India will always be my home, a place of where I was born, and a country that is deep in my heart.

MANASI JOSHI (ME)

*MY NOTE

I think it takes an enormous amount of courage to reveal what Prema has shared with us today. Prema’s courage and also her strength of character and coming to terms with reality is reflected in the way she calmly answered my questions. It shows that the struggle she went through only strengthened her from within.

Prema is an inspiration in her own way. Her parents too have done a great deal and their adopting Prema has made a huge difference to their and her life.

There are so many homeless children out there. Adopting a child can make some child’s future better. 

I am really thankful to Prema who became a part of this post and shared her journey with us. Being adopted is not something that you need to hide. It is  a matter or pride for both- the Parents and the Child. That’s the message Prema & her family give us.

Hats off to her & her parents.

Finding our way.

                                                             PART 1
When I decided to pursue physiotherapy as a profession, I had absolutely no idea of what lay ahead of me.
In the first year, I joined Vishwakarma Institute of Health Sciences and Research (VIHSR) which was a newly opened college branch by the well known VIT group of people.
Meeting new people, new teachers was a great feeling. We all soon got acquainted with each other.
The memorable time there was the anatomy laboratory dissections, where we saw and dissected the dead bodies and their parts with hesitancy at first and later with ease and fun. I still remember our lectures and practical sessions over there and were introduced to the medical field and just began to understand what ‘physiotherapy’ really was and saw a glimpse of the hospitals. It was just a beginning to a four and half year journey.
Then bad luck struck us. Our college decided to shut down, ( Reasons are too many to type here) We and our parents too, panicked! What to do, how to pursue further years in physiotherapy? which college? all these questions arose in our minds.By that time our first year results were out and we all had got exceptionally good marks. Our then Principal, made arrangements in M A Rangoonwalla college of physiotherapy for us to continue or study there for some days till we got official admission in a college. Same was the fate of our seniors.
Then within a month or so we all secured admissions as per university rules and were distributed in various physiotherapy colleges across Pune and outside too, according to our preference. A special mention to my friend Prachi who helped me get admission in her college- Deccan Education Society’s Brijlal Jindal College Of Physiotherapy (DESBJCOP) in the Fergusson College Campus. I thought  ‘FC’ wow!

Puja, Anupama, Sayali, Anood, Upasana, Akshaya, Sumit, Nirankush, Sharvari, hope you guys remember those days!
                                                      PART 2


I entered D.E.S college with a twinge of nervousness. New teachers, new classmates new atmosphere. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to adjust. Prachi was of great help in making me at ease over there and introducing me to others. Still, I used to miss my old college and friends. However, gradually this didn’t turn out to be a problem. Why? because there were bigger problems looming ahead! Academics and hospital postings of course! 
We used to rush about, attending 8 o’clock lectures in the morning, clinical postings in the hospital from 10 am to 1 pm and then again afternoon lectures (when we used to be too tired to listen to anything anyway) or sometimes practical sessions in the afternoon. Second and third year passed in a jiffy though third year was the toughest where we had upto 12 subjects to study. Time passed by. We were busy treating patients, learning new methods of treatment, new subjects. There were times when I turned up to college looking like a pale white ghost who hasn’t slept for ages. hahaha! I think we all had times like that.
Then we landed up in our final year. The feeling of being “the final year batch” took some time to sink in.
Today, we attended our final class of college. No more lectures hence forth. A sigh of relief!
Yes there definitely have been times, when me and my buddies have cribbed and complained that ‘yaar kitna load hai, how much more can we do?’ also there have been times when we all have said, ‘When do they give us time to breathe, let alone study?’ If I begin grumbling, the list would probably go on and on.. but hey wait a second! 


Why am I here then? why am I writing this? simply because I have loved those moments of joy which I have shared with you all. Those moments of laughter we all shared in between lectures, those times when we all have stood up united as a class, those moments when we shared our problems with each other, times when we got a ticking off together for something we shouldn’t have done, from eating in the hospital canteen to drinking chai at the tapri to the dances we performed on stage through the years!
 Those times when we understood what the other meant to say just by looking at that person. Those seminars and conferences we attended, those Sundays we all sacrificed for the seminars that fun we all had when we went out for lunch or dinner as a class and of course, how can I forget Goa!!! such memories, I will cherish them forever. 

Final Year Dance Performance

Haha! look at us! lol

                                                          
PART 3

Yes there will always be our respective ‘groups’ or always be people who are more close to us than the rest of the class. But somewhere, we all have gone through good, bad, tough, easy, painful and not so painful days. Going through all of that has bonded us somewhere and made us grow as individuals and also together as a class.
Yes I know that 6 months of internship await us. But being a ‘student’ and an ‘intern’ are two different things.
We are bidding adieu to our student days today. Our journey is nearing an end and we are close to reaching a destination.
But isn’t the journey much more precious than the destination itself? Everyone whom we met through the years taught us something.
Well none of us are perfect. But the imperfect things we did, make perfect memories.
The joy of nearing the destination can never be complete without a wonderful journey.


Before I start thanking anyone else, I would like to thank all those patients whom I have treated. Especially those who made it a point to tell me that I treat them very well. Without our patients, what would we be? 


I feel grateful to God that I am in a field where I have the ability to make someone’s life better and change it for the good!


A huge thanks to my classmates but first I must thank 3 special people. Isha, Prachi and Snehal, you have been tremendously awesome friends who have stood by me through thick and thin.
A special thanks to:
Humaira, Tasneem, Sayalee, Krutika, Mukta, Apoorva, Shruti, Aishwarya, Siddhi, Swara, Ashwini, Urmi, Nikita, Zahara, Janaki, Pallavi, Trimbak, Namrata, Aboli, Kedar, Chinmay, Mukul, Devaki, Vandita.


If I have missed mentioning anyone please tell! 
This post is dedicated to our class. 3 cheers for us!!!!!!


I write this post with mixed emotions. Its been a tough ride upto where I have reached today. Yet somewhere the memories touch my heart and make me happy.


Have we found our way yet? Have we found what we will do, where will we go as yet? No
Only time will tell.
All I can say is that there is a content smile on my face as I end this post. 🙂

Our class!