Where in the world do you live? And, are you from there?

I now live in Chennai,India. I am from a smaller town, around 350 miles from here. I lived in the same house and even had the same room for twenty-five years of my life.

I did my entire schooling, college education and even post-graduate education there. After getting married, I settled down here in Chennai with my physician husband and son.

I have never moved much in my life, have strong roots and hopefully don’t intend to move out of this home anytime soon.

What language(s) do you speak?

I speak English, Hindi (India’s National language) and Tamil (my mother tongue). I read and writer the same three languages. I am not great at picking up languages, rather I should say, the necessity has never been there.

When did you first become a mother?

I became a mother at almost 25 years old.

Are you a stay-at-home mom or do you work?

I worked for six years in the field of car electronics. I quit a few months ago to be a full-time stay-at-home mother. When I am not running behind my rambunctious little one, I can be found working on my novel, rambling at my blog or reading a book.

What about home making, did you ask? My home is always a home, not a tidy museum, is my favorite rejoinder to my husband 🙂

Why do you blog/write?

I find peace in writing. I enjoy writing about my experiences. I don’t blog just about my parental journey, I write about everything related to myself, things I am influenced with, my poetry, my disasters in the kitchen and generally about every nuance of my life where I find peace with this tangible world. Once I wrote in my personal blog about why I blog. All those and for more reasons I love writing.

And some day I aspire to be a novelist. So, I imagine blogging helps me perfect my skills as a writer.

How would you say that you are different from other mothers?

Like Fire Crystals said, I really don’t think any mother is different from any other mother. Each mother deep down wants the best for her child and needs her child to be healthy, happy and wise. All around the globe, we have our differences, various habits (influenced by region, nation and culture), diverse ways of bringing up our little ones, choosing different education systems, different healthy lifestyles and foods. But behind all this, one common thought and feeling of doing the best for our child stands out and our love for the little one shines out.

I think, the love and power of motherhood unites us all and we mothers end up being more alike than different.

What do you view as the challenges of raising a child in today’s world?

It is a sorry state of affairs that in today’s world, parenting is dealt with as a job, as a topic of discussion, as a separate thing and an extension of our existence. Half a century ago, one would not associate the word ‘challenge’ with parenting. Perhaps, that is because today we have these loads of expectations from our children that we write down our checklist of challenges, and then tick them off and tend to tip-toe around them and thus think we have ended up with the best parenting process to churn out a ‘successful’ child.

I think today this world is driven by success mantras, rather it thinks it needs to be driven that way. A child needs to understand that the material life of existence should be based on an education which fosters the child to be ethical, moral and spiritual. Being successful is important, but equally essential are contentment and happiness. A child needs to be a well-rounded and balanced person adding quality and values to life.

He needs to have the strength to face the world in all its strife; and also to be cautious and avoid internal strife, to be a strong and tough individual, but at the same time, to be a gentle-natured, kind, peace-loving and peace spreading person.

All that seems to be such a tall order!!! Following my heart and trusting myself as a good parent, perhaps does not make it as challenging as it appears to be.

Oh, did I make sense? Its past midnight and a school day tomorrow and I have zonked out twice on the keyboard. Yet another point to add to that ‘parental challenges checklist’, – “Don’t blog after midnight on a weekday” 😉

How did you find World Moms Blog?

Through Margie B 🙂 Thanks Margie! It is awesome out here. I love you all.

What do you like best about writing for World Moms Blog?

I have met so many wonderful and strong women here. I love the fact that all of us want to know more about each other and be a strong community of mothers, helping each other out. I get an opportunity to read about different cultures and different parenting styles. This place shows that among all our differences in the world, people still are united in affairs which matter the most (like parenting).

Oh, on a lighter vein, I imagine this to be a secret sisterhood though there is nothing clandestine about it 🙂

Do you have any questions for The Alchemist? 

I am all answers today 😉 Go ahead, ask anything!!!

This is an original post for World Moms Blog from the Alchemist of India. She can be found writing at her blog, The Alchemist’s Blog and dishing out Indian culinary expertise at AwesomeCuisine

Photo Credit to my beloved husband.

Purnima Ramakrishnan

Purnima Ramakrishnan is an UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her International reports from Brazil are found here . She is also the recipient of the BlogHer '13 International Activist Scholarship Award . She is a Senior Editor at World Moms Blog who writes passionately about social and other causes in India. Her parental journey is documented both here at World Moms Blog and also at her personal Blog, The Alchemist's Blog. She can be reached through this page . She also contributes to Huffington Post . Purnima was once a tech-savvy gal who lived in the corporate world of sleek vehicles and their electronics. She has a Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, but after working for 6 years as a Design Engineer, she decided to quit it all to become a Stay-At-Home-Mom to be with her son!   This smart mom was born and raised in India, and she has moved to live in coastal India with her husband, who is a physician, and her son who is in primary grade school.   She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation.

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