Surviving Empty Nest

In my far and wide travels, I have stayed at many types of hotels – luxury to just converted old bungalows. Each stay was an experience. The hotels were usually rooms with the stated amenities. No big deal and usually were not meant for longer stay in the room. If you are on business trip, a hotel room is only for your to sleep the night and if you are on leisure trip, it is merely for showering and sleeping before more activities the next day. I have also stayed in converted bungalows where the ambience was more family-like. Be it in Kuching, Malaysia or Ayodhia, Thailand or Rangoon City, Myanmar – the feeling was the same. It did not make one feel alienated, or totally cut off from the rest of the world as one would feel in a hotel room. Then came along the new wave of accommodations – the AirBnB. People around the world were willing to let strangers into their homes – be it into designated rooms or apartments/houses that they owned. So far I have stayed in more than half...

Well, folks, 2020 is arriving soon. It is time we all live our lives. Living means enjoying life as it comes and one necessity is money. With the Internet of Things taking over our lives, let us start looking at ways to make money, even while having a full-time job. I have compiled a list here (not exhaustive), see what works and if you have more ideas, do share for the benefit of others: 1.     Set up online courses – people these days prefer constructivism. That means, they like to learn on their own at their pace. Most of us learn from YouTube – yes, I get my recipes from them. Sometimes, we need quick fixes like how to set up a formula in Excel, so YouTube is the best place to look at. Of course, some of us still use search engines like Google, then again there are people who would like to learn a full course. Sites like Udemy, TakeLessons can be a good start but my suggestion is to browse these sites first before setting up anything online. Alternatively,...

Now that the thanking part is over for 2019, let me start planning for 2020. So, here’s my new year resolution: 1.     Money, money, money – yes, my first resolution is to make money work for me. Well, either I land a job with a larger package or I find another source of income or I manage my money better so that I could pay all my bills and have enough at hand to make through the month; with some indulgences of course. It is not that I am earning lesser now, however, over the years debt had mounted as I put my second one through her school education – international school – and that made a huge dent on my finances. How and why she ended up at such a school is another long story, however, it is all worth it seeing her mature into a responsible individual. I am coming out of the woods, slowly but it may take longer without more money at hand. Plus, some heavy weight expenses are expected in the coming months, so, it is time to start thinking, job hunti...

A week to go before the year ends – and yes, I have been silent for some time now. The Qatar project has taken off, progress is good though could be challenging at times given that internal and external experts are working on it. A trip to Doha made me busier than usual and that didn’t help to find the time to continue blogging though I was sure that I could blog from there but alas! So, here we are; almost at the end of 2019. I would like to reflect on the past months and thank a host of people and persons who made huge difference in my life. I would like to begin with my past employers – Manipal Global Education Services, with whom I worked for 4.5 years. Those were wonderful years; it was my Bosses at Manipal who saved my life when I was diagnosed with cancer and for that I would always be grateful, however, I wish I was treated better while I was there. It seems like there was a bias against me as I was a woman/single mother. Maybe they don’t feel that way, as that could be v...

This is the second part to my earlier post on the Gaza Dream. My work note book has a saying on the cover - What the Mind Can Conceive, It Can Achieve - Napolean Hill. Yes, I believe that. My life has been such, till today. Whatever I desire to achieve, I set it up in my mind first. I am not sure who said it but it seems if something is etched in the mind, chances are your journey would be towards that destination, none other. Apparently, this is the power of the mind.  We all remember how Japan rose out of the WWII, post atomic bomb devastation in Hisroshima and Nagasaki to become an economic force in the world. The determination and of course the value system made them one of the most resilient races/country in the world. Because it all starts in the mind. Today, again, I write about the potentials of Gaza. A narrow strip which is still being bombed by Israelis. Shame on them, but the Jews are the Jews. Guess they do not know the meaning of shame or humanity.  But can...

No woman would like to be a single mother unless she has been badly hurt emotionally, treated extremely badly in a marriage, actually physically abused, forced to choose singlehood due to some unavoidable circumstances or just can’t live with the spouse who may be taking a free ride on her. Yes, some marriages just die with time. But at times people hold on to loveless marriages due to financial constraints, social stigma and/or children. My advice? None of the above reasons are valid to hold on to something that not only does not make you happy but also add to your stress in life. Sometimes, we just have to let go, to be peaceful.   That was what I did. I let go of the toxin in my life. But I was not very well prepared to undergo life as single mother; the alertness and intelligence that I had in ending the marriage was not there in planning single motherhood. So, here I share some ideas on how your journey can be smoother as you embark on being a single mother or single ...

My Palestinian friends started posting their faces half covered with their palms, on Insta. I asked Raed why and he shared a photo of a journalist who lost his left eye, assaulted by the Israeli army, in the ongoing Israeli oppression in Gaza. Israeli killing innocent people is like watching the sun rise everyday. They do it without any remorse or conscience. They do it like how we do our daily chores. They just kill. They taunt the Palestinians in Gaza and West bank. They bomb Arabs in Syria. They do it freely because no one actually questions them. They do it because even the United States rallies behind them. They call others `savages' because to them anyone who is not from their faith are not human beings.  Who are these Israelis? I actually did research online to see who Israelis are. Where did they get their mindset to kill at will? There is one commentary online which says Israeli nation is a fiction. Probably, because they exist only because of the Holy Land th...