In the present day scenario of our ultra fast pace of living and uber cool modern lives we women are always hard pressed for time. We are always on the “GO” if you know what I mean!!! Secretly, we pride ourselves on being such great multi taskers and handling everything from cooking, listening to music, helping kids with their homework at one go with elan. Yes we are truly gifted by nature in this regard as we can actually accomplish a lot of tasks simultaneously with near perfection and hence save a lot of time. The problem is that at the end of the day we have accomplished “tasks” and run errands but forgot to “live” and enjoy the process of it.

I am not just talking of the working women here but the homemakers (I find the word housewife to be derogatory and ungrateful to the women who are doing much more than just being housewives..they are building homes) as well. Though its true that working women are more affected and constantly struggle to balance that pendulum of Work and domestic responsibilities hanging around their necks. A typical working day starts with boiling milk and putting tea/coffee for everyone in the family, preparing breakfast, packing tiffins for husband, kids and herself. Getting the kids out of bed and ready for school is another humongous task that awaits her. As it is getting oneself out of bed and getting ready for office is a big pain in the morning and to top it you have to get a wailing kid out of bed and bathe, dress, feed him and drop till the bus stop!!!Oh yes! The queens of multitasking would take care of making beds while giving instructions to the husband for getting the garbage out, would be packing bags for the kids while the veggies were cooking, would be checking important emails over her I phone while the milk was boiling and the list goes on. She would invariably have to pack her breakfast and eat it on the way to office while making a list of grocery shopping to be done. Ahh!!all this not just for a day or two but this was the peek in the life led by the working moms for six days of the week. Sunday also brings its own share of pending house work, laundry to be done etc etc..(that is a whole another topic and deserves to be posted on a separate blog).The same grinding schedule awaits her in office with meetings, seminars and projects lined up. Once back home she is tempted to lie down on the inviting cosy couch but she has to prepare dinner, look into the school work assigned in school to the kids, cleaning, ironing etc. Even if she has a maid she has to stand and supervise everything.

In this complete process of multitasking to get the work done we are heavily losing out on the small simple joys in life like that of watching your child play with water while bathing, cooking with love and enjoying the process instead of rushing through it, simply sitting and enjoying your morning cuppa of tea while watching the rain drops from your window, talking to your parents and actually concentrating on what they are saying, spending some quality time with your partner over a cup of coffee or meditating in the morning and visualizing how we want our lives to be. When was the last time you truly paid attention to what your child was saying about the latest cartoon he watched or did it actually register in your mind when your best friend was trying to tell you something over phone. Probably you must have been busy thinking on what you had to make for dinner.

I completely agree that its very difficult to manage work and domestic responsibilities together and multi tasking becomes the need of the hour. But then in the process of it we forget to live life and just continue to exist and survive. Life is a very beautiful gift of GOD and it should be enjoyed and cherished. So all the women out there do sneak out some time from your schedules to meet up with your best friend once in a while, spend an entire day with yourself (the most amazing person on this planet) doing things you enjoy doing the most, going out on a date with your husband and NOT talking about work or family or home, read bed time stories to your children, watch a movie together, take your mom/mom in law out for shopping and catch up for some female talks. It would add that extra zing to your mundane existence on this planet. Do sometimes try doing one thing at a time and completely concentrate and enjoy doing that. My cooking always turns out fabulous when I just concentrate on it and feel the feelings of love and affection for the person you are cooking for.