Balance the Imbalance

I always felt that a male perspective is often overlooked. Often, we don’t talk about situations that men go through where they gracefully try to strike the balance in delicate or tricky situations to maintain harmony in relationships.

One classic situation would be where men fall prey to choose a side between mother and wife. Blame it on the generation gap or cultural conflict which causes dispute and I feel pity when men are put to unravel these situations. Well, I feel that an empathetic perspective builds greater understanding which could possibly drive better solutions in such situations.

A friend of mine shared a situation about his friend and I found it very disturbing. A situation where a wife deliberately forced her husband to live separate from his parents due to privacy invasion. She also expressed reluctance to take care of his husband’s parents.

Let’s be mindful about one fact that parents pour unconditional love on their children. If they go the extra mile to take care of their children then why does reluctance start breeding in children when they have to take care of their parents especially when they need it the most while getting old.

This is so unfair, when a guy has to make a choice between his parents and wife. And maybe a better way to handle this situation would be if the wife puts herself into their parent’s place by building empathy towards them.

Well, I came across another situation where a guy’s family tried every possible way to manipulate him against his wife in order to break the marriage. They always made him choose them over his wife which was quite infuriating.

I know it’s harder for in-laws to accept a girl with always one thought in head if she’d blend into their family or not. But maybe if they visualize this situation with their own daughter that would help them build empathy towards the girl which will make the acceptance easy.

Remember, harmony in relationships comes through comprehension and comprehension builds intimacy. Intimacy brings balance in relationships. I hope you liked this post. Would love to hear your thoughts on this post in the comment section below. Until then keep smiling and stay happy.

GRWM for a Wedding

I wish you all a very happy new year. I hope 2022 brings an end to Covid battle that we all have been going through. With wedding season around the corner, I thought to create a look that will make you rock the wedding.

If you’re someone who want to keep the look modern and yet traditional then this outfit is perfect for you. I got this beautiful pastel green sharara set from a local boutique store in Ghatkopar. It comes with a sleeveless peplum top, flared sharara pants and a beautiful embroidered dupatta to pair with.

I wanted to draw more attention to the dupatta detailing hence I went for a sleek low bun look. To accessorize the outfit, I went for heavy earrings and some bangles to pair with.

So, this is how I styled my sharara for the wedding. I hope you liked the look. Let me know your thoughts about this wedding look in the comment section below. Until then be happy and keep smiling.

Outfit details

Sharara set         :              Local Boutique store

Earrings               :              Amazon

Choice of Responsibility

Choice of responsibility comes with comprehension which is directly proportional to the relationship value. Sadly, we live in a society where sometimes we are inflicted by gender-based roles. One classic example would be imposing men to be the only financial pillar of the family.

I can’t imagine the amount of stress men will have to go through if they face financial uncertainty or fail to fulfil the financial needs of the family. Hence in such cases, encouraging women to contribute financially in the family can be helpful as it will help us to create a financial backup for the family in crises.

Of all the jobs, I feel being a housewife is the toughest job as it is the only kind of job where you don’t get paid and you’re neither offered any leaves/week off.  Materialistically, it is the least motivating job.

I feel apprehensive to put this one but there are some men who are reluctant to do housework as they still believe in gender-based roles. So, in a situation where a housewife falls ill/sick, she simply can’t refuse to complete the job. So, how about if we train and encourage men to do housework to a certain extent that it becomes helpful in a situation where they can take care of women if they fall ill/sick.

Men doing housework or women taking care of financial needs is often perceived as building equality which is wrong, I feel. More than equality, it’s all about sharing responsibilities to reduce the burden on one person so that we become helpful to each other in difficult situations. This will also help us to understand the effort & hardships that a person goes through while completing responsibility which will eventually increase the bond and nourish the relationship. 

Would love to hear your thoughts on choice of responsibility and gender-based roles in the comment section below. Until then keep smiling and stay happy always.

Let’s lower unrealistic expectations

Often, they say that unrealistic expectations hurt because behind every expectation there’s an emotion attached to it. Imagine for some reason if they remain unfulfilled then it simply causes resentment. It might even create animosity towards the person and thus making your tender heart ache. So, do you think that it will be a wise choice to build a castle of unrealistic expectations in your mind? If yes, then you’re probably making things more chaotic in your head.

What are unrealistic expectations? To put this in simple words, unrealistic expectation is all about putting expectation on things/situations that we don’t have control.

Following examples describe unrealistic expectations:

• I expect that my partner will read my mind.
• I expect that I’ll have a perfect job and make great money.
• I expect that people will always speak highly about me.
• I expect that I’ll be the most responsible child for my parents.
• I expect people to help me financially in a crisis.
• I expect people to keep the promises they make with me.
• I expect people to be faithful towards me.

I’m sure some of you might relate to the above examples. Some of you definitely might be holding them too. If not, then you’ve probably learnt the art to control your emotions.

I came across a married couple who used to fight recklessly with each other. I don’t know how but somewhere this affected me and it created an illusion about marriage in my mind. Honestly, it can be easy for me to sit on the other side and judge this couple but who knows what all hardships they must be going through with each other.

Sometimes it’s all about perception. Probably a month ago, I was quite pessimistic about marriage until I started looking at the brighter side of it. This made me realize that although this couple fought with each other, they didn’t give up on their marriage. This shows that their bond was so strong and they valued their relationship.

On the contrary, I met a cute couple a few years ago. I guess they were in a relationship for maybe a decade and finally got hitched. I call them a power couple as they had a vibe to put a good influence of marriage on me. But this simply made me build an unrealistic expectation about having a perfect partner in my head. I don’t know for how long I was in darkness until a month ago I realized that I was trying to hurt myself with all some unrealistic expectations in my mind.

As rightly said by Gaur Gopal Das Ji, always remember that the journey of life will never be a smooth ride. Sometimes it will be low with potholes of sorrows and sometimes it will be high with full of happiness. Coz we all know that life isn’t always hunky-dory right?

I had this beautiful conversation with my friend where she taught me that life is all about making choices and happiness begins with you. You can either choose your mind to consume with negative thoughts or accept whatever life throws and keep finding ways to fix things by lowering unrealistic expectations.

I always wondered how my friendship grew strong with Krunal for more than 7 years. Of these 7 years, although we never met each other regularly but trust me we never complained about it. We understood each other and knew that we were busy in our lives and had some other priorities. Hence, whenever we met, we felt happy that we finally made time to meet each other with zero unrealistic expectations or blame game in head.

Just like Krunal, I have so many friends in my life who never complained for not meeting them often as they built a maturity to understand that I’m busy somewhere. That’s one way to lower your unrealistic expectations by building understanding towards the person rather than being disappointed and causing discomfort in your heart.

Nothing’s perfect in this world, be it people, family, friendship, job or life. So, building unrealistic expectations around all these is like setting boundaries for your happiness. It’s like sabotaging happiness by putting your energy onto something that’s not in your control. So why not, we train our mind to develop kindness by accepting imperfections with deeper understanding.

Would love to know how you try to lower your unrealistic expectations. I would be more than happy to know your thoughts on this blog post in the comment section below. Until then be happy and keep smiling.

That love-hate thing about gossip

Find me one person who has never done gossip in his/her life. I’m pretty sure we all gossip about people and things around us. But we are still shy to admit the fact that gossip isn’t our thing.

There’s this certain love-hate thing about gossips for many of us. Some people love doing gossip about others but they hate when others gossip about them. Such a hypocrite thought I would say.

Here’s a thing, people will hear X things about you but will say Y things about you. Does that affect you by any way? I mean how many ugly talking mouths will you try to silence? None, right. Because, you can’t control what people think about you. All you could do is change your perception about them.

I was once asked by a very young random person that, do you like people doing gossip about you? To which I politely replied, No, I don’t like people doing gossip about me and nobody does. But I don’t mind  either as I did the same for someone else too.

We don’t even think for a second before we pass a judgement about someone until the same is done to us. Been there and done that. I’m sure at some point, you might have done too.

I don’t say that gossip is bad or good. I have very neutral thoughts about gossip. All I would say is if you love doing gossip about others then you have no right to hate people doing gossip about you. It shouldn’t really matter to you at all.

What are your thoughts about gossip? Let me know in the comments section below. I would be more than happy to know your thoughts about gossip. Until then keep smiling and stay happy like I always say.

One step towards sustainable fashion

It’s good to be fashionable but it’s smarter to be sustainably fashion. With sustainable fashion, you’re making a right choice of garment as it comes with supreme quality and longer shelf life. Sustainable fashion has been a buzzword in fashion industry. Many fashion designers are being quite influential in putting efforts towards sustainable fashion to support our ecosystem.

Today we’re going to talk about the most renowned fashion designer and one of my personal favorite – Anita Dongre who curates the most quintessential pieces for her clothing line AND and Global Desi. Keeping sustainable fashion in mind, they are creating fabric which requires less water and generates less fabric waste thus making the fabric quite eco-friendly.  So, it’s totally worth in investing their pieces as it will last you for really long time. In this post, I’ll be sharing two easy casual brunch looks.

Look 1:

In this look, I’m wearing these printed white co-ordinates. It comes with a strappy top that has a cute knot and a mid-length skirt which gives a nice breezy look. I’ve styled this outfit with these beautiful handmade mirror earrings and added comfy flats to complete the look.

Look 2:

In this look, I’m wearing these printed off-white co-ordinates which has perfect indo-western vibe. It comes with a kurti that has knot at one shoulder and straight orange pants with minimal design to it. I’ve styled this outfit with ethnic danglers and kept the look minimum. I also added this beautiful printed cloth bag to completes the look.

What I loved more is that the fabric is super comfortable and looks elegant at the same time. The piece is itself so pretty that it makes effortless to style it. So this was my choice on sustainable fashion. If you loved this post then don’t miss to hit like and share your thoughts about sustainable fashion in the comment section below. Until then stay happy and keep smiling.

Makar Sankaranti Special ft. Aarsa

Before I begin with this post, I’d like to wish you a Happy Makar Sankranti. I have a huge heart for Maharashtrian culture and this post is very special to me as Aarsa sent me this pretty black Khun sari. It has got a beautiful zari border which gives that perfect traditional vibe. Also, the fabric of the sari is very soft and body hugging which makes draping easy and effortless.  Aarsa has a beautiful collection of sarees right from traditional silk sarees to those modern indigo print cotton sarees. I’d highly recommend you to check their collection as their quality is really good.

I styled this sari with a solid maroon red blouse which I got from the brand Vamas. For jewelry, I went with a pearl choker also called thushi and pearl jhumkas. I love how this traditional element of nath and chandrakor bindi is adding that perfect cultural vibe to the entire look. To keep that pearl vibe in mind , I also added pearl beaded anklets to this look.

So, this is how I dressed up for Makar Sankranti and I hope you liked this look. Let me know your thoughts about this look in the comment section below and hit like if you liked this post. Until then keep smiling and stay happy.

 Outfit details:

Sari         :               Aarsa

Blouse  :               Vamas

The Warm & Fashionable

Winter has to be my favorite weather for several reasons. Curling around that fuzzy blanket for long hours, sipping that aromatic hot chocolate and enjoying the weather on a warm bed has to be my favorite thing during winters. I’ve got so many reasons to love winter for sure. It’s all about ensuring to have enough warmth to survive those winter chills. Hence, I thought of creating a look which is all about being warm and fashionable for weather like Mumbai.

In this post I’m wearing an A-line dress which has got long sleeves to keep my hands warm and covered. To give it a more winter feel, I styled this outfit with baker boy cap and ankle length boots. Keeping the winter look in mind, I accessorized the outfit with dainty pieces and kept it minimal as I wanted to draw more attention to my winter fashion elements.

So, this was my winter look and I hope you liked this winter look. Let me know your thoughts about this look in the comment section below. Until then keep smiling and stay happy.

Outfit details:

Dress     :               Mango

Boots    :               Street Style Store

Draped with love and grace

Sari is one such beauty that I’d love to embrace. It drapes our bespoken culture and makes a woman look graceful. The way it defines our cultural values simply makes me proud of my heritage. Hence, I wanted to show my love towards sari through this post.

Our Moms have an incredible collection of saris and what’s more fun and better than stealing my mom’s sari from her closet. Keeping our traditional beliefs in mind, I went for a traditional look and this royal blue sari with golden border from Nalli Silk is just perfect. It just drapes nicely and cinches my waistline.

We all know that gajra and bindi are traditional elements that you’d never go wrong with. I went for bun hairstyle and accessorized this outfit with long hoop jhumka earings and some bangles to complete this look.

So, this is how styled a traditional sari look and I hope you liked this look. Let me know your thoughts about this look in the comment section below and hit like if you liked this post.

Outfit details:

Sari         :               Nalli Silk

Blouse  :               Vamas Designer blouse

Friday Formal

Friday is all about being fun and happy especially if it’s about hitting a party right after office. But with that, it gives you very less time to transform yourself into party outfit.  And you definitely don’t want to run late for the party, right?  Then, how about choosing an outfit which would abide office environment and yet maintain the sassy style quotient.

Basics to the rescue! Team any basic solid colored top with long formal pants and you’re good to go. I now realized how much worth it is investing in solids coz it gives you so much room to style it. So, I took my black top and paired it with classy long maroon red pants. Huge love for these pants as it has got the right amount of flare and a complete Friday vibe which will make you rock the party and let you flaunt some dance moves.

Accessorize minimum so that you don’t hit your neck with heavy chunky ones while showing your dance moves. Hence, I paired this outfit with dainty accessories.

I hope you liked this Friday Formal look. Let me know your thoughts about this look in the comments section below. Until then keep smiling and stay happy. I wish you a rocking Friday!

Outfit details:

Top        :               Zara

Pants     :               CoverStory

Location Courtesy:

Hybrid Theory Cafe & Bistro