May 7, 202013 min read

I have found my happy place...have you?

Updated: Oct 21, 2021

What comes to your head when you think about ‘motherhood’? Well, to start with, it’s a roller coaster ride. I couldn’t agree more that it is a 24-hour job that goes on for 365 days in a year. The worrying, stress, and anxiety that we women go through have no comparison. But all of it gets compensated when we get a hug from our little ones. It’s the biggest stress buster. At times a mother need a hug more than her kids do.

I can go on and on about motherhood because it is never-ending. Every mother has a different story to share.

I really appreciate that you have read this far, but the best part is yet to come. There are so many mothers out there who give up everything for their little ones. They have no choice but to put a halt to their career. They stop socialising, they stop going out as much as they used to. A huge gang of friends eventually turns into merely one or two who stand by you. Yes, it’s hard. I’ve been there and done that and it made me hit rock bottom. I needed to find the purpose of life. I mean am I supposed to only look after my baby and the house forever? I’m completely thrown out of the picture.

That’s when it hit me. I need to start something of my own. So I started my own blog - Live a Little Love a Lot everything has been going great! I’ve found my happy place. But enough about me. I’m here to open your eyes.

I have handpicked three mothers who changed their world from sad and dull to happy and exciting. I found their stories to be so inspiring that I thought to myself, ‘everyone needs to know their story, every mother needs to know that they aren’t alone. Every mother needs to know that the sky's the limit and that the best days are yet to come.

So here goes...

MOMMY NUMBER 1 - Suchismita Swain

Suchismita was beaming with joy when her husband got back from work. She welcomed him with a big hug and told him, “Honey, we’ve made it to 300!”

Samir couldn’t believe his ears. He was so happy for his wife. She worked so hard to get this far. That night she was restless and could hardly get any shut-eye. She was mentally preparing for her next class. As she closed her eyes she went down memory lane as to how it all started.

Sushimita has been married to Samir for about six and a half years. They both met in maths tuition class in the 11th standard. They both were the best of friends, passionate lovers, and brawled over petty issues but have faced the hardships together. Suchismita worked as an executive at Indian Market Research but life changed when she did her first dance performance on stage. The audience loved it. A handful of people actually walked up to her after the show and asked if she took dance classes. But she didn’t give it much thought afterward. As time went by her job became more hectic. Long hours and piles of file work. She was getting fed up.

“Why don’t you start teaching kids how to dance?” asked Samir over breakfast.

Suchismita was taken back. She had never really thought about teaching dance although it had always been her passion since she was a little girl.

After putting both their minds together, they finally got the ball rolling and started dance classes. Initially, she started off with only two students. She somehow juggled her job and dance classes for a year. Soon enough she conceived. She gave up her job and danced through her pregnancy. From two students they eventually jumped to twelve students.

Soon, the couple was blessed with a beautiful baby boy. The tables had turned. Life was no more carefree and relaxed. After having a baby, it became a roller coaster ride. Every day there was a new challenge for her. But somehow her son pulled her through with his nautanki. She gave up dance classes like any mother would do for the betterment of her family. For a year and a half, her life revolved around her baby.

One evening after finishing off all her chores she sat down and had a chat with Samir. “What's on your mind? You seem preoccupied,” asked Samir.

“This might sound bizarre to you, but I’ve lost myself, I don’t know who I am anymore,” said Suchismita as she held his hand. She wanted him to understand to feel what she was going through.

“What do you want to do?” inquired Samir.

“I need to dance,” she said with a smile of assurance plastered on her face.

“Let’s restart the dance academy with a different approach?” asked Samir.

“Yes! I absolutely agree! You see, we live in a good society that has about 3500 people living here. I thought why not start a proper dance academy. Although you would need to help me get the word across,” she said.

“Sounds like a great idea., I’m so excited for you,” he said as he gave a tight hug.

“You’re going to do great,” he added and kissed her on her forehead.

After some time everything slowly started to fall into place. Suchismita started off with only 5 or 6 students. And the response was fantastic. The dance academy was one of the best decisions she had made. Today she has over 300 students in her academy. Suchismita is on cloud 9. She felt herself again. She found something that made her happy and gave her some purpose in life. No doubt it was hard work, but for her ‘creating and learning something new is always fun and challenging.’

You can see a few of her videos shared below,

MOMMY NUMBER 2 - Anuradha Sharma.

One morning, Anuradha woke up earlier than usual. She had dark circles around her eyes and was sleep deprived. She started off her day with the usual everyday routine. Her husband, Anil got out of bed and went to look for her as she wasn’t in the bedroom.

Anuradha was standing on the balcony. She was looking at the sky as it slowly changed color as the sun rose. The birds were chirping and she felt a cool breeze run through her hair. but she felt dead inside. Anil put his hands on her shoulder and said, “Morning!”

Anuradha could hold back any longer. She buried her head in his chest and burst into tears and said, “I don’t know what to do, I’m fed up!”

Anuradha moved to Delhi from a small town in UP with huge dreams and aspirations. She finished her degree in textile designing and kicked off her career at the age of 20. Her first job was related to saree designing but then she made a switch to home textile exports.

She met the love of her life, Anil. He used to work in the same industry as Anuradha. It was love at first sight and five months later they got hitched. She changed her job, two months after getting married and started working in a buying office in Chattarpur. It was a job she had always dreamed of. Excellent working environment, pick -up and drop facility, amazing perks, and the best part was it had fixed working hours. Which made it perfect for her to manage her role as a daughter in law plus she had to live up to the expectations of her new lady boss. During the interview, her boss told her not to plan a baby anytime soon but on the other hand, MIL suggested, “why don't you start a family?” Anuradha blindly followed her golden words and got pregnant. Her first six months flew by, but as the seventh month kicked in the complications started and she was advised to take full bed rest but she somehow managed and pulled through.

Anuradha was happy that her pregnancy was over. But she didn’t know she was going to face another huge challenge. Anuradha gave birth to a baby boy. He weighed 860 grams and was kept in an incubator for 50 days. He was 1.2 kgs when the doctor finally gave her the approval that you can take your baby home. But after three months her son had to undergo surgery for a hernia. Anuradha somehow found the strength in her and pulled through. The whole year went by as Anuradha did nothing but attend to her son to make him strong. But life slowly started to get better. She got a new job offer from a company. But back in the day computers had just been introduced. She underwent training for 15 days but she was keen to learn and grow.

Unfortunately, she hit rock bottom again. Her in-laws had got food poisoning and were admitted to the hospital for treatment. After the discharge MIL was not in a position to look after her grandson. She requested leave from the office, but they denied and she was left with no other option but to resign but for her family always came first.

Two years later, her career life went up the hill and down the hill. There was always something that stopped her from growing. But Anuradha’s mind was clear. No matter how much she loved working, she obviously loved her family more than anything.

One morning over a cup of tea, Anuradha told her husband, “Anil, I’ve always wanted to have two kids. I think now is the right time. Let’s get pregnant,”

Anil smiled at her and gave her a tight hug and said, “Are you sure you want to have another baby, the last phase of our first pregnancy was very hard on you.”

“Yes! I’m sure. Let’s do this!”

Soon enough, Anuradha gave birth to a baby girl. She turned out to be a handful. She was just the opposite of her son. After two years, she put her daughter in preschool. The little one would follow her elder brother everywhere he went. This gave her some time to herself. She thought, ‘let’s kick start my career again,’ and she started her own business in human resources. She grabbed it. It went great for about a year. She understood all the loopholes and everything turned out as expected. But she got a better opportunity from her husband’s colleague in the UK. She was told to manage the business in India and she made a switch again. The money was good but the only hiccup was she always dealt with the textile business. And this was the garment business. She had to start everything from scratch.

Every night after putting the kids to sleep, Anil and Anuradha would sit together and he would give her training sessions. The business flourished but she could not handle it all by herself. Anil left his job and joined and they formed a team. Anil supported his wife tremendously. He not only taught her but also gave her the freedom to work. The next six years were the best years of her life. But it all ended due to the global recession in 2010. They had to shut down. Anil found himself another job, but Anuradha hit rock bottom.

“Don’t cry Anuradha, everything is going to be alright,” he hugged her and wiped her tears away.

“It’s been almost two years since the recession. I’m still stuck,” she said.

But every cloud has a silver lining and it was not long before Anuradha found herself another job opportunity. The job was related to sourcing in a hyper chain market. The company wanted her to outsource kurtas from Jaipur. But as the orders increased she needed the money to source the product. She went to her husband, her bank, her backup.

Anil was happy, as long as Anuradha was happy. He did everything to support her and it worked. Over a period of time, the store gave her the opportunity to start her own label, and another creative child ‘Kyrie” was born.

Anuradha faced a lot of challenges during this phase, the company never gave their payments on time. She was always kept on hold. But she fought back and over a long period of time she finally got her money back and continued to expand.

She took care of the supplying and manufacturing and her products sold off the shelves really quickly. She started her supply to 16 stores all over India. Life was good but again it didn’t last very long thanks to demonetization. The company handed back all her stuff. She had no other option but to shut down. Anuradha was drained and decided to give her career a break.

She started enjoying her time at home. The kids had her all to themselves. But after two years or so she needed to find something to give her some peace of mind. It was about time she found her happy place.

One evening she went to her friend’s place. They both lived in the same colony. Anuradha saw that her friend and her son were busy working on a project and she decided to help. She made the whole process look as easy as pie. She was very good at art and craft. Her friend suggested, “Why don't you do something related to art and craft?”

After a lot of thought, she decided to open an activity center for kids. Her husband took the initiative and built a huge room on the roof. On 5th March 2018, she opened ‘Crafting Joy’s.’ She started off with art and craft and already had four kids enrolled. As time went by, the number of activities increased and along with the number of students. She added activities like guitar, keyboard, English vocal, dance and I’m sure a lot more shall be added on. The kids just love her class and spending time with her. Anuradha is one of the most loving and kind-hearted people she just blends in so well with the kids.

As of now, her kids are 21 and 17. All grown up busy in their own world. Anuradha is 46 years old and she is happy she has created her own world, she has also started her own craft items from upselling and recycling goods. She wants to be a busy old lady. She doesn’t want to sulk and wait for her kids to come home. Anuradha’s dream is to fly high and set her little birdies free!

One early morning, Anil found Anuradha sipping a hot cup of coffee on the balcony as she admired the beautiful sky and listened to the birds chirping. A cool breeze went through her hair. Anil walked up to her and said, “Morning! Where are you lost?”

“In my happy place,” she said and gave him a tight hug.

If you want to follow Anuradha’s creative side you find her @now.its.beautiful

You can also follow her page of crafting joy's on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/craftingjoys/

MOMMY NUMBER 3 - MAHIMA AGARWAL

Mahima took one last look at herself in the tall mirror in her dressing room. She was wearing a beautiful black saree and looked drop-dead gorgeous. She was all set to attend her cousin’s wedding reception. Mahima always had to always look prim and proper.

As she arrived at the venue she glanced the hall in search of some familiar faces. Seconds later she walked up to her gang. They all hugged as they met each other. She then walked up to her cousin- sister, Karuna who introduced her to Ankur. Mahima fell for him as they both started talking. She found his chivalry overwhelming. That how their friendship began. They stood by each other through thick and thin and after 8 years they tied the knot together.

Mahima was a scientist. She worked at the National Institute of Immunology as a Junior Research Fellow. After some time she switched jobs and worked at the same post at the South Asian University as she didn’t like the work culture in her previous job. She loved her new job. Everything was going great. She was learning new things and each day at work was an exciting challenge. But after a couple of months, she conceived. She had to leave her job as it dealt with chemicals in the lab which could have been dangerous and not to mention the long working hours and traveling. Unfortunately, Mahima was left with no other option.

During her pregnancy, she hated the idea of sitting idle. She needed to find something to do. Her husband, Ankur was an entrepreneur, and apart from the manufacturing business, he was keen to explore IT related projects. They both put their minds together and created a fashion app called, ‘Modstreet.’ It was a one-stop solution to all fashion needs.

They rented office space in Cannaught Place and brought together a team. It was a lot of hard work at first but Mahima was happy to lead them through all the hiccups they faced on the way.

Sadly, it didn’t work out as her husband had a severe illness called GBS which is an autonomous disorder and is lethal, and side by side Mahima gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. She rock bottom. She had a really tough time-fighting Ankur’s disease and bringing a new baby into the world. She also underwent severe postpartum depression. They obviously had no other choice but to shut down the office. That was the end of Modstreet.

After three to four months Ankur was cured and stopped taking steroids. God was kind. And as for Mahima, her hands were full. Her little bundle of joy kept her busy throughout the day. She was thankful that things were back in order.

But Mahima wanted more. She wanted her identity back. She needed to have science back in her life as she was so passionate about it. As her son turned two, she decided to go back to her passion. She had the full support of her loving husband and in-laws. Mahima was really good at her job but it wasn’t easy for her to pick up from where she left off. Three to four years gap in her career was not accepted by the senior employees. But she didn’t give up that easy. She underwent a couple of interviews and they all told her the same thing. None of them accepted the long gap in her career.

Mahima was sad and discouraged. She felt she’d studied so hard and it was all going to waste. But Mahima was a fighter. After some time she restarted Modstreet. She and her co-partner Karishma changed the entire business model and changed it to Modish. Mahima is currently the co-founder and co-editor of a fashion lifestyle magazine - Modish. Although it has nothing to do with science she always had a sheer passion for fashion. Never in her wildest dreams did Mahima think that her life would turn out like this. Mahima developed a knack for writing. As Modish got more popular her networking increased. She got to grow along with her lifestyle magazine.

A year later, Mahima was pregnant with their second child. It all went well as she continued Modish. It was easy for her as it was her own venture. She took things slow and enjoyed her pregnancy. Soon enough Mahima gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She put things on hold for a bit as her only priority was her daughter. Eventually, she started working from home.

It won’t be long from now that Modish soon with be back with a bang!

To find Modish on social media - @themodishmagazine.