In her own words

I thought I'd get this section started with something our mother wrote herself which I personally found very inspiring.

By Usha Ramachandran

Hi Everyone! After getting so used to writing my travel experiences, my fingers were itching to continue penning down more... My friend had left for the US and my daughter, Swetha had gone to Hong Kong (she arrived only this morning) that I did not venture out at all...so I didn't have anything to write about.! Suddenly it struck me to write about something I did last night that I had never ever done before...It was the very first time that I had slept all alone, all night and that too in a different country!!! Most of all who know me well also know that I cannot sleep home alone... Either I will pack up for the night to sleep at a friend's or relative's place or have someone sleep with me whenever my husband goes on tours...The second my daughter told me that she had to go to Hongkong and that after my friend leaves, I will have to be alone for a day, I became nervous. All sorts of fears gripped me... I started to panic... How was I going to survive a whole night all by myself? What if all the lights went off and I was enveloped in sheer darkness? It was an unimaginable situation to me...I was never afraid to stay alone in the day-time. In fact I wait for my husband to go to office to have the whole house to myself...I love to have that peace and quiet at home... But the minute it becomes dark, I need someone at home. I just can't sleep alone...My daughter did arrange for me to be picked up by her friends. But for the first time, something made me tell her that I will manage on my own! Maybe I didn't want her friends to know that a grown-up person like me was literally scared to be home alone... or maybe I wanted to prove that I was brave enough to sleep alone in a foreign country... whatever it was, I, who was hearing impaired and had to take off my hearing aid at night, I who had never ever slept alone at night out of sheer fear, SLEPT all by myself for the FIRST time in my life... Ofcourse I had all the lights on; I had the phone next to me and my hearing aid on! My I Pad was fully charged that I could catch up watching my serials or play a game if sleep eluded me...but I overcame my fear... I wouldn't say it was an undisturbed sleep but sleep I did proving to myself, proving to the world that if you set your mind on something, it can definitely be achieved. I am so proud of myself as if I had done the impossible! Folks, what we need to understand is what we imagine to be unreachable is afterall within our reach... We just have to make one small effort. I think it is the mindset after all...