Life as I know it

So after putting it off for so long, I have finally come around to writing this post after spending 10 months in Perth. DISCLAIMER:  What I describe here are purely my personal experiences! Having spent 11 years in India, I moved to Perth on June 2019 after making a life altering decision to get married to an Aussie. Like everyone who moves to a new city, I did my fair share of research via Google/Youtube, asking around and my husband did his best to describe to me what I’m in for. But nothing prepares you for the real thing like experiencing it yourself and once I landed here, what hit me the most was the beauty of the place. The beautiful quiet suburbs with perfectly manicured gardens, the bustling city with its walkways, the pristine beaches, the magnificent huge trees so completely native to Australia, that I had never seen them anywhere else I have been. The air was so fresh, the traffic was light and the people I met so polite. To be completely honest, havi...

Can any one among us claim to have perfect mental health? On hearing terms like obsessive compulsive traits, adjustment disorder, excessive grief reaction, sleep disorders, anxiety or panic attacks, sexual problems, alcohol and drug abuse or post-traumatic stress, 99 percent of those reading this may be able to attribute themselves as having experienced a few of these if not most of these, at some point in their lives. So can we finally say mental health is the most underrated aspect of our lives which we should probably be paying more attention to? It is the essence of our being. You are not just what you are thinking but you are what you are feeling too. All of us have an innate personality at birth with multiple genetic influences over which we have no control over. In addition to that, right from childhood, we are influenced by the environment we grow up in, how our parents, teachers and other caregivers treat us, our social interaction with our peers, so on and so for...

So as the battle against Corona ensues and the world accepts grudgingly that self isolation is the only way to ensure safety of self and others, the antisocial me welcomes the concept of  staying at home with my books and Netflix and a stocked pantry and freezer a bit better than most around me. This was also the point when a load of shocking revelations hit me. The news and the multiple WhatsApp forwards documenting the measures taken by various governments and leaders and people all over the world highlighted a lot of loopholes and flaws and lapses, because finally we are at a stage where we are forced to stay in our homes and stop and think about something bigger than ourselves.  THE BIGGER PICTURE. Amidst conspiracy theories that allege that Corona is actually China's bio-weapon to boost their economy while the rest of the world goes towards a global recession that could be compared to the one the world experienced during The Great Depression, we see countries delayi...

Well, it's been 5 months since I wrote my first post and well, life has been keeping me quite busy. To name a few significant events in the timeline, I gave my exams and passed my Masters, got married , went on a honeymoon and shifted to Perth. But beyond these conventional significant milestones in my life, the biggest one was the fact that I took a break from studying. Trust me , anyone who has gone through the CBSE vortex, knows that it's a constant struggle till you pass your 10th grade boards, only to enter the Entrance exam rat race. And only when you finally crack it and get into medicine, do u realize there is a bigger meaner giant in the form of PG Entrance exam looming right in front of you. 3 years and perhaps the toughest exam of your life later, you begin to recognize and imbibe the sense of being fed up in every cell of your being and your brain literally shuts down. So I took that break which my brain and my soul was yearning for. Safe to say, since I w...

In India, they say “Make sure you start something new on an auspicious day” and I guess it’s ironic that I’m starting my first ever blog on April Fool’s Day! So this being the pilot episode into my world of self-musings, I think I should get down to introducing myself first. Yours truly, Reshma Peter, hails from the beautiful, busy (and the extremely humid) city of Cochin in South India. Having lived in multiple cities within and outside India, I find it essentially hard to pinpoint a place I call home. I guess home is where the heart is, after all. I am currently doing my Masters in Ophthalmology and will complete my training soon. So one might ask……why a blog??? Well because everyone is doing it!!!!! And that’s not a bad reason at all. But I think the bigger reason would be the realization that I COULD DO THIS. Triggered by doing all those practice IELTS essays, it suddenly dawned on me that maybe all those countless essays I had to write in school and the fact...