I have started reading Goodnight stories for rebel girls to Tara starting this week. We open the index page, she points randomly at a name, we flip over to the page, and I read her the story of the rebel girl she chooses. It is a fun night time ritual. It ends the day on a super inspiring note, and I get to tell Tara about these amazing women leaders.

I am sure my rebellion stories are not worth a page in that book, but hopefully Tara will one day learn about her Mama bear’s strength. My incessant attempts to do the right thing, and influence others to do it too.

Tonight we read about Venus and Serena Williams and Michelle Obama. One of the phrases in MO’s story was – “No one is born smart. We become smart by working hard.” Just hard work does not make you smart. It is hard work, and hard thinking that makes you smart. You need to push your own mental barriers to process more and more each day. You need to filter, purge, and refresh your learning and thoughts and stretch your mental capacities. Perhaps that is also hard work.

Regardless, I highly recommend the book to all parents.

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As per our Friday ritual, we hit downtown right after work and spent some time at Books Inc. Tara and I read a few books together and then I went through my sections while she hung out in the children’s section.

As I scanned the books on display, I reminisced the days when I’d pick a book on Friday and read it day and night, and finish it before the weekend. Wow, those days are long gone. It’s going to be a while before I can take out that much uninterrupted time for myself.

May be I will do it this October when Murakami’s latest work comes out. There we go. There’s something to look forward to 🙂

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Turbulent week at work. Started on a high note with the role related emails. Soon the warm and fuzzy emails started trickling in. It is always hard to leave a loving family behind and explain to people why I am moving. I won’t blame them for not understanding. It took me a while to figure it out myself. It’s time to apply this glue to another world and bring another family together.

Mid week things started going sour and the shoulders started curling with stress. We have some respite, but the weather continues to be turbulent over the next few weeks. I was reminded by a friend/Googler that I am not alone. And his big bro nudge was enough to remind me what an amazing team I work with. It is going to get worse before it gets better. It’s time for this rebel to fight for the “right thing”.