we never closetted our child and always allowed him a lot of freedom he was lucky to be born in Assam where we were in the tea plantations and he spent his first 2.5 years there. We kept a lot of animals in the bungalow. There was a dog who is still with us, there were cows & calf's, Hens, Guinea Fowl and Pigeons, he used to love playing with all the animals and had no reason to be afraid of any animal. We found that even at that small an age we just had to tell him to be carefull and he would be so careful while say feeding the cows or throwing grain to the birds. I think that it is because of this independance that he started walking at the age of 10 months where as other children older than him were still crawling. YES we were carefull and ensured that there would be no situation where he would be harmed.

A lot of people dont like close contact with animals specially for their kids, (there are so many germs, diseases etc. etc.) I have seen my son in Pink of health while we were living so close to nature without even a fever in these 2 years. as soon as we moved to a city with close contact with other Human beings, School, etc he has had all kinds of diseases, Chest infections & stomach problems are now common.

His best friend is still our dog Sabri who has patience that has not been seen in any Human. we find that our son has a more rounded personality because of his animal companions. He will share anything very willingly, he is kinder, helpfull and Independent.

I am very happy taht we had this opportunity.

There are so many types of drinks available in the market to cool you during summers. But what I have always preferred are homemade drinks, and ice tea is just one of them.

Here is the recipe for ice tea-

Ing.- Water 1cup

Any tea 1tsp.

Sugar acc. to taste

Lemon juice 2tsp.

Method- Boil water in a pan and add tea and sugar to it. Let it boil for sometime

depending upon how strong you like your tea to be. Than take it off the flame

and let it cool down. Once the black tea is cool than add lemon juice in it and

it is ready to be drunk.

During pregnancy stretch marks are a real cause of worry. With so many products available in the market we get confused in what to use. Here is a tried and tested homemede formula to avoid stretch marks.

During my first pregnancy I used a home made oil, which I would say was 75% effective. This was the mixture of a spice called ratanjot (available at your local grocery shop) and coconut oil. If you want to prepare this oil than mix a little bit of ratanjot in coconut oil and leave it in sunlight for 1 day, the whole oil will turn red. Let it get cool and it is ready to use, but you have to use it regularly.

But now a days a lot more people are using olive oil also for massage during pregnancy to avoid stretch marks, which I have heard is also very effective.

Acc. to me whatever Raj Thakrey is saying now a days is not anything else but sheer frustation, because of not achieving the status of what he may be wanting in politics. If he would have had any kind of sympathy or love for the marathis, than instead of targeting the north Indians, he would have concentrated on the upliftment of marathi people of the state. If you are encouraging the people of other states to come to your state and work there than inturn you are helping the people of your state only by challenging them to do better than those people who have come to your state. But if you are not throwing any challenge in front of your people that means you are stunting their growth, as no challenge means no progress. What Raj Thakrey is trying to do is nothing else but divide and rule, same policy which was followed by the Britishers, which him not earning him anything else but just a cheap publicity.