#14: The closest thing that I know to divinity

Ever been in the presence of a miracle being?

My dearest reader,

Happiest 2025! Wishing you an abundance of energy to keep pursuing all the things that keep you alive.

This being the first newsletter of 2025 (so so excited to be sharing it with you), I took quite a bit of time to decide what I wanted this issue to be about. I thought about sharing my best memories from 2024, about my relationship with confidence, about my goal setting strategy and finally none of this felt as significant as writing about what I’ve chosen to write about today.

Time, the finite resource & my Miracle being

Needless to say, everybody wants and wishes for more time in their day. And yet we all know that this is one resource that no amount of money can buy us more of. To have the time to spend on the things that you truly love, that truly mean something to you, in my opinion, is one of the greatest blessings one can have.

If today I can say that I have the time to spend on what matters to me;

I have the time to work within a business that I love
I have the time to be a writer
I have the time to run a newsletter 
I have the time to plan for what next 
I have the time to travel  
I have the time to relax
I have the time to be able to do nothing if I choose to 
I have the time to sit and be writing this to you 
I have the time to dream
and to work towards bringing those dreams to life 

If today I can say that I have the time to spend on what matters to me, it is ONLY because I have my Amma - a multi-role wonder, a miracle of a human being, an epitome of selflessness, a person who knows to weave magic from anything and everything, a human version of joy, my living God; the closest thing that I know to divinity.

Amma gifts me with this time that I call ‘mine’.

Amma spends her time 
to run our home
to parent me 
to ensure I have healthy balanced meals
to ensure I am raised in a happy environment
to ensure I have the perfect lehenga for every festival
to ensure I have the right jewellery for every occasion 
to feed me when I am too busy to think of eating 
to speak to the doctor and get my medicines sorted when I don't
to converse with that distant relative on my behalf 
to stay up with me on nights when I need a reassuring hug
to pick up the 3000 phones calls she receives from me in a day because I miss her when I’m away
to keep showing me that I am loved…

My Amma looks after everything that might be considered insignificant, but only and ONLY because she spends her time on this ‘‘insignificant’’ do I have time to spend on what I consider significant to me.

She is the miracle in my life. My silent enabler. My unsung hero. If there is a Vaishnavi today, it is ONLY because she has Madhavi as her amma.

The seamlessness with which I am able to lead my life, the undivided attention that I am able to give to what matters to me the most, the complete mental energy that I am able to dedicate to my priorities… It is all a possibility only because of my Amma’s existence and just this thought leaves me with goosebumps - My Amma has gifted me with this time.

I am living on time borrowed from my Amma’s clock. All my time is not just my time, it is also the time my Amma has given to me from her time.

And just the deep embedding of this thought over the past year more than ever has made me realise how responsibly I need to be using my time. The Bhakti with which I spend this time that I have been gifted with is my way of showing my love and gratitude to my Amma.

Using my time with utmost responsibility and devotion is my way of respecting my Amma’s time, my Amma’s life - the life that she has dedicated to enhance the life of her children.

That’s all I have to say to you today my dearest readers. We all have that one person that silently does so much for us to be able to be enjoying the lives that we are enjoying today. Take one moment to recognise that person and to recognise the time that they have saved for you, the time that they have gifted you with.

Time is unarguably the most valuable thing in the world. Like said before, no amount of money in the world can buy any of us additional time, not even a nano second. And in such a world I have an amma that gifts me with time by using her own - and that alone is enough to explain why she is the closest thing to divinity that I know.

My Amma, my miracle, my living God, my unsung hero.

Signing of with a song this week

Heard this beautiful masterpiece of a song - O Rangrez. And the only thing that I can think of while listening to it is my Amma.

Especially these few lines, feels like my prayer to my amma. *hindi lyrics on the left and english pronunciation on the right within brackets

अपने ही रंग में मुझको रंग दे (Apne hi rang mein mujhko rang de)
धीमे धीमे रंग में मुझको रंग दे (Dheeme dheeme rang mein mujhko rang de)
सौंधे सौंधे रंग में मुझको रंग दे (Saundhe saundhe rang mein mujhko rang de)
रंग दे ना रंग दे ना रंग दे ना (Rang de na, rang de na, rang de na)

Which roughly translates to (but obviously does no justice to the depth of the meaning it hindi):

Colour me in your colours
Colour me slowly in your colour
Please give me your colour 
"I want to immerse myself in your essence, I want to be like your essence" 

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Thank you for being here and reading my newsletter. If I can make one request, please take a moment to share Masala Puff Moments with anyone you think might enjoy it. It would mean the world to me + it would truly help me grow :)

With warmth and wonder,

Vaishnavi

From the table of Masala Puff Moments, a newsletter

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wait… drop by and say hi?

I’m Vaishnavi Radhakrishnan, a management trainee in a business that I love, a poet, a writer and a 23 year old figuring out her space in this world. I love admiring bougainvilleas, being by the ocean, and buying jibbitz for my purple crocs.