In a nutshell, we cook up stories. When we started Masala Chai in 2017, our aim was to initiate discussions about social issues, family life, parenting and children. We were keen to avoid sermons about good parenting or raising a perfect child. We started with the assumption that people want to do their best in raising their children, and we are often at a loss about how to handle situations. Everyday encounters are fraught with uncertainty and there seem to be many empty spaces between different bits of information, leaving us with contradictions and doubts about what is most favourable. For their part, children are adept at breaking our preconceived notions about childhood.
Although people may believe otherwise, professional training in Child Development does not remove uncertainty about parenting/child care. Despite access to theory and research about childhood, in reality, life is always unpredictable, and incertitude is inevitable because each moment is unique. We can only make estimations based on the information, knowledge and wisdom available to us. Thus, like all adults, we too have faced serious doubts in bringing up our children. We decided to turn the problem on its head and use uncertainty as a resource. Our doubts, we believe, are in fact very productive and have the potential for speculation, learning and transformation. Otherwise, we would all be clones of our cultural scripts. In this regard, our doubts are opportunities for expanding our understanding of children. Thus, without claiming to have all the answers, we decided to raise concerns and initiate our dialogues, taking cues from children, since they are adept at breaking preconceived notions about life.
Over the last two years, we have developed our own stories about events and experiences outside of the glare of media attention and academic trends while staying focussed on Indian childhood and family life. Everyday encounters have often inspired our essays. Once interest was sparked, we reached out to our team of advisers for guidance about resources and opinion. There is a huge range of material available on the internet and navigating the different strands of information has been a challenge. Our team and our audience have greatly assisted in consolidating authentic sources and diverse opinions. We are highly appreciative of everyone who has accessed and responded to our posts with genuine interest and engagement. Without you, we would be just another blog and we are grateful for your attention. We look forward to many more years of blogging with and for our readers.
MASALA CHAI 