A friend introduced me to First Moms Club (FMC) over a year ago, and I thought to myself – not another FB group! We were around 3000 members back then. Now those many women under one roof can be quite something, if you know what I mean. So, I just sat in the aisles with my bag of popcorn, and decided to watch the fun. Slowly but steadily, the numbers began growing. Every second mommy I knew, was a part of FMC. The discussions were open, across a range of topics and most importantly, about real people and day to day issues. I began interacting, sometimes giving advice. Many times, taking lessons from the discussions. FMC soon became a platform that I’d log into to know, share and be.
Today, we are inching close to 15000 members and still growing. Ruchita Dar Shah, our Chief Mommy Officer is doing a fab job as admin of the group. She, in fact, has taken FMC to the next level with MOMentum. It was a two day event across the Women’s Day weekend in Mumbai. It offered a host of possibilities and activities for mommies and kids. And when she asked me to be a part of the blogging workshop, I was elated!
So, here I was sharing the platform with the likes of Tara Sharma, Kiran Manral, Mansi Zaveri, Aloka Gambhir and Priya Fonseca. The humble me was to play moderator and ask the ladies to ‘hold that thought’ while ‘the nation wanted to know.’ I was over the moon, and the adjoining planets as well. The ladies, each one of them a shining star on the horizon, were such a delight to be with. They freely shared tit-bits about their journey, as they encouraged the ones sitting in the audience to take the plunge.
Day One – Kiran Manral, Mansi Zaveri and Aloka Gambhir
Kiran Manral, author of ‘The Reluctant Detective’, is the gentlest soul you will ever meet. So gracious and so simple, you are totally in awe of her. She remains unruffled, as she watches the world go by. She has the kind of stories that might take a lifetime to tell. You can see it in her eyes. One day they will all be in print. Watch out for her second book coming in the month of April.
Believe you me, you cannot meet this girl and remain unaffected by her enthusiasm. She has very recently won the BlogAdda Award for the best parenting blog. Her blog is her sweat and blood. That’s Mansi Zaveri for you. Meticulous, organised and ambitious, she defines it all. Hell, she had posts planned and scheduled for a week, when she became a mommy. Yes, you can close your mouth now.
Aloka, the newest mommy on the block, was such a delight to meet. A nutritionist and a fitness enthusiast, she follows the Paleo lifestyle. It is a more holistic approach at living and includes going back to our roots. Her blog is a storehouse of information as she attempts to raise a Paleo baby. Well, good luck hon! (And thank you for being there two days in a row, along with me.)
Day Two – Tara Sharma, Aloka Gambhir and Priya Fonseca.
You’d need a knock on your head if I have to introduce Tara Sharma! The yummy mummy has many a feather in her summer bonnet; the latest being the producer of the well received ‘The Tara Sharma Show’. Her journey, in her own words, was about discovering ‘what next’ when the kind of cinema she wanted to do was not available. I met Tara for the first time at a Blog Meet. Started following her on twitter. What is amazing about people like her and Kiran is that they take the time to respond , and interact with their audience/star struck followers. They become so much real, and accessible. It totally earns both of them so many brownie points.
Now here was a girl who I thought I’d seen before. I did a recce of all the focal points in her life but just could not place her. Priya has a very sunshine disposition. She is a successful content writer, ever since having quit her lucrative airline job. She shed light on avenues that SAHMs could indulge in, and insisted that good content would find an audience eventually. Her very handsome young man was our resident photographer, and such a charmer was he.
MOMentum was a huge success! We came home with a whole lotta memories, and goody bags too. Yes, being a mommy is a great feeling. Yes, it comes with a multitude of changes. Use this time to reinvent yourself. After all, you can raise a happy child only by being happy yourself. If being a doting mom makes you happy, great. If being a doting mom who also works makes you happy, so be it. Bottom line, don’t ever stop gaining MOMentum, wherever you are…
See you in 2015!
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