When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade
Title images courtesy of Himani Malhotra. Art by Jason Pacliwan.
By Himani Malhotra
The idea of writing children's books first came to me when I became a mother in 2015. But my dream was caught somewhere between the daily grind of raising kids, and earning a living to pay our bills. Years went by, and the idea took a backseat, and eventually I totally stopped thinking about it.
I shall never forget the night of January 27, 2020, right before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was flying to India to meet my family after a long gap of two years, feeling all excited and exhilarated, unaware of what the future had in store for me. I grew up in India but later settled down in America after meeting my husband here on a blind date. However, I still have family residing in India. I was traveling with my husband and my daughter. We were supposed to land at Delhi Airport, but due to bad weather we were rerouted to Mumbai and were held up in the air for another two hours. Unfortunately Mumbai Airport was also fairly busy, and we were then rerouted to Ahmedabad Airport where we eventually made a landing. Every passenger in the flight was worried by the pilot’s announcement that due to multiple rerouting the flight had run out of fuel. After a long and anxious wait of 8 hours on the runway waiting to get fuel, a local technician who was trained to refuel an international aircraft finally turned up. Since Ahmedabad is a domestic airport, not handling much international traffic, finding this gem was no mean feat. He had to be roused from his sleep at midnight to perform the task. This story was narrated by the pilot to give us a little laugh and keep our hopes going.
At the same time, the aircraft was running out of its food supplies, considering it was an international flight, and we had already been inside the aircraft for more than 20 hours by now with 300+ passengers. Although, I must assert that the flight attendants did their best to help us. While we were on the runway, I was sitting by the window looking out, when I found myself getting caught up in this strange, inexplicable feeling of impending disaster that made me nervously restless. It was not related to all of the rerouting and delays as I am quite accustomed to going on long journeys, and I take these sort of situations in my stride. Finally, at 3 am the pilot finally announced that the plane was refueled successfully, and we were good to fly back to Delhi.
We reached Delhi at 5 am. My brother came to the airport to pick us up. It was another 4 hours’ drive to my hometown Agra where my parents were stationed. Because we were so tired and sleep deprived from the last 48 hours, we decided to stay in a hotel for a few hours to rest before resuming our journey.
We reached the hotel, took a shower and went straight to sleep. But my restlessness was still unabated. That feeling of something not quite right didn’t seem to leave my consciousness. After an hour of napping, I went down to get some tea in the hotel's cafeteria, when my brother came running to me and said, “I think something is wrong with Papa.” My brother was getting multiple calls from people asking where he was so early in the day, which was unusual. We were able to see from the camera app on our phone that many relatives and neighbors were entering our house. In this heart wrenching way we were made aware of our father’s sad demise.
I was visiting India after two years and was just four hours away from home. But unfortunately, I still didn't get a chance to meet my father. In early January, I had received a call from him asking me to come to his and mother’s 46th wedding anniversary on January 31. I wasn’t so sure if I would be able to make it, considering I had plans to visit my in-laws that same day. But here I was after all, on January 31, performing his last rites and rituals. Life is what happens to us while we plan other things. Isn’t it?
This was the time that news of COVID-19 started coming in. As much as I wanted to spend more time with my bereft mother, the news of all international airports and borders being sealed, with no guarantee of international travel resuming too soon in the near future, made me unable to do so. My own home, my work, my daughter’s school, and my life was back here in America. It was a tough call for me but I was forced to take a flight back to the United States in the beginning of March. I was on one of the last flights before borders were being closed due to COVID guidelines. There was a storm going on inside me about whether I was doing the right thing or not due to the uncertainty of everything around me, and so, with a heavy heart I came back.
While I could have done with more emotional support from my friends, we were locked inside our houses waiting for some normalcy to seep back into our lives. On top of all this, I had been dealing with strange lower leg aches since the beginning of 2019. In 2020, my pain started becoming more severe and sometimes uncontrollable. It started getting harder for me to even cook and do normal chores around the house. This was the time when you could visit doctors and hospitals only if you were facing something life-threatening. My intermittent leg pains soon developed into a chronic condition. I was facing another issue of pains in my upper body due to hormonal imbalance. A time came when I had so much pain that I was almost bedridden for at least 15 days a month. I slept multiple times a day because my brain needed constant rest to deal with this nonstop pain. Even painkillers couldn’t give me any relief. I felt as if life was slipping out of my hands. I also tried resigning from my job but my employer persuaded me to take a break instead. This meant I still had a job, though without a paycheck, and I didn’t need to find a new job when I would later resume work.
With the beginning of 2021, life started looking a little bit normal, and the first thing I did was go to the doctors’ for a thorough check up. Even though several tests were performed, the doctors were not able to identify the cause of my leg pains. They tested me for venous veins, peripheral artery disease, restless leg syndrome, sciatica, etc, but were not able to come to an exact conclusion. There were days when my legs were totally numb due to excessive pain, and I had no option left other than taking long rests.
Thus incapacitated, the idea that had first originated in my mind in 2015 now resurfaced in my memory. Being in bed with eyes closed, all I did was imagine my characters; complete with their habits, traits, personalities, and idiosyncrasies. The best way to stay positive for me was to imagine and create stories. This is what led to the birth of the Momo and SlowMo book series.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Just like I did. I was in the worst state possible, emotionally and physically. Still, I made a choice to make something out of it. I started making rough sketches on my iPad of the two main characters of the series—Momo (The Hedgehog) and SlowMo (The Sloth). I also started writing small scripts related to them. I was able to do all this because I was almost bedridden with plenty of time on my hands. My children's books are a reflection of the funny and silly conversations between me and my daughter. It is an interesting journey to see how these normal conversations have flowered into the beautiful, silly, funny and adorable Momo and SlowMo book series.
Parallelly, after all the medical examinations, several MRIs, x-rays, blood tests, the doctors finally detected that I am dealing with a rare disease related to my blood cells. I am still going through blood tests during the time I am writing this article as doctors still need to identify that particular blood cell in my body that does not function properly. In the meantime, I have completed more than 15 books of the Momo and SlowMo series. I have released six books so far, and I plan to release the remaining in the last quarter of 2023.
When I look at the Momo and SlowMo books now, my rare disease, what all I have been through, all my pain and suffering seem like a blessing in disguise. Every particle of my being feels as if I am all set to embark on my new journey as an author. I stand tall, ready to deal with any challenge life throws at me and still make the best of everything. I firmly believe that difficult situations and circumstances come to us to shape us to become a better version of ourselves.
Now that I keep writing on a regular basis, I feel I will be humbled to see when I will retrospect upon my life sometime in the future, that I was able to create something that made someone somewhere relate to my work, to ease someone's pain with the help of my words, to bring laughter and smiles all around, and to let someone rediscover the world of emotions and feelings residing inside all of us. In my heart of hearts, I have this deep conviction, that even though I could not get to meet my father for the very last time, despite my best efforts, he is watching over me wherever he is, and showering his blessings upon us, in death as in life.
With that note, sharing a poem with you all, which I wrote a few years back.
It is Going to be Alright…
If you have doubts,
And find yourself struggling,
Believe it or not,
It is going to be alright.
When your heart wants
To pour out the pain,
When your eyes just want to rain,
Give yourself a reminder,
It is going to be alright.
When it is difficult to
Even take a step,
When your courage
Seems to take a rest,
Do not doubt yourself
Because change is the only truth,
Which shall manifest.
Believe it or not,
It is going to be alright.
Hang in there on doubtful days,
Console yourself in any way.
Tell your heart to stay sane,
There will be an end to the pain.
After all, it is going to be alright,
It is going to be alright!
Credits
A special thanks to Asmita Bajaj for being an amazing editor.
A special thanks to Jason Pacliwan for making wonderful illustrations.
Photo courtesy of Himani Malhotra.
Himani Malhotra works as a Senior IT Consultant. She grew up in India and later settled down in the United States with her husband. Since her school and college days, she has been involved in writing plays, poems, and songs. Creativity—the arts, dance, and theater—have always been close to her heart and are an integral part of her life.
Despite being a working mother, Himani has continued writing. Writing has helped her to elucidate and put forward my deepest emotions which then metamorphose into beautiful words and imagery. Himani loves writing poems, short stories, children’s books, and also musings along her spiritual journey so far.
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