Can we please normalise a mother being tired without needing a reason attached? Someone asked why I looked low today and I genuinely just wanted to sit in silence with a cup of tea that nobody made me reheat.

Married at 22, and honestly it took us a full ten years to actually become friends. These days romance is him quietly refilling my water bottle while I'm mid-cooking. I'll take that over grand gestures any day.

Nobody ever puts a salary slip in front of a woman who cooks from home. But this month I paid both my kids' school fees entirely from my own earning, and I sat down and cried a little. That number nobody sees is still mine.

Bought a fancy 'silent' mixer-grinder that the ad swore was quiet as a whisper. Reader, it wakes my younger one from across the house. Two stars — and one is only because it grinds masala fast when it's in the mood.

I run a tiffin service from my own kitchen — 40 dabbas a day, started with just 4. No investor, no fancy app, only word of mouth and a lot of 5am rice. People call it 'just cooking' until they try feeding 40 strangers on time, every single day.