I thoroughly enjoyed reading the cover story ‘FRESH (Fitness, Return to minimalist living, Education, Slowing Down and Home Life) 2021’ (PW January). Life as we know it, halted last year. Schools, colleges, universities, businesses, hotels, restaurants, all shut down to check the spread of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. Millions of people lost jobs, livelihoods and worse, thousands of people lost their lives to the Coronavirus. The country’s 1 billion-plus citizens lived through the world’s most stringent national lockdown.

But as your well-written cover story shows, every dark cloud has a silver lining. Even as there was high anxiety and fear about contracting the Covid-19 infection and job uncertainty, stay-at-home orders enabled families to spend quality time together and bond and pay greater attention to health, nutrition, fitness and mental well-being.
We all fervently hope that 2021 will be a FRESH start. Fortunately, the year has got off to an auspicious start with India having started the world’s largest anti-Covid vaccination drive. Better days are here!

Alpana Bahiravi
Thiruvananthapuram

NRI parent’s life not easy

Dhanya Parthasarathy’s essay about life as an NRI parent was a good read (PW January). It was amusing to read about her hilarious experiences while raising an Indian child in a foreign land. Especially foreigners mispronouncing Indian names is bang on. I lived in Norway for several years and my son’s name Dhrishith was a real tongue twister for the locals. Some of the permutations were rather unsavoury.

Indeed, an NRI parent’s life is not easy. It’s tough raising a child without the help of grandparents and extended family members. But on the plus, children benefit greatly from exposure to a foreign culture, excellent schooling and extraordinary public facilities such as parks and libraries.

Manjula Karthikeyan
Chennai

Plagiarism and online cheating bane

Thank you for publishing an excellent parenting magazine. I especially enjoy your relevant cover stories and excellent health columns. Your Academic Advantage story ‘Plagiarism mistakes and how to avoid them’ was very informative and relevant.

As a teacher during the past year I have detected many instances of blatant plagiarism and cheating during online exams and assessment. Students believe they can copy-paste from the Internet and get away with it. While this may seem the easy way out, in the long run it will adversely impact student learning outcomes.

Also online exams are turning out be a joke with students referring to Google, teachers and parents for answers. Unfortunately parents are turning a blind eye to online cheating by children in the mistaken belief that it’s a one-off thing. But in my experience, if children are not severely reprimanded for cheating, it can develop into a habit. Parents need to be vigilant and teach children the value of honesty in online tests and exams.

Rathi Kumar
Delhi

Work-from-home moms stressed

My five-year old son loves snacking. With preschools closed, he is constantly pestering me for snack foods through the day. As a mother, I am committed to providing him balanced nutrition to help him maintain healthy weight. The past year, with day cares and preschools shut, it has been very tough and challenging to manage youngest children especially for work-from-home mothers. In fact the past year has been most stressful for working mothers with toddlers as fear of contracting the Covid-19 infection and social distancing rules prevents them from hiring services of child caregivers.

Please include more stories about ways and means to ensure the physical and mental well-being of preschool-age children. Toddlers are especially fussy about food and most parents are at their wits end as to what foods are good and bad for youngest children.

Sonali Chirag
Pune