Aparajita Bose was one of ParentEdge’s earliest bloggers and contributed some lovely pieces on parenting—simple, everyday musings, her observations, lessons learnt on her journey as a parent. And now, she has taken all these blogs and many more and compiled them into a book – ‘Rays and Rains.’

The title says it all, for the blogs in this book talk about a whole range of aspects related to parenting—both the joyful, heart-squeezes-with-love moments when we cannot remember what life was like before our kids, and the painful, hair-tearing, pulling-off-my-fingernails-would-be-easier moments when we groan, “Is this really worth it?!”

The book contains around 40 blogs, all relating personal, everyday experiences written from the heart. Some are fictional (stories, poetry), but most are incidents that Aparajita actually lived and then put down. All couched in evocative and poetic language, with some lovely metaphors I enjoyed. You have blogs on children falling sick, asking for a pet, fighting with the neighbour’s kid, the role dad plays, the relevance of Santa Claus, Open House, and much much more.

Do they have some great theories and complex learnings for you? No. For that, you should read a parenting book by a psychologist. What you get out of ‘Rays and Rains’ is “oh, wow! So I’m not the only loony mum out there”, or “Thank God that my kid is not the only one who does this!” – moments of recognition, of clarity when you realise that you are a pretty much normal parent and have it no better or worse than all the millions out there trying to do a great job of parenting. Its this fellow-feeling, and familiarity that keeps you turning pages….

No tips, no ground-breaking ideas, no parenting jargon—just thought-provoking incidents. No prescriptions for better parenting, only experiences that you can relate to. This book is well worth a read—it’s refreshing to read a book that deals with parenting but in a non-judgmental way.

For more information or to contact Aparajita, visit: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AparajitaBoseRaysAndRains