Talk to a Mother of Differently Abled Twins// Episode #7

What if the quickest way to change a room is to walk through it like a lion? That’s Priyanka’ Bhattacharya quiet superpower as a mother of premature twins living with cerebral palsy - an everyday practice of confidence that turns stares into smiles and replaces awkwardness with warmth.

We sit down with Priyanka to unpack the mindset behind her family’s joy. She takes us from NICU shock to high-intensity parenting, where every milestone feels like a gold medal and the details - sleep, nutrition, therapy, and rest - matter more than timelines. She shares the simple tools she uses to reset on hard days, from a five-minute cry to an audiobook chapter that flips her energy. We talk about making disability part of mainstream parenting, not a siloed topic reserved for diagnosis pages. Her phrase “progress is a Prada” becomes a lens: celebrate real wins, fit them to the child, and stop competing with age charts.

Priyanka’s path winds through advertising, Bollywood management, and fine art, and it informs how she faces the public square. At the airport, on sidewalks, at therapy centers - she meets questions with grace, humor, and a steady belief that people want to be kind; they just don’t always know how. We dig into practical support: why strangers’ genuine smiles matter, how friends can show up consistently without taking a no personally, and how to build a village that sustains mental energy as much as time. She opens up about caregiver guilt, dreams of creating a learning space for children with CVI, and the daily choice to define success as shared laughter at home.

If you’re a parent, caregiver, educator, or ally, this conversation offers grounded inspiration and real-life tactics for resilience, inclusion, and joy. Subscribe, share with someone who needs this, and leave a review with one mindset you’re ready to practice today.

Check out Priyanka's Instagram page here! 

Transcript

Confidence On The Street

Priyanka 0:00

I feel like I'm the king of jungle. And they walk with that strength. They walk with that confidence, that roar, that me, my kids, we are we are we're ruling, we are happy kids, we are walking and we are having fun. It's an automatic thing. You do it and uh what you radiate is what you get. It's like a mirror, right? If you walk with that strength, they just and I notice it all the time. Everybody has a smile on their face. Because my confidence goes to my kids, because what you are, what a parent is becomes the child.

Stares, Smiles, And Social Curiosity

A Day In High-Intensity Parenting

Mindset Tools To Reset Energy

From Art And Bollywood To NICU

Making Disability Part Of Parenting

Choosing Positivity Without Timelines

Success Defined As Family Joy

Walking Like A Lion

Breaking The Unknown With Grace

Me Time, Fitness, And Art

Dreams, CVI Advocacy, And Guilt

How To Support Families Like Ours

Letting Go Of Guilt, Choosing Life

First Podcast And Closing Reflections

Edit 0:43

Welcome to the Juggleverse. I'm Edit. In today's episode, I have the honor of speaking with Priyanka Batacharya, a remarkable mother to Primi twins Zora and Zoravar, both living with cerebral palsy. Priyanka's story is unlike any other, defined by strength, joy, and an unshakable positivity. She lovingly calls her twins tiny titans, a reflection of their spirit rather than their challenges. She often says her children are not fighters of warriors. They are simply living their lives. There's no war they are in, just a beautiful, vibrant journey unfolding every single day. When Zora or Zurava reach a milestone, it isn't just progress. It's a celebration that radiates love and awe. When I first met Priyanka, I wasn't sure how to approach such a profound and deeply personal story without misstepping. But as she spoke, I quickly realized this isn't a conversation about struggle. It's one about celebration, resilience, and redefining how we see motherhood and difference. Join us as Priyanka shares her insights, experiences, and the inspiring way she walks through life, boldly, proudly, and with an open invitation to all of us. When you see her family, will you stare or will you smile and join the joy? Hello, Priyanka. Thank you. Thank you for having me. What do you usually see in people's eyes when they first meet and see your family? I think there are two kinds of people, two uh two types of people I notice. One who have really genuine this amazement and this like smile that you know, oh my god, look at them. Like, you know, they can see uh the love, the care, and this fun going on between us, and and there's this genuine, genuine smile of amazement and care. And then there are few who will stare, and but they're not staring at like uh they're just staring because it's like a Ferrari passing. I'm gonna stare. So it's like a stare. The only thing I do if I'm not in the best of the mood and I don't like the stare, I really stare back. It's like they're staring at my child, and I start staring at them like, and I keep staring until they stare back at me, thinking, why am I staring? And then they stop staring at my kids, but I continue staring until they feel like they did something awkward. And and that's just my way of playing and helping my mind. But do you think they they are staring that way because and staring at all because uh they they don't know about the this whole situation and condition and they are? Of course, it's it's it's it's it's new. It's new. Like you you you see uh my daughter, she's pretty, she's smart, and then they they have no idea why is that person on this stroller. She's smiling. Uh, because there are certain disabilities which are not visible until they stand, until they walk, they don't know. So they have this amazement and wonder, right? Which it's okay. And I think it is also dependent on my mood, on how I look at that stare, that day. So like I it can pass off, or some days it's just like I if I'm very low, then I think I'm gonna really give them a bad stare. And some days if I am in my high fly day, which are most part of the day, then I'm just gonna like just smile and say, that's it. So it's it it's a lot on me, then them. Can you walk me through your uh day? What do you do usually during a day? I think uh my day or you have twins too. I think our days is the same as any parenting. Like I don't think I have any different day and I work towards this feeling. My day is no different, but I think what is different, it's like um the intensity at which I have to work or any other parent has to work. It's like if I have to describe it to somebody, it's like, you know, everybody probably goes to the gym, but if it's an Olympic champion or a Virat Kohili or a Rohit Sharma, they have to go. The kind of you know workout they have to do through the day and maintain their diet, their nutrition, the way they have to look at their food, their diet, it's like the same way we, you know, we uh have to look at every small detail to make sure that we get that gold. So it's like because every milestone for us is like this golden, you know, golden moment. So you've got to work hard. So um, Priyanka, how do you approach uh social expectations and uh judgments? Do you have any mindset you practice every day to approach this uh kind of attitude? I think you have to work pretty much every day for something like that. For me especially, I don't know about everybody, but I I work on it like every day because the nights when I've not slept well because I sleep with my son and I have to help him roll. And we don't realize how many times we roll in the night, right? So when I wake up, I can be snappy to punch my husband, I can be snappy to my nannies or anything, but I don't want to be snappy. So I between that transition also, I have to like I need to work. Even if I have to cry it out for five minutes in the bathroom and release that negative energy, I will release it. If I'm walking back from dot dropping my daughter from the school and coming home, I will release that energy and I will listen to a like Denzel or any of these like motivational speakers or something that or a song from a movie which can get me up. Gives you a boost. So I will I know like okay, let's listen to this, and then I'll start thinking about it and start seeing where I want to go with my kids, and then ignore what happened, and then it takes me somewhere. So that's my role. And also I think I read this book at a time when I really needed to get out of this like space and keep be the Priyanka I am, which is you know, happy go, lucky girl neighborhood, you know. Like I want to be that person. And I read this book from this lady called Rhonda, the book's name is Power, uh, the same person who wrote The Secret. And it and I I'm not I could I don't get the time or the liberty anymore to, you know, run through the chapters. So I um got the audible to for myself, and I uh I l I listen through it and and I keep listening. It it's a go-to place for me at times when I don't know how to manage a situation. I just start listening to one of the chapters to get back. So yeah, that's me. But you're working on it very consciously. I mean, to be there and have your mind. If I don't, you're you can be pulled down by is there just so many moments in the day or by others, or even, you know, your friends, kids, and family. It can be anything which can pull you down. And you know, you go to certain um therapy centers where you see other kids and other mothers and and you feel for them, right? And somebody can be having a harder or a much challenged day than yours, even though you may have two, but their day just was difficult or the week was difficult, and you feel for everybody, and then everything can pull you down, but how do you pull yourself up? And if possible, those one, two people around you, if they talk to you about a situation, how can you try to get them to a space, if not up, but at least pull them from that well they're getting into to a just a space that they can seed some joy. I'm really interested uh for your life before your kids. What did you do? They are six years old. Yes, the six. Uh, before Zora Azaravar, I uh I have I've had a few jumps. I started as an art director with Ugelbee. I never started from there. I started as like an intern and moved up to that ladder. Uh and then moved to an absolutely different world, which was the Bollywood industry, and I was managing a few Bollywood stars and artists or musicians at some point. Little. And I loved, I I didn't know that I had that in me to uh do that, but I really thoroughly enjoyed. Like I loved it, I loved it. And then I met my husband at some point, and we got married, and he wanted to study, so we moved to Singapore to insey, and I had to roll my world to work here, and Bollywood is not here. Advertising I wasn't really keen in. And at some point, um, social media popped up in my life, and I started uh working as an account head for one of the brands here, and it was fantastic, I was loving it, and um and at some point and again uh my husband uh got a great opportunity to run um a brand back in Indonesia, and we were like, this is fascinating, like this is this is like we can't let go. Uh so we went for that and uh we moved to Jakarta, and I didn't think that Bollywood is any big deal there. I mean, even if it is, but they're they're back in the Kuchkachhota world and Sharukan, and there's nothing more happened pretty much after that. And um social media, I I can't learn Bahasa so well. I'm not the best person to learn a new language. So I decided that I'm gonna go back to studying and re-working on the skill I actually studied, which was art. So I turned back being a full-on artist, and I went to Slade to study for a few months, then I went to Parsons to study, so reignite my love for art, love for colours, no different mediums. Uh, and that's when I, for the first time, studied oil painting from a beautiful professor. He's his work is amazing. And um then I started painting and uh started my exhibitions, and uh, I pretty much had like before I could hold and go again, Surah, you know, my creative um like creativity went up there and uh they were born, they were born super duper early. And so then the world nobody around me had seen that world. So I was in this new crazy space of being a Nikki mom for a long time, a nuki parent, and Punj and I, it was one of the most um I I most difficult part of your life. Like I think that was far crazier than ever now. Now it's a little physically challenging because the kids are getting brigger and and you need to be strong to but I think then it was emotionally I never I had no idea, nobody around me had any idea. And I think um that's one of the sad parts of today's world, I feel, because now I'm on the other side. I feel like there is so no information about um this parenting. This parenting. And uh there's no discussion. There is discussion, there are things happening, but they're happening in silos and happening in the world of disability. Or but it's really not a topic which is written in the, you know, on the big papers and big magazines, and being spoken as like a one of the chapters of like 10 chapters of parenting, any pick up any parenting book, and there's no discussion of, you know, uh, thank God some way autism is being spoken about. But it's still not like an easy-going topic. Uh so yeah, maybe you will be the one one day who will be able to do that. Yeah, I wrote one of the posts I wrote. I think nobody gave me a guidebook. I think I have to create a book which tells. But I think it is it is really important for it to be spoken, but not out of like um, you know, we I I I have so many joys in the day. And I think it needs to be spoken. It's CP or it's autism or it is any kind of rare disease or whatever that is, you know, there's just so much in the world. Disability is like is in so many levels, uh, from stroke patients to so much going on at different levels and different age. But I think it there is so much joy and there's so much meaningful conversation which goes on here, so much learning for parents, that it can be spoken as part of a joy. You know, as we don't need sad stories to discuss, or like it has to be uh a high story. It can just be a regular day, um, like just a normal small thing that how how this one learned to draw. Like some, I don't know, just pick up small things in life and just make it a part of conversation. Did you have this positive attitude before giving birth to your kids? Oh, God is kind. I was always like that. And I think because of that, we are where we are. Um I was I was always like that, probably after a certain age, uh, this came to me. And then it uh thank God never went. Like I I've always been I've always been able to see a world with something like like it'll pass. Like I always see life as a phase. I don't see as a story, as like the end of the story. Even my this part, it's this not the you know, we don't know the story yet. How this is gonna pan out, how Zora will go to Harvard, how Zora will do TED Talk, how he's going to inspire the world, how he's gonna get a standing ovation from everybody. We don't know, I just know we'll go there. But how we will go there, what are we gonna do? It's a story, we'll figure it out. It's they are difficult pages, dude, to turn. But we are turning. And I'm blessed with wonderful family. Uh Punj is like 100% dad. He has to work, so he's not 100% in the therapies all the time. But somebody got to get the, you know, this world is really special with special price. But I also assume that motherhood has shaped your personality as well. Oh, just like any other mom, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it makes you um patient more recently. I pretty much dislike this word uh more, but um like I keep telling to universe, I'm done being patient, I'm done being patient. But yeah, it makes you patient, it makes you see things which I don't think anybody gets to see, like the small, the small like you become a microscope even in milestones, like oh this thing, and then you bring joy out of smaller things in life. And I think over time you start having fun. Like there's a time you cross. Not you know, many many parents take a long time to you know reach there. Some unfortunately don't they even reach it? Don't reach there. Even in their normal parenting, they are struggling, yeah. Like I was like, dude, but then you know, everybody's mind space is different. So I I'm nobody to judge, uh judge them that he gotta see where I am. No, no, no, no, no. I think I've got a great mind space and I'm happy that I can manage my world. But um, but I think a lot of parents sometimes should see, should see what blessings they have. Then they'll stop. I don't like the word cribbing, but yes, really genuinely cribbing about things they are blessed with. And I think most people, human, don't realize that they can really breathe well, they have beautiful hands, they have legs, they they can chew, they can wink, they can if the water falls in, they can close their eyes. There's so many things, you know. Uh many kids and many humans are working every day of their life to achieve. And if you have uh basic things you can you don't you can hopefully solve them. Yeah I think. Yeah, I hear you. And maybe it's uh it's uh it's also very difficult if you have something to appreciate it, so you appreciate it only if you see maybe another world as well on the other side or beside yours, and then you start appreciating yours. I agree, and I think sometimes you just don't need to see it from a perspective like uh oh, if you you know, you have this much money, then you see uh I always believe like oh you see why should I always see the you know the the person who has less? Why shouldn't I see the person who has more and be happy about it? Why should I look at it because we are human beings, exactly. So that's why exactly. So I'm I'm saying that somebody can say that to me, but this is not about getting more, this is about what you already have. That's why asking to see what you already have. So it's different from a perspective of getting more ambition, more money, more of that. I'm not asking you to look from that perspective. But the fact that you have a beautiful, healthy body, you really have a lot. Yeah, your phrase progress is a prada has become iconic, very much iconic. How do you personally measure progress in your children's journey? And please tell me about something about their latest uh progress as well. I've stopped really seeing progress, like uh, like oh, this age. They should do this, this age, they should do that. I had to mentally work on myself to stop thinking like that. And I had to start evaluating my kids from my kids' point of view. And it was very, very, very difficult. Like I really had to work hard on myself. Was there a turning point when uh when you started looking things like that? I think like a lot of like I like I said, like I read books, I PowerBook really helped me. Um I tried to talk to a few healers, or not healer, healer, but people who have a healing mindset. And I did some type of healings for myself in a way that I had to talk to this healer back who lives in Russia but is an Italian, um, who helped me, you know, in a in one I did a music therapy on myself to get and release the tension which I probably was going through. And some of the parents of friends who said certain things, I kept them in my mind to keep evolving myself and keep moving forward. And I think that it's it's not like one overnight turning point ever comes in a parents of special needs. I think it's a small, small switch you've got to build. But you really have to have it in you that I want to change, I want to be Priyanka again, like I want to be that go-getter again. Uh, and I think that's it's a progress. So I kept doing that for a while. And I started seeing, and when you, you know, it's like when you see what you really want to see, then you start seeing that in the world. So if you start saying, yeah, everybody's so irritating, I just made bad drivers, I just see red lights, and you will actually see red lights. You're driving, you'll land up seeing red lights, or you'll land up seeing, like, oh God, I don't like uh dust. And anywhere you'll see, you'll start noticing dust on even the microphone, everywhere you'll start noticing. So I think I had switch myself and I just started saying, even though I had not evolved there, I kept started saying that to myself, that I meet happy people. Um, oh, things are changing, oh, it's gonna. And then I started seeing, you know, my kids, like, for example, Zora started earlier, even if I would put any type of food in front of her, it was like, it's like threatened. She was threatened by it. And now she's picking up like certain biscuits, she's picking up, she's crushing papaya, she's crushing a few food items, trying to bring them on the floor. Uh, but I think that has a lot to do with, you know, you working with the universe by saying that I'm seeing changes, I'm seeing good changes. And then you start seeing them. But you really have to say, even when it is not there. And you're some but somewhere your belief is, but there is no situation in front of you. But you can't you gotta keep like keep saying it, keep saying it, keep saying it. But this is a practice can or mindset can be this kind of mindset can be practiced actually um uh in other fields of life as well. So everywhere, even at work, everything. Family. Even like if you don't like your boss, even if you don't like if you keep saying and you come home with your friends, you keep talking about I don't like him, he does this, you'll keep seeing the nag. It's like with your partner, with your kids. And if you just switch it, uh you will stop, you will stop seeing it. It's it's funny, but it's true. Yeah, we talked about progress, but I'm also interested how you measure success then. Success is joy, is joy. I think you have to be happy now. If if my son is laughing, my daughter's laughing, I'm laughing, my nannies are laughing, and we are laughing, my husband's laughing, we as a family are laughing. I think because tomorrow, no, anyways, nobody knows. So if I'm happy and my we all are happy and we are, I think that's the most important thing. And you we all should be there first. And obviously, who doesn't want their child independent? Who doesn't want the child running and picking on things and who doesn't want that? So obviously, as a mother, I want everything, right? Even if the doctors or the medical world may say it may come, may not come, or whatever their uh their world defines. But I can define my world the way I want it, and I will, and it will happen. But it's just I have stopped defining timelines to that. Like it's okay. Whenever it has to happen, it'll happen, but it'll happen. So we keep working. That's the tone we stay in, but we don't put, but I think the most important I work towards is let's just be happy. Let's try to find happiness, and my kids find happiness. And you will, you know, your brain will grow well, your oxygen will go well, and you will overall everybody will be healthy. Everybody. I also read a quotation from you that um you you always say that you feel that you walk like a lion on the street. Do you have to? I think so. So but it it means and reflects somehow strength. And what is strength for you? Do you have to be strength and do you have to have strength every day, every moment? I think confidence confidence. I think for me it's confidence, it's the belief. It's it's like lion believes. I feel like I'm the king of jungle. And and and they they walk with that strength, they walk with that confidence, that roar that you that me, my kids, we are we are we're ruling, we are happy kids, we are walking and we are having fun. And uh somewhere it may and it it just it's an automatic tune. It's an automatic thing. You do it, and uh, and and what you radiate is what you get. It's like a mirror, right? If you walk with that strength, they just and I notice it all the time. Everybody has a smile on the face because my confidence goes to my kids, because what you are, what a parent is becomes the child. And when others see us like that, they see this relationship, they see this joy, they only have a smile and they only have warmth and they only want to help. I don't want physical help from anybody, but just the smile back, I think, is such an important aspect of um, you know, this village or jungle we live in, that we so that's that's that's me, I think. Yeah, as I'm listening to you, I wish uh we had uh many more Priyanka in the world. I am sure they are. So many parents the world deserves you. So many mothers are uh, or so many fathers or parents in general, uh go through what I go through, and and I see pride in so many of them. Uh so I'm I I in no way I'm alone. I think there are just so many wonderful parents out there. Some are just extrovert, and some uh I don't just share to others, but I'm I'm many, many, many parents are there. But this attitude I think uh absolutely um challenges social norms as well. I think so, because um just as I uh told in the in the introduction about you, that I had also the feeling before we met that you know how to approach you, how to approach your situation. And then I just realized that it's so natural how you handle your your uh your life just as I do and everyone else does. Because actually, the the the common ground is that we are mothers, right? Yeah, we have another common ground that we have twins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally, oh God. So I cannot tell you why I was a bit afraid of this um first discussion with you. But after five minutes, I really felt that um that it's gone. And I was so happy about that. Fantastic. I was so happy and grateful for that. Fantastic. It's very interesting, right? That um but maybe I was afraid about the unknown. And that's what you um told at the beginning of our conversation that people sometimes when they stare at you on the streets, they might be afraid of the unknown. Yeah, it's like they have so many questions. Like one of the when we were in Mumbai Airport and we were crossing, I remember everybody was very kind to us. And there's this one lady who was checking, who's supposed to be at the security checking. Uh, she looked at my daughter, and my daughter was playful, and she looked at my daughter, and and then I made her get up and made her walk. She was expecting her to just walk out. Like I said in Hindi that she still cannot walk yet. So she was like, Yeah, cute, why? And I was like, God's plan, Auntie. God's plan. And then I made her walk, and then and then we she did the check and everything. And then uh we walked out. I said, I'll make a sit. Can you open the other door? And and she's like, uh, when would uh she be okay? Three years back, somebody would ask me, I would probably cry, or I would break, or I would get very angry that how can you say that? But now I have a very like I have a very healthy reply, and I will say, You pray, I pray, God will figure it out. How all I have to do is hard work, and she has to work hard, and you have to pray for us. And and then I walk out, and then they actually have a smile, and they probably at some point will pray because they did not expect this uh behavior. And I think that is where the genuine uh people start genuinely connect with your kids because you you just give them an information and the way you say it to them like shocks them, like how you know, and then they see Zaravir also coming, and then they can't understand how is this mother smiling with two kids, you know, in this position. Like they they they're baffled, and I think that is the beautiful thing I bring because they are in awe of confidence, they're in awe of this, like, oh my god, and then they want to do everything in the world. But this is how you break it for them. Yeah, this is how you break it for them and you help them, and they are see in life, everybody's kind. It's just when you meet them and how you meet them. So you may find one taxi driver probably angry because he could also have something bad in his day. Every day doesn't go perfect. He might have had a message or something just before picking you up, and then you say he's so rude, you know, and you label the whole taxi world different. Yes, this, you know, humans, there will always be a black, you know, some somebody rot in there, but mostly people are nice and they are genuinely want to be nice to you. Some just don't know how to be nice. So when they stare at you, if you start taking that stare in a way, you can switch it to a smile. I think you've moved something. And I I enjoy moving that. Like I I do these stares at people because they are staring, and then I do it intentionally. Sometimes I do it out of fun, I like out of kicks. I like really stare, um like really, really stare, and that guy is like now looking here, and I keep staring until I have a, you know, I have to go. And then I just like do this. That you know, now you know what you mean. Like you just just because my child can't stare back at you, you're constantly like just looking. Think how if how you felt when I did that to you. Like I I looked through you, it was ugly, right? For you, so why are you doing that? So I've stopped talking. Like, I don't, like I I won't um shout back or get angry. Those those reactions, I have worked here to move move on from there. And I love it. Like I love changing expressions and getting turning that frown face into or a like stare face into like, oh, oh, I did like like oh shit, push it, push it. I love it, I love it, I love it. It's fun. Back to yourself. Do you have any me time? I'm blessed with a beautiful husband who pushes me to have a me time. Okay, what do you do in your me time? Um, I would love to exercise. Uh, so if I do get something, I would love to do, like I would love to exercise and stay fit for myself and my kids and my family. It's the most important gift I can give them now. I would love to pick up paint and paint, but I I think uh when I, you know, somewhere with all the big equipment with my kids, I I somewhere, you know, the space just uh gets restricted because the kind of painting I've enjoyed doing is like literally like Jackson Polak, like throwing pain and uh keep like having a room, this space, you know, for myself with white walls and just going crazy. That I have to either move back to Jakarta or India to get that space. Uh for now I find as long as I can uh exercise, and uh I think I'll be that's my first step for my me time. And some little Netflix is okay, or whatever that content spaces. And what type of content you do you usually watch? I do. I think uh depends on the uh time, but and your mood? Yeah, you know, I'm quite moody also. So it depends on the mood I can watch. Um I can now watch earlier. I was like, you know, when just about Zozos, probably I saw so much blood and all of that and the Nikyu world, like I had no intention to see blood and crime thrillers and stuff like that. But no, thank god I've passed that past that. So now I'm okay with um as long as it's not very gory, I'm okay. I love it. Would you mind sharing some of your dreams with me? Dream? Oh my god, you know, the other day I put a post uh because the person who asked was my husband. He asked me, Bringu, what uh do you have in mind for yourself? For yeah, I'm I was blank, I'm still blank. I I I just really have no answer right now. I think I'm so occupied with Zora Azura, and I I still feel I'm not doing enough. I really don't do enough. I have so many things I have to do, and I've I don't do enough. Like I have this guilt, which I you may say, oh you shouldn't be, and all that, but I'm so sorry. I really don't think you can overcome that for me. But I do have a I have this guilt, like I want to do for CVI for my son, I want to practice more with Zora on certain things and walking, have ideas, but because they both are so north and south, literally in every possible way, that I don't land up doing enough for one child. I do enough, but I don't do enough because I feel like I can do so much more. So that art is there, and I think it uh until certain milestones are reached, it's it's not going off easy for now. Uh so I really don't have much just for myself, but I do want to work towards CVI. I'm studying on that subject, and I want to open uh an institute or a space to teach kids with CVI. Like there is no space right now. I mean, literally, it's a great great space to be in from um from every aspect. Yeah, that's like that's pretty much it. And uh, and I I need to pass my driving test. Oh this page is not blank then about your dreams, what you mentioned that so you So yeah, I mean these are uh short-term goals, but still Yeah, I have I have so you have to find space uh somehow for Priyanka yourself as well, right? I do, I do, and I think it is such a you know, like all parents, and if you read these all psychological, philosophical things, which always says, oh, have a me time and do something for yourself. And then you bounce back better, which is true. Like you got to exit to enter sometimes. It's like the same thing in the gym. You to go up, you really need to push down. You can't stay up well until you keep your thing down, and then boom, you can do that with higher weights every time. So I agree, but it's really not easy to execute. I'm trying every day. I've come to this podcast. That's that's a sense. I'm so grateful for that. So I keep taking these small steps. I'm blessed with a great uh team in the house who can help me to come here. Uh, I think without the two of them, you know, my nannies are uh June and Nene. I think it would be very difficult to uh come out because I can trust, I would trust my sisters with them. So they're like big and elder sister in my life. For someone who is listening this episode, um, and maybe who wants to support a family like yours, what would you say? I think again there are two paths. One is like as a stranger. So as a stranger, I think you would just hold a smile, which is a cheerleader smile. Just hold that. You don't really need to physically help a parent and you don't really need to emotionally do anything for anybody. When you see anybody on the street which you genuinely feel um is working hard, have that genuine cheerleader smile. That's it. And as a friend or a family member, I'm blessed with few, um, but the ones who want to do something, I think with genuine heart, keep reaching out to that father or the mother or the parent, like how you would reach out to your client. Like you chase them, you chase them. You chase them for a meeting. I I'm blessed with a few friends who do that to me. You chase them like without a thought that they will say a no. And even if they say no, you keep asking. Because that is what keeps a constant drive. You message them, you don't need to ask, how is the kid, how is you, because they Will not be able to answer how. Like probably they had a most difficult night, but just sending a hug and a kiss and a some funny photo or something you read which is about the challenge, and you just share it with them with a message. Hey, read this something exciting, and learning about this world just gives them a joy that you know you're building a village for their for their children. So you really don't need to all the time be precise and you don't really need to call them for a drink. Uh you have a party and you think they are the ones who should be there. You call them, Maximum, they'll say a no. You remind them, hey, uh, more send them a message in the morning. In case there's free-up space, there's always, you know, space here waiting for you guys. If you can make just no need to like um push them, but push them because they need to be pushed. And they need somebody to, you know, jerk them in a way that they need. So just in a healthy way, keep doing it, and it's and be ready to hear a no. Just be there and be around. And just be ready to hear a no. Because there are a lot of, you know, a lot of friends who are there for you, but they can't they don't know even how to say hi through a message. They're there for you. They're waiting for you to have time to message them. It's very rare for a special need parent and two to forget it, uh, to have that kind of mental space. You may have, you know, I I genuinely have time. I want to tell the world that it's not that I'm I don't have time. Most times I don't have mental time. Like I'm just so exhausted that even if I want a drink and even if I want to actually catch up with someone, I just don't have that energy to say, hey, hi, and dial that number. If somebody dials at me, and there are times when I'm seeing, but I don't have the energy to talk back sometimes. So I'm trying to say is that it's okay to call them, message them, but have the heart to hear the no and have the heart to call back without thinking that you are um being shunned away, you're being pushed. That's it. So I think just hold a smile, maximum. That's all. Maximum and the little you have to do. But that's a human thing, you should anyways do. Yeah, for sure, for sure. So um, what message would you share with other moms and families who who are walking a similar path? It's not easy. I cry a lot. So you should cry, you should be sad, you can do whatever you want to release this negative thing, uh, release whatever that's sad. Why me? But you gotta get that shit out faster and just start living. Start living the world you're with. I mean, shit happens anyways, you know, shit can happen. Bad things happen to anybody and everybody at times which you don't realize. So probably ask him a little earlier than others. But we didn't, you know, like I tell myself, actually, I I don't I don't think I I take my words back because I really don't have a problem. I really genuinely, I just have certain challenges, and I think everybody has a challenge. Some have financial challenges, some have mental challenges, some have challenges in such odd ways that to me they then they're like shit, this is not a challenge, but their mental space, it's so sad. It's so sad that you know, and there are certain people who have you you believe that they have everything in their life and then they kill themselves. Like literally, you hear these random suicides and you're like, shit, this one, how can they like you were dreaming their life, and then you know, like when I heard the two people when I was in New York, the same week, two people killed themselves, and I always wished, you know, a world like them. One was Anthony Bodin, the chef, and then there was uh this Kate uh Kate Spade. Like I walked that Fifth Avenue, you know, my school person was there, and I used to look at all the penthouses. I say, this is nice, this is where. And then Kate Spade killed herself in the house, which was in Fifth Avenue. I was like, shit, I don't want that house. And then, like, you know, so so I'm just trying to say is that everybody has shit. Uh, and the sad part going in their life. It's just how you manage your mind and how you start seeing joy in everything you have. The the most important blessing is you're you're in that space that you have two people you can take care of. And when you start seeing that, you know, things start rolling very differently for you. Money will come, therapy will happen, something or the other will start rolling when you truly, truly start you change yourself. Like not just superficially, when that true moment will come. Like there are times when I keep saying things when they are not even happening. But I truly don't believe it yet, right? Because I'm saying it to keep turning things. But there will be a moment when when you keep saying the same thing, it will become your life. And when that life actually happens, that's when the change comes. Like when I truly started saying that it'll change, change, change, change. And then I started seeing Zora Zora, started touching things, eating things, or Zurabar in his own way, started becoming a happier person and started doing certain routines of his day which were more healthy and happy. And he started valuing the family members, and nobody had to be scared to come to my house because Zurawar would start crying if he heard a new member. So we had such weird challenges that you can't even believe they were there. Like, oh shit. Like my husband couldn't walk in the room because if he said Zurawar will cry because he couldn't handle. So now he cannot live without Web of saying hello. So I just feel like just remove this um sad guilt as much as you can and start genuinely enjoying whatever you have, whatever challenge. And some are really, really, really deep. Some are really deep, some have genuine medical challenges, some kids and uh some adults, and it's easy for me to say, even though I have to, but then some are very challenging, but whatever you have, you've got to find some peace and joy. Priyanka, I've seen so much joy in this conversation. Thank you. And I'm so grateful uh that I know you. I'm grateful that I could uh, which was my first podcast. So I'm really was it your first one? Yeah, yeah. It was I I I generally, this is probably that's what I'm saying. Like, you gotta bring change. So I I forced myself like to bring that change that okay, we we we gotta talk, and I gotta talk. And every mother or parent would say, hey, you should be telling your story, you should be talking about it. I was like, yeah, I will, I will, I will. And then you popped up. I was like, colour, you know, I gotta start, so here we go. Here we go. Thank you so much for coming. I really enjoyed it. I'm glad the conversation with you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing in Priyanka's incredible journey. If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you never miss a story that challenges, inspires, and uplifts. And if you know someone who could benefit from this conversation, please share it. Because meaningful change begins when we connect and listen. Remember, life's a beautiful juggling act, and each day is an opportunity to shine your brightest. So keep juggling, keep shining.