Concoction of all that is beautiful in Our life

Deep in thoughts , I couldn't fathom this mystery woman in me. There are many things about myself I don't understand . Trying to inculcate many new habits, trying to improve in whatever I could. Unable to choose the priorities, pondering over too many stuffs. Thinking how or where my career leads me. Where would I be in 5 years, leave 5 what about 2 or 3 years... There is too much stuffs to dooo, but hardly any recognition.... The way ahead is too vague and I have ambivalent emotions to that. Feeling alone and baffled,petrified and disturbed, I understand the only thing constant in life is 'change'. The utter state of confusion , a good mom, a role model employee, a great home maker... what could I do to manage all????? Is it possible to excel in one without worrying about something else.. I think it's not.. As approaching 30, I am too scared to think what I have achieved in my 30 years of existence..... Only thing I should hold on to is HOOOPPPEEEEE.... PATIENCE.....

I haven't read many memoirs before. I found this one by Paul Kalanithi profoundly poignant of courage, dedication, love and loss. Paul was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 36 when he was completing the last year of his Neurosurgery residency and after 22 months, he died in March 2015 while his daughter Cady was just 8 months old. Paul had earned degrees in Literature,Biology and Medicine from Ivy league universities and aspired to be a Neurosurgeon-scientist and as a writer. A gifted doctor,a brilliant scientist,a passionate writer,a loving son, brother ,husband and father .. numerous were the role he played and I believe he played all of these roles flawlessly well. Throughout the book , I was amazed by his wisdom and the myriads of books he would have read. He replaced his love for literature and ambition to be a writer with neurosurgery to do something tangible by saving lives.After years of grueling residency and long hours at work, Paul and his wife Lucy was going th...

Dear  Kunju, Even before we knew you were born, you are two . It was on Friday March 6th 2015 that we came to know you have sprouted inside me, our perfectly planned absolute God sent gift. From then, till now and forward , we know that you will be the most precious of everything we have.You are our life.... Our world literally revolves around you. Ever since you came up, our life has been ebullient and cheerful. From the ' paavam ' new born to the naughty toddler you have evolved a lot. At times, it make me sad to realize that I can't rock you on my lap anymore,carry on my arms to let u sleep. But I have really enjoyed every phase of that. If it wasn't for you, I would not have had the scariest C-section, the yucky moringa leaves soup(it literally tasted shit), the ' netholi ' curry, lots and lots of ' kurukke ' (ayurvedic medicines given to women after delivery to resuscitate their health  and to feed the baby ). Though it was heart breakin...

When I was growing up , I thought learning is a phase wherein we study what is in the text books for exams to secure good scores and ensure a safer future. I believed great scores would make certain I get a good job and ample money and be rich and admirable. The pedagogy that my school or college followed has entrenched it in my mind. I really never bothered to find anything that would have helped me learn from the world outside study guides. School life was fun and my school gave adequate importance to arts and sports as to academics. My school had significant presence in the inter-school competitions in the district and state level and I had been to one of such events and participated when I was in lower classes. As I moved to higher classes , my significant interest was to study what is in text books, memorize them and spew them into the answer sheets for the exams. Nothing ever triggered the thought to establish the concepts firmly. No teacher ever asked how familiar we are with t...

My employer has 3 different office venues in Mumbai. Most of my teammates are in this office location which is too far from where I stay.I would often tell my team mates that I would reach Pune in the same time I take to commute there(I stay at the far end of Mumbai .. sigh). One of our analysts from US is on vacation at her home town in Gujarat and she decided to pay us a friendly visit as she had some VISA formalities at Mumbai. To benefit the majority, the venue was obviously the other office. Unlike other times when I would grouse about my travel woes , this time around I was happy visiting the office(No monday blues !!) because I was really fond of the collegaue.She is really a cool person to work with. We worked in a project and she really had been very clear about the requirements and the deadlines. Apart from her , there is one more analyst who I really admire for her clarity of thoughts and prudent analytical skills. Both of their names starts with M. M came to our...

It's already the 8th dayof Navaratri. Ashtami.  Having grown up in Kerala, Navartri was significant to us specifically for the last 3 days attributing to Pooja veppu , Pooja eduppu, Ayudha pooja and Vidhyarambham . During those time on the evening of Ashtami we used to neatly wrap one or two books on newspaper, stick a white rectangular paper with our names on the wrapper , take it to the temple and bequeath it there with the gods to shower their blessings and wisdom. From that evening of Durgashtami, until the 2nd day morning which is Vijayadashmi, we refrain ourselves from reading and writing. At home in our pooja room, all the holy books such as Ramayana ,Mahabharata etc were neatly arranged on a decorated stool and kept for pooja these 2 days.  All these days are contributed to the worship of our beloved goddess of learning, Sarswati devi. Being too religious at that time, I was too scared to read anything and considered it a sin even to read something acciden...

My little one is growing up and he is growing up really fast. He is all of 19 months now shortly reaching the terrific  two. He is a wonderful kid to be with, extremely loving and caring. He is a natural mimic and emulates whatever we adults do. My father in law is very finicky when it comes to keeping our home sparkling clean.R sees him dusting the furniture  and walls every morning with the dusting brush . Little R does the same stuff if he gets the brush, with so much elan as  dad. Not just that, he loves to sweep the rooms. Each time we pick the broom to sweep, he would be behind us yelling boom boom . Fortunately he wouldn't hamper our maid's work when she comes, let her do the tasks and will not jump in between. So yes he knows when and where to step in. He loves to climb upon all the furniture. Sometimes he stubbornly cries and throws a fit and will not give up until he gets what he need.  Frolic time in bed Little Bahubali is here...

If I tell you , I am seeing a few silver hair strands now in my early twenties you would not be surprised right? But What if I tell you I have this silver strands as early as I was  just   13. Yep Genetics played this pivotal role in coloring my hair silver . Mom had gray from her teen days and has been using different hair dyes since the time I know. CIRCA 2000, I was in 7th standard when I noticed the first silver shine in my shoulder-length hair. From then ,my mom wandered here and there gathered so many different oils every 6 weeks to experiment on my grays. Each time she tells someone about her story being repeated for the younger daughter, somebody would wear the apothecary's cloak and advise her on this mystic hair oil with this restorative ingredients that will paint all grays back to black. There is no shortage for advises and my mom religiously followed most of them hoping to work it out. But nothing really worked. I really didn't care ...

It's been 5 months since our last vacay and am eagerly craving for the next. Kerala trip was awesome with so many celebrations and trips and day outings. This summer is extreme here and that kindles another reason to escape to some where we could find some relief.Unfortunately my dreams wont be anywhere near by as we both are busy due to tight work schedules and deadlines to meet. Anyways  I have started short listing a few places for my own sanity. Adding in some pics of our day trip on house boat from Kollam to munroe islands. We had a good time through the trip. It was enticing to be in the back-waters for the whole day.Our trip started from Ashramam in Kollam around 11 am in the morning. Took closer to 2 hrs to reach Munroe islands where  we stopped  for lunch, strolled through the shady avenue of coconut trees in the island and clicked  plenty of pics Nature at its best Coconut thicket... What a beauty Another houseboat on sail Fishing boa...

This​ post has been lying in my drafts for so long unfinished and I've decided to complete it today.My last trip in December 2016 was one of the most exhilarating and one of the highlights was our forest interlude at Arippa wild life sanctuary. It was full fun and frolic. Little had I heard about Arippa before being there,  and am glad that I got to explore one of the little explored forests with my favorite people. The best part about travelling with  your cousins is that you can just be yourself ,do whatever you want without worrying about offending anybody; dance your heart out, behave crazily ,and anything. With a 1 year old, traveling to the woods can get you skeptical, but little Rey enjoyed every minute of it with so many care takers around.  Enjoying the river bath Arippa is a low land evergreen forest about 60 kms from Kollam enroute thiruvananthapuram . We had options to stay in the hilltop bungalow jyotishmati or in the tents. We decided to cam...

My sister is a super chef. She always amazed me with her patience ,perseverance and the details to perfection while she prepared something. I remember how well she managed to cook for my friends or relatives when they visited. For one of my college excursion, she made me this amazing lemon rice , she learnt from our tamil tenants. She carefully packed the rice , a little extra even for my friends wrapped in slightly toasted banana leaf. I opened the wrappers , the aroma of lemon rice in toasted plantain leaf spread in the air,letting it vanish in few minutes. All my friends and relatives have always praised her culinary skills. My sisters stir fried vegetables with grilled chicken in cheese Sisters signature dish- Chicken biriyani(delight for non vegetarians) Cooking was completely philistine to me until I got married. I never bothered to learn cooking even when my marriage was fixed. Back then I was a hardcore non vegetarian although i loath fish and my to-be -husband a ...

Rain knocked our doors yesterday😀, the first rain of the year. It was a complete surprise.The smell of soil, the sound of rain, the air so refreshing and cool who doesn't love  rains 😃. Some respite from the sweltering summer

Its been a while since I posted something. When I started , I hoped to remain disciplined and post regularly at least once a week. But for whatever reasons I could state, I didn't blog for almost 5 months now. Its been a crazy busy bunch of months. December was super exciting. we had been to Kerala ,visited the Arippa wildlife sanctuary, spent one day in house boat sailing from Kollam to Munroe Islands,enjoyed temple festivals, family get together, had amazing food, and most of all I got to spent complete 2 weeks with R who enjoyed the open spaces and new faces. We reached back on Jan 3rd. January was crazy . Amma fall sick and haggard, she had intensive cough and chest congestion and I had a very tough juggling house and work. Yet I had time to catch with some of my office colleagues and I had been for dinner out at Leopold on one saturday eve which was all fun. Hubby dear had been to Delhi, Amritsar. He visited Golden temple and  Wagah border and promise to take us there som...