The itch to write

Last year Me and Rohit stayed up till 3 am to make this cake so that we could surprise Ryan in the morning. It was his 4 th birthday. Ryan loves cakes, birthdays ,decorations and we decided to do it all. It was a quiet celebration with just the three of us but we wanted the grand party feels. It was worth the effort because he loved it. My heart goes out to all the kids who are unable to have their grandparents/cousins and friends over for birthdays due to the Corona scare. I so wish this pandemic would just end.     I made Prawns Biriyani for lunch because Ryan is a "biriyani boy". We sometimes even call him that. But that day he was exhausted with all the video calls and wishes he has been getting throughout the day that he didn't really eat much of the biriyani.   I took the effort because it was his birthday but if it was any other day, I would have made some Kanji and payar and chilled. Ryan pondering about whether he should attack the cake because it looks like...

                  S ince time immemorial Charukasera has adorned every Kerala house.  The picturesque view of a traditional Kerala house is incomplete without this easy chair in the verandah . The  Charukasera instantly renders grace and grandeur to the house.             The mere sight of this minimalistic chair knocks up the nostalgia of my childhood at my mother's house in Chalissery. I still remember my grandmother whom we fondly called "Amma" sitting on this chair reading the bible. She observed us cousins playing and fighting with each other around her Ch arukasera which sat in the corner of the long-running verandah which we referred to as "Ummaram " .                      Every house has a Charukasera which has seen it all. The departing tears and the greeting smiles. The prayers we say before leaving the house and the sur...

  This year I slowly learned.. 1. To let go of ALL the FEARS which was stopping me from being my BEST SELF. The biggest obstacle in front of me was "ME"(slow clap). Yes, I was standing in my own way.  I doubted myself. I didn't realize my true potential because I couldn't see it.  I was in a safe place. I didn't want any changes. It was cozy to be in this safe haven but deep down I knew very well that great things won't come from comfort zones.  I wasn't ready to take risks yet every night when I went to bed I felt like something was missing. I felt my days were unproductive. I felt my creative side would just rot.  2.I learned that more than hard work or motivation it is Consistency and discipline which will take you places. Of course Discipline> Consistency. 3.I learned that acknowledging and embracing the blessings that I have will lead to abundance instead of worrying and whining about what I don't have. 4.Learned to give Thanks to Christ my sav...

                Cultivating habits like writing a dairy is not a cake walk anymore. Atleast not in this generation where we are all drowning in the ocean of technology. Infact Ayamachi once asked me “ Mole! Ee Phone il entha ullathu? Ellavarum ithu epozhum enthina pidichu kondu nadakunnathu? . Those words hit deep and I realised we are giving more importance to this nonliving man made thing than anything else. Are we carrying the Bible the same way everywhere we go?                     While we jot down our “To Do Lists” Ayammachi has it memorised. There used to be a time when landphones existed  in every house and when she memorised the telephone numbers of her near and dear ones. How many phone numbers can we tell by heart?                   She also has a “Kanaku Pusthakam” where she writes her daily expenses and calculations. She also ...

Image source : Pantoufle Design My Morning routine Set the alarm for 5.00 AM. Snooze it till 6.00 AM. Walks like a zombie to the bathroom. Splashes cold water to the face. Still sleepy? Pinches self. Ouch. Goes to kitchen. Loads body with caffeine. The never-ending “to do list” Cook breakfast & lunch Load/unload washing machine (Separate wash for baby clothes) Put clothes out to dry Brooming & Mopping Clean Bathrooms Put dried dishes to the respective cabinets Fold dry clothes Make healthy baby food Wash / Disinfect Toys Clean the high chair Sterilisation of baby bottles/containers Wash dishes Hand-wash certain clothes Finish this post Make a list of groceries to be brought Plan tomorrow’s meals & the list is endless Babies have a sixth sense                 Babies can read minds. Any attempt to eat in peace will have to wait. Ryan gets a signal alert every time hi...

It took me longer to write this story than to give birth! The truth is child birth cannot be contained in words. It is entangled with heaps of  emotions . This mysterious storm of pregnancy & childbirth has changed me for good . Anyway I think I deserve a round of applause for completing this post between feeding , diaper change and lack of sleep. So here goes.. We were asked to come in for an induction at 40 weeks. I was given a sublingual tablet at 5.30am on April 11th and was told that I would be checked again in the next few hours. Since nothing happened for sometime me and rohit figured there was no point in us waiting so we went off to sleep. At around 6.30 am i started getting a cramp like ache in my lower stomach.We decided to go for a short walk after our breakfast to see if I could get some contractions going. As hours passed by ,the pain grew inside me. It was bad but I was able to bear it so I would call them extreme menstrual cramps.  Those were actua...

26, January 2001 [Republic Day]  Place: Baroda, Gujarat                                  As usual I was struggling to write an essay in Gujarati. I despised attending tuition classes on holidays but I was left with no choice. My low marks in gujarati brought me here every morning at 8. This day was no different than the other days till…. … ......……..Till I felt someone pushing my chair back and forth. I instantly turned around.  No one was there.                                                I calmed my thoughts and told myself that I must have imagined that. But the look on my teacher’s face who was sitting opposite to me made me realise that it was no imagination. I saw her looking behind her chair with uncertainty. Before I could tell her wh...

                                         It was another day at middle school. I still had not made any friends. Well , the truth is I really tried but no one  wanted to be my friend. It was lunch time and I was looking for a place to sit in the cafeteria. This is one thing I dread the most. Everyone had a group of friends of their own. The popular group sat in the corner. They were the cheerleaders, basketball players, kids with good looks (most of them wore makeup so cannot really tell if they were really good looking) and then there were the rich kids who only wore only branded clothes , shoes.  I certainly did not belong there because I didn’t have the skinny body type which those cheerleaders had. Forget sports. I cannot even do ten push-ups straight. I wore clothes which I got on sale from JCpenny and not Ar...