Petals!

Adi and I like to spend our time together reading books, eating out and playing. We spend sometime at our favorite place, The British Council Library - where the children's section is really a fun place to be. Kids, as young as one year old, park themselves in this section, crawling around and making gurgling sounds and the older ones learn to watch their steps so that they don't tumble over the crawling kiddies. Stylish moms also are a part of this space and they vary at different levels, of course. There are the dressed-to-kill moms, who are swathed in diamonds and branded wear and you feel frightened to go near them, fearing they would break a bone if you approached. There are simple, working moms like me who slog 24X7 and have really no time or aptitude to dress like Barbie dolls (also the realistic realization that why waste all that time and effort when you know you wont look like one!) and then there are the absolutely down to earth moms who are very grounded, conservat...

God is everywhere and in everyone but when I need to crib, I can't crib to just everyone or anyone.  So, I sat, making a very solemn, fed-up-with-you-god face and sat down to pray in a cribbing mode.  I told Gd about all my problems, or rather my version of it, and gave him an ultimatum - listen and do something abt it, or at least, tell me something. Just after my prayer, I had the feeling that the message will reach me. It usually does after I've cribbed and whined:). God has never let me down though He doesn't mind if I try some of my melodramatic dialogues on Him:)                                       (Image:Dreamstime) Immediately after the prayer, I went to watch TV. Amitabh Bachchan was on TV, giving an interview to a Malayalam channel.  He said, "Whenever I become depressed that things don't go my way, I remember my father's words. He said that whe...

All of you know me as Swapna, which is my official name. However, when my paternal grandmother named me, she had given me a first name, a name that was added before Swapna. In a way, that is my real name because that was whispered into my ear during the first naming ceremony that we Hindus follow. Most of you are my dear friends and so, may know it though you don't call me by the name. Tell me - what's my real name?

Today is my sister's birthday. She is in Australia, far far away from home. I called her twice. Once, I called her to wish her and then, I called her again because Adi wants to talk to his "Gee Maa." Her name is Sangeetha and he wanted to call her "amma" coz she and I look alike in many ways but hearing us call her by her nickname 'Geethu', little adi got confused and began to call her "Gee Maa." Geethu and Adi have a special bond. Praying for me through rainy day pradakshinams in Guruvayoor and Chottanikkara and doing the saptaha reading of Sri Sathcharita, my sister's prayers for Adi even before he was born is something that I can never forget. She would call me every day to ask how I felt and whether I am fine and she was doing that throughout. She and I spent a whole week shopping for the things that Adi would wear once he was born. Every little item was chosen with so much love and care by Geethu.  When Adi was born, she loved to tak...

A nice and respectable South Indian family comprising of Avi, the rich father who loves and cares for his daughters more than anything in the world, Saroja, the excellent home maker and cook, who loves her husband and family but fails to win their respect because she is constantly nagging them about what they should have done or could have done. There is also the strong-as-rock factor, Vasu, who is the grandmother, a strong woman who made bold choices that her daughter, Saroja does not forgive her for. Their two daughters are Shobha and Devi, as different from each other as chalk and cheese. Shobha is the supposedly perfect daughter, wife and professional. A VP at the age of 30 years, her loveless marriage and inability to have children taunts her from within day by day, making her hate everything and everyone in the process. In particular, she feels frustrated that she has to keep working hard at being perfect and poised for her parents and for the whole world because she had n...