Petals!

Most of our childhood is stored not in photos but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet. - Alain de Botton


One of the most beautiful aspects about being a mother is that you are blessed with an opportunity to make your child's growing up years truly memorable. When my son looks back to hischildhood days, I truly hope that these are some of the things that he will remember fondly and perhaps share as part of the 'Down Memory Lane' conversations as an adult:
Childhood Memories: With a Mom who turns the tables on 'Son is King' syndrome
Fun times with an easy going mother, who despite struggling with 24X7 work related tasks, kitchen chores and other odd jobs, makes sure that she raises a confident, down-to-earth and positive thinking kid who often tries his hand at being a brat. This mom doesn't give him the 'Son is King and never at fault' routine and she grills him whenever it is required, asks him to pitch in to go buy groceries, ke…

                  Love without a price tag, conditions attached or the fine print of debt 

At the age of five or six years, I told my Dad that I would never ever opt for an arranged marriage, especially the transactional ''bride seeing'' ceremony, where the bride is paraded around like a fancy showpiece before a bunch of curious strangers, who are more interested in how much gold she is wearing than her IQ.
Dad, being my ever patient, serene hero, just smiled that calm, soothing smile that some of you are already familiar with and he said, ''Sure, that's fine."
I was expecting a full flung family drama, a storm, maybe even being thrown out for the audacity of breaking the much-treasured family tradition. How dare a girl even say such a thing to her parents, right?
Nothing happened. Dad was so cool. Then it struck me - maybe I am adopted. That's why it doesn't matter so much to him. 
I did manage to summon the courage and ask Dad several times, "…

Anju Sundarikal, as the title suggests 'Five Beautiful Women,' is a poignant anthology of five short films that celebrate five female protagonists and their tumultous lives. These five films play on different themes and emotions, and on the whole, it is an interesting anthology.

Anju Sundarikal - Sethulakshmi The first film, Sethulakshmi, is a heart-wrenching portrayal of sexual abuse of a small girl whose hobby is to collect newspaper clippings of newly wed couples from newspapers and she embarks on getting a similar photograph taken of herself with her best buddy from school. What appears as an innocent wish is the honeytrap that leads the little girl to understand the meaning of fear. 
Each scene in Sethulakshmi seemed to tear into my heart, particularly in a scene where the photographer's hands and glance linger a tad too obscenely on the innocent, unsuspecting girl whose eyes are filled with fear. There is another scene where she is so frightened that she curls up at the…