Petals!

I asked my 8 year old son, “Frame 3 sentences quickly about your mother as a person.” This was his answer: 1.      Amma is a good cooker. 2.     Amma is beautiful. 3.     Amma works at..... Look at it from a language perspective and you know that the first sentence is not correctly framed.  But you also know one thing: it is straight from the heart. He meant 'good cook' and I burst into laughter because 'Amma is a good cooker' reminds me of my 2015 resolution: eat less, exercise more! Of the three sentences, the first one made me smile.                                                      It’s no different in our interactions with others. It’s not the “perfect comments/conversations” we recall. It’s the flawed, funny, heart-to-heart ones that stick like glue to the he...

In every individual’s life, there comes a stormy turning point. It  leaves a mark on you forever. For me, that turning point came on 27 th December 2007.  I call it the ‘Year of Shivam.’ Shivam means “That which is indestructible.” Funny, it left an indestructible impact. That's what turning points are all about. 2007 is the year I experienced my first near-death experience at an astral level, followed by a series of out-of-body experiences. You can laugh. But that was my first spiritual turning point.  I was alone and I didn’t understand what had hit me then.                                                       [Image: Unsplash] Last year, I read books by writers  such as Khurshed Bhavnagari, Nan Umrigar, Ruzbeh N Bharucha. Then I understood that I wasn’t going crazy, turning stoned or hallucinating. I was a...

When you send your kid to school, you don't expect a massacre to happen there . That's why it's so inhuman and horrifying!  This has been a heartbreaking day for most of us who  have heard about the massacre of innocent school children in Peshawar by terrorists. I sat at my desk, feeling the tears leap to my eyes. Over 100 students are reported to have been killed, shot at mostly in the face and head....I can't get over it. This is SICK, BRUTAL and INHUMAN.  Think of the mothers whose lives have snapped today. No mother can ever be or feel the same again when a part of her, more precious than her own life, is ripped out.  It's not just the children who died today. It's their mothers too. Today, my prayer is for Peshawar: the innocent children who died and their families who have to find strength from within to accept this reality.  Read these tweets. You will understand what I mean. I pray to God for the well-being and...

I have something to confess! Are you ready? I made my first fish curry. And here it is - Kerala Fish Molee. The recipe is from the popular cookbook The Suriani Kitchen.  The flavors came out so well and it was delicious! You must try this recipe at least once.

Every day, we read or hear horrific accounts of daughters-in-law being mentally or physically harassed. There are plenty of statistics on cases relating to  bride burning, dowry harassment and domestic violence in Indian homes. As long as it does not happen to us, we don't give it any serious attention. But this book will make you SIT UP and PAY ATTENTION. Narrated factually and with a dash of wit, Veena Venugopal explores the lives of eleven Indian women and tells us shocking truths about their mothers-in-law. Each story has a lesson for every woman. There is a mother-in-law who justifies her alcoholic son beating and raping the daughter-in-law, another mother-in-law who delights in taking her daughter-in-law for her check-ups because the latter is suffering from cancer and after each hospital visit, the mother-in-law uses it against her! The premise of this bold book is this: Your mother-in-law is NOT YOUR FRIEND.             ...