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Showing posts from December, 2017

Kerala Christmas Celebrations: What makes it so special and how differently Malayalis celebrated it

Christmas is not a religion's festival but a feeling that comes from the heart. Growing up in Africa, my sister and I used to look forward most to the festive season of Christmas. The whole world around us looked as if it had come alive,  decked up in bright red and green. Even our home, being a traditional Hindu Malayali home, always had a beautiful Christmas tree, with its tinkling bells, silver and gold cones & ribbons of different colors along with bright and sparkling balls of chandeliers. Our closest family friends, the Nettikadan family, used to make the festival mindblowing for us. Grace aunty used to come over and bake the yummiest cakes.                                  FOLLOW MY BOARDS ON PINTEREST On Christmas Eve, we used to hang up our stockings and have sweet dreams of Santa Claus climbing the chimney and leaving Christmas gifts under the tree.  I really enjoyed was reading out Santa's long letter that always concluded with the words, ''Be

Why is childhood so important?

Ever wondred why childhood is so important? Memories have a funny way of coming back into my head, sometimes when I am about to get ready to go to work or sometimes like a flash from the past.  It happens to me all the time - swathes of childhood memories flooding back. This time, as the first touches of winter began to make itself felt in Delhi, I went on a trip to Goa with my son and close friends. From the moment I landed in Goa till I got back, I was on a happy high, like a teenager who's going on a much awaited holiday.  Let me tell you a funny thing. I even went and bought myself a swimming costume to wear for the first time since my teenage years but guess what? The funniest part comes now - I never got to wear it. Maybe the idea was just to feel like a teenager again!    [ READ: Saddest Vishu of My Life and  Beautiful Moments ]                               FOLLOW MY BOARDS ON PINTEREST The Goa trip was an incredible experience that took me back to where I really

Conversation with a friend: How to deal with the death of a loved one and Three Lessons I learned

The simplest lessons are always the toughest to learn.   This December, a classmate passed away and I was totally shocked to hear the news. Another shock came my way.  I heard that another classmate's husband had passed away and when I received the news, I felt very deeply for her.                                                     [ Image: Pexels.com] 1. Reach Out, Show You Care and Be Honest For me, my classmate is someone whom I had shared countless jokes and conversations with when we were young. Our conversations and happy moments have never faded though we have become different individuals with completely different journeys in life.  So, yes,  I plucked up the courage to call and show that I am with my friend through this moment of grief. The experience of the conversation we had humbled me like a lesson of life and the blessing was that I felt much lighter within.  2. Honour the need of others to grieve in their way I believe that the ''body&

Are you into blogging? Here's a hilarious story of how I got started...it began with a job interview!

The first time I heard the word 'blogging' is when I went for a job interview. The lovely young lady who interviewed me asked, ''Are you into blogging?'' At the time, I didn't even know what blogging was. She left it at that and thankfully, didn't pursue it. I got the job, but more than the job itself, that lady's question ''Are you into blogging?'' changed my life. I became a blogger. The first thing I did when I came back home was to google ''blogging''. I didn't have a smartphone then just in case you are wondering. A whole new world opened up before me. I had no clue then what I wanted to write or for whom - after all, no one in the world was connected to me through a blog. That seemed exciting enough to take the risk - the feeling that I could write, convey my feelings and my personal stories and send it out to the world and just wait to be discovered and read by people I had no idea about. For a mothe