Here for writing

Life is too short to read crappy books. Before I started on this book, I was pushing myself to finish a book called Angelology by Danielle Trussoni and gave up half way through. Then, took up The Shadow Princess and finished the book in two days -primarily because there was just too much description about the Taj Mahal, totally unrelated to the plot, that I happily skipped. Seriously! It was just getting boringly descriptive. For my honeymoon, one of our destinations was the Taj Mahal and the Agra fort. Seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time is definitely an experience to cherish. The grandeur just makes your jaw drop. Such perfection and such beauty! But more than the Taj Mahal, the Agra fort captivated me, because it gave me a glimpse of the opulent life style of the Mughals. We had such a wonderful and knowledgeable guide. I strongly recommend to take a guide when you are visiting historical places, because, they can really make you form a connection with ...

There are so many things that I want to write here, that I don't know where to start. But there was one predominant thought I had when I got up at 3.30 am on Sunday morning which I wanted to compulsorily blog about -The Karadaiyan Nombu. For the uninitiated, Karadayan Nombu falls on the first day of "Pangunii" month as per the Tamil calendar. Legend has it that Savitri, rescued her husband Satyavan's life from Yama on this day. So every year, young girls and married women pray to the Goddess to bless them with good husbands and for longevity and good health of their husbands respectively. We wear a yellow thread around our neck on this day and make a special delicacy -the jaggery adai and the salt adai. The time to tie the thread around the neck is usually the moment the month is born. As far as I can remember, it has been at convenient times. Even on those days when the month is born late in the afternoon or evening, we all managed -even if it ca...

I don't really understand the point in wishing "Happy Women's Day", on March 8th and just forgetting about the plight of women for the rest of the year. If you are reading this post, then you are fortunate to have an education and the means to own a device to read this post, the time to spare on doing things for leisure and an openness of a mind to explore new ideas. But sadly, not many are as blessed. Even if I am not able to do something concrete for the upliftment of the society and women, I vow that at least I will support those who strive to do more with their lives. By setting aside all judgmental thoughts and feelings, I vow that I will contribute in whatever small way I can for making this world a better place. Letting others just be...as themselves... is very essential, because so often I want people to act and behave in the way I want them to. And here, I take the opportunity to thank my husband and in laws for letting me just be me, because it is no...

I went to my very close friend's parents 60th birthday celebrations today. What a beautiful occasion it was! The renewal of vows, something that has caught the fancy of the west in recent times, has been in practice in our culture for ages. Surrounded by all the near and dear ones, uncle tied the knot again to aunty, on his 60th birthday. I could feel the emotions surging through aunty -a bride again and so very beautiful. How blessed the couple are to have lived such a full and wonderful life. I pray God to bless them with many many more years of togetherness in love and good health and happiness.  Time really has the power to make all things right and all things precious. And by the way, is it only me or do many people experience this feeling of guilt when they while away time without doing anything productive? I was trying to indulge in a lazy Saturday afternoon, mindlessly browsing the facebook and happily lolling in the bed, trying to take a short nap. But ...

I want to start this post with a quick update  before I proceed with the 19th verse. Starting with a warm up 4 k jog on Monday, I managed a 10 K run yesterday, which involved running up and down a flyover 5 times, as a part of interval training. Upbeat with yesterday's success, off I went to the beach, donning my shoes strapping my mobile arm band....but my legs refused to cooperate with me. With the bones below my knee jarring with pain, I limped out a miserly 5K and rushed back home. Yes, the dreaded shin splints. So I am revising my 1st objective -I will do 9 more 10ks in March, but definitely not on continuous days. And, I am going to focus on core strengthening and cross training and most importantly, watch my diet. As far as the other objectives are concerned, I am pretty much on track as far as writing is concerned, have downloaded an app and am tracking my spending diligently and finally, I am yet to make any progress on Sri Suktam. In the 18th ver...

I rarely read Indian authors. One of the very few books that I enjoyed by Indian authors are Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai and Two Fates by Judy Balan. The reason I don't prefer books by Indian authors is this -when I read books set in a foreign culture and locale, I can't really relate to it. I just take what is being written at face value and happily get carried away by the book. But, when the book is set in an Indian context, with Indian characters and Indian locales, I don't really enjoy the book if I don't relate to it. I am not saying that I am fully aware and conversant with the diverse cultural and socio economic strata of India, but this book by Manju Kapur disappointed, even irritated me in so many levels. Astha, a middle class Delhi girl gets married to Hemant -a foreign educated handsome boy who is working in a PSU bank, so that he can take care of his parents. They have an awesome sex life for the first two years of marriage, then they get...

It really pains to see that I have written only 7 posts in February. And it pains even more when I realize that I have logged in only 5 activities in the runtastic app for the month. But then, considering a very hectic work week, 2 weddings, death of a relative, a sick relative and a terrible eye infection, I should not delve too much on the month that was past. So I wanted to share here what I want to do in March 2015, as a sort of commitment to myself. 1. I am excited that I am going to run 10 kilometers for 10 continuous days starting from March 3rd. This 10X10 is something that I have been wanting to do for quite sometime. I have a mental block of this 10 K mark and by doing this 10X10, I want to feel as if 10K is the new 5K for me. Whenever I finish 10K, I feel as if I have done something great, and this feeling is so not helping me to start training for my half marathon that I want to run in June. So here is to the first step for my half...