The Ice Furnace

Yea, faith of the spiritual kind...If you have it in the right amount then I guess it makes you stronger...Not sure though...My mom is extremely religious and still i find her fretting over even the smallest of things...and I wonder, where is the belief....And then there is hubby, who thinks faith is about going to temples...Most of his extended family think likewise, so much so that, his cousin's retort on being told that I am not the temple going type, was "Oh are you a communist?". For a minute, I thought he was joking, but then realised that he was serious. That being my days as the "new bride", I just smiled coyly, thinking inwards "Oh my God, he hardly knows anything about religion or communism :(" ..Soon, I came to know that faith means different things to different people and for some it is just an excuse for social get togethers...I stopped visiting hubby's family temple, ever since people expected me to pay respect to them rather than to…

There was once a naive me who thought that a smile should always come from the heart. One thing that adulthood has taught me is that, no one waits for that smile to blossom. They are all content to see a flexing of the facial muscles in the right direction...

It's Thursday and time to update on my resolutions. Well, waking up at 6:00 Am has been a disaster, primarily because I got hold of an interesting book and kept reading it till 12:00 every night. So, I have decided to modify the resolution to Go to sleep by 11:00 PM and wake up by 6:00 AM. But, I have managed to keep my cool with my son, so that is still continuing to be a great success. It was a stressful fortnight, what with my mom having a minor surgery, the maid quitting, the new maid being awful, my dad falling sick in US and to top it all, baby scared me by falling down flat on his face and blood started coming from his nose. I freaked out, but thankfully it was just a single drop and it stopped. I am proud of the way I handled it - usually I would scream out and that would frighten him further leading to a downward spiral for both of us. He is a sensitive soul who would start crying the moment he sees me upset, so I am always forced to recover quickly from any negative emot…

Here is a conversation that happened between an educated, working couple. Comments invited!
Hubby: You know, there was this Delhi Prinicpal or someone who said in her speech to graduating students that they should aim for a balance in life and not just a stellar performance in their career. Both career and personal life are important. And guess what, she drew a lot of flak for saying that.
Lady: Yep, I agree that you need a balance in life. The problem happens when this idea of balance applies only to the woman in the family.
Hubby: But only a woman can give birth and breastfeed.
Lady: Yea, but if a woman is willing to take 2 years off from her career to give birth and breastfeed, will the guy then say that, I will take the next 2 years off, to look after the baby while you consolidate your career? Hubby: Why should he? Why do you think guys get married?
Lady: To have a wife, and children
Hubby: exactly
Lady: So, then why not share responsibilities of child rearing as well. Why should l…

Well, it was tough, but I managed. I managed to be polite and sweet to my son. He did test my patience at times and more than him other people did. But I remembered my promise to myself and instead of taking it out on my son, I looked at him and started singing to him. When he refused to eat (which gets me upset in a major way), I just got up and left, instead of going ahead with a screaming match. He ate most of the time and the one or two odd times he didn't I realized it is much better to let him be...So, motivated by this success, I am moving to my next goal: Start waking up at 6:00 am in the morning. It is quite tough, because most days I sleep only by 12:00PM. But my sleep wake up routine has been really going topsy-turvy with no schedule whatsoever, and I want to change that before my mom leaves for US. Even on days when I sleep by 10:30 - 11:00 I wake up only by 7:00 AM, primarily because at least one of us needs to be with the baby. But, I hope to wake up and sit next to…

I saw a tamil movie yesterday - Vinnai Thandi Varuvayaa... The actors were nothing great and even the music by A.R.Rahman was a disappointment (probably because of the hyped up expectations), but what made me really like the movie was the story line. It wasn't refreshingly
different or anything, but it set me thinking...Of prejudices and how they change our life - often we make major decisions in life partly because of the prejudices we hold and our life changes forever! I read a review of the movie which stated that today's youth are not chained down by prejudices and will often marry the person they love. Not really true. I know of enough Mallu Christian families where the threat of "we will not be cremated in the church" from parents work successfully and the girl meekly decides to get married to whomever the parents choose. And that brings me to the question, why are parents who claim to want the best for their kids very vehement when it comes to a marriage that d…