Triple Celebration...

Four months until the fourteenth Wedding Anniversary day and I am really excited about it. Almost all the clothes shopping are done and now only buying few tidbit items remain on the list. That will be done after Goldie’s birthday.

As I wrote in one of my earlier posts, this year I will be sporting an ethnic look for the Triple Celebration and so I have been busy stitching/buying a lot of salwar kameezes. Yesterday, I collected from my tailor three salwar kameezes which have been bought keeping the need of the situation. All three look fabulous and I hope I am able to enjoy wearing them.

Good Morning...

My second art class...

Tea

From a Tetley green tea drinker, with lemon and honey, I am metamorphosing into a regular Indian tea enthusiast. I am neither a city lover nor someone who enjoys a cup of tea during conversations – my tea walk is just to engage my senses.

For one of those who had not yet embraced the tea-drinking habit, I guess it’s not too late for me to start brewing a batch! Since ancient times, tea has been touted to help with everything from headaches to depression. Like coffee, tea isn’t harmful for health. Tea contains a small amount of natural fluoride, a chemical that can help prevent tooth decay.

Green tea has increasingly become a very popular drink with me because of its immensely powerful health benefits. Tea has a unique set of natural chemicals that provide various therapeutic benefits. Tea is by far the most potent health drink ever – it fights heart diseases, cancer, and even overweight. For centuries, tea has been used in alternative medicine to treat everything from cancer to constipation. Well, so a good cup of tea (made by me) not only tastes great and soothes my soul but is also very good for me.

As tea is the most commonly consumed beverage in the world, I always thought I would become “common” if I drank tea. But I am wrong. Now I know why people like drinking tea. I had always been latte-obsessed but tea is gaining ground in my life as I am learning more about its benefits.

But well this is a shocker. Health experts say that if you are drinking tea for health reasons, tea without milk is a better choice. So, are we Indians drinking eat the wrong way all these centuries? Everyone knows that drinking tea can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke but according to German scientists (something not everyone knows) only if milk is not added to the brew. Yet another research says that adding milk to a cup of tea can destroy its ability to protect against heart disease. Drinking tea could help you lose weight, new research has found – but the effects are cancelled out if you add milk.

So now I am really confused. Should I be listening to the scientists who say that tea is better when we take it purely without any sugar and milk as it serves as a good vasodilator to clear the channels of the heart? Hmm, though by embracing this tea-drinking habit, I join two billion tea drinkers in the world, I really don’t know which kind of tea will be beneficial for me. Nevertheless, welcome to the land of the tea drinkers!!!

PS: Just found out that according to a new research, a lifetime of tea drinking can significantly reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in later life.

Proverbs 3:3-4

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;bind them around your neck;write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 So you will find favor and good successin the sight of God and man. #Bible http://mydailybible.org/dv/esv/2013-08-26.htm

Lk 13:22-30

Jesus went through towns and villages teaching abd making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, is it true that only a few people will be saved?" And Jesus answered, "Do your best to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you will stand outside; then you will knock at the door calling: 'Lord, open to us'. But he will say to you: 'I do not know where you come from'. Then you will say: we ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets! But he will reply: I do not know where you come from. Get away from me all you workers of evil.' You will weep and grind your teeth when you see Abraham and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves left outside. But others will come and sit at table in the kingdom of God, people coming from east and west, from north and south. Some who are among the last will be first, and some who are first will be last".

Heb 12:5-7.11-13

Have you forgotten the words of encouragement which God speaks to you as sons? My son, pay attention when the Lord corrects you, and do not be discouraged when he punishes you. For the Lord corrects those who he loves, and chastises everyone he accepts as a son. You must endure your trials as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not corrected by his father? Indeed, no correction is pleasant at the time, but painful, yet later it brings to those who have been trained by it the peaceful reward of an upright life. Lift up, then, your drooping hands and strengthen your trembling knees, and make your crooked paths straight, so that the lame foot may not be disabled, but instead be healed.

Happiness comes in small packages...

Saturday, 18th August, 2001 @ 6:53 pm…

There was some kind of bell ringing inside the operation theatre and suddenly the doctor told me “baby”. Before the actuality could sink in, a pomegranate-red-lipped baby was shown to me. Though blurred, I still remember the stunning pout and the loud wail. Finally, after a long wait of nine months, a pomegranate-red-lipped “baby” was born to me – I was so very happy and kept thanking the doctor for my pomegranate-red-lipped baby girl. Whenever I think of that conversation with the doctor, I smile. In what way was the doctor responsible for the pomegranate-red-lipped baby girl to be a girl? I didn’t have to thank her for my pomegranate-red-lipped baby to be born as a girl. She was always destined to my pomegranate-red-lipped baby girl. And I to be the mother of my pomegranate-red-lipped baby girl!!!

Today my pomegranate-red-lipped baby turns 12. What a beautiful day!

Twelve years back I would sit with my pomegranate-red-lipped baby in my arms; she was so tiny and delicate and fragile. Though now she is too big for my lap she will always remain my pomegranate-red-lipped baby; my first born. A girl – I always wanted to be the mother of a girl and not a boy. Somehow the idea of motherhood for me was always associated with a baby girl.

God has been extra good and kind to me – I always wanted ‘a girl’ but He has given me ‘two girls’. May be He knows I can handle girls better than boys – what a blessing! Two girls!!!

But I am imperfect and many a times I have failed as a mother. I am into motherhood only for the last 12 years and each day I am learning something new. I am learning from my own mistakes and also from my daughters – they teach me such big lessons in life – truly, would I be a mother without their presence in my life.

I don’t understand this funda of a good and a bad mother – I feel a mother is a mother is a mother and she does everything is her possibility (possible ability – words learnt from our dear Fr. Michael) to do whatever she can and whatever she feels right for her children. How can anyone grade a mother as good or bad! Stop judging mothers. Who are you to judge a mother?

So, today if my pomegranate-red-lipped baby is 12 years old, I too am a 12-year-old mother. Happy birthday to my pomegranate-red-lipped baby and Happy Motherhood to me!!! God bless us both and also Goldie and their Dadda.

Thank you, Lord!!!

My first art class...

My Best Friend

“Some people need not tell where they come from. Their minds are as ill-structured and their thinking as small as the towns they live in. Their one-track filthy minds are as narrow and as complicated as the lanes and by lanes of the town, their thought-processes slower and sleepier than the government organizations, their feelings shallower and superficial and their old era mindsets as prehistoric as the arrangement of some of the crumbling constructions. Their opinion single-dimensional and as unoccupied as the still existing single-screen cinema halls…....

I am glad I could escape one such offensive town two decades back!!!

Small townies, it’s high time you leave behind the high and mighty comfort-zones and rise as high as the high rises of our metropolitan cities. Think big!!! Think better!!!”

This was my status update on Facebook yesterday. But this should have been read by the so-called friends for whom it was written. Sadly, these fine words couldn’t be read by them for those it was written. In my sadness and hurt feelings, I must have made a lot of grammatical errors and I know some people must have been laughing at the mistakes. But the picture accompanying this status, I really don’t care what about the people laughing on this. I just wanted to express myself and I did it. Let the world laugh. The world is meant for laughing on others. That’s all it can do. What a coward! The entire world is nothing but a coward – laughing at people.

I don’t belong to this world. My world is the one where Jesus Christ will take me at the end of my life’s journey. That’s the world for me for me and my family. We are too good for this world. Our real world is in heaven where Christ has kept a room for me and my Golu, Googoo and Goldie. That’s where we belong. That’s our real home. The earthly home is a temporary one and we are here today and gone tomorrow. So I shouldn’t bother who’s my friend here because my real and best friend is in heaven and He really cares for me. I should get worried if He is upset with me and I should make sure that I never upset Him with my behavior.

Unfriended...

Every day I find one friend missing from my Facebook friends list. And I really couldn’t make out who was unfriending me every day. Fortunately or unfortunately, yesterday I found out that five of my friends have unfriended me – dunno, how many more must have done so whom I cannot recall? well, am I so bad that friends have to unfriend me. Am I such a big threat to them? Then there are those who haven't yet responded to my friend requests. Though I am trying hard not to feel bad, somewhere down my heart it’s really bothering me because out of these five, one was my best friend from school. We have been friends since 1989 and now suddenly she has decided not to be friends with me. And why? The reason is that I don’t keep in touch with her over the phone. Well, in today’s fast paced world, who really has the time to chitchat over the phone? Isn’t Facebook enough? I guess Facebook is the right platform wherein we can actually come to know what’s happening in our friends’ life. Why we need to talk? On Facebook, we can do much more than that. I am finding this really immature on her part because she has asked her husband also to unfriend me. Feeling sad!!!

So, I have decided not to send friend request to anyone. Here I take the trouble of finding old classmates out of hundreds of people, and in one click they just unfriend me whenever they feel like. It takes hours and hours to find girls because of their changed surnames and they turn out to be the most awful ones. I just don’t know what happens to them when they come to know the kind of life I live nowadays. Guess, they still expect me to go around looking ugly in the kind of clothes I used to wear during school days. They still expect me to be poor and needy the way I was during school days. They enjoyed teasing me behind my back because of my clothes and looks – they want to do just the same even now – when they can’t do that, they decide to unfriend me. Not keeping in touch is just an excuse – they are jealous of my happiness and way of living and the transformation I have gone through. That’s it.

So it stands decided that I will not be sending out anymore friend requests to anyone. If anyone really wants to be my friend, let them search for me. I am not going out of my way to search anyone anymore – it’s a humongous task! It really needs time and patience and internet time to search for friends – why should I incur all these expenses. If I am good enough for anyone, let them search for me. I don’t want anyone to treat me shabbily – I have my own dignity and status quo; and my Jesus Christ. He’s the greatest and bestest and most “faithfullest” friend any one can have – I don’t need any human friends. He is enough. And my Golu, Googoo and Goldie. I don’t need anyone else in my life.

Ah!!! Feeling better after downloading these feelings! Now I am ready to face all types of people.

Heb 11:1-2.8-19

Faith is the guarantee of the things we hope for, and the certainty of the things that we do not see. It was by their faith that our ancestors won God's approval. By faith Abraham, when called by God to set out for a country that would later be given to him as an inheritance, left without knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in the land that had been promised to him, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were beneficiaries of the same promise. Indeed, he looked forward to that city of solid foundation of which God is the architect and builder. By faith Sarah herself received power to become a mother, in spite of her advanced age; since she believed that he who had made the promise would be faithful. Therefore, from one man, a man as good as dead, were born descendants as numerous as the stars of the heavens, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.

All these persons died in faith. They had not received what was promised, but they had looked ahead and had rejoiced in it from afar, saying that they were foreigners and exiles on earth. Those who speak in this way prove that they are looking for their own country. For if they had longed for the land they had left, it would have been easy for them to return. But they were longing for a better homeland, a supernatural one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared the city for them. By faith Abraham, when tested by God, went to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. And so he who had received the promise was ready to offer his only son, although God had told him: Through Isaac shall your descendents be named. Abraham reasoned that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so figuratively speaking, he received his son back from death.

Communion Hymn

Greatest love and friendship has no man than this
That He die for others, give His life for all.
No more are you servants, I have called you friends,
All my Father told me, I made known to you.

Without you I am nothing
My weakness needs your strength
So speak, Lord, to your servant
I'm waiting for your word!

Go and build my kingdom, pluck up and break down
Speak what I command you, I shall be with you
No, you did not choose me, I appointed you
Go, bear fruit in plenty, fruit that should abide

Have you seen my people, have you heard their cry?
Do you know their suffering, can you let them die?
Break the unjust fetter, set the captive free,
Share bread with the hungry, make the blind to see.

Pakistani Kurti

Yesterday I bought an amazingly beautiful Pakistani Kurti for myself. So, what does this mean? Well, no big rewards for guessing. It simply means that my shopping for my fourteenth wedding anniversary on December 28 has begun. Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fourteen exclamation marks for the fourteen years! These fourteen years have truly been exclamatory. The marriage was “sudden” but by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, has been going “strong”. Since I am highly touchy about this subject, I will not write much about it but about the kurti I bought yesterday.

Again, no points for guessing, it was kind of love at first sight with this kurti as well. A lot of stuff was there but my eyes fell only for this one kurti. The best for the best! I guess this will be the next big thing for me after the Salwar Kameez look since last year. This year it’s gonna be Pakistani Kurti. This kurti imbibes the best traits of the salwar and yet is more comfortable and trendier. Something my type!

One good thing about this kurti is that I can easily wear it as a style statement for my fourteenth wedding anniversary dinner outing and later on, I can wear it formally as a Eucharistic Minister. I will have no problems in the church.

My kurti is long and made from cotton and linen fabric with embroidery in the front. It has mandarin collar (google) and full sleeves. This kurti is just exclusive and has a royal style. I can already visualize my look – oozing out style on that night of all nights! Hopefully, this look will be my best of all times!

My kurti is elegant and the most fabulous piece so far in my entire wardrobe and I know I am going to make a unique style statement on my anniversary.

Thank you, Lord...

1 Corinthians 2:9 () 9 But, as it is written, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,nor the heart of man imagined,what God has prepared for those who love him. . . . #Bible http://mydailybible.org/dv/esv/2013-08-06.htm

Col 3:1-5.9-11

If you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on earthly things. For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore, put to death what is earthly in your life: immorality, impurity, inordinate passions, wicked desires and the greed which is idol worship. Do not lie to one another, since you have stripped off the old self and its way of thinking, and have put on the new self which is being renewed according to the image of its creator. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, between the circumcised and the uncircumcised. There are no aliens, barbarians, slaves or freemen, but Christ is all and is in all.

Amen!!!

1 Peter 5:10 () 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. #Bible http://mydailybible.org/dv/esv/2013-08-02.htm