Kums' Seventh Sense

I decided to quit my job and stay at home after I got married. I did that and I still can't decide if that was a good decision. It is not so nice when you hear "veetla chumma thaana irukka?" (you are jobless at home, no?) because honestly staying at home is a real full time job for which you don't get paid in any form. No money no gratitude. It is very tough job. You graduate from questions like "Is the code working?" "Is the deliverable ready?" "Is the testing complete?" to questions like "What is there to eat?" "Why isn't the laundry done?" "Have you washed the utensils?". Believe me, delivering a code package seems like a piece of cake to me. May be because I am a lazy bug. I think I was spoiled by my parents. I just can't seem to get interested in domestic chores. May be because I don't get paid for what I do. I don't get thanked or appreciated. Plus, there is no holiday. Holidays a...

On January 10, 2016 around 9'o clock in the morning my life changed forever. My daughter was born into this world. Being pregnant isn't a huge deal at all.. you'll know when the child is born. It is a big deal. I did not have any problem until the moment I realised that I wasn't producing much breastmilk. That's when the pink clouds cleared all of a sudden. I was dehydrated during labor, remember? What people don't realise is that it is perfectly normal for breastmilk to take some time to come in. It may take a few days even. Thats when the stress levels go up and thats just what you don't need at the moment. Stress is inversely proportional to production of breastmilk. You will get judged as a bad mommy if you are not able to breastfeed the baby. It is not going to help your already anxious self. Every other person visiting you will have an opinion. The only choice you are going to have is to learn to ignore those opinions. You are not a bad mo...

The Notebook: One movie I refused to watch because I knew I was going to cry. I first read the Wikipedia plot and that by itself made me cry. Every time I see the movie I cry no matter what. To forget the people that you love the most can be one of the worst things that can happen to people. Their pain and love is so real it affects me personally. It's as if I'm there. This had me thinking... That is not the only movie that makes me cry. Any movie with emotion makes me cry. Movies are fine.. Books? Books make me cry too! I just can't resist. To think of it, good music makes me cry! That's the only reason why I avoid going to the theatres to watch movies with sad endings. It's embarrassing to cry at the movies. This is also why I consider it a gift from god to be able to find a friend who doesn't mind crying at the movies and to top it off cries with you and doesn't judge you. Am I being too emotional? I'm not sure. Is it healthy? I think so! Sometimes...

So today in the morning I had this good for nothing thought process going on in my mind which resulted in this: Sometimes when you are a hobby junkie you end up asking yourself what is that ONE thing you want to do in life? What is your true interest? I haven't found an answer to that until this very moment. One day I dream of pursuing my interest in music and then one day I see myself wearing a photographer's vest and then one another day my dream of being rich and quenching my wanderlust. But I guess I can photograph my travel destination and that singing while at it won't hurt. And just when I come to such a solution I start going after arts and crafts. Now, that's back to square one! Then I had to make this list. Why being a jack of all trades sucks : > you are not really an expert in anything. > you are not sure what your true interest is > people call you half baked > you end up buying stuff for each of your hobbies and then ...

We have been gifted with this life and what do we do? And yet the most we use is the gift of complaining. Complain about everything!!  When will we stop complaining? We started the moment we gained consciousness about the world. Man has turned out to be far more demanding than he used to be, I think. Or is it like man was designed that way? We hunted for animals, no clothes to wear, only caves to live. We wanted something better. We moved on to better tools, fire, we moved to villages. And then I don't know.. something like that happened.. And then something else happened.. and then here we are staring at our computer screens and living a far more sophisticated life than our forefathers. But are you satisfied with what you have? Do you think you are gifted? The answer is probably no. Even I am going to say no. I want more. Why can't I be satisfied with what I have already? May be because I don't know the value of what I have. I am no big head yogi t...

Just like many of you out there, I started my affair with the written world when I was a little girl. I remember reading Sleeping Beauty, Tom Sawyer and Tintin as a young girl. I grew up in a family where you find everybody sitting in their favorite corners of the house with a book in hand on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  My world was limited to reading weeklies, short stories and comics until I encountered Sidney Sheldon in my late (very late) teens. Almost everybody starts their book reading journey with Sheldon these days. He is one of the most popular writers of this age. One thing I like most about books is that they make you imagine and learn at the same time. I am almost always influenced by the book's content. My English becomes better for a few days after I have finished reading a good book :D. Some are so engaging that you cry and rejoice along with the characters. Whenever I start reading a book it is as if I establish a connection with it. I just cann...

I recently took part in a woman's forum meeting at work. The issue that was mostly discussed was men staring at women for their looks, their clothes etc etc etc. I don't know how long it will take women to realize that when we dress up all glam, we are surely going to get some "appreciative" glances every now and then. Making a fuss about it is a waste of time! You could do that when you want to show off that you are getting some attention. Women dress up, and men get attracted. Thats basic human nature. The animal instinct. You shouldn't be complaining about it! The pervs do the wolf whistles and stuff to get attention. You should not react to them, react as in get angry, flirty, upset, happy, everything counts. That means that they win! This is one valuable lesson to remember: learn to ignore. Nothing can rebuff them like being ignored. I don't know how many ladies are going to get upset about this post, and I frankly think I am right....

I have been talking.. whining about chain mails and SMS for such a long time. And recently one of the mails that I came across rekindled the anger and frustration towards their stupidity! It says "11 year old girl pregnant" and you should read it to understand why it really got on my nerves... SPELLING mistakes! How could I not laugh at a threat that has spelling mistakes in it? I quote here: " I will slid your body in half and then i will stab u 1 million times until all of your blood is out of you body i will take off all of your clothes and leave you naked, but dont worry, there wont be any of your skin left, i will break all of your bones, and i? will eat everything that is left of you... enjoy" I have quoted a sample mistake in red. And did it really say "Enjoy?" hell yeah it did! And why would any dead person feel shy? No need to take off the skin I say! Dear Murderer, I'd like to spare some time for you, I do not feel ...

This is very similar to the whispered secrets that 'everyone' knows. A 19 year old girl gets pregnant, goes to a temple and gets married. With or without the consent of the parents, I dont know. But do these girls realize that life does not have a Ctrl+Z button? She is just a kid. Even before she knows what 'life' is, she ends it! You fall in love - OK. Goes on good - OK. You maintain your limits - OK. But throwing away the 2Cs is NOT OK. Is it some kind of new fashion trend or something? Do they call it cool? At that age, she is throwing away her career, education and everything else.. she becomes a mother when she herself is not yet an adult. I am just plainly surprised.

September is special in Tirupathi. Brahma of events. Brahmotsavam. We (me, dad, gran) went on a trip to Tirupathi and Tiruvallikeni with brief visits to Perumals at other places. The bus started from Ramakrishna Mills at about 6:30 on Sunday, 12th Sep'10. The bus stopped at palladam lakshmi mills to pick some people and also have dinner at one of the houses there. Since most of the people who were on the trip were "bhagavadhaas" we did not eat out at all. We went to some houses along the way for bhajans and they provided food. At Tirupathi we ate at the madam. Monday, 13th Sep'10: The bus stopped at a place called Veeranguppam Gramam, Paeranambattu Ondriyam, Ambur. The name itself says a lot. No toilets or bathrooms. Had to use the open fields. The men took bath out in the open and the Ladies took bath inside a small house. The bathroom was 'common'. Thank goodness I had some experience with the open feild and common bath during my childhood, or I would...

At about 8 in the morning my school friend calls and as I pick the phone I think 'she is probably going to ask me to come to school' without realizing what kind of a shocking news awaits me. Sindhuja is dead. It took me until I saw her face for the news to sink in. Most of us hadn't been in touch with her for the past few months. So obviously the news was a shocker to us. After I came back from her place the first thing I did was take the notebook of school memories I have and read what I had written about her. "A wonderful person and friend who should not be lost or forgotten. I can expect a selfless friendship from her. Even if I don't talk to her for months, she'll talk to me just the way she used to"  (with a photo of her's stuck by the side, sorry that I dont have the camera right now, if anybody has a nice one of hers please send, and sorry for the poor picture) Sindhu, the "kovakkara kizhi" of the class. Her way of showing ...

Achu.. I met this lovely kid at my granny's place. I do not even know her real name!! I was deeply moved by her story. She is the grand-daughter of one of my gran's tenents. Her father passed away a few months ago; she has a kid brother; her mother ran away with somebody taking the little brother and leaving this girl with the grand-mother. She lives in such a situation but you must see her to thank god for what you have.. She keeps smiling :) all the time. Her gran works for some rich family in the village and the rich family says no to the kid coming with her gran.. And Achu never turns her head toward the rich's house! She refuses to have any food we offer... she's like im happy with what i have... she never ever asks for anything! For some reason I had to take my camera to my gran's and take some pics that day... any normal kid would ask to see the camera or atleast have a picture of hers shot.. I was expecting this girl to ask me but she never did.. I aske...

One of my Uncles showed this video to my Father and he showed it to me! I'm thanking my Uncle for showing this to him. See the video!! use the link below. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cem6q9Gkz3c The young boy in the video is just 9 years old now. I guess he is Spanish because I think the people in the video speak Espanol. The little guy plays the songs of Carlos Santana who is a great musician and is also seen the video. By the end of the video Carlos and the others present at the studio give him a standing ovation and that moved me to tears!! such a cute, small kid plays like he is made of music! He is a very gifted person! :) u'll love him...