Category: personal
Pizza….. from scratch
We trudged out of the lift and into our home. I was a bit tired. She was exhausted. 17:30. Shower. Change. “I’ll make dinner tonight honey. You need some rest.” Her warm smile made my day. “That’ll be great! What are you making?”. I paused as the wheels inside my evil mind started grinding. “Pizza……. from scratch”. The twinkle in her eyes was genuine – a mix of excitement and curiosity. I shrugged my shoulder. “Promise”. She snuggled into the bed. I closed the window curtains, turned off the lights, switched on the AC and gently shut the door. 17:45. I swung into action. JJ had overheard the conversation (that eavesdropping crazy 11 year old!) and would be my partner…
“Publish Or Perish”: A motivational Post
Taking a circuitous route across many cities and countries before finally reaching a specialised unit in an academic institution is fun. I received two warnings as soon as I made this my permanent plan: You need to do a three year DM course and pass exams to stay employed You need publications to work your way up from registrar to assistant professor to associate professor and finally professor. The first warning was not too difficult to negate – without NEET in those years, it was an uneventful in-and-out-in-three-years trip, thanks to a God who cares, a family who understands and colleagues who taught me so much. The second warning brought fear and trembling to me and my team. Two main…
My Five Favorite Versions Of Christmas Hallelujah
The original ‘Hallelujah’ by Cohen was musically brilliant and has a deep, but somewhat confusing story behind it. A rather lesser known band called Cloverton rewrote the lyrics to make it a Christmas story and thus was born Christmas Hallelujah. It’s one of my favourite Christmas songs – the mix of amazing music, song writing and lyrics results in a musical story that gives goosebumps. Here are my five favorite versions of the song. I’m starting with my most favorite version. 1. Kaylee Rodgers and the Killard House School choirIt’s hard to believe that a shy little girl with autism and ADHD could deliver the best version of this song along with a choir of special children from the Killard…
The Coffee Journey
My deviation from the instant coffee route started when I accidentally bought filter coffee powder instead of instant coffee powder during the final stages of my bachelorhood in Trichy. I was forced to buy a South Indian filter and tried putting everything everywhere to brew some coffee – I drank whatever the random positioning of the 3 parts of the filter, the coffee powder and hot water produced. All that changed when I surprised myself with a Breville coffee machine with a grinder for our 5th wedding anniversary. Suddenly pressing buttons produced the weirdest sounds and the nicest coffee. Pouring out the frothed milk was an art and soon I realised why I was never destined to be an artist….
The wonder of it all
You didn’t pay your taxes. You didn’t question it when the government allotted a meagre percent for healthcare. You were busy buying IPL products and spending money on movies. You were assured that you were contributing to the economy. You questioned every rupee that was needed to treat you and your parents when you were all sick. You didn’t follow the advice to control your mom’s diabetes and didn’t heed the healthworker who wanted to help you stop smoking at home.Now you’re wondering why your mom can’t get an ICU bed with a ventilator and why your favorite doctor is not able to treat her – because he was given a cloth mask instead of full protection and is now…
Seven Christmas song performances that rocked my socks off
Here’s a list of 7 performances of Christmas songs that get me totally in the Christmas mood every December. I’m just talking about performances/videos and not necessarily the meaning, lyrics and music. 1. Hallelujah Christmas by Kaylee Rogers and the Killard School choir. This is my favorite for 2019. The original Hallelujah was written in 1984 and was not a religious song, although it addressed this philosophically. Cloverton rewrote the song a few years ago integrating the Christmas story into the lyrics and this is my favorite song for the year! There are multiple renditions of the Hallelujah Christmas. One standout is this version sung by a child – Kaylee Rogers and her school choir of special children. Kaylee herself…
How to meet THE SUPEREST HERO
It’s called many things – The Message, The Sermon, Sharing God’s Word, Preaching, etc. I was asked to do this during the Sunday School Christmas program. After coming up with many excuses, the ultimate excuse came when I started developing a painful mouth ulcer on the lateral margin a week before the due date. Having dealt with bad throats and coughs on the weeks I lead worship (which always miraculously stopped on Sunday) I accepted Gladwins challenge and God promise of healing and plunged into preparing a message. It was difficulter than I expected to get the flow, even after the thoughts and topic were finalised. Since the children were using a Superhero theme on most of their programs, I…
No Longer 18
I’m no longer 18. I can feel the difference. After decades of celebrating my 21st birthday, the strain on the bones, tendons, joints, muscles and ligaments is obvious. Every time I submit an ID document or fill in a form, the fact that I’m from the previous century hits me hard. With my bank balance smaller than my slim waist, my retirement seems too close for comfort. So how do I cope with the huge void that is created as my youth creeps away to give way to greyness, baldness and presbyopia.* My friend zips around in a BMW as he takes us to his beach facing holiday apartment. And me? My trusty Hyundai Xcent is smaller, but has taken…
Fretting and strung up about a cracked bridge
Is this the beginning of the end. My Pluto guitar is about 12 years old and has been the main guitar I have used in my life. You can read the short story of how I got the guitar here. When we were returning from Australia in 2014, it got damaged in transit – Malaysian Airlines refused to let me carry it on board and asked me to check it in. I had to sign a waiver and that was it. It still sounded great even after this damage – there were cracks on the body in front and probably one of the support beams inside. I’ve used it immensely till now. It continued to sound good, but recently the…
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