"He placed me in a little cage,
Away from gardens fair;
But I must sing the sweetest songs
Because He placed me there.
Not beat my wings against the cage
If it's my Maker's will,
But raise my voice to heaven's gate
And sing the louder still!"

Courtesy: Streams in the Desert :Charles E Cowman

One Marriage Invitation...

Congratulations to Both Of you.....!!!!

പപ്പേ...

മമ്മി ... പപ്പാ വൈകുന്നതെന്താ ?
മറന്നു കാണുവോ....?
ഫോണ്‍ വിളിച്ചു ഒന്നു ഓര്‍മ്മിപ്പിച്ചാലോ?
ദാണ്ടെ വന്നു.....

പപ്പേ.. ഇന്നു കടയില്‍ പോയെ തീരൂ
നാളെ മോള്‍ക്ക് കളര്‍ ഉടുപ്പിട്ട് പോണം സ്കൂളില്‍
മറന്നോ..?
മോള്‍ക്ക്‌ വാങ്ങിയ ഉടുപ്പിന്റ്റെ കളര്‍ പച്ച അല്ലെ ..തത്ത പച്ച
അതിന് പറ്റിയ മാലയും വളയും പൊട്ടും പാദസരവും വേണം

പപ്പേ ..എല്ലാം കിട്ടി ..പക്ഷെ പച്ച പാദസരം കിട്ടിയില്ല...
ഇനി രവി ചേട്ടന്റെ കടയില്‍ കൂടി പോയി നോക്കാം
വേഗം വാ ...സമയം വൈകി ...രവി ചേട്ടന്‍ കട അടച്ചു വീട്ടില്‍ പോകും...
അയ്യോ പപ്പേ.. പച്ച പാദസരം കിട്ടില്ലാന്നു പറയുന്നു രവിച്ചേട്ടന്‍..
ഞാന്‍ മേരി ആന്റി തന്ന വെള്ളി ഇട്ടോളാം
ഇരുട്ടുന്നു...മമ്മി തന്നെ അല്ലെ ഉള്ളു ...വേഗം പോകാം പപ്പേ..

അയ്യോ...പപ്പേ ..ഒരു കാര്യം വിട്ടു പോയി...മുല്ലമൊട്ടു മാല വേണം
മുടിയില്‍ ചുടാന്‍ ..
ചേച്ചി ..പൂവില്ലാതെ മുടി കെട്ടി തരില്ലാന്നു പറഞ്ഞു..
നാളെ കാലത്തെ പപ്പക്ക് ഓഫീസില്‍ പോകണ്ടേ...
മൊട്ടു വാങ്ങി വെള്ളം തളിച്ച് വെച്ചാല്‍..നാളെ വിരിയും ന്നു പറഞ്ഞു ചേച്ചി..

വായാടി കുടുക്കയെ വാരി എടുത്തു..
കുഞ്ഞു കവിളില്‍ മുത്തം വെച്ചു..
നീ എന്‍ ജീവിതത്തിന്‍ നിറം കുഞ്ഞേ..

Navigators here and there......!!!!!

Priced at around 100 pounds the navigator is an indispensable gadget to any new driver on the UK roads. Attributed to the scarce populace on the roads, you would hardly find anyone to ask the way to a place if you are new to the place, which makes this little talking gadget imperative to any infant 'UK Driver'.
There are two kinds of navigators, static and dynamic .The static one does not take care of the traffic details while showing direction where as the dynamic one takes into account the live traffic details before suggesting the routes to take.
Though I had heard of the GPRS technology while at college, the navigator came as a not so little surprise to me. We were on our way to Northampton , around 25 miles from Milton Keynes for the 'Disaster Recovery' session of our project. On indicating the starting and destination address it suggested the route to take to reach the place .Except for the small hiccups at the start and end, the device was almost flawless in showing the route.
Talking about the use of Navigators in India someone in the team said spontaneously " We do not need them on the Indian roads...there will always be someone to guide you where ever you be in India "
Path guiders here and there....!!!!!

Renew the spirit of Childhood in us...!!!!!

Went to church here at Milton Keynes.It was the first time after coming here.There were hardly 20 people for the evening prayer.But it was a beautiful experience. One in the group said a prayer followed by hymns and songs.One prayer that had be thinking for a long time was
" Renew the spirit of childhood in us "
This is what is actually required in our lives I feel..and we are actually growing down with years with regard to many things.
Growing down with regard to 'Trusting others..', 'Adjusting to situations', 'Seeing people without prejudices' ,'Sharing our things' and the list will go on...
How easily we made up after the little fights that we had whether it be with the friends next door or with friends at school.We forgot the fights without letting them leave the slightest mark of bitterness in our minds.It was not forgiving but forgetting...
I feel children experience the special grace of God to forget things and incidents of bitterness or may be they just don't feel the bitterness.
We never bothered to enquire about the caste, religion or nationality of the friends we made in childhood.Because we were unaware of the differences that man made in his world around.The knowledge we attain of the castes,communities and religion as we grow up in life later become the prejudices we use to judge the people we meet in our lives.These differences later grow to become the sources of unhappiness in our lives.

Is the education we gain, knowledge we attain and money we earn worthy of these instincts of innocence we have in us ...Is a definite NO from me..!!!

Using the escalators...!!!!!!

I'm now in UK on a short term project assignment.Happened to go out to see London with some of my friends here...we had taken a day's train ticket with which we could use the train and tube services for the entire day...so we were travelling from one place to the other using the tube services which connected all the main places here..there were huge escalators to go from one platform to the other at every station..with no option of stairs. Every time I stepped into the escalator I was thinking about how my mammus would manage to use them if she was here...I was thinking about the incident that happened at the Marine drive escalator years back.


The escalator is not very popular at our place and the one at marine drive , Cochin was the first that I had used..there were stairs as well for those who were not comfortable using them. We were four kids..elsu, nithamol,gigiri and myself and chinnamma aunty and mammus...we were out that summer vacation seeing places in and around Cochin..Though my mom insisted that we would use the stairs to climb up , I was adamant that I would come by the escalator...at last reluctant to send me alone,all of them decided to use the escalator.I stepped in first,followed by elsu.Aunty with gigiri on the next step,nithamol and last mammus...as the escalator moved forth, gigiri who was hardly three years then , wanted to stand on the step and in the process of it he skidded down .Mammu held his hands and she also fell down followed by aunty.All started screaming ...and someone from the operators came running and switched off the escalator.

I didn't realise the fear that the incident had created in my mother's mind until after years we happened to see an escalator at Spencer plaza , Chennai on a visit.She wouldn't let any of us climb the escalator until I convinced her that it just happened once and that doesn't mean that it would happen always and I waited for some aged person to use the escalator to show to her how simple it was.She couldn't be convinced and she wouldn't use it at any cost.Finally Pappa had to interfere to convince her .He climbed up and down without holding the rails many a times laughing and shouting and finally she agreed to step in with him.They held hands and climbed up , but it was only once and since there was an option of stairs at every other place she would always opt for stairs.

.... Every time I stepped in and out of the escalator I was thinking of my mom of how she would manage if she was here. I was thinking of ways to convince her, experimenting with different ways of stepping in and out of the escalator, whether it was good to hold the rails while stepping in or not, if keeping both the feet on the same step would help and the like....

There are some things...some subtle feelings that remain with us where ever we go...

The stars I see are no longer the ones you see
It could happen so easily so effortlessly
I lest expected
The vast expanse that separates seems to be the only thing to bind.