Sea Elves of Myth - Coffee Time Reads

  Life does not always take a straight course, rather it has its ebbs and falls. Recently I was put under the scorching heat of examinations. Extensive preparations, late night studies, early morning revisions, telephonic consultations, innumerable times of checking, rechecking and cross-checking …the list goes on.   They had taken a toll on me. But I was not alone in this dirty business of examination. Along with me were my children, both the ones at home and the ones I shepherd at  school. The two scamps at home had their mid-terms going on while the ones at school had their final semester practical waiting at their doorstep. Though the exams vary in their gravity, the amount of stress they gave to the ones being examined are more or less the same. No amount of preparation can make you fully ready for the big battle of questions and answers. Thus we pray hard for the exams to be cancelled or postponed. I can still remember the endless number of times I recited the Lor...

 If one asks which is your favourite month in a year, my daughter, without the blink of an eye, would call for the Christmas season, the season of joy and cakes, Santa and presents. To top it off she has the holiday season culminating with her birthday which falls in mid Jan.  The ritual of putting up the Christmas tree was something I had begun meticulously long back in an annual attempt to recreate my dream Christmas tree. I might have been six, seven or even younger when I tagged along to Sanjoe Hospital, Perumbavoor to visit some sick relative. Though I have only a bleak memory of who the sick person was I can even now vividly describe the Christmas tree that was put out in the hospital lobby. The tree towering over me with its beautiful decorations and the gifts under had remained in my mind over the years. I wanted to have one just like that at my place. My day came years later when I could spare some money out of  the monthly allowance of  Rs.1000/- the colleg...

  After a gap of almost two years I went to a movie theatre last month with my husband in PVR cinemas at Lulu Mall. The movie was good with many action scenes and Bond did get a deserving farewell. Something that happened as we reached home was astounding to my husband and totally predictable to me. As we had gone for the late night show it was well past midnight when we reached home, 1:55am to be exact. There, my mother was waiting for us to give my husband a post that had come on that day by mail!!!   Unlike what I have been practicing all these years, this time I did not inform my mom of our movie venture beforehand. It was not like I took official permission every time I did something. But, it had long been my habit to inform everything to my mother before I did them, may be meeting a friend or taking my kids for an outing. However trivial the project my parents offered an expert second opinion on the task, which I was supposed to follow diligently. Sometimes I might...

  A recent virtual talk I attended on the various growth issues among children took me to a totally different terrain. Among the different issues related to the topic that were discussed the mention of 'bone-age' ( the degree of maturation of a child's bones)  caught my attention. It was a relatively new concept for me. Though the talk did not mention much on the term or the reasons that affected it, I was intrigued. Some days of study and research led me to writing this article, so that I can share some thoughts on it with you, children. What are the factors affecting our growth? Genetic factors, we all know that. But along with that there are many environmental and cultural factors like stress, exposure to sunlight, amount of physical activity and most importantly the quality of food. Quality of Food/ Plastic Ingestion  We know we can't live with out plastics. They are there everywhere. From our favorite toys to our school bag, from burgers to shawarmas most of...

  I began writing blogs as a pastime during the lockdown days of Covid 19 pandemic, to be precise when the second wave hit India. The  literary output was more self indulging at first but later the responses of those who read my scribes boosted my sense of self- worth. Recently when I found something that concerns the parents and well-wishers of our kids, I thought I would digress from my usual style. So here we go…   I happened to attend a talk by a Pediatrician on the growth issues among children. I could perfectly understand most of the things she addressed. Being the mother of two,   I had similar concerns. What hit me like a dynamite was when she mentioned something called ‘bone age.’ I remember something similar to it being mentioned between Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon in the American drama series ‘The Mentalist.’ But then who takes the stuff they show on T.V seriously. This time it was mentioned in quite a different context, definitely not related to solv...

Just like all Sunday mornings Sarah laid on her bed feeling sleepy and tired. She was not particularly enthusiastic about Sunday mornings. They meant going to church at 8 in the morning and being there till almost noon and the day was almost over.   She loved Saturdays though. There was no school, no homework and long hours of play. The thought of the long Sunday service she had to attend made Sarah lethargic to get out of her bed. She pretended to be asleep until her father woke her up. Lazily she washed up and sat by the breakfast table nibbling on her toast until her mom rushed her. Sunday Services of Syrian Jacobite Church meant long hours of standing with folded hands and prayers mostly in Syriac and archaic Malayalam which were all Greek for the little girl to decipher. In church she spent most of her time watching and wondering in amazement how the pious old and elderly attended the service.  Her mom who stood next to her seemed involved in the service and seemed...

  The other day my son came rushing in to the kitchen and told me that Elon Musk is not the richest man on Earth anymore. ‘It’s a French fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault mama and his wealth is about $186.3 billion—putting him $300 million above Jeff Bezos, who is worth $186 billion, and Elon Musk, worth $147.3 billion,’ he went on spiritedly. The boy dreams to grow up rich and kept track of all the richest guys around.   Though he fantasizes of doing well in life, he was not a fan of hard work and labour when it came to helping out at home. He delegated his sister for everything from fetching his school stuff to doing his domestic chores. But things changed once I put him on a payroll for doing the chores around the house. Miraculously from the next day on his bed was well made every morning, things at their designated spots, room always tidied and the boy even volunteered to do his own laundry. He was offering his ass...