Sea Elves of Myth - Coffee Time Reads

 A wedding or a birthday party is not only a celebration of the people concerned but also a platform to share the warmth of human bond. It is certainly a joyous occasion. But a recent family event I attended left me with a dollop of sourness tingling through my spine.  I am not unused to have the spot light on me all for wrong reasons while in public. As a child I have been targeted by both my friends and family for my not so conventional looks. My curly bobbed hair was a problem for many, while my slim figure, brand-named 'size zero' in the past decades caused problems for others. For a few both of these aspects created issues. It does not affect me much anymore; yet, I have been musing on addressing this behavior we exhibit as a society and my recent brush with a thorny tongue have prompted this post. If on this recent occasion I have been targeted for my slender stature, the same person about fifteen years ago on my son's baptism ceremony had lashed her tongue out at my ...

   Long long time ago, in a village far away lived a grandma. She lived in a farmhouse with lots and lots of animals and birds. In the mornings she woke up to the chirping and cawing of the birds that nestled in the trees of her front garden. Honey bees and butterflies buzzed around the flower beds throughout the day. Swans and ducks swam in the ponds while cows grazed the green pastures with herons alight on them. Grandma had a lot of farm land, with fields of paddy, coconut and coffee. Everyone adored her especially her grandchildren. They visited her during the summer and then grandma’s little cottage would wake up to a new kind of chirp, the chitter chatter of young children. They were a boy and a girl. Whenever the children visited, they accompanied grandma on her daily walks in the garden. They would go rambling through the meadows across the streams to the fields. One day as they were strolling through the fields, far away they saw a cow eating the paddy! The girl calle...

  “ഈശ്വരനും  ഗുരുവും എന്റെ മുൻപിൽ വന്നുനിന്നാൽ ഞാനാദ്യം ഗുരുവിനെ നമസ്കരിക്കും. കാരണം ഈശ്വരനെ കാണാനുള്ള ശക്തി എനിക്ക് പ്രദാനം ചെയ്യ്തത് ഗുരുവാണ് ” – ഭക്തകവി സൂർദാസിന്റെ വരികളാണിവ. പ്രാചീന ഭാരതം എത്ര ഉത്കൃ ഷ്ടമായിട്ടാണ് ഗുരുവിനെ കണ്ടതെന്ന് ഈ വരികൾ ബോധ്യമാക്കുന്നു. ‘ഗുരു ‘ എന്ന പദത്തിന്റെ അർത്ഥം  തന്നെ തമസ്സകറ്റുന്നതെന്നാണ്. കേവലം ഒരു വിഷയത്തേക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള ജ്ഞാനം മാത്രമല്ല  മറിച്ച് പ്രതിസന്ധികളെ അതിജീവിച്ചു മുന്നേറുന്നതിനുള്ള അറിവും ശക്തിയും പകരുന്നവനാണ് ഗുരു. ഈ മണ്ണിൽ പിറന്നു വീഴുന്ന നമുക്കെല്ലാവർക്കും  അമ്മിഞ്ഞപ്പാലിനൊപ്പം ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ  ആദ്യപാഠങ്ങൾ പകർന്നു നല്കിയ ആദ്യഗുരു അമ്മയാണ്. ആ കണ്ണുകളിലൂടെയാണ് നാം ലോകം കണ്ടതും തെറ്റും ശരിയും തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞതും. പിന്നീട് നമ്മുടെ ഭൗമമണ്ഡലം വളരുന്നതിനനുസരിച്ച് ഗുരുസ്ഥാനീയരുടെ എണ്ണവും വർദ്ധിക്കുന്നു. ജോയൽ മ്ലേക്കോ തന്റെ “ ദി ഗുരു ഇൻ ഹിന്ദു ട്രെഡിഷൻ ” എന്നാ പുസ്തകത്തിൽ ഗുരുവിനെപ്പറ്റി പരാമർശിക്കുന്നത് ഇങ്ങനെയാണ്, “ ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ അർത്ഥം വെളിപ്പെടുത്തുന്നവൻ  ആരോ അവൻ ഒരുവന് ഗുരുവാണ് ”. അങ്ങനെ നോക്കുമ്പോൾ ഏതൊരു വ്യക്തി ക്കു...

  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...