My 70th Birthday cake - baked by my daughter Nandita.

Amidst the September rains, my daughter Nandita baked a hot butter sponge cake for my 70th birthday. She used an old recipe adding made-in-Kerala Vanilla. 

 

THE OLD BALD MAN FROM CHENGANNUR

 

An old bald man from Chengannur,

Married a young pretty lass from Trivandrum. 

He didn't have MI.

He sang tuneless sa-ri-ga-ma slapping his fat thigh.

At night he slinked into the maid-servant's room.

His daughter saw, had a breakdown.

He didn't care a hoot.

This old bald man from Chengannur.

 

Some say mental illness runs in families 

While offering homilies.

Little do they know that incest runs in some 

bloodlines.

Skips a generation maybe. But runs it does.

And how.

 

 

 

 

Will the Uniform Civil Code in India further alienate women from traditionally matriarchal & matrilocal cultures?

Fruits of a pandhu lily growing from a bulb planted by my Mother in the laterite soil of Thiruvananthapuram

She attended all the marriages, naming ceremonies, housewarming ceremonies and took part in the rituals after birth and before cremation of the people She knew,their children and grandchildren.

She was not a stranger in the city she lived in, a city chock-a-block with the best hospitals, well-connected with transport facilities and…full of Her relatives.

Yet when She had a stroke, no one came to attend to Her. It took Her one whole week to get to a hospital for treatment. Her son who had taken premature retirement on the grounds of caring for Her yet lived 500 kilometers away working at another job, did not come to Her aid in time. Her daughter-in-law who had Her sympathy for being the impoverished daughter of an alcoholic yet herself too lazy to work for a living and on whom She showered Her love, time and the finest jewels, only held Her in contempt for Her large belly (“no abs at all”) and was too indifferent to care.

I, Her daughter, living over 2000 kilometers away was giving care to my own disabled daughter and her father himself recovering from a recent stroke.

Her niece who was thought to be close to Her and whom She had rescued from a consanguineous marriage to a man she despised whose mother she lived in mortal fear of, ensured that I, Her daughter couldn’t pay Her my last respects. She was cremated before I arrived within a few hours of Her passing. 

Remembering my Mother on Her 8th Death Anniversary.

Will the Uniform Civil Code in India further alienate women from traditionally matriarchal & matrilocal cultures?

Some reflections on the 1971 War by a daughter

1. Jawans of the parabrigade being dropped in Dacca by Indian Air Force planes from Central Air Command Allahabad

From a newspaper dated 18 December 1971-

2. Transport planes used as bombers... 
A newspaper report dated 7 December 1971- 

3. The dashing Lieutenant General (Unni ) Candeth from Kerala who was the General Officer Commander –in- Chief Western Command during the 1971 War.

A newspaper report dated December 1971- 

4. The courageous Air Chief Marshal PC Lal, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, DFC

and his wife Mrs Ela Lal - both so inspiring, caring, compassionate… made sincere efforts to those impacted by the 1971 war and their families.

A message by Air Chief Marshal PC Lal from Air Head Quarters, New Delhi dated 24 December, 1971 -