Random musings

It is really refreshing to meet people who listen and take a genuine interest in you. People who accept what you do at face value. Where they do not over-analyze or slander. People who are non-judgemental and non-critical. People who like other people. When you meet someone like that, you can't help but want to spend more time with them. It seemed as if in the past few months, God has been trying to tell us something. To be those kind of people. It feels overwhelming to be at the receiving end of someone's judgment or negativity.  Reminds me of how we approach the gospel sometimes. We take a stick and beat someone on the head with the bible. We drive our messages with fear - fear of God's wrath or hell.  While all of that may be true - when the soul is weary, it needs rest. It needs grace, it needs acceptance. If there is any hope that I would have for the New Year, it is just that. To be able to rest my weariness, anxiety and troubles in His arms. That, we wou...

Referring to older folks as Uncle and Aunty is actually the Indian way of showing respect. Everyone is part of the family. So, we have aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, grandpas and grandmas. Any and every one of Indian descent is related that way. It's cute. Sort of.  If you are married, your chances of Aunty-dom has increased two fold. If you have kids, you are pretty much doomed to Aunty-ness for the rest of your life. I don't mind being an Aunty. It makes me feel special.   I guess when the system was originally invented, we had all kind of tags like Ammamma, Achachan, chetan, chayans and so on. Since, the whole thing was getting way too complicated for us, we dropped all the other tags and stuck with the basics!  So, an age difference doesn't automatically qualify someone as an Uncle/Aunty. Like, for example, a 20 year old kid will call me an Aunty, but my 2 year old refers to them as Chechi or Chachan. And, then we have those folks who are in the same...

It wasn't that long ago, but I remember looking at parents with unruly kids or kids who didn't behave in a certain "acceptable" manner and wondering what made the kids act that way. I had an opinion on these parents - about how they failed to discipline their kids or stop bad behavior. But then, I had kids. Slowly but surely, I learned my humbling lessons.  I'm proud of my sweet and loving children and wouldn't want to change them for anything in the world. But, if I expected them to be the epitome of well behaved, exemplary kids, I was sadly mistaken. More likely than not, they would be the ones throwing a tantrum about inane things, having fits about car seats, crying for the silliest reasons, not sharing toys or food with other kids in the same room. Just the other day, when we are sitting for our Sunday school morning session with the other kids, Naomi coolly looks at one of the older kids and calls him " stupid" . One of the parents sit...

Hash tags have gained popularity in the web world, with social networking sites like Twitter. Twitter enables users to read and post " tweets ", which are like text messages. These tweets are read and followed by other users who use Twitter. Like most networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter is also about updating friends/the world about the latest and greatest things happening in our lives. It tends to be conversation centered. It's one of those cool things that celebrities do, and they have  a bunch of users hanging on to every word they say. Teenagers also use this quite a bit. Facebook has now introduced hash tags that can be part of statuses, comments and pictures. I guess, like all forms of social networking, this also comes with its' share of good and bad. Like people posting random, pretentious tags like " thisishowedoit ", " suckstobesocool ", " imhotandyouarenot " and what not.  The whole idea behind having...

It never ceases to amaze me how little kids live so much in the moment. Every little thing is a celebration. It almost makes me want to put my "grumpus" ways aside, and join in with them.  It was just one of those things I did for the heck of it. I put Naomi in an underwear instead of a diaper. The last time I did that, she peed all over the place, and showed me all the different areas to scrub. I didn't want to repeat my experiment anytime soon, but did it anyway.  It was another one of those days, when I was trying to get my hyper kids to settle down for a nap, and ended up exhausted and fell asleep on the bed instead of them. Naomi woke me up saying, "Mommy, look wet ". I remember thinking to myself, "Oh, great, I forgot about her underwear. I have some cleaning to do" .  To my absolute amazement, she had not only used the little froggy potty we had, she had manged to sit in the right location, and not make her clothes or underwear we...

I would be the first to admit that I don't watch American football/NFL. Even the few times I've tried watching, the game doesn't make sense to me. My hubby loves football and I end up watching a little bit here and there.  The first time I actually had some interest in the game was when I saw a man kneeling in the middle of a football field and praying. This man would always be thanking his God, every time he was interviewed. I soon learned that his name was Tebow. At best, he is an average quarterback. His style of playing is erratic. No one knows what to expect from him. When he first started playing, a lot of Christians jumped on the bandwagon and supported him. They expected him to succeed so that they could give God the glory and toot their horn a little bit on how Christians win by relying on God. Quite the opposite happened. His game went from bad to worse. He was tossed unceremoniously from one team to the other. He played a few games, but for most part...

Stereotypes are broad generalizations and oversimplified views of people. A thought that may be adopted that specific types of individuals act in certain ways. It may or may not reflect reality. It is disturbing being stereotyped, especially when the stereotypes are negative. We tend to do it all the time, though. After migrating to the US, I was introduced to the word "FOB", which basically means "fresh off the boat". People who have spent most of their time in India and then migrate to the US are referred to as FOBs. Indians who are born and brought up in the US, tend to think that FOBS want to be like them. Some of the assumptions surrounding FOBs are that they tend to pick up American accents, act nerdy or geeky, usually have software/engineering/nursing jobs, probably don't speak English too well, don't listen to English music, don't wear western outfits or don't know how to use makeup. They eat only Indian food. FOBs are somewhat crude...