I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
To physically witness what Kahlil Gibran has "quoted" one must visit the Mahim Church on wednesdays, which is the day of the week when the novena is held.
People, of different denominations all together in prayer ! standing cheek to cheek,
It is truly an experience that one must.....
We try to go for the weekly novena, sometimes circumstances force us otherwise.
During my many such novenas, I have witnessed people crying their hearts out by just touching the frame of the picture of Mother Mary, people walking on bended knees down the main aisle says so much !
Coming back to the quote, every religion calls for peace and forgiveness and love. We are all hurt at one point of time or another, but is it so easy to forgive as our religion teaches us,? it is tough, and we have to train ourselves to do so, in any way we can, motivation, reading similar type of books or maybe the scriptures which every religion abides by.
Is it so easy to love all whom you come across ? again that is a tough call, but that does not mean you have to embrace everyone that you meet. You just have to live peacefully and love will follow ... peace and love have always gone hand in hand, And every religion teaches us to be good human beings, truly we are sons of one religion.

The longest of the school vacations have begun, and it is the sounds of the children who play in the compound that have always indicated if the schools have their tests, or exams or if they have a long week end.
The sounds of them playing on a school weekday evening indicate that they are relatively free, at other times, the silence can drive me crazy it makes the place seem so dull and quiet translated this could mean that they have an important test or maybe even an exam coming up.
This morning during our walk, we saw a parent taking a whole lot of enthusiastic, children all equipped with bats and balls, caps, and water bottles, all set for a long day of play. The children seemed oh! so cheerful, and even remarked about this to my husband. On schooldays these children would have been looking so dull and plodding their way to school.
Very soon the monsoons will be here and "WATER WELCOME" the flooded streets and inaccessible roads provides another legitimate holiday the children screaming in glee and playing around in the rain, little scamps deliberately jumping into puddles with ecstatic peals of laughter .. sounds that make me realise that happiness is all a state of ones mind and what we make of the situation we are in.

Actions speak louder than words, and we were witness to this . Last weekend we were invited to a neighbors 90th birthday, the 'Birthday Boy" in his tuxedo was looking good, with his beautiful, wife besides him.
Everything was well taken care of, the guests were welcomed at the door and the atmosphere was lovely, befitting one who has lived life and surely deserved a celebration of this grandeur,completing the circle with close family and friends.
Their children came in from different parts of the globe, and one could see the amount of time and thought and money that was invested into the celebration.
Going back to my opening statement, small acts of caring that I saw brought so much more energy into my recently renewed vows. His wife was helping her husband, explaining to him, "Mr and Mrs P are here to wish you," and helping him to have a lovely afternoon, you could see nothing...... Only love all around them,be it their children, or close friends, or even the bearers were so thoughtful.
There was a power point presentation and pictures of the past days were shown, together with the highs and lows in their lives, my husband was especially thrilled with a picture of their dog, they once owned as it seems his and their dog too, were buddies ! The food was the highlight of the afternoon .
The children gave their own versions of their days gone by and brought a tear to our eyes.
The little acts of love made by the family, his children who had left their homes, and jobs only for a few days to be with dad and mum was so beautiful, I could not help but think what their parting would be like. Quickly tried to focus on the delicious food.
Several thoughts were snaking in and out of my mind, but one of them I will surely write ........, it is nice to be with our loved ones during their lifetime,and treasure these "LIVE" memories instead of placing bouquets on a cold tombstone.
So lets get out and start loving and forgiving and live in this NOW moment.
Till you read again !

Truth Hurts! we have so often heard someone tell us this and know it is the absolute TRUTH. My husband and me were at the other end of the saying, we spent the last few days contemplating what it is that make people so wily, so cruel, so ruthless and in our experience shameless. All for a few pennies more.
It was a tough situation that we were in and things had to be told straight faced, with no compromises and no brokers.
There was an absolute halt in functioning as many people decided to walk out when told the truth, But sorry ! no roll backs on our values and principles instilled in us. Sad to add that sometimes even your own family disbelieves yr intentions. Many hurts and harsh words were said by all and sundry and to cut a sad story short, We walked away from it all ........
Why did we do this ? walk away from something that you so truly believe is a very hard thing to do but putting in so many fruitless hours of toil,( the family was absolutely on the backburner. We had to weigh the options and with both our feet on the ground.... will it finally work out ? Will the childrens growing years standstill for us in our quest for this ? will our health permit us to take on ? many a late night tending to various issues had made us forgo our morning walks, All these questions and more were something that came foremost to our minds and did what we did.
Just walked away ... I am glad as we are a few days into the new way and realise how important it is not to compromise on the values and your principles.
Thank my Mum and Dad who have been with us through this ordeal and have been the main support in our trying times.... Thank you all for the prayers that you have prayed too ! God Bless

Summer is back ! what a lovely sight to see the mango trees outside my window bursting with blossoms all waiting to" grow-up". Some have already turned over into tiny mangoes and some big mangoes.
On our morning walks have seen a jackfruit laden with TINY jackfruits, tiny as in comparision with the size of the fully grown up jack. The birds cannot decide which fruit platter to choose from, will it be this or that, must be their state of mind in summer everytree is showing off, the jambuls are there up too, when the tree is too tired to hold up sooo many ... there they go all over the pavements, streaking it, with a lovely royal purple. The targula will arrive shortly and a corner on the street where I live has this vendor bringing the delicious targula directly from the tree breaks the nut and there for all to see the lovely sweet kernel a smaller version of the coconut.
The watermelons have been around for most part of the year, not the big round variety but the tiny oblong ones, which are crisp and sweet, I still prefer the huge round watermelons.
The grand entry will be made by none other than the KING, of all fruits, at the wholesale market we will see trucks unloading huge baskets and not so huge boxes, and then for us truly summer has arrived...

On certain days, the parent/guardian is permitted to come to see their child, at the orphanage in the vicinity where I live. It is an all boys home and maybe housing around 200 boys of all ages the biggest being in class 10th the littles ones who are so kindly housed here are a treat to behold, they are so little the tiniest maybe in the range of five/six years cannot really place a finger on the right age, however they are a lesson for us to learn in terms of so many things that we and our children take for granted .
They wake up at 0600 am every morning except on holidays when they are given a little extra time for sleeping, and then they go for their prayers and breakfast and school and the usual happenings that would take place in a little ones life except that they do all this without the aid of their parents no pampering to wake up, or go thru their breakfast eat what is placed before you and they look well fed,( mind you not obese) they get their share of play every evening and the very tiny ones are looked after by the nuns from the nearby convent (Glad for that as they have a mothers' touch here!) When dusk settles I can hear the hymns and praise they give The Almighty ... which is so touching ..
Whenever I watch the little ones play sometimes a small boy will look around and see me and smile and a braveheart will even wave at me, such innocence !!! At this moment I can only feel so grateful for everything that HE does for everyone of us and cares about each of his creatures both Big and Small ... He is the God of all.....

Happy days are Here Again...!!!!Have been enjoying a couple of days of "Winter"and it definately makes a difference, to most of the happenings around us, the people in the buses are more than happy to have the windows shut, and a slight crowd does not matter in this time, the fruits are luscious the blushing strawberry and the sugar watered Oranges, the black currants are all the rage in the fruit market, ....
I love this season, the cool morning walks, and some pet owners even wrap their little doggies with jackets and scarves, people sitting around a wood fire to warm themselves with cups of chai...I love these simple pleasures
Maybe we have just a few days left, as we have the festival of Holi which is meant to herald spring and then we get into the blistering hot summer, on the flip side don't we all wait for the King of fruits to arrive ?
For miles around us we will see a" golden sea"mounds and mounds of mangoes around us, people carrying boxes of them and some of them like me, setting out to make pickle, that is really meant to last till the next cycle, but believe me ... it really does not sit around for that long, an aunt here a neighbour there and the rest is meant for "us" "Hey mom where is the pickle you made last month ?"
Till then happy winter days !!!!