Contemplations and Ruminations

The Altar... well, we managed to make it look Christmasy The Crib in church... I was wonderstruck when they switched on the lights, it was beautiful. Cousins & friends.... everybody happy that things turned out well. The children wishing you all a Blessed Christmas and great year ahead.

That's the card all the catechism children made for Father, and he really liked it. You can see they have scribbled their names all over it.... with different versions of christmas greetings, like Marry Christmas, Merry Crismas, Father you rock... As Andrew one of the shepherd boys put it, "Father, all the Kaieluthu". (Meaning all the signatures) The caroling gang, it was fun hanging out with them. Jehu's missing in the picture... Another fun gang, its been a year now since I joined this school..... and its like a second home. It's gonna be hard when the time comes to leave this place.... Vivek and Nagarajan are missing in this picture. That's Mazhalai , the person who got me into the whole blogging sphere. I got anju into it and... that's another story, a never ending story.

Went Caroling to many houses and took pictures of the cribs... here are a few.

Yeah been caroling and practising for the Nativity plays... (one for the school and the other in church). Both came out pretty good.The play in school was funny cause the Down's were dressed as shepherds and Jenson (the smallest shepherd) kept turning behind and asking the teacher "adatha enna... adatha enna..." after each step. Mid way through the dance, Little Rose's head gear fell down and Hansel looked at it for a minute then picked it up and placed it on her head. The autistic kids were angels and as soon as the music started Nadeem covered his ears and ran off stage, Brindha started crying and Venkata kept running into the shepherds... Santa Claus was fun, Raja slowly led him off stage and up to the chief guests. Everybody loved the play in church, the Father was impressed. The little shepherds who ate my head during practice were wonderful today. I'm gonna miss those shepherd boys... practicing with these boys was an event, they used to torture Mary, thr...

Constructing the crib... was a lot of fun. The final product looks great. More pictures later, after the entire thing is set up. Carol Practice at home... those body guards near Santa Claus, wouldn't leave his side. I mean they saw Varun (Santa Claus) entering my home in his usual normal attire.... and he changed into the santa outfit and came out a few minutes later and they were wonderstruck!!! They wanted to shake his hand and when he obliged, they couldn't get over it.... The title here, is the song we are singing in church tomorrow... Dear Savior haste: Come, come to earth Dispel the night and show Thy face, And bid us hail the dawn of grace. O come, divine Messiah! The world in silence waits the day When hope shall sing its triumph, And sadness flee away.

That's the new kid in school, Monica. She's smart for her age... Baked this last night and when I returned from school today, half of it was missing...

Today we went to these hills nearby, to pick that particular type of grass used to build a crib. Here are a few pictures... The boys did most of the work.... While we just played around in the water (in the picture we are looking at fishes and trying to catch a few) and took a lot of pictures.... Yeah, this is how we start the most wonderful time of the year... immersed in nature and surrounded by friends. 

Mom made the wreaths... I made the candles, the cards and the stars.... Nameeta ate that.... That's Caramel Pudding (it came out surprisingly well), christmas nut cake and Mother Mary cake. My School: Went to St. Joseph's Convent today... things haven't changed much there. Same old teachers who somehow seem to remember you after all these years... spent a lot of time taking pictures. This picture of the grotto up here was where the 12th standard girls had to light a candle on the last day before venturing into the world.... outside. I remember we were told to hold on to our courage, chastity, faith and to spread the light (of peace and love) wherever we go.... I remember how beautiful all the candles looked, burning together... Back then I didn't really make much of the whole 'going out into the world' talk... I was just excited to leave and do somethin new... Seeing this place again brought back flashes of memory, memory that gets etched into y...

I really have no time to jot down things here... Too busy with all the christmas-y stuff.... the christmas play, the decorations, the caroling, the baking, the school christmas program... December is just... beautiful. Anyway here are a few pictures that bring about that warm and fuzzy feeling....

There's this song by Collin Raye, which goes like this... She said: we're much too different We're from two seperate worlds And he admitted, she was partly right. But in his heart's defense he told her What they had in common Was strong enough to bond them for life. I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too. So we're really not that different..me and you . Man! That's so sad... if you don't fit in, you don't fit in... THAT'S IT!!!! Why write such a dumb song??? I hope the person he wrote it for had a nice laugh over it. Why can't people just understand that there are different levels of communication... people are exposed to different elements and different lifestyles... different ways of being brought up and educated. You cannot go around telling people, we are same because we have two eyes, two ears, one nose... please!!! No wonder, I like spending time with my kids... th...

After two long weeks of quarterly holidays, the school reopened a few days back. I was so caught up in the chaos, I forgot all the work piled up at my desk. Things were just happenin everywhere... Arun turned up after a long time, nearly 6 months and he has grown... same old delightful smile. Carlton walks in, all agitated & scans the hall for anythin long and twirly... not finding anything, he starts sobbing (autistic children tend to have an unusual attachment to an unnecessary object) so Jesy teacher and I start giving him Sensory Integration Therapy . Then Sahaya Mary teacher hums a tune and Brinda smiles for a fraction of a second... and this surprises everybody cause Brinda hardly ever smiles. So we call Ramesh (who is always huming a tune) & tell him to sing... and Brinda smiles again and again. Aswin keeps running into other children and falling down... he's happy to be back. Hansel utters what is most probably his first word and everybody stops whatever it is they...

Okay here's somethin my friends can't put up on their blogs... but it's too funny to leave out. I heard this from a cousin... a very very crazy cousin. He was at home lazing around... watching tv, when his friends drop in, this guy and girl. So they too make themselves comfortable and everybody is watchin tv, when all of a sudden the girl starts crying... after a few minutes the guy starts crying. My cousin is staring at them dumbstruck... he asks them okay what's up? Then out comes the stick and my cousin is staring at it, wondering what the hell it is... apparently it was a pregnancy test stick and it was positive, and these two (who were boyfriend and girlfriend by the way) were really tearing up over the 'positive' sign. The guy was crying more than the girl it seems... anyway, my cousin then drove them to the Gynaecologist office. So there he is sitting in the office with his friends, when his dad rings up... my cousin was kinda quiet on the phone, so his...

Thats what Anju said when I told her I have no idea what's gonna happen tomorrow at the engagement. Anyway, t'was a fun day... after mass the girls started singing happy birhtday in church... and I was staring at them aghast. I mean its a church!!! It was packed with people and the priest was still there talkin to the parishners... anyway after they finished their song, the Father walked up to me and blessed me. The engagement was nice too, lot of folks showed up... Nameeta took a lot of pix's (mostly of herself though)... my brother kept tellin me " I will not put turmeric paste on anybody's head ". Vinod rang up so many times during the ceremony. Antonio, Arun and their parents gave me lots of flowers and a nice necklace as birthday gifts. The pictures came out well.... Another ritual in the whole scheme of mankind... has just started.

The same people who talked a lot about my life and made a big deal that I was not agreein to any proposal... and who drove my parents crazy with worry, by blatantly lookin upon me as though I was a curse to my family... the very same people, who almost made me break the 5th commandment, by perputually harping 'bout my attitude and giving me long winded lectures on how to not expect a dazzling knight on a unicorn... have suddenly turned wise and all proverby. They were spewing forth all divine proverbs about things occuring at the right time and God having a specific plan for everybody ... funny, they did not realise this when they were ruining my peace with the parents. Guess there is more chance of me seeing a unicorn than of these folks .... ever changing. Anyway, told folks 'bout Tonio/Tony and this is what they had to say... Mother ( Sr. Magdalene ): Ohhhh! He's got a Shakespearean name, I already like him! (yeah, gotta admit the name is nice...) Shil: When is t...

One of my favourite people on this planet died yesterday... of a stingray attack. He saw beauty in the most ugly, disgusting, slimy and horrendous creatures. He was a beacon of enthusiasm and inspiration. He loved nature in all it's form. He was reckless and passionate and bursting with energy and fervour. To him nature and all of creation was sacred and beautiful. He loved to waddle in marshy waters and play with giant reptiles, oh man, he really loved those fearsome reptiles. But he would never have used that adjective to describe them. To him they were lovely, wonderful, gorgeous, fantastic, fascinating, magnificent and beautiful. They were his pride and joy, he even named his daughter after his favourite reptile, Bindi. He lived an adventurous life caring for our earth and all the animals in it. His knowledge on wildlife was inexhaustible and his trademark phrases were infectious. It is a terrible loss and I can't begin to imagine what his family must be going through. But...

There was an eye checkup camp in school and it was fun... the kids would not allow the doctor to peer into their eyes. As soon as the doctor comes near shining that light into their eyes, they either try to grab that light or they go close enough to bang him on his head. The doc kept muttering they are not focussing. We celebrated Onam in school. The kids were asked to bring whatever flowers they could find near home and we all made a flower rangoli. We made payasam too and everybody drank a lot. There was this bottle filling competition, where a group of four teachers stand in a line and there is a bucket at one end and a bottle at the other end. The one near the bucket, scoops up water and passes it to the person near him and so on... the last person has to pour the water into the bottle. The group that fills the bottle first wins. That competition had everybody in splits... There were shouts all around like 'Hold your water!' 'What is wrong with your hands, where did t...

Went to meet Medow and her newborn baby at the hospital. He's so cute, so cute, so cute..... I wanted to hold him but I was so scared. He is so small and pink and tiny and smooth and so delicately soft... I was afraid of not holding him in the right way, and I did not want to disturb him, he looked peaceful in his sleep, his eyes shut so tight, oblivious to all the excitement he was causing. Medow looks radiant and happy to be done with the ordeal. I think they are all brave... all the ladies who have given birth. It's still a wonder to me... How long will it be a wonder... I wonder.

I saw this really old movie today, Designing Woman and it took me back to those good old days when I had TCM. It was nice seeing this simple neat and decent, fun movie. Gregory Peck looks good as usual. Actually wa tching a movie after a long long time... the last movie I saw was Superman Returns and I hated it... there was nothing, no story, no plot... just a Brandon Routh flying around and saving that really irritating Louis. What really pissed me off even more was her irritaing son with his freaking inhaler, who is actually superman's kid... how truly amazing!!! And Lex Luthor is not worth mentioning. The Lex Luthor on Smallville is so much better... and cuter too. Saw Brokeback Mountain before that... was thoroughly disgusted... stupid stupid movie!!! Two cowboys are left all alone on the mountains and suddenly they become gay... and people actually liked that movie, it won the oscar's for somethin...

Yesterday was rather fun too... it was the feast of the assumption of Mother Mary. The church was decorated beautifully and we sang 'Ave Maria'.... I liked the latin chorus. The choir group came over for lunch. A few girls dropped in early and they helped out in the kitchen. Food was good... Ended the day watching One Tree Hill... Hailey's song was nice & Brooke sure is interesting.

Had the Saturday off, FINALLY!!!!! It's been long since I was able to sleep well into the day. Wanted to wake up late on Saturday, but Sr. Ancy rang up at 7:30 am and after that I couldn't go back to sleep. The things I go through for having sisters and fathers as friends... ;-) Anyway, it was nothing important so I got to spend the day with some of the best things in life, books and ice cream. There was a lot of cocoa powder at home so I made a chocolate sauce, wanted to eat hot chocolate fudge, and it came out pretty good. That book 'Tis by Frank McCourt is amazing. I loved the first part to that book "Angela's Ashes". Have to go to school now, there's a medical checkup for the children.