RE-LEARNING THE ABC WITH MAMMA -- Now available on Amazon Kindle

As we stand at the beginning of a brand New Year 2019, I come bearing glad tidings.

This December gone by, I gave myself a Christmas gift that had been years in the making. Five years, to be precise.

My first book, a work of non-fiction, is finally available on the Kindle store. Re-learning the ABC with Mamma consists of the life lessons I learned from my parents, lessons that I now want to share with my kids. 

I'd be mighty thrilled if you'd click on the link in the paragraph above right now to check out my book.

I'd be even more overjoyed if you would click on the link that says, BUY NOW.

And my joy would absolutely hit the roof and sail upwards through the air if you would go on to read the book from cover to cover, and leave behind a review to tell me, and the world, that you loved it, or liked it, or even if you didn't.

Meanwhile, I want to draw your attention to the cover. The image has been drawn by my 10-year-old daughter, who's been my biggest cheerleader on this journey. Art professionals and publishing experts might scoff and sneer and tell me the book won't get noticed if the cover isn't a professionally managed job. That it will never sell. That it will gather a lot of figurative dust.

I'm choosing to listen to my heart.

This is my way of honouring her. Of thanking her for cherishing my dream and rooting for it through the many hurdles that have sprung up, when I came so close to giving up.  

Sometimes you make decisions that are more important than the ringing of the cash register. 

Not that the sales numbers aren't important.

The sales proceeds, I promised the One Upstairs long before the book was even fully written, would go to the Missionaries of Charity, and so every sale matters. Particularly to those who will benefit from the proceeds.

The sales figures, so far, have been in the lower end of the single digits, but the joy these rare species have brought us has been immeasurable. My little girl and I have held hands and danced around the room each time we saw that oh-so-tiny spike on the sales chart.

This book has been a labour of love for us both.

As I write this, still awash in the glow of a season that someone far wiser than me described as one  "which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love," I believe and hope that the love with which this book has been infused will go around and be shared and return to bless all those whose lives it touches.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

15 goals for 2015

A whole new year is upon us.

2015.


For some strange reason I cannot explain, there seems to be some sort of finality about this one. Like it’s meant to be a milestone year of some sort.

And so I’ve come up with this list of things to do. Things to get done.


Some of them… heck, who am I kidding…almost all of them are repeats from previous years. Which brings new meaning to that phrase, shifting goalposts.

What better than to recycle those old goals then?

In the hope that this will be the year in which I get things done. So here they are.


1) SEW: A skirt, a bag, even a dish cloth. My mother’s sewing skills have always been extraordinary. I guess my obsession with achieving some skill at sewing has to do with proving to myself that I am cut from the same cloth.

2) GET CRAFTY: La Niña loves to tinker around with pen, paper, colours, scissors etc. She is always trying to save stuff from ending up in the garbage and giving it new life. Getting crafty will enable mother and daughter to spend more quality time together.

3) BAKE MORE OFTEN: The kids love my baking attempts. So far, they’ve always turned delicious. The baking attempts, that is, not the kids, though they're sweet too.

This year, I’m going to try my hand at cake decoration too. If that calls for taking a few classes, I’m game.

4) ACHIEVE FLUENCY IN SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE: The Internet is our biggest friend when it comes to learning a new language. I’ll keep you posted on the sites that help me on my journey. ¿Vale?

5) COMPLETE A NOVEL THIS YEAR -- ANY GENRE: I made an attempt with the NaNoWriMo in November 2014, but had to give up a week into the challenge. 

Maybe a whole year will be kinder to my challenge than a single month was.

6) COMPLETE AND GIFT AT LEAST 3 CROCHET PROJECTS TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS: If you knew how much yarn I have, you’d wonder if I wasn’t a little batty. I have a compulsive desire to buy more yarn. This year, I hope to put it to good use.

7) COOK MORE OFTEN: When I say cook, I mean experiment. Try something new. A dish from another cuisine. Or from a food blogger’s blog. I used to do that a long time ago.

8) GIVE UP NAGGING: Not doing something that provides such sweet release to the spirit is going to be difficult. But this will be my New Year’s Gift to the Husband.

365 days of No NAGGING.

I wonder how I will vent out my frustration though.

9) READ 50 BOOKS THROUGH THE YEAR: Last year, I signed up for the GoodReads Challenge, promising to read 50 books. A few months later, I revised my commitment to 75 books, and fell flat on my face, having read just 33 books in the year. 

This year, I am going to be more modest and stick to 50.

10) SAY THE FULL ROSARY EVERY DAY: I’ve said this before, but it bears repetition: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” 

If you need a prayer, I'll pray for you too.


11) VOLUNTEER FOR A GOOD CAUSE


12) WRITE AND PUBLISH MY FIRST BOOK: This will be a lead-out from something that began on my blog. If you are a regular reader, you can guess what it is.


13) WRITE MORE THAN 100 BLOG POSTS


14) COMPLETE TWO PARTIALLY WRITTEN SHORT STORIES


15) WORRY LESS


There is a famous quote attributed to Woody Allen that says that if we want to make God laugh, we should tell Him our plans. Will mine cause Him to laugh? I’ll guess I’ll know this time next year. 

And on that note, I declare this to be a Happy New Year 2015.

Goodbye, 2014

How did it get so late so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December is here before it’s June.
My goodness, how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?
- Dr Seuss

With two children whose combined ages still add up to a single digit, I do a lot of reading of children’s books. And Dr Seuss, with his penchant for rhyming, ranks up there among our favourites. And so it is only fitting that I should start this post with a quote from him.

For it’s that time of the year.

December has always been my favourite month, for as long as I can remember. A huge part of that has to do with it being Christmas season, and how it has always been synonymous for hope and faith and for believing again. Ever since I was a little girl, I just felt that no matter what had gone wrong that year, it was going to be set right in the most spectacular manner possible.

And that was the other thing about December. It brought with it the promise of newness, the opportunity to wipe out the disappointments of the year that was whizzing by, and to dream, build and hope again. To believe that we have been granted a clean slate, some coloured chalk and a chance to re-write our lives.

Are we going to grab that chance to finally set things right? Or is it easier to lull ourselves into believing the lie that nothing ever changes and that resolutions are meant to be broken?

I hope you and I both have the courage to start something new in the coming year.

And while we are still here, on this side of 2014, I invite you to make some goals for yourself.

Goals are magic. They are paths that could lead us down completely new directions. 

If only we let them.

So go ahead and make some goals. One, two, or twenty. It doesn’t matter how many. Of course, “15 goals for 2015” does have a nice ring to it.

Write them down on a sheet of paper, and put them up where you can see them every day.
On your soft board.
Or your mirror.

Maybe 2015 is the year when you will finally get over your fear of the deep and learn how to swim.

Or learn a new language.

Or maybe you will overcome your phobia of heights and climb your first mountain.

Maybe you will make the first move towards reconciling with that estranged loved one that you haven’t spoken to in a long time.

Or maybe you will put pen to paper, one word after another, and finally write the untold story that is inside you. 

The first of many you know you were meant to.

Whatever it is, no matter how unconquerable it may seem at this point, I hope you will take that first step. As the greats say, one year from now, you’ll be glad you did.

Here’s wishing you a truly fulfilled 2015.

I hope to see you more often in the coming year. I hope you'll drop by.

13 goals for 2013

Statistically, they say, most New Year's resolutions die by January 13. I’m hoping to give mine the gift of longevity this year. Which is why I’m taking no chances.

For starters, I’m not even going to call them resolutions. The thing with the word ‘resolutions’ is that they all go predictably along the lines of This-year-I-will-do-this and I-will-not-do-that. And therein lies the problem.

You do or avoid doing the thing in question for some days, and then one day, other commitments, failure of infrastructure, illness etc, cause you to miss the date. And Poof! There goes the resolution into the trash can.

For years I have made resolutions, believing that it is a traditional thing to do at the beginning of a brand New Year. I have always had a compulsion to mark the clean slate that the New Year gave me by framing a resolution or two, none of which ever outlived the first fortnights of their lives.

The first time I missed my date with the resolution, I would be so dejected that I would not have the courage to try afresh until the following New Year. I remember how at the beginning of every school year, I would resolve to write neatly in my notebooks. No smudging, no blotting, no cancelling, I would tell myself. If that wasn’t hard enough, I would tell myself that the handwriting had to be beautiful, as calligraphic as I could manage to make it when the teacher was dictating at the speed of 80 words per minute. If that meant that I miss out some important paragraphs along the way, I wasn’t fazed. That was what they called collateral damage, I thought.

And then at the first blot or cancellation, I would be so distraught that I would completely give up wanting to write neatly. It was as if the pristine purity of the page had been marred, and there was no sense in striving for what was lost.

This year, in a remarkable break from tradition, I decided not to make any resolutions at all. Instead, I decided to make 13 goals for the Year 2013. If I must fail, at least I will fail BIG. On the flip side, even if I succeeded in a few of the goals, it would still be a worthwhile exercise.

To be honest, in the best traditions of kyon ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, a lot, but not all, of these goals have been resolutions in the past.

I am just rehashing them. Giving them what is popularly known as a fresh lease of life.

Karen Lamb once said, “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” After years of making the same regret-speeches, I’ve finally decided to see if I can’t fool myself into achieving my goals for a change.

So here’s to me and my attempt to make a brave new beginning through no less than 13 goals:

 Blogging

1 Blog more often. In 2012, I had 62 posts to my credit, which was a huge jump from the 7 in 2011 and the 3 posts each in 2010 and 2009. This year, can I aim for ONE HUNDRED posts? Is that too much to ask?

Writing

2 Write more. Can I make a promise to myself? Can I commit to finishing TWO short stories this year? How about 10 poems?

3 Read at least one book every month. Fortunately this one’s easy.

Skill-enhancement

4 Work towards becoming fluent in Spanish. Earlier I had typed, “Become fluent in Spanish.” Then realised it was best to be realistic about these things.

5 Crochet something. Anything. A baby blanket or booties or a scarf or stole or doily or table runner. Whatever. Just use up those boxes of yarn I feel compelled to buy.

Self-improvement

6 Hold no grudges. This is going to be tough. I can tell.

7 Pray the Rosary every day. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

8 Do a random act of kindness as often as possible. Preferably to someone who cannot pay me back.

9 Make a list of bad habits, and get rid of at least one. I’m not telling which one.

10 Volunteer at a good cause.

Miscellaneous

11 Get organised. And that means de-cluttering.

12 Get financially smarter.

13 Keep in touch with old friends. I’m not very good at picking up the phone and calling, or writing the odd letter. I need to change that this year.

So that’s my list of 13 goals.

Don’t forget to drop in this time next year to see what fate they meet.

First Day in Bloggerland

Finally I've taken my first few steps in Bloggerland. And already it feels a lot like home. I think to myself, "Cynthia, old girl, what took you so long?"

My discovery of Bloggerland was more a matter of serendipity. Little Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia, an immensely likeable book by CS Lewis, and little Alice of Alice in Wonderland fame would be familiar with my experience. I don't remember the name of the recipe that led me to my first blog. What I do remember is that browsing through that first blog, Nupur's One Hot Stove, was an amazing experience, setting me off on an amazing journey of discovery. It was like being let loose in Ali Baba's cave.

This blog then introduced me to a host of other blogs such as Indira's Mahanandi, Sia's Monsoon Spice and Meena's Hooked on Heat. Together they made a foodie out of I-only-eat-to-live me. Their recipes, the photographs of the wonders they whipped up in their kitchens, and the stories they tied their blogs with, everything was a treat. Above all, I felt humbled by their generosity, by their willingness to let total strangers take a peek into their worlds, and be the richer for it, by the honesty with which they shared their recipes, their experiences and their cultures.

I have never felt very comfortable about following recipes shared by noted chefs and recipe sites. I always suspected that these guys were not quite so scrupulous about an ingredient here and there. But with my blogger friends, I have no such qualms.

Thank you, dear bloggers. You have re-introduced me to the fine art of cooking. And encouraged me to write my very own blog. Muchas gracias!