The Sad Friday

Well it's that time of the year again where Christians celebrate Easter.
They call this the Holy week; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and finally Easter on Sunday.
In Kerala, people refer to Good Friday as 'Dukha Velliyacha' which literally means Sad Friday.

Now the most obvious question that one can ask here is why is it called sad in Malayalam and good in English (and I have been asked that question a lot!).

Well this week, I was thinking about it and I came up with this: It's both. It's sad because it's supposed to be the day Jesus died and it’s good because Jesus died for me and you.

It's interesting because I realized many people, in general, view life the same way. Something grievous happens in their lives, for some it becomes a 'Sad Friday' and for some 'Good'.

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A Marital Affair

"You don't marry one person; you marry three: the person you think they are, the person they are, and the person they are going to become as a result of being married to you." -Richard Needham

Valentine’s Day just went on by last month and I thought I’d scribble about an ongoing love story for this post. This story is not made up, the characters are real and personally, I do not know if it resembles anyone else’ real life story. This is my story; the story of me and my wife Anu, this is our story.

2012 was an important year for both me and Anu as we completed five years into our marriage. Five years really seems like a short time. We both still remember the day we got married. We were madly in love then and we are still madly in love with each other.

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The Men we are

2012 had an almost perfect ending till the news of the Delhi rape incident shook the entire nation. For the parents and close kin of the girl, it will be something they will never forget for the rest of their lives.

The news was all over, in every regional channel, the English Channels, news papers, even on normal talk shows, and for a while it seemed like it was the only thing to talk about. Even social media was buzzing with remarks from all over; Facebook, Twitter and even many bloggers wrote about the cruelty of that incident.

Many addressed issues as how to prevent this kind of a crime from happening again. A large ratio were for cruel punishment so that fear would creep in to the hearts of the rapists. Again some were for self defense. The government even set up an emergency number for the women to call in any case.

The heights were the discussions on one of the talk shows. They were talking about actually having a red light area in every district. So that men could go there for their needs and as a result reduce the number of rapes. (Can you imagine that?!)

People had spoken out and written on what the women ought to do. And in perspective, while what all of them said stands true; I believe in order to see a true change it also has to do with the hearts of men. While this still remains a sensitive issue, I want to write this post to all the men, myself included!

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New Year Resolutions & You

Happy New Year!

One of the things that people commonly do all over the world for every New Year is to try and make a few New Year Resolutions. To be frank that was something that even I used to do when I was much younger. But then like everyone, a few weeks, perhaps a few days into it, I found myself falling short of every one of those decisions that I had made.

Research says that people normally break off their New Year resolutions within the first seventeen days. So let me ask you a question right now, have you broken your resolutions for this year already? If you have then this post is for you.

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Christmas - A Story of Trust

With Christmas and New Year around the corner, I was pondering over what to write. And it was then that we decided to head over to the theatre. While we were in Bangalore, we saw "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" (It took me ages to get the name right!); with the star cast of Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif. And later, while in Mangalore, after hearing and reading about the rave reviews we went to watch the movie "Life of Pi". The life of Pi was sensational in terms of the visuals and sceneries.

Something which I would say that I found in common about the movies was one character that was played out: The character of God; to be specific, Jesus.

And in both: the theme that was focused around Jesus was on trust. While for Katrina Kaif, she trusted Jesus would protect her lover and for Pi, he believed that God would deliver him out of the ocean.

It made me think about Christmas and the story behind it. For many, Christmas brings to mind the picture of a fat Santa Claus and his reindeer drawn sled; the many gifts that they receive. But then, we mustn't forget that this is the day where not only to say Christians but the whole world regards it as the day Jesus Christ, the son of God was born.  

And the story of Christmas is really a story of trust and faith.

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Financial Investments in India

Last month we discussed on the importance of saving money. Learning to save money is the first step in ensuring a healthy financial sheet in the longer run of life. Once we start saving, as the money accumulates, investing it becomes the next priority.

American Investor and business man Robert Kiyosaki says, "It's not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for."

It’s important for us to make our money work for us. I remember reading the story of the twins Ramu and Shamu from a children’s magazine ‘Tinkle’ about how they had gone to the bank and saw a notice where in it said, “Watch your money grow.” Ramu and Shamu stare at the money for nearly as long as ten minutes and run back to their mother crying out,  “Mom, this bank is a fake!” The manager of the bank gets startled and asks the children why they thought so. Ramu replies, “We have been watching the money closely and we haven’t seen the money grow.” The manager laughs and replies to the mother, “You will have to explain to them how it grows.” 

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Saving Private Money

If I asked the question, "What would you do if you had a lot of money?" What would your response be?

I am sure we would be making up a list of things right now. Perhaps, so many of our long awaited dreams and desires would be fulfilled. Some of us would think that would be the end of so many problems. But of course, we know that is far from the truth. 

It was Woody Allen who said, "Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." 

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