THE PROPOSAL: SHORT STORY

Image: http://www.gatlinburgspaceneedle.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/marriage-proposal.jpg

I was on my way back to home after attending the morning Holy mass at my parish church. When I reached the Post Office junction, I saw a boy and a girl talking to each other. Boy was extremely nervous standing before her. I decided to watch them for a moment and sat on the bench on the road side. Suddenly the boy stood on his one knee and quickly took out a red rose out of his shirt. All of a sudden the scene that's happening before me brought a smile on my face and it reminded me of a September morning. The day I proposed my girl. That day, that moment, helped me now to be a proud husband of a great wife. I prayed a while for the couple, who is just going to start their love life and continued walking to my home.

One Month In!

Love before Marriage! It's been a great journey for both of us. We shared our stories every day, we prayed together, we were together in happiness and in sorrow, and we dreamed a life together. Yes! We were preparing for the 'Life after marriage'.
Can't forgot the last couple of months. Let us take this opportunity to thank everyone who were there for us. Especially our Parents, Brothers (Akhil Paul & Anil Jose), our relatives (Especially Antony Uncle, Francis Uncle, Fr. Francis, Saju Pepan, Lloyid, Sheri Cheattan.... (oopz! the list goes on and on), and friends (Special mention to Varun Paul, Thomson Varghese, Edison Varghese, Jomon Moonjely, Midhun, Dikil, Prajeesh, Ajith, & Joe). Thank You all for your efforts!
Completed our first month as husband and wife. We're slowly coming back to business. Both of us joined back our work.

But it doesn’t feel different.

Which is fine, because our relationship was awesome. It hasn’t changed at all. Every once in a while there’s the little thrill of thinking of her as “wife” but even that is not as exciting as I expected it to be. The fact is, we have felt committed to each other for life. We both knew. Just completely knew that this was it.
But it still doesn’t quite feel real to us. We said vows. We went through two ceremonies. But I think it will take a lot of calling each other “husband” and “wife” for it is too hard for me to hide that little smile. So far it's been a wonderful breeze and we hope it will stick around for the life ahead. Thanks Again!

Sunday

Another Sunday in OUR life is going to say bye in couple of hours. It's been a calm day. Started by participating in the Holy Mass. Then visited Bamboo Festival that happened at Kaloor JN Stadium. Followed by a sound nap in the afternoon. Now reading about The 2012 Phenomenon. Planing to catch sleep in few hours. Hope you all had a wonderful December Sunday! Night & God Bless! :)

Until death do us part

"Thank you my honey bunch for everything that you have poured on me. Especially for your unconditional love and care, for trusting me, for helping me take good decisions, for being my shore during the tough times, and the list goes on... Don't know what to scribble down honey...
I do promise to be true. I would like to be with you to have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. I LOVE YOU!"

PARISH FIESTA 2012

“Oh, Kaprassery, gem of the region,
We will stand with pride and dignity,
We will watch your fragile beauty,
With much love and care . . . ”

It’s fiesta days in Kaprassery once more.… It brings to us in a hundred and one memories; some happy and some sad. It reminds me of the well decorated and illuminated face of our parish church, old and familiar faces of parishioners and people in the distant beyond, some lost and half forgotten, but most of all those that I love and long to be with.

Kaprassery is my home village, nestled in between the two major towns of the Indian state Kerala, i.e. Aluva and Angamaly. Parish was established in the year 1976. It is named Little Flower Church after the Saint Therese of Lisieux (LittleFlower)… How does a Kaprasserian celebrate a Parish fiesta?

Kaprassery celebrates its parish fiesta every first weekend of February in honour of her patroness Saint Therese of Lisieux (Little Flower) and of St. Sebastian. This most awaited weekend is preceded by nine days evening novena and holy mass. These days, you will find the pious and devoted Kaprasserians offering their prayers, thanks giving for the blessings granted upon their family and nation by the loving God with the intercession of our Lady.

The celebration is doubly blessed and become more significant in the parish church which has been the center of the life of a Kaprasserian. By the end of ninth day, folks decorate their frontage of house and village roads with tender coconut leaves and with the plantain trunk. Soon the much awaited weekend arrives and celebration begins by hosting papal flag in front of the church and holy mass follows. Later in the evening parishioners comes up with a bunch of beautiful cultural programs and the real celebration begins as each and every devotee and guest is welcomed in the heart and homes of my village folks in the unique charm and Kaprassery hospitality. Saturday procession, after celebrating the holy mass, is something everyone participates with lot of devotion and pride…

The sharing of laughters, all the eating and the drinking! What a weekend! But by Sunday evening, the host smiles with pride and joy for another merry making that had soon come to pass. Once again memories are made in the hearts of each Kaprasserians.

 As the village of Kaprassery celebrates its annual parish church fiesta this year the activities are set through the leadership of our parish priest and parish fest committee…

Happy Fiesta to all!

IN FOND MEMORY OF 2011

A year full of ups and downs is going to bid goodbye… magic of love, higher education, bro @ UK, new friends, new places… It was an awesome year. When I turn back to recollect what happened… There will be a smile on my face for sure….

First half of the year gave a lot of happy moments… but second half was full of mixed emotions… eyes become wet most of the times… when September 3^rd arrived with the magic of love… got super excited and went far from reality… but October pulled me down to earth…. Some crucial decisions… Arrrhhhh! I don’t wanna go through it again…

It wasn’t full of disappointments really… Got a superb holiday at Bangalore, opportunity to learn at one of the major university of the state… New professional contacts… Can’t forget the company and support from the juniors at my parish church… They really worked hard to add colours to the celebrations at parish church…Thank You guys!!! You were really superb….May God bless you all with a bright future…

Oh! How can I forget the last day of the year….. Wowww! It was really good…

Hope all of you had a lovely year… May God bless you all with a year of happiness and fulfilment...

Before concluding this post I would like to put forward before you this quote….

“At the end of this year, … before leaving its days and hours to God and his just and merciful judgment, I feel a very strong need in my heart to elevate our thanks to Him and his love for us.”

- Pope Benedict XVI (1927- present)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

GRIEF

I have always known her to be strong and to see her allowing herself to become weak, it frightens me… just seeing her become sicker, and seeing that she is really going older, it frightens the hell out of me….

BRIGHT STAR

Stars are shining,

Stars are smiling,

Showing me the bright side of life,

You...

How can I keep you apart,

When you're close to my heart.

How can we be like two worlds apart,

When a world is built for us.

You were my world,

You were my dreams,

And still is.

Yes! You rule my heart.

Sincere thanks to my friend: Shilpa Krishnan

UJALA VANDI AND MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

“The child is the father of man”- Wordsworth

By the above line Wordsworth obviously meant was that the productiveness of an adult depends on the opportunities he has had to grow and develop as a child. It shows the importance of childhood in ones development.

Childhood is the sweetest of all other stages in our entire life. I believe everyone will agree to that. We carry a lot of memories from it. Today we might be a Teacher, Doctor, Engineer, Social Worker, Nurse, or Entrepreneur etc. But the faculty of wonder, innocence, laughter etc. that we had enjoyed as a kid, is a treasure forever.

Last day I made an ‘Ujala Vandi’(a toy vehicle made out of the bottle of famous whitening solution for clothes and the cut chapel) for my nephew. His amusement and cute smile after being the proud owner of the toy brought to me the memories of my childhood days. Now, whenever I see him with his toy, I wish I were a child again.

So if you are feeling pain or sick of the complexities that our modern world brings to us; just turn the pages to your childhood days, by playing with children, going through your childhood pictures, sharing your memories with your partner. You will soon be gifted with the contentment.

More than everything, you must always carry a child in your heart… It will definitely bring smiles on your face…

“With every child we are born again and we play in the courtyard of the world in the bright sunshine of love and laughter.”

FIRST LOOK: MY LOGO

IGNORED!

"Birds forgot to sing in the daybreak…

Sky seems dark…

Stars failed to take its brightness…

Moon lost its gorgeousness…

And the psyche tries to find comfort inside the four walls of the room…"

Life is like playing chess with God. Your moves are called CHOICES & His moves are called CHALLENGES. I miss the taste of life… at least the happy part of it… The worse thing than being hated is being ignored. When I miss someone, what I can do now is just look at the sky. Although I might not see the person there, but feel happy that both of us are under the same sky.

“It’s hard to forget you when every day these memories of us keep rushing back.”

Addendum: Hope the coin has two faces….

FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It’s the end of 2010 and a decade along with that...was an important one for me... 2011 is here with a bright smile, I hope that this new decade brings only happiness and peace to all of us… this will definitely be a crucial phase of my life…

Each day here in this world was an experience… last year already turned to an album of black and white pictures… but from those experiences that we build our future. Life has been cooked up with ups and downs… To say this is my own life would be totally untrue… There are people in this world, some of them so wonderful that always stood by me, holding my hands… I would like to thank all of you and in particular:

Faculty, DoSW, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, for their valuable instructions and support. In Particular, Dr. Jayanthi P. Nair, My research guide and comfort zone in the department, Dr. Jose Antony, Head of the Department and Mr. PV Baiju, Faculty in Charge.

MSW classmates, who stood with me in all of my humble initiatives and were ready to bear my blah, blahs…,

Child Line Kochi staff and Core committee of Center for Development Research and Action…

Antony Kulangara, my friend at parish, for helping me and working with me to bestow a fresh face to the Parish Youth movement…

Fr. Shalbin, Sr. Gracemin and Fr. James Varghese, for their guidance, prayers and love…

Deena Joseph, One of my best friends… for all her concern, motivation, support and above all for giving an opportunity to share the podium and present my first academic paper along with her…

Dikil, Prajeesh, Joe and Ajith my best friends (FLASH FIVE) from higher secondary school, for many LOL moments, care, love and support…

Thomson and Varun, my best friends… for a wonderful yearend holidays at Hyderabad (which includes my first air travel) and for being there for me during the most difficult and challenging times of my life…

Blessy Ann John, for teaching me few important lessons of life…

How can I forget people with whom I have a relationship that goes beyond the common genes we share… My Mom, Dad, bro, Grand ma and my entire family for unreasonable and permanent belief in me….

HAPPY 2011....!!! Here’s a new beginning…

MISS YOU DARLZ!

“…….I give you my hand!

I give you my love more precious than money,

I give you myself before preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? Will you come

travel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as we

live?”

I had someone so cute… who cared me a lot… loved me a lot… and I was happy with that cute buddy… But now, when I need her so desperately… I cannot find her nearby… She is gone… out of ma life…

I am writing this at midnight… not because I just had a dream about her… instead, thoughts about her are just taking life of my dreams and made me insomniac… It’s the moments we spend together… those moments are the real culprit, I think… who makes my life hard these days and nights… I simply miss her… missing her voice, a gentle touch of her and everything I had…

Yah! Whom I to blame those moments??? If I miss her now it’s simply because I was a kind of ‘sonovabitch’ those last days…or I really don’t deserve a place in her life… or I was too odd to stay close to her…. O’ Lord let her be happy wherever she is… I miss you darlz!

DREAM, DREAM, DREAM!!!

Some people eat, sleep and drink their dreams while some loose track en route. Isn't your dream a part of you until you realize it? or is it a momentary infatuation?.Dreams that fade away into the background, eroding in the test of time, those are never dreams. They are illusions, ones that appear in your dreams and leave no trace in the warmth of early morning sun. As Dr. Abdul Kalam rightly said dreams are not the ones you see in your sleep but, the ones that not allows you to sleep.

MSW was never ma dream, but I was sucked into the tornado of so called flow of life and there I was, confused, anxious, puffing and throwing tantrums. In a month I realized, I had no other way other than to accept that I was actually there, in midst of problems faced by our society. Once, I understood that there was no way out I slowly agreed to be a part of it. I was inheriting someone else's dreams. At a point of time I started accepting social work as part of my dream. It was the new exposure to the life on the other side of our society that triggered a passion in me for social work and I decided to give it the best shot. 

I fail to understand the other side of the rule, If X was your dream and if it’s so close to you how can you just give up. Wasn't it the only thing you ever wanted in your life? If that's so why can’t you put in a 110%. Sometimes what we call as our dream may not be the right dream for us, one may stumble, take a few leap, get bruised but, that's it? You just give up? You sit there on the battle ground with your hands up in the air and say "THAT'S IT". You call that a FAILED ATTEMPT? I call it COWARDLINESS.

If you shout it out to the world that X is your dream, people around you will expect you to be an expert in your dream. Can't blame the people for thinking so because for a commoner, dreams are the ones we are good at, not something that you wanna try out if you can fit in or not. When you fail people see this as a lack of interest and then those dreams degrade to the status of "EX-DREAMS".

Here is another scenario, you have a dream and you are in the path of realizing your dream, one day you wake up and find a new dream holding its place against the old one. What then? You just let the old dream die? Or will you just let you first dream take a higher priority now this, i will leave it upon individual decision. What you want most in life, only you know, so prioritize based on the execution time and necessity.

"LIVE YOUR DREAM, NOT LET THE DREAM LEAVE YOU

Thanq Guysssssssssss!

Here is the time to put my writing genes to some good use. There are multiple things that i want to talk about, laced with descriptive view and as i sit here, typing away half baked ideas i wonder....what exactly i wanted to write about? About Life? Well, NO people learn through their experiences and there is no way a 23 year old can impart worldly wisdom. Okay let me whine few things about my latest birthday…

First and foremost thank you all for the kind wishes on my birthday…let me take this post to talk about few names who stood for me all these 8401 days… my parents, my brother and relatives, without whom, I would not have been able to reach this critical point in my life. Their numerous sacrifices, stern guidance, endless patience, and unequivocal support have allowed me to overcome the multitude of the educational and life challenges that crossed my path. In addition, I would also like to thank my dearest friends for being there for me during the most difficult and challenging times of my life.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank the Almighty God the most benevolent and most merciful, for making my dream come true.

Special Thanks to my chweeeet Ammoos Who gave me a magnificent gift, I ever had!

Let me commit to memory a few names of the wishers!

My Family Unit

Deena Joseph
Ishitha E.K.

Varun paul

Thomson Varghese

Edison Varghese

Linoj Thomas

Jesmi Joseph

Shanavas TA

Rajesh P.R.

Shijo Devassy

Antony Jinoy Kayyalakam

George

Reshma

Geetha K.G.

Dijo Babu

Anumol Thomas

Toney Joy

Sudhi Thankappan

Mrs. Seena Abraham

Sanu Balan

Anas Marayam

Naveen

Vino George

Reubin Daniel

Jimlet George

Remya

Riya

Louis Thomas

Arun Narayanan

Tresa Mary Varghese

Domu....

John Paul Augustine

Vinu Prasad Ravindran

Sivaja Nair

Kannan

Anil

Aswathy Ramachandran

Albin Joseph

Anju

Jomon

Sonu Suvid

Amal Eappen

Midhun M.K.

Anna J. Pynadath

Ramanadhan

Blessy Ann John

Sebin Devassy

Anoop Joseph

Sudish Jose

Kailasnath S.

Ajeesh Kashamkulam

Prashanth Tomy

Bony fas Victor

Madhu Sankar

Fr. Regi Augustine

Fr. Francis Menachery

Fr. James Varghese

Antony M.O.

Jojo Thomas

Aju Varghese