Onam..

One year just flew past ... It has been an eventful year, from last Onam.

This year our folks are renovating our home , So they will be having a grand get-together at our mom's ancestral place. And here in Chennai, thankfully my daughter is having a day off on Thiruvonam, but my husband will be having one of his busiest days at the office, and so will be coming home, only at evening, as usual. Somehow an Onasadya at night does not have that same excitement...especially since it is just us...

Anyway, I wish all the malayalees around the globe, a very very HAPPY ONAM.

This image has been taken from the internet.

And for easy access to a few of the recipes that make up an Onasadya, here are the links from the previous years.

Mambazha pulisseri  , Olan  , Vendakka khichdi , Mathanga - vanpayar errisseri, Rasam, Beetroot Pachadi ,

Gothambu Payasam , Ulli curry, Beans Thoran,



  

Fairy tales too unreal?

A weary Snow White with a passel of kids and a couch potato Prince Charming, Rapunzel with her lovely locks shorn, bald and treated for cancer.... the first one funny, the second one grim.... so goes the theme of an article I saw over the weekend... the 'Fallen Princesses' by Dina Goldstein.

While I do applaud her creativity, I object to her reasoning behind taking the pictures. She says that she wanted to show her kids aged 7 and 3, that fairy tales do not have happy endings ... !!!

'Fairy tales' - by their basic definition do mean, tales that have fantasy characters. No one who makes fairy tales claim their work is rooted in reality.

I know quite  a few people , including my siblings and I,who have grown up, enjoying their share of fairy tales, both written and animated. And I do not see even one person needing therapy because they blindly believed those tales and now cannot deal with real life.

At age 6, my daughter already deals with her share of bullies, teachers who are partial, and a lot of cautionary tales from us grown-ups because of the times we live in. An at the end of each tiring day, our little princess dons a glowing crown and sits down to finish her homework. She knows she has to learn, to get where she wants to be, in life, There are no short cuts...... you cannot be more in tune with reality than that.!!!!

In actual fact, I think we need more feel good stuff in the world.... kids are incredibly resilient and bounce back better from calamities than grown up, not because they do not understand..but because they have not given up HOPE...

Any person who has nothing good to look forward to, has a wasted life.... It just makes them unable to appreciate any good that comes their way... they don't expect it, they do not look for it and they do not recognize it.... !!!

So if a parent thinks shocking their kids with awful pictures of reality is good parenting, I think she doesn't know much about kids or being a parent....OR she is not capable of doing the caring and nurturing so she is sending a message to her kids ..this is what will happen in the future... so this is what you get from me !!!

I find it S.A.D...!!