Calamus

"Gone girl" is a psychotic thriller, a riveting tale of a marriage gone terribly wrong. The story starts when the husband and the small town that they live in, find out that the wife is missing under suspicious circumstances. Through the investigation that ensues, the inner workings of Nick and Amy's dysfunctional marriage unravels in to a twisted, frightening story of lies, deceit, and mutual manipulation. The characters are brilliant and chillingly identifiable. As a reader it gets you to ponder about your own relationship with your spouse. If your marriage has plateaued, in this terrifying psychotic variant, Nick and Amy entrap themselves in a bitter, ceaseless & toxic relationship. One of my favorite parts is when Nick describes how we as humans are finding it more & more difficult to be original ".... I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. ...

I am on a mission. I want to loose weight and feel great! For the past one and a half years I watched my husband shrink and loose up to 85  lbs. He had a diet plan and he stuck to it so the pounds just came off. Ideally I should be doing the same thing, but I haven't. At the time that my husband started on his new diet I was 5 months pregnant and used that as an excuse. But now my son is 11 months old and I just got tired of giving excuses. No more excuses from me! I have made a decision and I am determined to stick to it. I am going to follow my husband's diet plan and see where that takes me. Today April 23rd, 2013  - my weight is  152 lbs . I will check back in a month's time or may be in 2 to 3 weeks (if i get too anxious) to see where I am. Today April 26th, 201 3 - I am on track so far although it is harder than I thought it would be. Having an affinity for sugar does not help at all. Among other things, I have forbidden myself from having anything with artifi...

We celebrated our son's first birthday on Saturday. Since we were the hosts, we tried to keep more healthy food options in the plate. The popular norm in kids' parties is to serve pizza for everyone; or serve pizza to the kids while the adults ate regular food. We have always avoided pizza in our kids's parties because its so common here that it has become a mundane thing to eat. And now we have one more very good reason to continue doing the same thing - though Italy may have a different opinion-for good reason, every where else pizza(restaurant-made) has been transformed in to a junk food. As per our healthy eating initiative, all junk foods are off the table. I agree that its convenient(less mess eating and cleaning) and because the kids love it, its an easy choice. But we decided to give the kids one less opportunity to eat junk. Regular, good food for all. Our menu items were the following: Appetizers  - Chips with home-made Hummus, baked F...

" Mommy I love you sooo much !" "Why?" I teased just to see what the reply was going to be. " Because you are so beautiful! I love your hair too !" "Why?" " Because its so shiny and glittery ". My heart breaks to hear this for two reasons: one - for my four year old daughter's naivete to love my dwindling hair and two - for my dwindling hair. Oh my little girl is so endearing. Her sweet innocence adores not only me but also my hair........or whatever is left of its paltry, sad self. Women are extremely touchy about their crowning glory. As a little girl, growing up in a family where women were endowed with generous amounts of hair, made me a teeniest bit insecure because mine was measly in comparison. Don't get me wrong I have ecstatically received a multitude of compliments for my hair from all quarters, but in the land of hair I am but a plebby. In Kerala, a girl's hair has to measure up to many a lofty standard. M...

As I was gradually waking up from my sleep this morning, I saw my daughter turn over to me slowly blinking her sleep away. She smiled as soon as she saw me and croaked softly in a sleepy voice - " Happy Mother's Day".  I was so touched. She wasn't even fully awake and those were the first words that came out of her mouth. (And then of course this sweet moment came to a pass soon and the usual breakfast battle ensued.) Today is Mother's Day celebrations at Devu's school. She had been preparing for this day for weeks. My four year old little darling let some involuntary slips in the past few days on what she will be doing. As is common with most children her age, she partially understands the concept of a surprise party. I already guessed that she is reciting a rhyme for me, because they did that last year and her occasional slips confirmed it. I just didn't know which rhyme it was because Devu is always reciting rhymes at home at random. Some times duri...