Ask, Share & Receive

Our promise keeper   One day I got a call from a travel company ( precovid times ) saying that I am one of the lucky ones to be given a free holiday to go on a family vacation. Happiness could not be contained as I love to go on holidays and imagine going on a free one. My family alerted me by saying that there are no free lunches and much into this I realised that the whole thing was a scam . I was promised so much but all of it amounted to nothing as it was a gimmick for me to lock in money with them. A few months later I saw the name of this company in the news   as they   came under the scanner for fraud and for cheating many  people. An electronic device that we had picked up was given an years warranty . However a month back the device stopped working and as I called the company , I was told that they had shut shop . To my utter surprise in 24hrs the owner of the company visited our home and got the device working . I was totally flabbergasted . They totally stood by their promis

Have you had the opportunity to get back to someone who has treated you very poorly ? Well we recently had one golden opportunity  😀😬 If you have been following my blogs , you would have come across a blog [ https://asksharereceive.blogspot.com/2019/09/what-kind-of-man-is-this-even-winds-and.html ] of how my son experienced bullying in school and later how things eased out for him.   Now listen to this ...few schools have returned to face to face classes.The kids in my son's class were each assigned with the name of a friend so as to be their “secret Santa” . And guess what ? My son got the privilege to be the secret Santa of one of the boys who bullied him the most. So when we got to know that it's 'HIM' we said in unison -“ it's payback time",   That definitely was a passing causal comment ! Whilst said in jest it was perhaps the best natural reaction to pay back in the same currency that we had received as we humans are so wired to respond in the same fas

  Good things are coming Cause we are changing WOW - and that was an ad that I saw during my morning walk couple of days back.   I always like to look around and see if God is speaking to me through things that I see around me . And when my eyes got sight of the caption - 'good things are coming' - my heart leapt with joy. However when I saw the next line - I was pleasantly surprised, it said ' cause we are changing ' 🤪 . And I am like - well that one is definitely not for me ! I most definitely like the first part which said - good things are coming !  but the second part of changing was...hmmmm..  How often we are like that ! Given an option each one of us would like to pick and choose things in our life . Though life is a mix of everything.   Can we change anything or anyone - hmmm - definitely not - barring ourselves !! And that’s what I eventually liked about the ad - “ good things are coming- cause we are changing “ . Change is so so good....must finally admit

Two weeks back we went for a small staycation. It was so surreal an experience . Never valued an outing like that before . After being locked in for 8 months ( apart from short grocery runs, short visits to our favourite restaurants... etc ) this was the first in 8 months where we experienced nature and the freedom of moving out like never before. Have we not been on a holiday earlier ? We have ! But this holiday was truly something we valued so much, to be liberated from being behind closed doors and to just have the ability to experience the world again but in a new and meaningful way  In our morning walks recently we experienced a switch in the weather . From the hot and humid weather to the pleasant weather( we stay in the Middle East ) . I was thinking to myself - wish we have such weather 365 days of the year - this place would have been heaven .   But then I thought to myself - well in that case I would not have valued and appreciated this season of good weather if there was no

Rewinding back to my hostel days , I learnt a whole lot of things, like to spend money wisely, to value family , nurture friendship,to be non fussy about things , specially food and above all not to take anything for granted .  As every Mallu girl [ girl from Kerala, India ] apart from the basic things, I had few gold ornaments with me in the hostel. One such jewel was a beautiful pair of dangling earrings from Duffai ( Dubai ), the land of gold, gifted to me by my dear cousin .   It was a pretty piece and I kind of showed it off as I wore it couple of times.My friends in the hostel also loved it . Once when I was in a bit of a hurry I removed the earrings and left it in my handbag and totally forgot about it . When I did remember and to my great astonishment I found only one of it in my bag. I looked for it everywhere, told my roommates and my friends, but we could not find it . In the hostel, we have had previous histories of girls breaking into cupboards of others by using a hairpin

As kids we all must have done some weird stuff . And if you have a sibling with whom you are always competing then the chances of doing weird things are higher. Like fighting to lick the remains of the cake batter from the mixing bowl, to be the first to wipe out  residues of fresh whipped butter from the  mixie jar or saving up your part of the treat and wait for everyone to finish so that you can have yours when everyone else is watching. Yup that’s me for you as a teenager 😁 However my biggest weakness was eating stolen "milk powder" [Anikspray].I disliked fresh milk but loved to eat spoon full of milk powder. Since that was not formally acceptable at home I would take it on the sly and eat it . As a result our help at home would come in the line of fire as the milk powder would disappear before you knew it .  When an enquiry was done, no one owned up and I too pledged my innocence.   One fine day our help replaced the milk powder with white flour and me not suspecting an

Some men have an inhibition to admit that woman are good drivers . According to them every poor driver on the road or someone who is not parking well has to be a lady driver . However in an age and time where sky is the limit and women are ruling the skies [ women Pilots ] the world needs to embrace the reality that women are equally good .   On a separate note I have a confession to make . My experience of driving initially was in small towns where the traffic was less and I was a confident driver . Driving in Delhi was a whole lot different than the small town driving experiences . My brother recently was recollecting a narrow escape we had when I was driving for the very first time   in Delhi, India [one of the biggest metropolitans in India] .Must admit that it sure was a harrowing experience for me too . I had a Maruthi 800 car and on this maiden trip to the city from our home , I was on the steering and my brother belted up all excited looking ahead to the drive . After a few min

One evening,I got a call from the school bus attendant on my son's way back from school . Boy - it's no exaggeration when I say that every mom has many unwanted thoughts popping up in their head when they see any number that's associated with the school or the bus ringing on their phone !!! However to my amusement this lady was upset of something my son said to a peer that triggered out a whole unwanted ruckus in the bus. Apparently a kid was snatching things from my son and teasing him and he was so upset and mad that he called that boy an “idiot “ 🤣 Well well it was just an opportune time for me to tell my hubby - told you so -never use words carelessly specially when we have our child around . He uses that word quite generously while driving to  every single  person on the road who drives insanely . Though the person on the road would never have heard it, me and my son would have heard it over and over many times .   So apparently our boy told the lady on the bus - what

I so vividly remember a misadventure at the age of 10.While playing our neighbour's son got up for something and before I knew it he caused the bench to fall on my toes. The entire nail from my big toe came off. The pain was unbearable and the feet looked really ugly. I already had a jumbo size feet and now with the ugly toe it started to stick out like a sore thumb.   As I grew up and saw girls with beautiful pedicured feet,mine was an embarrassment of sorts. On a lift or when people used to look down I used to hide my feet to save me from feeling embarrassed. But the irony was that each time I felt miserable cause of a silly reason as my ugly toe, I would come face to face with a physically challenged person who was so happy and chirpy. This was such a blow to my attitude and the fact of having no gratitude would glare at me straight on my face. Same goes with the scars of our lives . Our pain , our hurts , our past, our turmoils that happens because of our own mistakes or becaus

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good , blessed is he who takes refuge in Him - Psalms 34:8 There is a miracle fruit which is also know as Synsepalum dulcificum ! When someone has this fruit their tastebuds are temporarily rewired and anything that is had in the next few hours tastes sweet .The secret to the fruit’s taste-transforming power is in a protein called miraculin. You can have anything   that’s sour, pungent or spicy but since your taste buds are re-wired everything that you eat will taste sweet.     Each of us go through life’s storms in some form or the other . Some bitter experiences , hurts , betrayals , health issues or challenges of some sort . And those of us who have experienced God's love and saving grace can confidently proclaim like the psalmist David , 'Oh taste and see that the Lord is good' . So   the Miracle fruit temporarily rewires our taste buds but our knowing God and our walk with Him can forever rewire our faith and trust in Him.  A good frie

My Cuckoo clock and the cuckoo man   I always dreamed of owning a cuckoo clock and I was fortunate enough to pick an authentic one from Germany,its place of origin. A beautiful and intricate piece of pure craftsmanship,  the clock worked very well until our bundle of joy arrived . It amused him so much that he used to gaze at it just to see the cuckoo come out of her cute fancy little window. However one fine day he pulled the winding chains so hard that it   came crashing down. To our good luck and the grace of Almighty the clock did not fall on him nor did the clock break .   But in the light of what happened we decided not to use the clock for couple of years . When we finally took it out ,it had accumulated dirt and grime .   I took it to the shopping arcade in Gurgaon ( India )to get it  repaired. The shop owner quoted a price and I agreed  to  it . I asked him for a receipt and he said that his word was good enough. He appeared to be busy and me asking for a receipt again prompte