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Isn’t it strange how a 20 rupee note seems like such a large amount when you donate it to Church, but such a small amount when you go shopping? Isn’t it strange how 2 hours seem so long when you’re at Church, and how short they seem when you’re watching a good movie? Isn’t it strange that you can’t find a word to say when you’re praying, but you have no trouble thinking what to talk about with a friend? Isn’t it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a popular novel ? Isn’t it strange how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or games, but they do whatever is possible to sit at the last row in Church? Isn’t it strange how we need to know about an event for a Church 2-3 weeks before the day so we can include it in our agenda, but we can adjust it for other events in the last minute? Isn’t it strange how difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share it with others, but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip? Really strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! right?

Debut Indian novelist Aravind Adiga on Tuesday won the Man Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, with “The White Tiger”. It was only the third time in the Booker’s 40-year history that a first-time writer had claimed the award, and, at 33, Adiga was also one of its youngest winners. He received a cheque for 50,000 pounds ($88,000) at a gala dinner in London and can expect not only overnight literary fame but also a sharp rise in book sales in the runup to Christmas. Booker organisers say last year’s winner, Anne Enright, has sold around 500,000 copies of “The Gathering”, largely due to the prize. The White Tiger is published by Atlantic Books. The White Tiger follows Balram Halwai, the son of a rickshaw puller whose dream of escaping the poverty of his village takes him on a journey to the bright lights of Delhi and Bangalore, where he will do almost anything to get to the top. “It was important for me to present someone from this colossal underclass, which is perhaps as big as 400 million, and to do so without sentimentality,” Adiga told reporters after the awards ceremony. “The book has done very well in India. It was a bestseller before this was announced. There’s been a need for a book like this,” he added. Michael Portillo, chairman of the five-member judging panel, praised The White Tiger for tackling important social and political issues in modern-day India. “What set this one apart was its originality,” Portillo said. “For many of us this was entirely new territory — the dark side of India. “It’s a book that gains from dealing with very important social issues — the divisions between rich and poor and the impossibility of the poor escaping from their lot in India.” Source – Yahoo News

Marriage is not a word. It is a sentence–a life sentence. Marriage is very much like a violin; after the sweet music is over, the strings are attached. Marriage is love. Love is blind. Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind. Marriage is an institution in which a man loses his Bachelor’s Degree and the woman gets her Masters. Marriage is a thing which puts a ring on a woman’s finger and two under the man’s eyes. Marriage is not just a having a wife, but also worries inherited forever. Marriage requires a man to prepare 4 types of “rings”: * The Engagement Ring * The Wedding Ring * The Suffe-Ring * The Endu-Ring There are two times a man does’nt understand a woman, before marriage and after marriage! A successful husband is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man! A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about his future until he gets a wife! A man will pay $2.00 for a $1.00 item he wants. A woman will pay $1.00 for a $2.00 item she does not want! When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure of one thing: either the car is new or the wife. Man is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished. Married man live longer than a single man, but married man are lot more willing to die! A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the begining of a new argument. Any married man should forget his mistakes because there is no use in remembering two people the same thing. When a newly married couple smiles, everyone knows why. When a ten-year married couple smiles, everyone wonders why. Before marriage, a man yearns for the woman he loves. After marriage, the “y” becomes silent. What is the difference between a marriage and a war? – A marriage is a war in which the enemies can sleep together! I asked my wife, “Where do you want to go for our anniversary?” She said, “Somewhere I have never been!” I told her, “How about the kitchen?” Bad Teddy recently explained to me why he refuses to ever get married. He says “the wedding rings look too much like miniature handcuffs…..” To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all ! A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he does’nt. A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change and she does.

Long time I haven’t post any recipes. Here’s one for you. Tapyoka is “Kappa” in malayalam. “KAPPA” is considering as a traditional dish of kerala which contains rich protiens and other vitamins. This is an ideal food which can serve with fish cury. Ingredients Kappa – 1 Kg Turmetic Powder – 1/2 tsp green chilli – 5 Nos. Garlic – 5 nos Grated cocunut – 1/2 cup cocunt oil – 2 tsp dried red chilly – 2 no.(make small pieces) curry leaves mustard seeds 2 small onion pieces Preparation Preparing this dish is very easy. Peal the Kappa and boil in sufficient water till become soft(around 15 minuts), drain the water. make a the paste of garlic, grated cocconut, green chilly, small onions and add the paste to the cooked Kappa along with the turmeric powder. Put a pan on stove and pour the cocunut oil and boil the oil in medium fire, after 1 minute add mustard seeds, dried red chilly, curry leaves and fry all the ingredients. Pour this mixture into tapyoca and mix well. Serve with fish curry and rice.

October 12th 2008 was an unforgettable day for Indian Catholic Church. First time, an indian women became a saint. 2-3 people came to India worked and died here and became saints like St. Thomas, Francis Saviour, Mother Treesa (she was known as a saint when she lived)� etc. But this is the first time an indian born women became a saint. I am more happy because she is a Keralite. Here’s something about her. Born – August 19, 1910, Kottayam district, Kerala, India Baptized – August 27, 1910 Died – July 28, 1946, Bharananganam Venerated in – Roman Catholic Church Beatified – February 8, 1986, Kottayam by Pope John Paul II Canonized – October 12, 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI Feast – July 28 Her tomb in Bharananganam has become a pilgrimage site these days as miracles have reported by some devotees. The miracle attributed to her intercession and approved by Vatican for the canonization was the healing of club foot of an infant in 1999. Beatification On December 2, 1953, Eug�ne-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Cardinal Tisserant inaugurated the diocesan process for her beatification. Pope John Paul II formally approved a miracle attributed to her intercession and Alphonsa was declared Servant of God on 9 July 1985 and she became known as Venerable Sister Alphonsa. She was beatified along with Kuriakose Elias Chavara at Kottayam. Canonization The miracle attributed to her intercession and approved by Vatican for the canonization was the healing of club foot of an infant in 1999. Sainthood On October 12, 2008, Pope Benedict will declare Blessed Alphonsa as the first woman saint of India. Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass to canonize India’s first female saint, Sister Alphonsa Muttathupadathu, who disfigured herself to avoid marriage so she could become a nun, Agence France-Presse reported. The ceremony took place yesterday in the Vatican in the presence of tens of thousands of worshippers, AFP said. Thousands of Indians traveled to Rome from the southern Indian state of Kerala, where the Roman Catholic nun was born. Alphonsa, who died in 1946 at the age of 36, lived in “extreme physical and spiritual suffering” and was an “exceptional woman” Pop said. Route to reach Saint Alphonsa Tomb Bharananganam is a name which is synonymous with St. Alphonsa, who ise the first saint of India. This town is 5 kilometer away from Palai, now has become an important pilgrim center in Kerala. Route Map in Google Map View Larger Map BOOKS ON ST.ALPHONSA New Saints and Blesseds of the Catholic Church – Ferdinand Holbock The Spirituality of Blessed Alphonsa – Ke. Si. C?kk? A Grain of Wheat – T Thomas The Wisdom of the Saints – Suzanne Clores Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India – Corinne G. Dempsey Vatican’s biography of St Alphonsa Kerala nun Sister Alphonsa, who at the age of seven had dedicated herself to serving Jesus Christ, calling him “my divine Spouse”, was greatly disturbed when her family decided to get her married when she was 13. She prayed fervently and even contemplated disfiguring herself to escape the torment, according to a biography of her prepared by the Vatican ahead of her canonisation on Sunday. Following is the biography of Sister Alphonsa prepared by the Vatican: “Blessed ALPHONSA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION was born in Kudamalur, the Arpookara region, in the diocese of Changanacherry, India, on the August 19, 1910, of the ancient and noble family of Muttathupadathu. From her birth, the life of the Blessed was marked by the cross, which would be progressively revealed to her as the royal way to conform herself to Christ. Her mother Maria Puthukari gave birth to her prematurely, in her eight month of pregnancy, as a result of a fright she received when, during the sleep, a snake wrapped itself around her waist. Eight days later, on August 28, the child was baptised according to the Syro-Malabar rite by the Fr Joseph Chackalayil, and she received the name Annakutty, a diminutive of Anne. She was the last of five children. Her mother died three months later. Annakutty passed her early infancy in the home of her grandparents in Elumparambil. There she lived a particularly happy time because of her human and Christian formation, during which the first seeds of a vocation flowered. Her grandmother, a pious and charitable woman, communicated the joy of the faith, love for prayer and a surge of charity towards the poor to her. At five years of age the child already knew how to lead, with a totally childish enthusiasm, the evening prayer of the family gathered, in accordance with the Syro-Malabar custom, in the “prayer room”. Annakutty received the Eucharistic bread for the first time on the 11 of November 1917. She used to say to her friends: “Do you know why I am so particularly happy today? It is because I have Jesus in my heart!”. In a letter to her spiritual father, on the 30 of November 1943, she confided the following: “Already from the age of seven I was no longer mine. I was totally dedicated to my divine Spouse. Your reverence knows it well”. In 1917 itself, she began to attend the elementary school of Thonnankuzhy, where she also established a sincere friendship with the Hindu children. When the first school cycle ended in 1920, the time had come to transfer to Muttuchira, to the house of her aunt Anna Murickal, to whom her mother, before she died, had entrusted her as her adoptive mother. Her aunt was a severe and demanding woman, at times despotic and violent in demanding obedience from Annakutty in her every minimal disposition or desire. Assiduous in her religious practice, she accompanied her niece, but did not share the young girl’s friendship with the Carmelites of the close-by Monastery or her long periods of prayer at the foot of the altar. She was, in fact, determined to procure an advantageous marriage for Annakutty, obstructing the clear signs of her religious vocation. The virtue of the Blessed was manifested in accepting this severe and rigid education as a path of humility and patience for the love of Christ, and tenaciously resisted the reiterated attempts at engagement to which the aunt tried to oblige her. Annakutty, in order to get out from under a commitment to marriage, reached the point of voluntarily causing herself a grave burn by putting her foot into a heap of burning embers. “My marriage was arranged when I was thirteen years old. What had I to do to avoid it? I prayed all that night… then an idea came tome. If my body were a little disfigured no one would want me! … O, how I suffered! I offered all for my great intention”. The proposal to defile her singular beauty did not fully succeed in freeing her from the attentions of suitors. During the following years the Blessed had to defend her vocation, even during the year of probation when an attempt to give her in marriage, with the complicity of the Mistress of Formation herself, was made. “O, the vocation which I received! A gift of my good God!…. God saw the pain of my soul in those days. God distanced the difficulties and established me in this religious state”. It was Fr James Muricken, her confessor, who directed her towards Franciscan spirituality and put her in contact with the Congregation of the Franciscan Clarists. Annakutty entered their college in Bharananganam in the diocese of Palai, to attend seventh class, as an intern student, on the 24th of May 1927. The following year, on the 2nd of August 1928, Annakutty began her postulancy, taking the name of Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception in honour of St. Alphonsus Liguori, whose feast it was that day. She was clothed in the religious habit on the 19th of May 1930, during the first pastoral visit made to Bharananganam by the Bishop, Msgr. James Kalacherry. The period 1930-1935 was characterised by grave illness and moral suffering. She could teach the children in the school at Vakakkad only during the scholastic year 1932. Then, because of her weakness, she carried out the duties of assistant-teacher and catechist in the parish. She was engaged also as secretary, especially to write official letters because of her beautiful script. The canonical novitiate was introduced into the Congregation of the Franciscan Clarists in 1934. Though wishing to enter immediately, the Blessed was only admitted on the 12th of August 1935 because of her ill health. About one week after the beginning of her novitiate, she had a haemorrhage from the nose and eyes and a profound organic wasting and purulent wounds on her legs. The illness deteriorated, to such a point that the worst was feared. Heaven came to the rescue of the holy novice. During a novena to The Servant of God Fr Kuriakose Elia Chavara – a Carmelite who today is a Blessed-she wasmiraculously and instantaneously cured. Having restarted her novitiate, she wrote the following proposals in her spiritual diary: “I do not wish to act or speak according to my inclinations. Every time I fail, I will do penance… I want to be careful never to reject anyone. I will only speak sweet words to others. I want to control my eyes with rigour. I will ask pardon of the Lord for every little failure and I will atone for it through penance. No matter what my sufferings may be, I will never complain and if I have to undergo any humiliation, I will seek refuge in the Sacred Heart of Jesus”. On August 12, 1936, the feast of St Clare, the day of her perpetual profession, was a day of inexpressible spiritual joy. She had realised her desire, guarded for a long time in her heart and confided to her sister Elizabeth when she was only 12 years old: “Jesus is my only Spouse, and none other”. Jesus, however, wished to lead his spouse to perfection through a life of suffering. “I made my perpetual profession on the August 12, 1936 and came here to Bharanganam on the August 14. From that time, it seems, I was entrusted with a part of the cross of Christ. There are abundant occasions of suffering… I have a great desire to suffer with joy. It seems that my Spouse wishes to fulfil this desire”. Painful illnesses followed each other, typhoid fever, double pneumonia, and, the most serious of all, a dramatic nervous shock, the result of a fright on seeing a thief during the night of October18, 1940. Her state of psychic incapacity lasted for about a year, during which she was unable to read or write. In every situation, Sister Alphonsa always maintained a great reservation and charitable attitude towards the Sisters, silently undergoing her sufferings. In 1945 she had a violent outbreak of illness. A tumour, which had spread throughout her organs, transformed her final year of life into a continuous agony. Gastroenteritis and liver problems caused violent convulsions and vomiting up to forty times a day: “I feel that the Lord has destined me to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering… I consider a day in which I have not suffered as a day lost to me”. With this attitude of a victim for the love of the Lord, happy until the final moment and with a smile of innocence always on her lips, Sister Alphonsa quietly and joyfully brought her earthly journey to a close in the convent of the Franciscan Clarists at Bharananganam at 12.30 on July 28, 1946, leaving behind the memory of a Sister full of love and a saint. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception Muttathupadathu was proclaimed Blessed by Pope John Paul II in Kottayam, India, on February 8, 1986. With today’s Canonisation, the Church in India presents its first Saint to the veneration of the faithful of the whole world. Faithful from every part of the world have come together in a single act of thanksgiving to God in her name and in a sign of the great oriental and western traditions, Roman and Malabar, which Sr Alphonsa lived and harmonised in her saintly life. This is the church inside which the tomb of Saint Alphonsa is situated This is the stamp published by Indian Government when Alphonsa got beutified. It seems now government will publish coins with her beautiful face.

This is the first time I got a coffin. I was very busy with pending works and team members. I used to update my blog from home. But there is no internet @ home for few days. We are waiting for the “Tataindicom” people to come and fix it. This is the message sent by our boss. Anyway I am happy that Sister Alphonsa become a saint. I will update the details about that soon.

Last day we had a pooja @ office. It was the day when we worshiped our work. Our boss only did the “aarathi” and all. We got some sweets. Today is considering as an auspicious day to start learning. In kerala people will start learning to write on this special day. Previously all the traditional teachers used to guide this writing. Now all the press people, writers, temples and� churches arrange the function. The place where you can find maximum rush is the “Thunchathu Mana” , the birth place of “Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan” who is considering as the father of Malayalam language. Lets all learn something new……..

I am very much happy that smoking in public places has banned. Smoking is such a bad habit that they are disturbing others too. All of us are preys of smoking. Some people do it to show off. But their end will be horrible.� Cancer, lung problems and many other by products!!! When I was in Bangalore, I used to tell the auto drivers to throw the cigerate which they are smoking before get into an auto. In my experience 99% men admitted my request. I didn’t travel in the rest 1%.� I am really allergic to this smell and feel like breathlessness and vomiting. Once I fought with some middle-aged people in train. I was coming from Bangalore to Cochin. Some govt employees were there in the train. By early morning 2.30 I started to cough like anything. When I got up and check some of them were smoking “beedi”. When they hear my cough they went near the door and continued. Unfortunately my coupe was next to the door. Shameless and culture-less people. They continued smoking and passing beedi to each other. There were other 3 ladies in the coupe and they were afraid to tell them anything. My brother was also with me. By seeing my health condition, he was ready to beat them. Somehow I consoled him. I told to one of them who was resting after his smoking “you don’t have sisters and daughters? if they find difficulty in breathing, then also you people will continue smoke like this? I have noticed you people’s berth numbers. So it is easy for me to file a complaint to the railway police against you people. I know you are govt employees” . He suddenly went to the door and told something and they all threw their beedi outside. I have heard somewhere that Rules are for breaking. Yesterday also I saw people smoking in road sides. Let us wait and see how of these will obey the rules and respect their fellow beings.

Hi friends, I am back after a long vacation. I really enjoyed the life in Kerala. No work pressure, no household works!!!!!!. Only eating, sleeping and playing with our Joel – our seven month old nephew. He is so lovely and cute. I miss him a lot. Actually I wanted to bring him here. But he’s flying to Landon to live with his parents very soon. I learned bit 4 wheeler driving also. My sweet brother Tom taught me that. But I still I have confusion between break and accelerator. I did many cooking experiments. Most of them were successful. This was the first time me and my better half lived separately after marriage. That feeling was horrible but still helped us to find how much we missed each other. October 2nd was my Mom’s happy birthday. My hubby also reached Kerala on the same day. So went to meet her with a cake with “Happy Birthday Mummy” and a saree. It was a surprise visit and she was so happy. My friends, if you can remember your parents birthday and wish them, it is a precious gift you can give them. We all remember best friend’s , boy/girl friend’s and partner’s ( i hope so) birth days. So find time and memory to wish your parents on their special day. One sad thing happened was my brother’s friend “JIthin” died in a bike accident. We are like family friends. He was supposed to go to Australia very soon. Praying for the happiness of his soul. Overall I had a great time and put on weight. Today came back to work. Now @ office my seat has changed – my designation also. Now I am in the corner of a big hall and got a cubicle with a sticker – Jinu Sunil Manalody – Team Leader. Hope I can enjoy and give better performance as a team leader. Wait and See

I reached Kerala safely. My train was supposed to reach Kottayam @3.15 am. By 2.30 I wake up. I saw some people waiting at the door to get down. Then one TTR went that way. I asked him “Sir, which is the coming station?”. He told “Ernakulam Town”. “Then next is my Kottayam station” I said myself. I went near the door and confirmed it. Immediately I called up my brother in -law (Tom) and told I have reached Ernakulam. As I was travelling alone, my father -in law and Tom rushed to the station by 3.10 am. I was waiting for a long time to see Ernakulam station. 1 hr went like that. Then again I started to sleep. Around 4.45 my train reached Kottayam. The man on the next berth wake me up. I was so sorry to disturb many people’s sleep. Now I am @ my in-laws place. As I haven’t stayed there long after marriage, most of the people don’t know me. Few of them asked me at which class I am studying. What a humiliation!!!. Tom is telling that most probably it will be spread in the village that his brother has kidnaped a +2 girl. Ha ha. Waiting for more fun..