A King is born!

Rulers stride through the world with bodyguards, fanfare, and flashing jewelry. In contrast, God’s visit to earth took place in a shelter for animals, with no attendants present and nowhere to lay the newborn King but a feed trough. Indeed, the event that divided history into two parts may have had more animal than human witnesses. As Phillips Brooks put it:

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of His heaven.

-- Phillip Yancey

"And man shall live forevermore,

Because of Christmas Day."

Amazed again by Your humble glory.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

picture from here.

Celebrating Light!

Light the fire

In my soul.

Fan the flame,

Make me whole.

HAPPY DIWALI!

Liebste Mutter*

A teacher gave her class of second-graders a lesson about the magnet and what it does. The next day, in a written test, she included this question: “My name has six letters. The first one is m. I pick up things. What am I?” When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the students answered the question with the word mother!
--Richard De Haan

To all the mothers in the world. Thank God for you :D

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

*Dearest Mother

Birthday Blueberry Cheesecake!

Sonu and I had a joint birthday 'party'. She turned 20 on the 4th of February and I turned 21 on the 13th of February. So on the 13th we took our best friends from college out to "Dips and Desserts" at a great little restaurant called Moshes in South Mumbai. The place is a little pricey for a bunch of regular, non-earning college girls so we decided not to do proper lunch and concentrate on desserts because desserts are often too expensive for us to buy one for each!
So we ordered hummus, harissa and tapenade with some pita bread. Some mocktails, tea for Sharan and then then dove into the desserts - blueberry cheesecake, philadelphia baked cheesecake, tiramisu and chocolate mudpiee. Mmmmmdelicious!

Vini, Jo and Tina

Sonu and Gauri

bong babes :P

out with the old!

Our desserts

pile on! :)

oooh! a goodie bag! I got:
- new chappals
- a new diary for the 21st year of my life!
- lots of stationery!
- a gorgeous desi bag
- a poem from Vini
- a card made by Sharan

yummy dips!

dreaming of my blueberry cheesecake (caught by Sharan)

Single and Happy!

My cousin called me yesterday to wish my Happy Birthday and then asked if I was going to be single on Valentine’s Day this year TOO? And I said, “YES, I’m single and HAPPY!” To this she replied, “OK, if you insist.”

I insist :-)

So for Valentine’s Day, Jo, Sonu and I went to watch a happy romantic comedy. After classes Sonu and I rushed to the newspaper to see if He’s Just Not That Into You was playing yet and it was so we rushed to the theatre to catch the 10:30am show. We ordered a large caramel popcorn, put our feet up, got comfortable, awwwww-ed at all the appropriate times and basically had a lot of fun. That was our impromptu Valentine’s Day plan!

To sign off, here is an excerpt from random conversation after chips, dips and love letters on the 5^th of Feb.

Love is…?
Sonu: …chocolate cake (!)
Vini: …forever
Jo: …sweet
Gauri: …cute
Antu: …sky blue cotton balls
Tina: …worth waiting for
Sharan: …love, love actually

Happy Valentine’s Day!

L:R - Tina, Gauri, Sonu, Jo, Antu, Sharan, Vini
At Kala Ghoda after our 'Dips and Desserts' birthday party at Moshes. (More pictures to come!)

The Birthday Girl!

L-R: Sonu and Jo

L-R: Sonu, Jo and Antu

Dear Sonu,

You're my favourite February Girl.

Happy Birthday!

Bucket-loads of love, hugs and kisses!

Piu (not Tina :P)

The Best Of 2008

Remembering some of the good stuff of the year gone by:

Tag: The Photo Tag (July)

SMS: From Sharan "You're going to have a daughter, Tina." It was totally out of the blue and well, I hope so. (October)
Bloggers' Meet: With Nithya and Sharan(yan) in Coimbatore.

Movies: Amazing Grace and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (October)
Shopping: MAX! In Bangalore, with Jo. (November)Event: The Jazz concert I went to at the NCPA. It was a treat from a junior from school - Neville. I will forever be grateful for that. It was magic. (January)

Blog Discovery: Confessions of a CF Husband

Dinner: At the Georges' with Sharan, Sonu, Jo and Antu (October)

Journey: To Ooty with some of best friends! (October)Eating Place: The American Express Bakery in Bandra - thanks to Jo! (July)

Book: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Oh, it blew me away. (November)
Re-union: With Niru in Bombay! I'm SO glad you came! (February)Realisation: Ooty is BEAUTIFUL and I will never get enough of it! Holiday: With family in Nagpur (December)
Photo: The mischievous school boys at Coimbatore bus-stand... (October)

Activity: Taking photos during K'SCOPE 2008 (September)

Sunset: Nagpur Sunsets are just gorgeous! Maybe because you can actually see it cause there are no tall buildings all over the place. I've really enjoyed sitting on the balcony at my uncle's place and watching the sun go down leaving behind breathtaking twilight colours. (December)

There's so much more but that could take a while.

Your mercies are new every morning, Lord.
I thank you...
For the abundant joy.
For lessons learnt.
For friends.
Family
2008.
You.

You humble me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

You Are Big.

Nagpur is so gloriously quiet and empty for miles and miles. It's shocking after Bombay where its hard to find an inch of empty space. This is my Christmas gift from God - Silence, Cool Weather and Sunshine, Family and Empty Spaces. Thank You.

“And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” - Luke 16-20

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

"When Christ entered our world, He didn't come to brighten our Decembers, but to transform our lives."
- Rich Miller

Following That Star...

The three wise men are on their way...
Matthew 2:10-11 (NLT)
"When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

Oooh, I love the Christmas story. A King born in a smelly stable. Mighty God becoming man to be among us, to transform our lives. Predictions and years of waiting coming to fulfillment in the form of a screaming, helpless baby.

Trust God to cook up a story that no one could've imagined.

We're expecting pomp and glory and He gives us a barn, complete with barn-yard animals. We're expecting a warrior-King and He gives us a servant who washes the feet of His own disciples. We're expecting Him to kill all the bad people and He dies on the cross - the ultimate sacrifice.

But He lives. So that you and I, also, may live.

We may not always understand God and the strange things He does but He is good. I believe that.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

P.s. A Baby In a Barn. Brilliant!

For Dada and D

Give Thanks...
- For phonecalls from the US: One from my aunt and cousin in Philly and the other from one of my best friends Tashu who studies at Taylor University in Indiana.
- For the Christmas break fast approaching: 8 days to go!
- For good music.
- Good teachers
- Green Tea and McVities Digestive biscuits!
- For my brother and sis-in-law in Bangalore (Dada and D) who are celebrating their 2nd Anniversary today. I can't believe how fast time flies! I wish you many many many many more years together filled with joy, understanding, forgiveness, patience, humility, trust, truth and all those other things that constitute love. Happy Anniversary!

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8
Love is patient, love is kind, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.