Maria Perry Mohan's Blog

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
This week's post, entitled 'Solitude' is the result of a topic suggested by the intrepid blogger from Pune, Ramana Rajgopaul. Ramana also happens to be my adopted brother. His blog is great. You'll find the link for it at the end of this post, along with the blog links for the rest of our blogging group.

Someone I know (I'll call him Mark, not his real name) did something bad a few decades ago. Something for which he served time as a guest of the President of Ireland. You don't know what that is? Well in the UK, if someone says they're a guest of Her Majesty, it means they're in jail. So go figure. So Mark's life went very much downhill. His marriage broke up and most of his relatives turned their backs on him. Mark doesn't blame them for that. He knows he did wrong. But the fallout of the whole business means that he ended up living in solitude. As he gets older, the chances of getting meaningful work are becoming fewer and further between. When he was in jail, he used to get visits from the priest. Then he was asked if he'd like to get visits from an evangelical church that undertook prison visiting. Mark agreed to the visits and it changed his life. He found the evangelical church to be wonderful. When he went to the Catholic Mass, he felt as if he was just another face in the crowd. When he attended the Evangelical Church meetings after being released, he felt as if he had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This made a huge difference. 

 Image by Gypzy from Pixabay Mark's Church has Bible study on Tuesday, prayer meetings on Wednesday nights and Eucharistic Celebrations on Sundays. Although Mark lives in solitude, only breaking that solitude for trips to the doctor, he is not alone. He can join his Church meetings on Zoom. I think that if it wasn't for the Evangelical Church members, Mark's life would be miserable. Solitude can be wonderful and refreshing, especially if you're surrounded by people most of the time. But too much solitude can be very isolating. It's a recipe for loneliness and depression. In Mark's case, it was good that he found a Church that was so personal and helpful.

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay 
If you look at the life of people in middle age, it is often a very busy time. Kids clamouring for your attention, elderly people needing support and very little time for yourself. In that time of life, a little bit of time spent by yourself can be an unheard-of luxury. Then, a few years later, life could be totally different. The elders may have passed on. The kids may be gone. It may seem hard to believe, but things can totally turn around in a few years. In Dublin in the 1970s, a firefighter named Willie Bermingham was shocked, along with his colleagues, to have found the bodies of a number of elderly people who had died neglected and alone throughout the city. Mr Bermingham started up a voluntary organisation called ALONE to advocate for the right of the 'forgotten old'. I remember the media campaign they launched. I also remember the song from the campaign. Although it wasn't common, sometimes there were people who slipped through the fingers of society to a lonely existence in old age. That should never happen. It's good that there is more awareness now.

Image by mel_88 from Pixabay Many religions, including Christianity and Hinduism have people who take religious vows and go and live in solitude, keeping themselves alive by some kind of subsistence work or alms and spending time devoted to reading Scriptures. They feel they hear the voice of God speaking in silence. However, most religious vocations seem to feature some sort of community life, where people meet each other for prayer, work and study. In the long run, a mixture of solitude and community life seems to work better for most people. I'm not saying that it's no use being a hermit. That's a very special vocation and not for everyone. As for me, I love to write. But I find I can't write during the day when I'm surrounded by people. I can write better at night. There are no meals to cook or doors to answer.  I can hear my thoughts more clearly. So I suppose you could say I need solitude to write. I hope the results are worth reading.

Many thanks to Pixabay for the imagery.

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srinivas and Conrad. 

Image by GDJ from PixabayThis week's topic is now last week's topic, as we're entering a new week as I write. The topic was chosen by Raju, another blogger in our group. His posts appear on his wife Padmini's blog. It's a very lofty topic indeed and way out of my league. I know very little about political science. My daughters studied it in school, though. However, challenge accepted. I will write on this topic and see how it goes. For all those who are far more knowledgeable about politics than I am, my apologies. I write as an ordinary woman in the street, so to speak. A complete laywoman in the area of politics.

People who are not in politics generally agree that it's a dirty business and they wouldn't be caught deadImage by Pexels from Pixabay 
anywhere near it. People who are connected to it, whether by family or work ties, generally can't get enough of it. A sister of mine once worked with the daughter of a moderately well-known Irish politician (we'll call the girl Laura - not her real name). Sister dearest went for drinks in a pub one night with her Laura and there were quite a few party workers present. Sis listened aghast as Laura was asked if she'd ever considered running for her father's seat should he ever drop dead or something. The general consensus was that she probably should. After all, the group reasoned, wouldn't it be a shame for that seat to go out of the family? Sis swallowed her indignance. A public representative works on behalf of his or her constituency as a sacred trust. And here were these people treating a seat in the Irish Dáil (parliament, pronounced: 'doyl' for your kind information, should you, my reader, not be Irish) as if it was some kind of family property. Incredible! As the evening drew to a close, Sis told her friend she must depart. Our mother was at a work-related party in a hotel nearby. It was Christmas, so a lot of parties were going on. Laura, being considerate, was concerned about my sister getting home safely. She said 'let me know if you find your mother.' Mother was duly found and Sis brought her in to say a final goodnight and goodbye to  Laura. So Sis and Mother said their goodbyes and suddenly Laura got all excited. "Hey, Dad's here," she said. "You must meet my dad."

Image by Wokandapix from PixabaySo Laura goes over and tells Dad that her friend's mother was present and he really must say hello. Within seconds, my mother's hand was firmly grasped, eye contact was duly made and Mr Mac the politician (wild horses wouldn't drag the name out of me - names changed to protect the guilty, you never know who's reading) was assuring my bewildered mother that it was a true pleasure to meet her and that he hoped it would not be too long before their paths crossed again. I may mention here that the gentleman had a few drinks taken, enough said. But fair play to him, as we say in Ireland, he could hold his drink. I wouldn't have put him behind the wheel of a car that night, though.  But, sure, he probably had a driver. So, no harm was done. I've had my share of meeting politicians and having my hand firmly grasped and eye contact made. I think they must all go to the same public relations agency. The women politicians were a different breed altogether. Some quite friendly and some very distant and aloof. But they were somehow more real than their male counterparts. That's what I think anyway. 

Image by Andrew Martin from PixabaySo, yeah, democracy. Government for the people, of the people and of the people as the classical Greeks might have said  Democracy is quite a modern phenomenon. In the past, east and west, countries were ruled by Royal families who ruled by divine right through a bloodline. The western and eastern concept of kingship was that's it's a sacred charge. More important than crowning in Christian monarchy was anointing, which was part of the king-making rituals in the Bible. But the word democracy has been coined from the Greek language. The concept of democratic government is quite an old one. But when the French violently abolished their monarchy at the end of the 18th century, the western world changed and the modern era was ushered in. The concept of elected legislators was born. Apparently, the concept of left-wing and right-wing politics came from the French parliament. The conservative politicians apparently sat on the right side of the assembly and the reformers hung out on the left side. Extremes of right and left are dangerous because extremism is dangerous. Moderation is a better option.  The middle ground is always better.

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
Democratic principles sound great. As many an Irish politician says after each election, 'the people have spoken'. But have they really? Apparently, you can't run for the elections if you have no money. Irish politician Royston Brady came to grief in 2004, when he was persuaded to run for the European elections and then left to pay a huge bill for election costs when his campaign failed. He was a man with great ability, but you need more than the ability to succeed in politics, it seems. Donald Trump was not a popular President. But at least the man was able to pay his way around. A poor person cannot dream of running for the elections in India. I think now in these days of social media, things have averaged out a bit. Once you have a smartphone, you have access to social media tools. But you need the skill set, or an employee or assistant with the skill set to run these tools, to make social media work for you. Otherwise, you might as well go home.

Politics does not work for me, even as a voter. I'm a person with Labour leanings. My late father was a member of the Irish Labour party. He was a committed union man. So, I'm always on the side of the workers. I believe that a mixed economy such as we have in Ireland, that encourages business and takes care of the weaker sections, is the way to go. That puts me firmly on the left. On the other hand, I'm a devout Catholic and pro-life to the hilt. I am opposed to abortion and euthanasia on the grounds that killing is wrong. By the way, by euthanasia, I mean assisted suicide of the incurably ill. I don't mean palliative care, which seeks to alleviate the pain of those who are in mortal pain by giving them medication which alleviates their suffering and as a side effect, may cause their lives to be a little shorter. I also don't believe that removing an unborn child before its time, to save the mother's life, is abortion. Anyway, the point is, that while I believe in live and let live, I am pro-life. And being pro-life puts me on the right-wing side. So as I said, politics doesn't work for me. 

As Jesus Christ said, in His Infinite Wisdom, give to God what belongs to God and to Caeser what belongs to Caeser. You can't go wrong with that advice. As a Christian, I believe it's important to pray for our leaders. So, is modern democracy a success or a failure? It depends, I suppose. On how you view it and on whether you have enough money to do what you want. Including run for the elections

Many thanks to Pixabay for the imagery.

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srinivas and Conrad. 

Image by RealAKP from PixabayThis week, it was my privilege to pick the topic for our blogging group, and I thought long and hard about the topic. So using a tried and trusted method, I put five books down in front of me. I picked one at random. I opened a random page and went to page 103. Then I looked at the third line from the bottom of the page. The immortal phrase 'dinner in two hours' leapt from the page and into my consciousness. No, sorry, I can't remember which book it was.  I kept the selection process as random as possible and without prejudice. I have to admit that we had a food post on the blogging group recently but this is the phrase with which I ended up. The more I considered it, the more I noticed endless possibilities suggesting themselves. Phrases that are open to interpretation can be a lot of fun. On one hand, it suggests urgency. As in 'oh my God, look at the state of me? I'm going to dinner in two hours'. Or, it could suggest a relaxed approach. As in 'take your time. We're having dinner in two hours'. Or 'how can I prepare dinner in two hours?' It could be the name of a James Bond movie. Don't laugh. Look at the title 'Never Say Never Again?' That title took up hours of my time, trying to figure it out. My favourite track by Irish singer/songwriter David Kitt is 'You Know What I Want to Know'. The title can read several ways. I have a special liking for the musical work of David Kitt. His mother, Jacinta Kitt, was my teacher in primary school. Her wisdom influenced me in my formative years. So we're related on some level. Okay, 'dinner in two hours' may not reach those lofty heights. But still.....
Image by Ron Mitra from Pixabay The initial meaning that most people would take from this is: 'can you make dinner in two hours? The answer depends on one's eating habits. If you're a foodie who revels in haute cuisine, the answer is 'no'. But, in fairness, most working people leave the haute cuisine for special occasions. Most practise convenient cooking on an everyday basis.  Microwaves are a gift. Even the most 'haute' of haute cuisine types can manage dinner in way less than two hours with the freezer's help. Many a working man or woman prepares lasagnes and casseroles at the weekend. They cut them into convenient portions to defrost and serve during the week. This is true for many Indian city-dwellers too. 
Continuing on this train of thought. I'm currently writing a novel for the American National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I love all types of writing, blog posts, short stories and long stories. Long stories (novels) take a lot of extra effort. NaNoWriMo has a nice website to help authors plan their book. It encourages them to make a playlist and Pinterest board. It gives writing friends the opportunity to cheer each other on. I love that buzz, that excitement because writing can be lonely. Irish- woman-with-Indian connections that I am, I've set my novel in Ireland. Yet there are Indian characters in it. I have created an Irish-Indian girl called Angie Kapoor. She cooks dinner at home for her Irish friends one evening. I haven't dwelt too much on the food aspects, but she prepares chole, Punjabi chickpea curry. She does this having earlier soaked the chickpeas overnight and boiled them beforehand. She prepares the curry sauce when her friends start to arrive. She serves the dish with boiled rice, knowing her Irish friends won't insist on Indian bread. Rice is quite easy to cook if you know how to do it. Especially if you soak it in water for a few hours beforehand. Pre-soaking helps it to cook in a very short time. Lest I commit myself, I must mention that this principle applies to Indian rice. It might not apply to the rice of a different region.
Image by REBECA CRUZ GALVAN from PixabayAs  I'm married into an Indian family and live in India, I usually cook Indian food. I would have different cooking habits if I lived in Ireland. But I know that preparation is everything. I usually prepare extra rice and dal (a dish made of pulses such as lentils) at lunchtime. We need to have these items for dinner at night too. So we have dal and rice already made. We prepare dough earlier for making our chapattis at night. So, preparing a vegetable dish to go with all that doesn't take long. Since my husband retired, he prepares our vegetable dish at night. No meat, as we're a vegetarian family. So he makes vegetable curry and I make the flatbreads. So, we make our dinner in far less time than two hours. Last year, I ran into a bit of a problem. Despite making extra rice and dal for lunch, there was never any left at night for our dinner. Making dinner at night was far more laborious than it should have been. There was a woman working in our house at that time as a carer for my mother-in-law. We'd told her that she could have lunch from our kitchen if she was hungry. She made herself very free indeed. I watched in surprise as she went back three times during lunch to consume all our dal and rice. In the end, I sat down with her and had a chat. I found that she thought that the leftover dal and rice from lunch was 'waste food'. She thought that we would throw to the street dogs afterwards. She was trying to preventing waste, she said. I explained to her that the fridge and the microwave were there to prevent wastage. The food would stay fresh for later in the fridge and the microwave could heat it in minutes. It was a relief to get that misunderstanding cleared up. 
That carer is not the only person to misunderstand the role of the fridge in preparing food. People mage by Usman Yousaf from Pixabay - rotiwho run restaurants often prepare and freeze food in advance. This means that dishes requiring long preparation can reach diners at the earliest. Indian and Chinese cuisines are popular in western countries nowadays. No-one wants to wait for several hours while the restaurant prepares their food. We see Indian and Chinese takeaways today. This is because people don't want to wait too long for their food. But that makes some people think Indian and Chinese food is 'fast food', like chips and burgers. 
I remember reading an article by well-known Irish broadcaster in 'Ireland's Own'. He was comparing Image by Photo Mix from PixabayIrish cuisine to oriental food. He made the point that there could never be an "Irish takeaway" where you could order a carton of Irish stew. This, he explained, was because Irish stew takes time, skill and effort to prepare. Cooking the meat, vegetables and potatoes to perfection was a special skill and an art, he said. He relegated the ancient cuisines of India and China to the junk food category. While he may have excelled in broadcasting, his culinary ignorance was embarrassing.  I hope that someone set him right. He reminds me of the elderly Indians I met when I first came here. They thought that everyone in the west ate sandwiches and nothing else. But their cuisine was rich in culture and tradition. Yes, you can boil some potatoes and vegetables and grill a bit of lean meat if you need a quick dinner in the west. But there is haute cuisine and, well, everyday cuisine in every culture, east and west. Western people also prepare and eat traditional dishes. We have lasagne and shepherds pie and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and so on. What we eat depends on our taste and culture. I remember an idea we had in Ireland long back about continental breakfasts. We thought mainland Europeans took only tea or coffee and bread and butter for breakfast. We pitied them. Irish breakfasts had eggs, cereal and much more. We now know better. Continental breakfast features fruit, juice, yoghurt, croissants and other healthy items. You learn a lot when you travel around.
Image by Siggy Nowak from Pixabay Let's look at the other possible meaning of the title topic. So, you're having dinner in two hours? Whether you have time for anything else in the meantime depends on whether you're the cook or not. If you're not cooking, you have time to get dressed up for dinner. People on the top levels of society still do that. A dignitary with a full social calendar, can attend an evening reception at six pm and still go to dinner at 8 pm. When you have the chauffeur to drive you, it's possible. If you're a chef and the dinner is a black-tie function, you may have done all your prepping two hours before. But you might spend that last two hours putting the finishing touches to your work. It's good to make sure that every item is perfect and that nothing goes wrong. In conclusion, we can say that dinner in two hours means different things. It depends on the people involved and the particular circumstances.
Many thanks to Pixabay for the imagery.

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srinivas and Conrad. 

Image by Andrea Don from Pixabay  - PrayingThe topic for this blog post was 'Letter to Santa - What I Want for Christmas'. It was suggested by Padmini from Chennai, a veteran blogger and a good friend. But it won't work for me. I don't believe in Santa and probably haven't done so for the last 50 years. However, there is one person whom I know very well, who is empowered to grant my every wish if he so desires. That's God the Father in Heaven, the Creator and Lord of all things. I know there are many religions and many paths to God. We Christians are rather notorious for thinking that we are the ones who have a special relationship with God as His adopted children. This is considered as blasphemy by one particular community, who considers that God is way above humans and that humans are not good enough to be adopted by God as His children. But that's the miracle of it.  We aren't good enough, but we are adopted anyway, if we desire it. We Christians also believe that this relationship is available to anyone who wants it. It's not a closed-door for people of other faiths. Basically, everyone is invited. It's their call whether they wish to avail of it or not. So I'm writing to my Father in Heaven about what I would like for Christmas. And forever.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Abba, my Father-in-Heaven, Creator and Lord of all things, I give you glory. You are great, You are almighty, You are above all things. I come to You in the Name of Your Only-Begotten-Son, Jesus Christ. I know You will always hear my prayer if I ask in His Name, with full faith in Your Goodness and Love, as Jesus told us to do. Abba, it's very hard sometimes. I love you that much that it actually makes me angry when people look at the mess that humanity made of the world and blame You for it.  I must have driven innumerable people crazy telling them that bad things happening is not Your Will. Telling them that we live in a fallen world, that humanity (Adam and Eve) sinned and gave their authority over your creation to the enemy. I do not want to write enemy with a capital letter. He'll get no glory from me. The enemy has scourged and tormented the world since forever and still reserves the right to do so. The father of lies, no less. I do not wish to dwell on that horrible creature. I wrote a poem about his seduction of Eve once, which I know you must remember. For the benefit of any interested readers, I'm including a link to that particular piece of creative writing. 
Image by Gerd Altmann from PixabayWhy do people blame you when someone dies in an untimely manner? Why do You allow them to? Death wasn't even Your idea. That's the infernal father-of-lies whispering his falsehoods into their ears. The one who Jesus told us was a liar and a murderer from the very beginning (John 8:44). The same cunning creature who points to the wicked people who infiltrated Your Church and blames you for them. As if you had anything to do with it. But if people continue to listen to those lies, we're all on the road to destruction. I do wish you'd send Jesus back before it's too late. There are going to be so many lost souls because of people blaming You for what you did not do. Anyway, I'm sure I don't know better than You do.
So, Abba, the reason why I am here before is to ask you for what I would like you do give me if it fits in with Your Holy Will. I will always go with Your Will. Or I will try to, if it's going to be difficult. What would I like? I would like many things. Here are some:
Protection for me, my family and friends, blogging group and anyone for whom it's within my power to pray, from the Covid-19 disease. I would also like to pray for good health for all within Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
my prayer umbrella. Also, for protection from criminal attacks, terrorist attacks and road accidents. Protection at home and protection outside. Always, without exception. Please.I pray for a long, healthy life. I would like, naturally, to remain youthful for the longest possible number of years if it's not against Your Holy Will. I would like to be of indeterminate age to all who behold me. You know how beautiful some nuns are. The ones who spend a lot of time in prayer. They could be anything between 30 and 70. If it means I have to spend more time in prayer, I'm ready for that. I do not wish to be a shrivelled corpse of 90 before I have actually expired.I pray that my children will find good and suitable parters-in-life and be freed from soul ties to unsuitable people. I pray that they will remember what they were taught about You and will always look to You in every undertaking. I pray that my spouse and I will continue to find joy in each other and give a great example of an interfaith marriage. There is still time. I pray that the world will emerge from the Covid-19 crisis stronger and better. I pray that the world leaders will tackle environmental issues on a war footing.  I pray that all the people of the world, whatever their gender or orientation, will come to truly know You and love You.I pray that the creeping anti-family agenda seeping into world awareness will fizzle out. And stay fizzled out. Image by James Chan from PixabayAbba, I thank You for hearing me out. I realise that some of my requests are too big for a single person. If so, I pray that other like-minded people will pray for them too, so that they may come about. Jesus sacrificed so much to save humanity from destruction. I pray that His Sacrifice will never be in vain. Thanks for all Your Help and Love and care not only for me but for everyone in the whole world. I know in the end that everyone will know You and who You are. There is so much goodness and love in you that people just don't seem to know about. Abba, please make yourself known to everyone. You give me so much hope for the world for the future, I want everyone to have that too. I remain as always, your loving daughter and worshipper.
Mx


Many thanks to Pixabay for the imagery. Thanks to blogger Padmini (Padmum) for suggesting the topic.

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srinivas and Conrad. 

 

This week's blog topic had me stumped at first but slowly, I began to realise that I had plenty of ideas to write about. I suppose with the way times have changed so rapidly this year alone, we all wonder how things will be in a few years time. Being the opinionated sort of person that I am, it didn't take long till I discovered that I have quite a few opinions on different matters that are relevant to the times in which we live.  I'm going to share those opinions right now. If you're reading this and disagreeing wildly, or else feeling some kind of agreement with me, I'd love if you might like to comment at the end so we can have a good conversation about it.  

My Best Prediction: The Environment Will Heal

Image by RÜŞTÜ BOZKUŞ from Pixabay When the lockdown first happened in India, everyone stayed at home. Well, almost everybody. Thousands of people started working from home. It was amazing. Then something strange started to happen. With fewer flights taking off and fewer cars on the road, the environment started to heal. Here in India instead of swallowing pollution in the air, we were enjoying clear skies and fresh air. I hope this is the start of the countries of the world taking the environment much more seriously. It's terrible that it took a pandemic to show humanity what what our world could be like. Yet if we learn this much, the terrible misery and losses suffered during the pandemic will have somehow had a purpose. Nothing, of course, can make up for the lives lost and the tragedy suffered. It's now being whispered that the pandemic was no accident of nature and has been engineered to force people into staying put. If so, that's terrible. But apart from that, I feel there is a real opportunity for humanity to redeem itself on the environmental front.  

My Worst Prediction: Growing Intolerance

Image by Free-Photos from PixabayI think that most right-thinking people are in agreement that in the western world in general and in certain countries in particular, there was systematic oppression of people of colour. Although there were black people who did well in society, many black people and people of non-white background experienced prejudice and discrimination because of the colour of their skin and it was totally and utterly wrong. We all need to educate ourselves in matters of oppression and discrimination. We know that Nazi Germany oppressed the Jewish people. We rarely heard until later that it systematically oppressed gay people as well. That was all wrong. Hopefully, now that people are seeing the world with new eyes, history will start to be rewritten. Having said that - I see a systematic hatred of the Catholic religion and its faithful followers in no less a place than Ireland. After many years of falling in and out with the Catholic church, I am back to stay. I was told I'd 'turned Protestant' a few years ago and I was happy enough. Protestantism shook up the people of God and made us get the scriptures in our own language. As they say in the west of Ireland, fair play. It was only right. But my heart has always been with the Catholic church and always will be. But I've noticed a hatred of Catholicism in the media. For example, as I mentioned on Facebook, I read an article in the 'Irish Times' in which a writer decried the 'bad old days of Catholic Ireland.' I was appalled. She used the word 'Catholic' as if was interchangeable with 'evil'. I wrote to her and to the newspaper editor complaining about it. Of course, I was ignored. Yes, I know there were abusive clergy and that many people, unfortunately, have horrible memories of the Church. Those people were wronged and nothing justifies that. But they don't seem to understand that these abusers were bad and now they're gone. The 'Irish Times' form of persecution is to slip condemnation into anything to do with Catholicism. Recently, the former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, of mixed Catholic/Hindu parentage, referred to the then opposition leader in the Irish Dáil as being like a Catholic Priest who preaches to people to be good and then goes away and sins in secret. Varadkar, who was taken to task for his remark, apologised in due course. But it's appalling that people think it's okay to criticise anything to do with Catholicism in Image by Thomas B. from Pixabaythat way. I know it's a backlash against abuse, but not everything to do with Catholicism means abuse. Any abuse that may be taking place is being rooted out. Accountability is greater than ever now, but that ever-present hatred is being felt. I detest it. In the west it's like 'happy Diwali to all our Hindu friends', 'happy Eid to all our Muslim friends,' but when it comes to Catholicism, don't mention it. It's creeping intolerance and it's happening. It's all wrong.

Most Likely Prediction: We Will Live Mostly Online

Gerd Altmann from PixabayNowadays, I live online. I get Mass online. I read my daily prayers online. I shop online. I get the daily papers online. I write online. I publish online. Welcome to the new normal. You can shop and spend your money online. Now the Internet, in the last decade, has started to have currencies of its own, like Bitcoin. Currencies that cross borders without losing anything in exchange, not even bank fees. Dang it, you can get exercise classes online. The bonus is that the more  Image by Anrita1705 from Pixabay people stay at home, the less they move out. They don't spread Covid-19 and they don't cause petrol pollution and overcrowding on the roads. As mentioned, I read a suggestion on the Internet that the pandemic was initiated to ensure that people didn't go out. Could it be true? I don't know, but I do think that's possible. The problems of the future may be very different. Fewer opportunities to discuss office politics and more talk about juggling work/home responsibilities. Companies will probably prefer using remote workers where possible. No overheads and pay when you get good work, not for time for your workers to sit around drinking coffee.

My Predictions

Image by Jean Didier from PixabayAnyone who knows me well will know that Tarot cards and crystal balls are very distant from me. Apart from a mad visit to a Dublin fortune teller when I was in my twenties, just for the experience, I keep far away from predictions of the future (BTW I know for a fact that a few Irish writers have visited that fortune teller, because I read about visits to the fortune teller in at least two books and they were almost exactly like my own experience). The Bible instructs us to trust God and not to try to find out the future by clairvoyance. On the other hand, Jesus Christ mentioned in the Gospel that when we see the signs of things, we know what is coming. So I've seen signs and I feel I think I'm on the right track. Image by Jean Didier from PixabayAll going well, our world will be saved and we'll be mostly staying at home in the future. I think we're already talking to our friends by Facebook and video calls. Hopefully, the intolerance I talked about will not flower into full-blown hatred. I do not want to be right about that.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                         Thanks to Pixabay for the imagery.                       

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srivatsa and Conrad.  This week’s topic was suggested by Conrad.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

Duggu Hello and woof! You may be surprised to see that today, gaelikaa's diary has been taken over by a canine. That's right. I'm Maria's dog, Duggu. If some of you out there have ever called to our house, you will certainly know me. I take my guard dog duties very seriously indeed and bark the place down if anyone I don't know shows up at the gate. The doorbell on our gate doesn't work very well and it's a matter of pride to me that it's not needed. If an unknown person arrives on the gate, I bark so loudly that everyone comes out to see who is there. I can get a bit over-excited at times, though. I upset a few visitors to our house down the years by being a bit too enthusiastic in carrying out my guard dog duties. I suppose that's why the only place in the house where I'm allowed to roam freely is the terrace yard on the top of the house. Which must be locked at all times when I'm there. However, people who have visited here and taken time to get to know me will tell you that I'm actually quite friendly and always welcome people whom I consider to be my friends. I can't really help that I'm so defensive about my home. I'm an Indian street dog. Guarding and defending my territory is bred into me. My breed has had a hard struggle for survival, living for generations on the Indian streets. So that's what we do. We hold our territory and guard it with our very lives.

I was found outside the Loreto Convent in Lucknow as a small puppy, less than a month old. A girl

I was the size of a football called Saumya took me home and asked her father if she could keep me. Her father was unable to agree for some reason. I believe he had ordered a labrador pup who was due to arrive a month later. At school, Saumya asked the other girls if they had space in their homes for me. Maria's daughter Manvi was in Saumya's class. She asked Maria if I could come to live with them and Maria agreed. So, Saumya brought me over there on Sunday with the driver in the family car. I was very scared being left alone with new people. But they gave me nice food to eat and lots of affection. Soon, I was attached to all of them. 

There were four children. Two boys, Manu and Manan. Two girls, Manvi and Riya. They all spent time with me. I was their first dog, so they had no idea how to handle me. They played with me when I was small. As I got bigger, they were a bit at a loss as to how to relate to me. But it's okay now. There was one major problem back then. Manvi's father, Mukesh, was a very busy man, commuting to the next city for work. Maria needed to ensure that it was okay with him for me to stay. She put it off at first, waiting till he was more relaxed and more inclined to have a positive outlook on having a dog in the house. The moment I finally met him, after several weeks, I lay at his feet adoringly and he said I could stay. I have now been here for six years. Indian dogs can live up to 15 years, so I'm still a relatively young dog.

With Manvi
I'm quite a large dog and not really a pet, owing to my rough, street background. But I love my family and make the best guard dog, because of my protective and defensive instincts. Nothing gets past me. The meter reader and the postman are a bit scared of me. You should see how terrified they are if they have to come in. I suppose that's why Maria keeps me tied up all the time. Who needs Rottweilers or Dobermans when you can have an Indian dog? We cost nothing. We are not fussy eaters. We are hardly ever ill and I can proudly tell you that apart from vaccinations and a small road accident, I haven't cost my family much in vet bills. There was a slight problem when the cleaning lady came too close to me and I reacted. Maria had to pay the doctor a lot of money to give anti-rabies injections to the cleaning lady 'just in case'. Maria apologised to the cleaning lady, gave her the week off and cooked meals for her family and sent them from our kitchen every night.  Last year, during Diwali, when I was very disturbed owing to fireworks going off, I upset some neighbours who came too close to me. Those neighbours were regular visitors, but not one member of their family has stepped inside our door since then. Maria says that for this year, during Diwali, they will tie me up somewhere inside the house. She doesn't want me to get too upset in case there are any loud fireworks this year. Because times have changed, we're not sure how Diwali will be this season.

Duggu and the New Normal

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay   By the time the new normal started, the number of our family members who live here had already decreased in size. Manu and Manvi have gone to Ireland. Manvi's father had retired and finished his long commute to the next city. So those of us who are left are together 24 hours a day. It wasn't too difficult at first. It was a bit like a holiday. Plenty of rest. Less pressure. Maria has always worked at home anyway. Once her children grew up, she started writing and blogging from home. She still does that. I am very happy that there are less visitors coming in. I can be less defensive about my territory. But if anyone I don't know comes in, I still bark the place down. The difficult part was when the lockdown came to an end. Some people didn't seem to realise that it is still important to wear masks and maintain social distance. Some old visitors of ours have often appeared in our living room (having got past me, but then, I'm tied up when people come in) without masks, to Maria's horror. But as the weather gets cooler, it's easier to invite people to sit outside and talk to our family members. The minute Maria hears me barking, she comes out to see who it is. If it's a courier with a parcel, she makes special efforts to maintain contactless delivery and use masks and sanitiser. It's just as important now as it was at the beginning. Even if Maria forgets, her son Manan is very particular about reminding to maintain that. 

A Day in Duggu's Life

Maria and Mukesh are like owls. They prefer to rest in the day and remain active at night, so they are not early risers. As soon as one of them shows up in the morning, 

 Image by krustovin august from Pixabay I get my morning walk. If Mukesh appears first, he brings me out on the road for a few minutes. Since I grew up to full height, Maria is not comfortable with bringing me outside. She never lets me off the lead and came crashing down a few times when I took off unexpectedly after some other dog. She usually brings me up on the terrace. She allows me to roam without a lead on and seems to get a lot of pleasure from seeing me chasing after balls and frisbees. She thinks it's a good exercise for me.

The cleaning lady doesn't come into the house nowadays. Everyone allows their cleaners in, but Maria's children are adamant that until the Covid-19 risk reduces substantially or a vaccine is available, cleaners should not be allowed into our house. The cleaning lady is a

Image by Deen Alexey from Pixabay responsible woman who wears a mask and uses sanitiser. So she usually sweeps outside and does the dishes outside the house. Maria and Mukesh clean up inside. Once the cleaning is done, I sit inside on the marble floor and lie at Mukesh's feet as he sits in the chair reading his paper. In the afternoon, he brings me out again. Then I take up my position outside watching the gate until evening. 

As for food, I eat a lot of porridge. Maria loves to tell everyone that I grew tall and strong on wheat porridge. I am definitely head and shoulders taller than my street-based counterparts. At night, I eat chapatis, a type of flatbread made from wheatflour along with milk. Many people believe dogs should be fed some meat and probably they are right. To ensure I'm getting proper nutrition, Mukesh buys some pellets of dog food for me in non-vegetarian flavours. When we go for our late night walk, Maria often brings some biscuits for the street dogs. They get all our left-over food too. Many people forget to feed street dogs nowadays. That is sad. Street dogs serve as a type of neighbourhood patrol here and people who feed and look

Image by Priyam Patel from Pixabayafter them have often found the most amazing paybacks. Many a family who helps street dogs have been saved from burglaries. When the local street dogs notice strangers going in at night, they create a racket and scare away the intruders. There are some wonderful people in our housing estate who not only feed their street dogs but get them vaccinated and sterilised too. This is great work.

Since the new normal took over, there's one thing I'm very glad about. Our cleaning lady doesn't bring her children anymore. She used to bring them very often and they would wait while their mother finishes her work. However, they don't come anymore because of the danger of spreading infection. I don't miss them at all. They hate me because I upset their mother. They see me tied up and they laugh at me and tease me and make funny faces, driving me mad and making me angry. Maria always stops them, but they continue when she goes away. It's much more peaceful here without them.

So the new normal suits me very well. A quiet life, fewer visitors and my family at home all the time. It's great. What more could a dog want?

The images of Duggu are my own.

Thanks to Pixabay for the illustrations.

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srivatsa and Conrad.  This week’s topic was suggested by Shackman.

Recipes for my grandchildren. That's my blogging group topic this week. I don't have grandchildren. Well, I do, but not actual descendants. On the Indian side of the family, I have an adorable baby granddaughter named Araina, who looks like an angel. As she is my nephew and niece-in-law's daughter, I'm really her great aunt. But I love her as if she was my own grandchild. Having said that, Araina, already has four doting grandparents and she's the centre of their lives, so I'm a spare grandmother. I come in on her paternal grandfather's side. The paternal grandmother, like me, is one of four siblings, so this baby is inundated with grandparents. That's the Indian way. It's one of the things I actually love about Indian life. We don't say cousins here. All cousins are brothers and sisters. Parents' cousins are also honorary uncles and aunts. Grandparents' siblings and in-laws, are also grandparents.

When it comes to cooking I'm not the best, but I can get by. I didn't cook much in my pre-marital life. When I lived at home, as a young, working girl, along with two of my siblings and my mother, our family usually assembled weekly for a Sunday dinner, depending on who was in Dublin that weekend.  The rest of the week, we were all busy with individual lives and projects. My mother always made sure the cupboard and freezer were well stocked with food like rice or potatoes, vegetables, and handy protein items like fish fingers, tuna and frozen burgers. When any one of us reached home, throwing together a 'meat, potatoes and two veg-type meal' in a short span of time was entirely possible.

When our son left home a few years ago to live in a student flat in Ireland, we, meaning myself and himself (or 'my husband and I' as the Queen might say) faced the same worry as other Indian parents. 'How will he manage his food?' Yes, my friends, food is a focal point of Indian family life. I'm Irish for sure, a Dublin woman and proud. But I raised my family in north India, so I'm a compound of cultures, so to speak. An Irish mammy who cooks curry every single day. Your typical north Indian meal has four main elements and numerous other attachments. I gave my son a crash course in this before he left home. I'm sure he listened enthralled as I described how to wash rice and soak it a couple of hours before turning on the heat on an induction cooker. I'm sure he hung on to my every word as I lovingly instructed him in the noble art of taking half a cup of dal beans (lentils will do just fine, moong beans are even better if you can get them in Tesco's) and washing them, soaking them and cooking them in salt and turmeric before boiling and tempering with a mixture of  hot butter oil (refined will do!) with some jeera seeds, asafoetida and chilli powder which should not burn. Otherwise, the whole house would be coughing in agony. That's not even the half of it. But that's as far as I got.

The third element in a north Indian meal is the bread. Which is made from scratch. You take the wheat Image by M Ameen from Pixabay 
flour and some water and knead a dough. Then you take balls of dough off and roll them in flat circles like pancakes and cook them on a flat pan called a tawa until they're puffed and ready to eat with your ....oh, yeah, the curry. No point in making the breads if the curry's not ready. Now there are simply hundreds of curries that can be made and they're all different depending on which part of India you're from. There are gravy-type curries and dry curries. I learned to start cooking them with gravy. And there are at least two main types of gravy. Yet a basic curry gravy would consist of  one or two onions, grated and fried to golden brown, to which some a grated tomato or two is added. I've seen this basic mixture made hundreds of times now and no single cook seems to agree on when is the best time to add the spices. My in-law family always creates this mixture. Take a quarter of a teaspoon of turmeric powder, and the same amount of chilli powder and the same amount of  coriander powder, to which some salt has been added. Sometimes, I skip this stage and just use a teaspoonful of curry powder. Much easier. When to add the spices? When I'm cooking alone, I decide myself. When I'm cooking with someone else, I let them decide. I've always found it better to add my my curry powder mixture to a little water before adding it into my tomato-and-onion mixture. Some people prefer to add the spices when the onions are frying, long before adding tomato. I can't tell the difference once I'm eating the curry, but it could be because I'm not the most expert Indian cook. Once your basic curry sauce is prepared, you can put whatever you want into it. Chopped boiled potatoes, cooked chickpeas or kidney beans, frozen vegetables, cooked, chopped chicken, anything. You can also make an 'onion-free' version of this sauce as some Hindus avoid onions on certain days and stages of life.

Image by ElasticComputeFarm from Pixabay 
When I reached Athlone in 2017 with my son, the place where he would be studying for the next two years, I knew he could make his and rice, but I wasn't sure about his curry and rotis (breads). Then we visited Lidl, the supermarket down the road from the student flats, We got a pleasant surprise there. I found that Indian-style rotis/chapatis(flatbreads) were available in packets. You could buy six or twelve at a time. They were actually based on a Mexican recipe and called 'tortilla wraps'. They may have contained baking powder and a few herbs, yet my son and I enjoyed them wholeheartedly and found them to be a perfectly acceptable substitute for the freshly hand-rolled rotis. If my husband had to live in Ireland, he might find these a bit bland. However, he loves pitta bread, so that is an acceptable roti substitute for him. But the curry sauce was the thing I dreaded most. Manek was trying to figure how to make a curry sauce, but I wasn't sure if he was really 'getting it', so to speak. But another visit to Lidl put a stop to that fear forever. I noticed a product in Lidl called 'Kanpur Garden Curry Sauce'. They had a mild and a medium version. I looked in vain for a very hot version, but had no luck with that. . We took it home, heated it up and added some frozen vegetables which we had already thawed with hot water into it. There it was. The curry was all done. Thanks to the tortilla wraps and the curry sauce, I knew my son would be able to survive, eating the food he loves. Take the easy way out would be advice that I would give to any grandchildren I might have in the future. By all means cook what you want. But we're not always in a creative, cooking mood and sometimes we need to cut corners, especially when other things are going on.

A Photo of My Microwave Soda Bread
In comparison with India, Irish food is quite simple. In Ireland, we have good meat, plenty of potatoes and vegetables like turnips and peas. There are a few Irish items that I adore, however. One of them is Irish soda bread. I'm not sure how it came about but apparently, the Irish found it difficult to get their hands on yeast for bread-making. So they used baking soda to make bread. I don't have a regular oven, just a microwave with convection action. But I learned how to make soda bread in the microwave and this is a recipe I'll be happy to share with my future grandchildren, if they are interested. Here it is.

IRISH MICROWAVE SODA BREAD

Ingredients

4 standard cups of flour

Half teaspoon of salt

Half teaspoon of baking soda

Buttermilk, use as required.

Method

Strain the flour with the salt and baking soda. Mix it around to ensure it's evenly spread. Take a cup of buttermilk and introduce it to the flour. Add a few drops every so often as required. Knead the mixture by hand, only adding enough buttermilk to make a firm dough. The finished dough should be soft but firm and not too sticky. Many experts recommend not to over-knead soda bread as they say it becomes too tough. 

Put your loaf on a greased baking sheet. Cut a deep cross in the loaf.

For a gas or electric oven, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. whichever is relevant to you. It can be baked for forty five minutes to an hour, but you need to watch it. 

If you need to make it in the microwave like I do, ten minutes on full power is enough. As the microwave can dry out food, it's a good idea to put a microwave-proof container about the size of a glass, filled with water, inside the oven. Make sure to remove it when your bread is baked.

This is a a very plain recipe. You can do a Google search for Irish soda bread and find a lot of fancier recipes including honey and other interesting ingredients. You can use those if you'd prefer.  A word of caution. If you can't finish the loaf straight away, you can break it into quarters and freeze the rest. It should keep for a good while. Defrost each portion as you need to use it. 

TRADITIONAL DUBLIN GUR CAKE

Thanks to 'Your Living City' Stockholm.
Gur Cake was always a popular piece of confectionary in Dublin. It's not exclusive to Dublin. It's found under different names in various corners of Ireland and the UK. The British might know it as Chester cake. It's a handy way to use up stale bread. I read somewhere on the Internet recently that Dubliners call this cake 'gur cake' because it was a favourite of Dublin young people known as 'gurriers'. That's impossible. The word 'gurrier' is used to describe a rough, criminal type and it's not at all flattering. I think it got its name from the fact that unrefined, brown sugar, known in India as 'gur' is the main ingredient. The Hindi word word 'gur' doesn't rhyme with the English word 'fur'. In Hindi, the north Indian language, 'gur' rhymes with the English word 'good'. Except that instead of finishing the word with a 'd' sound, it's finished with a hard 'r' sound instead. It's almost a 'd', but it isn't. 

My friend and namesake, Marie Perry in Dublin, recently published her grandmother's own recipe for this delicious cake, on Facebook. I grabbed the recipe to try it out one of these days. When I realised that this post was about recipes for grandchildren, I know that this is one recipe I would dearly love to hand down. Mrs Perry and I are not relatives, to the best of our knowledge, although our family trees may intersect at some point. In Ireland, 'Marie' and 'Maria' are more or less the same name. I'm often called 'Marie' rather than 'Maria' by my sisters. I was born into the Perry clan, while my friend married into it. As this is Marie's grandmother's recipe, she calls it after her grandmother. It's interesting how Irish people often call their grandmother 'nanny'. In India, mother's mother is always called 'nani'. That's the name my children called my late mother. Many thanks to Marie O'Farrell Perry for sharing her grandmother's recipe.

NANNY PALMER'S GUR CAKE

Ingredients:

Pastry:

500 gram plain flour

250 gram margarine

Cold water

Filling:

300 gram of stale bread 

350 ml of fresh, strongly brewed tea

150 gram of mixed fruit like raisins, sultanas etc

150 grams of dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons of mixed spice

1 egg

For the Pastry:

Mix the flour and margarine until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. Add water until the pastry consistency is fine. Break into two pieces and roll one half for the bottom of the tray and one half for the top. 

For the Filling:

Remove the hard crusts from the bread. Place the bread into a medium-sized bowl and pour the tea over it. Allow the tea to soak in and soften for a minute or two, then mash well by hand or with a fork. The mashed bread mixture should be stiff rather than liquid. So pour off excess liquid. Then stir in the fruit, sugar, spice, and egg. Mix it well and leave it for an hour. 

Baking the Gur Cake

When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

Place the filling on the first layer of pastry. Then top the filling with the second layer. Prick the filling with a fork and brush the top with a little milk or egg wash.

Bake the cake for about 35 minutes until golden brown. Then enjoy this cake with a big mug of tea. Yes, it's a Dublin recipe all right. 

NB: 'Mixed Spice' refers to a spice mixture that's often used for making English cakes. It usually contains nutmeg and cinnamon.

Handing Down Traditions

As I said earlier, there's no harm in cutting corners, sometimes. But these are two traditional  Irish recipes I would love to hand down to my children and my grandchildren.

Thanks to Pixabay  especially to Bruno /Germany from Pixabay for the blog banner image, and also to Living City Stockholm for the Traditional Dublin Gur Cake image.

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srivatsa and Conrad.  This week’s topic was suggested by Sanjana. 

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay The topic for today's Blog Friday post is 'Power'. What a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted topic it is, too. You could approach this topic from numerous angles and come up with all kinds of approaches. They'd all be equally valid and equally fascinating. It's such a huge subject that there could be no end to it. I'm just going to share a few observations of my own about this topic. Some of them may resonate with readers. Or they may not. It all depends on their viewpoint.

Power Corrupts

In 1887, John Dalberg Acton, the 1st Baron Acton, wrote: 'Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Strange, I always thought that George Bernard Shaw said those words. Wise words indeed. When a person attains power, they should always keep in mind that it's something they hold in trust. Accountability for the misuse of power is extremely important. Common wisdom holds that we shouldn't speak ill of the dead. No, we shouldn't slander or smear anyone's name wrongly, whether they're alive or dead. But if it turns out that someone who has died abused power that was entrusted to them, it's important to make it known. When Jesus Christ set up His earthly ministry that we now know as the Church, his right-hand man was Simon whom he called 'Peter' (from the Greek 'petros') or 'kepha' (Aramaic). The name Jesus gave this disciple means 'rock' and Jesus said,  'upon this rock, I will build My Church' (Matthew 16:18). In his life, Jesus clearly showed that if you want power, you must become a servant. The Gospel, the part of the Bible that deals with Jesus' life, tells us that Jesus close disciples (Apostles) and even their family members, dreamed of earthly glory, but in fact, their glory was of a spiritual nature and not for their own benefit or enjoyment. In his last chat with his followers, Jesus said 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat', according to Luke 22:21 (New American Standard Version). So the enemy of mankind demands the right to tempt and try the people who get spiritual power in this world. No wonder so many Church people fall by the wayside. In the bad old days when there was no accountability, a lot of Church officials fell by the wayside. The enemy knows that if people with spiritual power fall, it will discredit the Church and many souls will be lost. That's why I don't let these stories of corrupt leaders shake my religious faith. It's also why Christians must pray for their leaders instead of pointing the finger when they fall.  Just saying........

Rest in Peace

Image by Colin Behrens from Pixabay Nowadays, when an activist dies, whether he or she falls in action or after retirement, the followers often bid them 'rest in power' rather than 'rest in peace'. I've seen that message around the Internet a lot, but I find it unpalatable. 'Rest in peace' had a quiet dignity about it. The more recent 'rest in power' gives me a horrible impression of the deceased ruling and influencing events from the other side and it really gives me the creeps. The older version is just fine as far as I'm concerned. Power is nothing to rest in. The image in the adjoining photo shows a lightbulb plugging itself in. A humorous little photo, but it's another way of looking at power. Electric power.   It keeps us cool in hot weather here in India. It keeps us warm when it's cold. I suppose it could be done without. But we'd be the poorer without it.   When I was in school, I sat through a lot of debates on the subject of nuclear power. We were all very concerned about the bad effects of nuclear power. We knew that there weren't nuclear power stations in Ireland. But we knew that they were out there in the world. We were terrified at the thought of accidental radiation leaking into the air. Not to mention the horror of nuclear waste, poisoning our universe for millennia to come. I remembering being very concerned for the environment and wondering if natural power sources were really viable.  Interestingly enough, environmental power sources are holding up pretty well. Scientists are doing research. The menace of the build-up of plastic waste is also giving concern. Apparently, a plastic-eating bug has been discovered.  Well, they should put that bug to work and try to remove that mountain of plastic. That can't happen soon enough as far as I'm concerned. But leaving bugs aside, clean and environmentally-sound sources of power are a great idea. I'm so glad they're working out. Image by Alexander Droeger at PixabayWhen I visited Ireland in 2017 I paid several visits to Athlone in the Midlands, getting the bus between there and Dublin several times. It always cheered me to see windmills like this in the fields. It makes me think that it could be possible to one day live in a clean, green world. If we try hard enough, we probably could produce enough power from natural sources. Ireland would never be able to do much with solar power as we don't get enough sun. But wind power is certainly present and definitely could be harnassed for the good of the country and of the environment. I really hope this can be done. I hate hearing about burning fossil fuels as well as nuclear power usage. There has to be a better way.

The Power of Nature
Image by PublicDomainPictures from PixabayNature is a force of power. The natural forces that govern our planet and our climate were always respected in the past. Lately, man has been thinking that he's invincible and that he has power over the forces of nature. I don't think that this can ever happen. Nature has a way of unleashing natural disasters on unsuspecting mankind. Not all of these disasters are preventable, but one feels that the arrogance of humanity is very often the cause of some spectacular natural disasters. The melting of the ice cap at the North Pole is not being taken seriously enough in my humble opinion. Many people love taking shots at the President of the Image by Skeeze from Pixabay


United States, Donald Trump, and decry everything about him, his arrogance to his attitudes. I don't wish to join the number by criticising the Head of State in a country which I've never even visited, but when I heard that he was considering the revival of the coal mining industry, my heart sank. We really don't need to plunder the earth any than we've already done.  We don't want more fossils fuels being burned and discharging toxic gases and heat into the atmosphere. I always think of nature as being a wild beast who might be tamed for a while. Yet it's important not to get too comfortable because one day when you least expect it, it could just turn on you and cause tremendous damage.  We should always try to keep that in mind. We should never, ever think we have nature under our control. It's only because of nature's benevolence that there are not more natural disasters, in my humble opinion. 
Royal Power
Once upon a time, royal power was the power that struck terror into people's hearts. The right of royal power came through a bloodline. The English royal lines usually conferred the power on the eldest, legitimate heir of the previous King or Queen. So did most of the royal lines in the western world, and maybe even in the eastern world. The Irish had a more tribal outlook. So did the Scottish. In Ireland or Scotland, any one of the male heirs of the previous King was entitled to try his hand at becoming King. This could be sons, nephews, brothers, even uncles. In modern times, republics have taken over from monarchies, although monarchs still exist. Like India, Ireland had a lot of royal families ruling over different regions. So no strong royal family emerged in either country and both are now republics Image by Skeeze from Pixabay 
. Many people are under the impression that royalty doesn't have power anymore.  I don't believe that for a second. The Queen of England may give the impression of being a benign figurehead, but she is a force to be reckoned with. She's a strong lady who serves her people with full commitment. I am no admirer of royalty, but Queen Elizabeth II has all my respect for her strong principles and her commitment to her job. She is well into her 90s. I'm 57 and she was the Queen when I was born. The day she is no more is the day when I'll probably accept that I'm getting old. Because only then, every single leader in the world will have changed since I was born. In King Henry VIII time, there were always nobles being executed for disloyalty to the king. Thankfully, that doesn't happen nowadays. Today, when the power of royalty has diminished, the crown is still a strong symbol of power.

Grateful Thanks to Pixabay for the Beautiful Images

Please Visit the Other Blog Friday Group Members

The other five bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srivatsa and Conrad.  This week’s topic was suggested by Ramana. 

Sharon Cahill RIP (photo by Talita Marie Cahill)My blogging group has come up with the title 'Living in the Now' for this week's post. I could have written a post about Covid-19, the new normal, social distancing and hands-face-space.  But my 'now' is currently a time of mourning. A dear cousin of mine has departed suddenly, leaving me with lots of memories, tears and nostalgia. No, it wasn't Covid-19. A heart attack carried off someone who was no different from a sister to me.

Sharon Cahill and I weren't sisters. Our mothers, Nuala and Carmel, were. They were the best of pals and they fell in and fell out down the years. The two sisters died in July 2016, within about thirty days of each other. Aunty Nuala hadn't been well when my mother died, so she never came to know my mother was gone. Sharon and I joked on FB Messenger that the first thing her mother would say when she saw my mother in Heaven would be: 'how did you get in here before me?' Now Sharon is with them in Heaven. I believe that Sharon is certainly in Heaven. She definitely got in there before me. That's not surprising. She was and is an angel.

Sharon and I were close and spent a lot of time together as children in Dublin. We even went to the same school for a while. When we were very young kids we had a slight problem. One of our younger uncles was getting married. The bride got to pick one of the groom's nieces to join the bridal party. She picked me. I was only four and Sharon was perhaps five. Sharon was very sad. She had begun to understand the importance of different functions. She wanted to be a bridesmaid. No, I wasn't a bridesmaid. I was like a little mascot, a flower girl. In fact, I did have a rather important job. Aunty Mary had a very long train behind her wedding dress. That was the fashion of the times. This was in the sixties. I'd seen my mother's wedding album and she wore a short wedding dress, but fashions change all the time.  It was my job to hold up the bride's train as she floated down the aisle to get married. I was rather immature and I didn't understand what an honour it was to be a bridesmaid, even if it was a very junior type of bridesmaid. Sharon had begun to understand the significance of all these things and she was very sad to be overlooked. She scolded uncle Brian and told him that if he'd loved her, he'd have told aunty Mary to pick her. I had a great day at the wedding and felt like a little star, but looking back now, I can understand how sad poor Sharon must have been. It just couldn't be helped, but I wish she had been picked instead of me.

My father was one of those people who came alive in company. He was very entertaining, especially when kids were around. He used to bring us to visit Sharon's parents' house every week. A few years ago, I posted a photo of my father on his birthday, wearing his signature Elvis quiff. Sharon posted a comment about my daddy's hairstyle and added 'miss you uncle Eddie.' I was really touched. She threw four decades out of the way and let me see my dad again, as I saw him when I was a little girl.

Sharon was very sad when her parents separated owing to relationship problems. This happened to her around the time my father died. At dad's funeral, lots of people came up and hugged me and my siblings and told us how sorry they were. Sharon observed 'I lost my dad too. But no-one is even thinking about me.' There was no jealousy here. It was her honesty. It's hard to be only fourteen and to realise already that life can be so hard. A few decades later, Sharon's parents reconciled and her father died in peace. That must have been very consoling, but it didn't undo the fact that Sharon's dad was away for much of her young life. 

Sharon got into a relationship and became a mother at quite a young age.  My eldest is 25, her kids are around five to ten years older than that. Our paths didn't cross much after Sharon had the kids. But whenever we met, we were delighted. We'd give each other a big hug and reminisce about the good old days. She ended up as a single mother, facing life alone. But she was a strong, courageous woman. Her commitment to her kids never wavered. The fact that her marriage broke up wasn't her fault because she gave it 100 per cent commitment. The same commitment she gave to her kids. She was always by their side in good times and bad. She was a devoted grandmother too. I feel sorry about the great loss to her children and grandchildren.

When her kids grew up, Sharon went to college. I remember her telling me she was doing a course in the Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre (WERRC)founded by Ailbhe Smyth at UCD. Ailbhe Smyth is an amazing woman, one of the activists behind the recent Irish abortion referendum. While I admire Ailbhe Smyth's commitment to social causes, I totally disagree with her abortion activism, as I hold pro-life views. Still, it takes all kinds to make a world. Sharon and I enjoyed talking about the course she was doing. She was interested to know I'd met Ailbhe Smyth a few years earlier, while I was still in Ireland. I am glad Sharon had the opportunity to study and expand her horizons. She used to encourage me to live my own life and 'let go a little bit' regarding the children. She was so wise. She was a devoted parent, as I am. But she encouraged me to give the kids a bit of space and start building a life for myself.

Sharon bought a house and worked hard to pay the mortgage.  She worked on security at Dublin airport, on various shifts. I'll always remember her gentleness, her kindness and a very dry sense of humour. I reached out to a few people I knew who knew her and they all say the same thing. She was a lovely person. It's true. She suffered from various health issues down the years. With all her problems, she never became hard. She was a warm, friendly and funny person who was loved by many people. Her daughter describes her as 'my rock'. 

Just two days before this post was written, Sharon passed away suddenly. She was on a visit to her sister who lives in Turkey. She and her sister Pamela were very close. Every so often, she would visit Pamela in Turkey and enjoy catching up together. As I write, her family is working hard to bring her home to  Dublin for her final farewell. Gone way too soon. Sharon was no more than 58. If there's one thing I've learned from this, it's that now is all we have. We have to live in the now and enjoy every moment we can, If I got the chance to say one thing to Sharon, I'd say 'well done, Cuz, you got your angel wings already'. You're going to be missed for a very long time to come. Fly high, Sharon, with the angels. Be happy forever. See you in a bit.....

Please visit the other group members.

The other five bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srivatsa and Conrad.  This week’s topic was suggested by Raju. 

Sharon Cahill RIP (photo by Talita Marie Cahill)My blogging group has come up with the title 'Living in the Now' for this week's post. I could have written a post about Covid-19, the new normal, social distancing and hands-face-space.  But my 'now' is currently a time of mourning. A dear cousin of mine has departed suddenly, leaving me with lots of memories, tears and nostalgia. No, it wasn't Covid-19. A heart attack carried off someone who was no different from a sister to me.

Sharon Cahill and I weren't sisters. Our mothers, Nuala and Carmel, were. They were the best of pals and they fell in and fell out down the years. The two sisters died in July 2016, within about thirty days of each other. Aunty Nuala hadn't been well when my mother died, so she never came to know my mother was gone. Sharon and I joked on FB Messenger that the first thing her mother would say when she saw my mother in Heaven would be: 'how did you get in here before me?' Now Sharon is with them in Heaven. I believe that Sharon is certainly in Heaven. She definitely got in there before me. That's not surprising. She was and is an angel.

Sharon and I were close and spent a lot of time together as children in Dublin. We even went to the same school for a while. When we were very young kids we had a slight problem. One of our younger uncles was getting married. The bride got to pick one of the groom's nieces to join the bridal party. She picked me. I was only four and Sharon was perhaps five. Sharon was very sad. She had begun to understand the importance of different functions. She wanted to be a bridesmaid. No, I wasn't a bridesmaid. I was like a little mascot, a flower girl. In fact, I did have a rather important job. Aunty Mary had a very long train behind her wedding dress. That was the fashion of the times. This was in the sixties. I'd seen my mother's wedding album and she wore a short wedding dress, but fashions change all the time.  It was my job to hold up the bride's train as she floated down the aisle to get married. I was rather immature and I didn't understand what an honour it was to be a bridesmaid, even if it was a very junior type of bridesmaid. Sharon had begun to understand the significance of all these things and she was very sad to be overlooked. She scolded uncle Brian and told him that if he'd loved her, he'd have told aunty Mary to pick her. I had a great day at the wedding and felt like a little star, but looking back now, I can understand how sad poor Sharon must have been. It just couldn't be helped, but I wish she had been picked instead of me.

My father was one of those people who came alive in company. He was very entertaining, especially when kids were around. He used to bring us to visit Sharon's parents' house every week. A few years ago, I posted a photo of my father on his birthday, wearing his signature Elvis quiff. Sharon posted a comment about my daddy's hairstyle and added 'miss you uncle Eddie.' I was really touched. She threw four decades out of the way and let me see my dad again, as I saw him when I was a little girl.

Sharon was very sad when her parents separated owing to relationship problems. This happened to her around the time my father died. At dad's funeral, lots of people came up and hugged me and my siblings and told us how sorry they were. Sharon observed 'I lost my dad too. But no-one is even thinking about me.' There was no jealousy here. It was her honesty. It's hard to be only fourteen and to realise already that life can be so hard. A few decades later, Sharon's parents reconciled and her father died in peace. That must have been very consoling, but it didn't undo the fact that Sharon's dad was away for much of her young life. 

Sharon got into a relationship and became a mother at quite a young age.  My eldest is 25, her kids are around five to ten years older than that. Our paths didn't cross much after Sharon had the kids. But whenever we met, we were delighted. We'd give each other a big hug and reminisce about the good old days. She ended up as a single mother, facing life alone. But she was a strong, courageous woman. Her commitment to her kids never wavered. The fact that her marriage broke up wasn't her fault because she gave it 100 per cent commitment. The same commitment she gave to her kids. She was always by their side in good times and bad. She was a devoted grandmother too. I feel sorry about the great loss to her children and grandchildren.

When her kids grew up, Sharon went to college. I remember her telling me she was doing a course in the Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre (WERRC)founded by Ailbhe Smyth at UCD. Ailbhe Smyth is an amazing woman, one of the activists behind the recent Irish abortion referendum. While I admire Ailbhe Smyth's commitment to social causes, I totally disagree with her abortion activism, as I hold pro-life views. Still, it takes all kinds to make a world. Sharon and I enjoyed talking about the course she was doing. She was interested to know I'd met Ailbhe Smyth a few years earlier, while I was still in Ireland. I am glad Sharon had the opportunity to study and expand her horizons. She used to encourage me to live my own life and 'let go a little bit' regarding the children. She was so wise. She was a devoted parent, as I am. But she encouraged me to give the kids a bit of space and start building a life for myself.

Sharon bought a house and worked hard to pay the mortgage.  She worked on security at Dublin airport, on various shifts. I'll always remember her gentleness, her kindness and a very dry sense of humour. I reached out to a few people I knew who knew her and they all say the same thing. She was a lovely person. It's true. She suffered from various health issues down the years. With all her problems, she never became hard. She was a warm, friendly and funny person who was loved by many people. Her daughter describes her as 'my rock'. 

Just two days before this post was written, Sharon passed away suddenly. She was on a visit to her sister who lives in Turkey. She and her sister Pamela were very close. Every so often, she would visit Pamela in Turkey and enjoy catching up together. As I write, her family is working hard to bring her home to  Dublin for her final farewell. Gone way too soon. Sharon was no more than 58. If there's one thing I've learned from this, it's that now is all we have. We have to live in the now and enjoy every moment we can, If I got the chance to say one thing to Sharon, I'd say 'well done, Cuz, you got your angel wings already'. You're going to be missed for a very long time to come. Fly high, Sharon, with the angels. Be happy forever. See you in a bit.....

Please visit the other group members.

The other five bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are  Ramana, Sanjana, Padmum,  Raju, Shackman, Srivatsa and Conrad.  This week’s topic was suggested by Raju.