gaelikaa's diary

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 beco

Image by GDJ from Pixabay This 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 dead Image 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

Image by RealAKP from Pixabay This 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 relax

Image by Andrea Don from Pixabay  - Praying The 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 als