Chumi Lakshmi

“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Exodus 14:11 I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that. I didn’t laugh because I was mocking the Israelites, or at their unsteadiness and doubt. But it was because I heard God speak to me through those verses; “Oh you poor kid, have I not promised to you? Have I not told you? Have I not remind you for the umpteenth time, that with my mighty hands, I will deliver you? That I will have my way executed in your life because that’s what you chose from the beginning? Have you not already seen the things that I have done in your life? Have you forgotten the fulfilled promises in your life?“ As I lay in bed, I recalled the story of how Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt. What started off as 70 Israelites migrating to Egypt, ended up as 6 lakhs men (excluding women and children) after 430 year. They were slaves to Pharaoh over those years. The kind of slaves who were ill-t...

Giving and receiving dowry has been an age-old tradition. Age old as in really age old! Something that has been religiously followed for generation after generation and centuries after centuries surely cannot be changed. But there have been some changes in the very reason of asking/giving dowry and people’s attitude and mind-set about it. What I slowly came to realize was that the girls parents were giving so much money, household utensils, jewellery and clothes all in the name of dowry to make sure their girl is well dressed and well settled when she starts her new life with her new family. Its not that the groom’s family don’t have vessels or money, it’s that the girls parents take it as their responsibility to provide for the daughter initially. I only came to realize this when I was getting married myself. We were out and about doing shopping for the wedding and the reception, and I found myself looking at more clothes and sarees, which would be appropriate to be worn af...

I was about 16 when the Internet was very cautiously disclosed to me. I was personally tutored to create an email id, and taught about some safe sites such as yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail. Not a word about about Google or YouTube though. Come to think of it, I don’t think YouTube existed back then yet. And definitely nothing about what was then infamously known IRC chat, ICQ, MSN messenger and so on. But what are friends for if they don’t teach you the most important and useless things all at the same time right? My friends and I used to gather around the PC to ‘study’. By studying, I obviously mean chatting on that nonsensical IRC chat and ICQ. Our internet usage time was strictly monitored, not only for safety’s sake and for economical sake as well. Internet in my generation came along with a modem and it was charged according to usage. It was also hopelessly slow! Eventually, Malaysian telecoms grew some sense to quickly adapt to foreign countries’ fast speed Internet. There we...

11 th May 2015 So, it’s been a month since I’ve been married. I still haven’t come to terms that I’m married. The very thought of it baffles me. I’ve been looking at the wedding pictures everyday in the last month, and have had so many thoughts about it, but never managed to gather my thoughts in black and white. It was a dream wedding that I didn’t dream of. I didn’t plan it. But God took care of all the planning. In fact, he had planned this wedding before any of us even realised anything. The recollection of how the date was fixed, how my husband came to Malaysia, how the wedding event was, the invitation, the guests who came, the people who stepped up to help, etc. leaves me at a loss for words. We did not choose the wedding date. The 11 th of April 2015 was reserved for our wedding years before we even knew each other.   When we finally knew that the wedding would be on the 11 th of April, we had exactly one month to prepare for it. Almost everyone said it was ...

A letter I wrote to my grandparents to be published in the family magazine during my grandfather's 80th birthday celebration this year. I wanted to put it up here for keepsake. It is one of those things that came right from the heart with no time to re-read, edit or update, but it doesn't need any of those anyways. Counting the days till i can meet you both again aiyaa and aayaa, and the rest of the family too.  Anbulla aiyaavukkum aayaavukkum, I’ve always remembered all your letters addressed to mummy started this way. At that young age, I didn’t understand what ‘anbulla’ meant. But today, I understand how deep it is. Therefore, I want to greet you with ‘anbulla’ instead of a shallow ‘dear aiyaa and aayaa’. As we celebrate your 80 th birthday this year, we celebrate your fulfilling life, your zeal for life and achievements. While at school, children are always encouraged to be inspired by historical characters. We, the Palaniappan Chettiar clan, need not look...