Tuesday, December 11, 2018

No more tea bags

Dear World


I was surprised to read this:

"
It may be hard to believe, but most brands of bagged tea contain plastic. With millions upon millions of cups consumed daily, this adds up to a lot of plastic.
"

I thought that the tea bags were made out of plastic free products....

I came about this finding when i was searching for a cheaper solution against using dust tea.... It is really hard for my grandmother to clean the vessels after making tea. Also for us here in India , who have a minimum 2 cups of tea per day , the job of cleaning after brewing tea , was an everyday routine. So I wanted to help her and make this routine easier. So this just gave me another reason for finding a better solution against using tea bags(also tea bags was much costlier than dust tea in india).

Also unknowingly all our waste, including the tea bags have been going to the compost.

So what was the solution i found online?

STRAINER

STRAINERs came in different shapes and sizes. They were made of glass, stainless steel, silicone, plastic etc. Some were round and called as "tea ball" , some cylindrical that could be put inside bottles, mugs, teapots etc. There were also these fancy ones that can be left on the mug handle or sides. They are good for the black tea. But i dont recommend it for the mallu tea.

But me being a person who drinks tea by boiling it fully, wanted to know which of the strainers were safe to be left on the boiling vessel on stove. And i knew that plastic wouldnt be a good choice. Most of them were also aimed for being used by a person for a cup of tea. But we needed it for thr vessel and also for minimum of more than 3 people.

So then i went through the products in instagram, Google, amazon etc. And becoz of the trust I had on amazon, I found the following 2 that came to close to my need. But it didnt satisfy my  need fully. I have attached screenshot of my cart from amazon.

Anyone reading this is always welcome to provide me with other choices in the comment section.

Saturday, November 24, 2018

My family

"My family" would be a kindergarten student's story.

That time in life when you learn what each of your family member does. That time when you learn their names and realize it is not just "mom" or "daddy".

That time when you boast about the simplest things with naive innocence ...

But where does that love, happiness and innocence go when daily life ages you or changes you for the so called "better life"?

Happiness is the truth

"What do You want?"

"I want to become happy" or "successful" would be a common reply. But by "become"does one mean that they arent happy or successful now?

For centuries the world has been looking for happiness. Seems like the  search never succeeded....

Oppressed people believed that people who were free were the "happy"people . "Free" people felt that the rich were happy.
"Rich" felt that the poor and orphans were happy and so on.

But still the question remains, ARE YOU HAPPY?

Friday, November 9, 2018

Charisma

Dear world

Growing up in a catholic Christian family, we were active members of the charismatic community also. I grew up raising hands and chanting God's name and wondered why God didnt talk to me.? Sometimes I thought maybe my own thoughts were created by Jesus and that's how I though he was TALKING to me.

Also during like say 10 minutes people would raise their hands and chant something that i wouldn't know what. I used to listen and I learned that some people say, "hallelujah, thank you jesus or maybe yeshuvae etc" and I copied the same. Thinking that maybe it would please him and he would talk to me too....but never.

I used to keep looking at the Eucharist during adoration and wonder why I wouldn't see like maybe the face of Jesus or something like how many people see it..  but it never happened to me. Except for the fact I slept off after the long stares ..... they would also switch off the lights, giving the perfect environment to sleep.

But I dont know why he didn't talk. Sometime people told me i need to be pure for him to come. So i used to go for confessions and still attend these stuff and never did i hear him.

Gradually the trust and hope i had for him was decreasing. I started thinking about the true meaning of religion. The recent news like the father Franco case in Kerala made me lose the faith even more.

Sometimes I feel like talking against my beliefs. But then there is this society which stops me. They tell me that one shouldn't talk bad about priests or nuns . As they are GODS CHOSEN PEOPLE . BUT then who are we? Also people who talk against are seen as enemies and no one tries to atleast listen to them. They have successfully closed many people's mouths. But it won't be long enough before all this ends.

I am still a confused teen and I dont know whether god exists or not. But I just know that all priests and all nuns are not good. There are few that are a shame to the society and they need to be corrected or be brought to reality.

There needs to be some justice for  nuns. I stayed in a hostel run by nuns. I came there with a lots of love and trust on these sisters. And when people from other religion would talk back to them or say bad about them, I used to take the side of these sisters. But I no longer can do that.

It's fine for then to say anything about anyone, but not for us. Also they treat us like how they were treated- as oppressed women.

I sometimes feel bad and angry for the same set at the same time...

But I do like pope Francis. He seems to be a good man.

It's time the church needs a change. Only pope cant do anything. The society also has to help. Gays, lesbians are also equals. All the old rubbish needs to be changed.

That's all

Yours truly
Sarah Sha

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Does God exist?

Dear world

I come from a Christian family from India. My parents have strong faith on Jesus for the past many years. And me being their daughter was also a girl with lots of devotion towards God. I never questioned the existence of God, maybe because I was just too scared that he might punish me.

All went fine until I started staying in hostel. I met a friend during these days who was an atheist. This friend is someone whom I respect a lot in my life. He managed to make me question the very existence of my belief.

Was Jesus real? Was christianity a good option for me? Is there a God? Even if there is a God will he be like what the church says?

These were just of my some doubts... I started avoiding masses and rosaries slowly. I was soo confused, like all the faith I had these many years just went off somewhere. I didnt know what was right and what was wrong. Sometimes I would pray to God and tell him to come and tell me personally who he was. I didnt want to be that person who followed wrong rules.. I didnt want to be that person who would lose their life to something that wasnt real.
I wanted to make up my mind on what to do. I believed in the miracles happening in Christianity. But me being me, I started doubting them too. I didnt know what to do. Jesus was different for different people.
But in all the interpretations he was just that lovable and great God. And I used to wonder if he is soo real, then how much would we be hurting him.?

And I also wanted to tell Jesus that , wasnt it time that he send us another prophet or someone to build up our faith. He left his human body 2000 years ago. We dont even remember what happened yesterday, how can he expect us to remember all that? Who knows if anyone would have played with our history or not.

On top of that came the cases against the catholic churches, like the one recently happening in Kerala. It made me lose my faith and hope on the church even more.
Also I respected the priest and nuns soo much until I started staying in convent hostels. Their behaviour was soo bad that I saw non Christians hating them. I didnt know how to make others understand. Later my family used to say that, these nuns are behaving this was when they see us enjoy the youth which they missed during their lifetime  as nuns.
I felt really bad about this. Some nuns just became nuns because of their families struggles. Also they couldn't return to their homes as it would put shame on their families and no one would be ready to look after them or get them married off.

I still dont know what to do? Isint God seeing all that is happening now in this world. There were times in my life where I believed that Jesus is the one True God. But right now everything is complicated. But this wont stop me from being a good person, as I dont want to hurt anyone from my side.

It's just that if there is a heaven or hell, then I dont want to be that person who goes to hell. Because hell is forever. So is heaven.

That's all for now!!


Sarah Sha

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Tia Bhuva

Dear world

I would like to share about some person whom I have been following on insta for long. Someone who inspired me to think that maybe saree is actually a really cool way of clothing.

Tia Bhuva. She has a site of her own where she sells saree, can can skirt and underskirt. Nothing great ya? But just wait....

Initially these videos used to come in the search page of my insta where one pretty girl would wear a saree soo easily and look even more beautiful. She used to have the perfect curls and the perfect pleats. Lol. Something that I always found difficult to make when I helped my mom wear her saree. I knew those videos were fast forwarded, but they were different from other saree tutorials.


Later I realized that she was using a different peticote undershirt. It was what made the saree look more figure hugging. It also gave a new look to the whole saree .
Something else that I loved was her skirts. This was before I knew what can can even meant. They are just these skirts that have layers of net underneath them to make it even more wonderful to wear.

Later I went through her site: tiabhuva.com only to discover that she actually sells all this and she does this from Canada. Me being a non fashionista, and not someone who had such a high budget couldnt buy them. But I did some window shopping online and believe me, they are just awesome.


And what more I learnt about her:

1. She is a srilankan origin canadian citizen(i guess).
2. She , her parents and husband stays in Canada
3. She is pregnant currently and hid that from her followers for quite some time ,until recently. (Her life, her privacy and I respect that) congrats to the couple!!
4. She runs a successful business on her site.
5. She inspires every other women to stand on their feet .


Thanks Tia for all the inspirations.


Bye

Sarah sha

Talking to fools

Dear world

A famous quote says that when we argue with fools, we are actually wasting our time and it does no good to anyone. That's actually true..
Recently I was arguining with one of my friends on a controversial topic. It was something about her belief. And the funny part was that, I knew more than her on the same topic. And  she kept on using the same point again and again and managed to keep me quiet for some time. I wanted to tell her that what she was quarelling on was utter stupidity, but she didnt want to hear it.
And I knew it was better to keep quiet than go through her wrath.

During such a time, one becomes a fool when we dont have the necessary knowledge. When quarelling on something, please do your research first and then fight over it. Because later you don't want to regret about whatever you told.

We indians(actually everyone should) need to read newspaper more . And get involved in debates and all. Right now the condition in India is soo bad that, one wrong word from you, and it becomes someones truth. People become a dangerous mob upon hearing some fake whatsapp message. Where are the people's senses?

We all need to know the truth, to know if something is true or not. A person who doesnt know the rules cant identify when someone breaks these rules. And by just education, one cannot have all the knowledge. For that the conventional way of newspaper is the best. But we need to be aware on whether or not, we are reading a good paper or not. We actually actually have a hand on deciding what goes in as input to our brain. So let it be only truth.
I study a professional course in chennai right now and still most of my friends dont read news. Like for example this is what they say:

"Self driving cars are available in the market now and people are actually buying it now" - I dont think that's true yet as companies are now also racing against time to complete their testing.
"Government of India decides whatever rules the supreme court takes" - rubbish (not really right)

Sometimes I dont know what I feel about them. If you ask them which is the currently running movie, then they would know... but they wouldn't know what is the controversial news right now.
And please don't put in your stupid comment on something you don't know. It just makes people lose faith in you.

I plan on putting a few more posts these days as it is Sunday and there is leave on October 2 too.

And I hope the government and social media giants decides on how to curb spreading on fake news online.
Hope they solve the issue as it has hurt many already.

Thats all for now

Sarah sha