kamala kakumanu

Oct 21 1996 28 yrs ago I got engaged to this man I hardly knew and I was not ready for it . Literally,  the only fact that I admired was that  he is a self made man who came up from a village and accomplished the most difficult exam .  Very reluctantly and not knowing much about civil services and this man We got engaged and I moved away from my state, my family with this man to a completely different world . I already was traumatised due to my father’s death a year ago and was not in a good place to start this journey. I came to Punjab to a new place, new people and except him I didn’t know anyone . We made a family, we listened to each other, understood each other with respect and trust and made a beautiful family . We had our own struggles, fights but we were never disrespectful to each other . We both wanted good for each other and we never thought of any win or loss as an Individual one rather it was always our loss or our gain. Looking back, only Gratitude comes to ...

God shows up for a kind act. Yesterday I was standing for Aarti and it takes long queue and planning to reach for that spot in Shirdi to reach till that point . We were all ready with eyes on Baba and waiting for Aarti to start , there is this old lady standing behind me and asked one tall lady if she can move so that she can get sight of the Baba idol and as it is so crowded no one budged . A moment of my inner voice said , I am kindness and I immediately asked that old lady to stand in-front of me and we both had wonderful Aarti . As soon as the Aarti was over , the old lady kissed my hands and had tears in her eyes and she blessed me immensely. It was a simplest thing I did but she got so emotional for that smallest offer . It filled my heart with so much of joy as they say ‘experiencing the joy of giving ‘.

We get distracted in life and loose focus from precious stuff. Today I rushed to Bangalore to meet my husband’s cousin as she lost her husband suddenly with pancreatitis and multiple organ failure. We attended their wedding 8 months after our wedding and they have 2 lovely girls as old as our boys. They made beautiful villa 2 years ago with a lot of passion and every room and corner was worked with a lot of detailing and  was exclusive designed. They both are wonderful couple who had lot of love and support for each other. I heard from the wife and girls that he enjoyed his drink everyday and was under a bit of financial stress as he didn’t compromise with the house anywhere so budget went more than he planned.  His daughter said to me that her mom tried her best to make him stop drinking and pushed him a lot about taking up yoga and exercise to improve his health. I lost my father when I was 18 and he was smoking and drinking and had heart attack and I wonder always why no on...

A sentence that changed my life’s direction was ‘you don’t have a choice ‘. I was working at  an office for past few months and I had lot of expectations about that place in terms of great work and lot of learning . Few months went well but I was never paid as promised and my boss wanted me to shift to another new office of his which didn’t have much work and that was the only thing I was looking forward to when I took this job. Anyway, I was cribbing and carrying on with half day in old place and every afternoon very unhappily I used to go to that new office where I was just sitting and doing nothing. I had two children who were 4 and 7 yrs old and they reach home from school by 2 pm and I used to wonder why was I not going home and spend time with my children rather than going to that new office which didn’t have any purpose. Sometimes, God sends people to wake us up . That’s exactly what happened to me on May 2nd 2007 . I was cribbing about leaving after lunch to the new office ...