It’s Easter time! We have come to one of the most interesting times of the year. Spring is on in full swing, and the Easter celebrations have added that extra zing to the proceedings. On that note, jump in with me and enjoy the ride…

Eleanor is an eternal favorite among my friends, especially Rachael, Ethan and Emily. They have delighted them over the months with her homemade cookies and other delicacies. Rachael, her pup Max, Kong and Eleanor’s toddler grandson Andrew have a great time together, every now and then. So when Eleanor wanted to have an egg hunt at her place this Easter, everyone invited themselves and now we have a whole lot of people coming over! This should be the event of the month, if not the year.

Eleanor told me to inform my friends that Rachael wanted to have this egg hunt. I dropped the information to Donna and Liz. In a couple of hours Eleanor was called up by Rachael, Ethan and Emily, thanking her for the invite and asking her when they may come around. Polite and ever helpful that they are, they also offered to help her out with the Easter decorations. Eleanor laughed it away. Rachael said that her idea was to come over and have a good time. Eleanor would handle all the preparations. Frank would be there with her, of course.

Meanwhile Lisa, her daughter-in-law is back from U.K. Her mom is better now, so Lisa came back to join work. They would be there at the egg hunt as well. I would be there of course! Easter is always a great time to catch up with you friends and family. I stay away from my parents, but people like Eleanor and my dear friends make me feel very special on occasions like Easter and Christmas. I’m sure we’ll have a fantastic time with the children hunting around for Easter eggs and bunnies. And if it’s at Eleanor’s place, great food and great time is a given.

Adrian is pulling himself up really well despite the fact that he’s going through an emotional turmoil in his heart. Will and Cathy have a great friendship happening between them. But Cathy is being generous to Adrian in terms of time. He’s getting to meet her every weekend. Cathy and Adrian had a great time on St. Patrick’s Day as well. Adrian has asked Cathy to accompany him to the Church on Good Friday. Cathy was delighted at the idea. Cathy agreed readily. I think Adrian has inadvertently hit on the right note.

Adrian was told Cathy used to visit the Church with her parents on Good Friday. Cathy has wonderful memories of Good Friday. After moving into the city, Cathy has hardly been to the Church. Cathy said, “I couldn’t go to the Church without a loved one. When Adrian suggested the Good Friday idea, Cathy jumped at it. Moreover, this will also provide them with some quality time to spend with each other. When we heard about this first, we thought it was Cathy’s idea. But when we learned the truth, we did a double-take!

It was really difficult for us to believe that Adrian had suggested the idea of going to Church on Good Friday. But so it is friends. Love makes you do strange things. You might not have liked going over to Church and kneeling on the pews. When you are in love, you suddenly feel the need to pray, you feel the need to bow down to a superior authority to ensure your love is safe and with you always. Cynics may say love makes you weak to do all these things, but I think having a faith is never being weak. I would like to know your views on that. You can post them on the Facebook group discussion page.

As you guys must be knowing by now, Alex is a political campaigner. His job demands that he be in the eye of the people. Irina is very happy about the fact that people know and recognize her Significant Other. Irina told me that when they are seated at restaurants, people come up to their table and say Hi to Alex. Some stop and talk to him for a couple of minutes. Some wave at him. Irina likes all this attention that is also rubbing off on her. But lately, this has started becoming an issue with them.

Irina was telling me that this constant attention to her partner is creating a rift between them. Because people know him, Alex is stiff and proper when people are around. He doesn’t be himself and acts in a formal way. What’s more, he asks Irina to behave in a restrained way as well. Now if you know Irina, expecting her to behave in a controlled way is expecting too much really. I mean, Irina is the way she is. If you take away the exuberance in her, it won’t be Irina anymore. Irina would be someone else, and I don’t think that’ll be as great.

When Irina shared this with me and Adrian, we reacted in a similar way. We asked her to talk to Alex about this. Irina feels a little hurt. Irina thinks she is coming in the way of his work and he is not giving their relationship the due respect. While both these cases are likely, both may not be true as well. It’s only the two of them who can decide the dynamics of this relationship. As fence-sitters, we can only wish that their love survives this storm. All said and done, knowing Irina, I have this nagging doubt in my mind that this might well turn out to be a tempest in a teacup!

There’s a news this week that’s cute, funny, interesting and many other similar adjectives at the same time. When I heard about it I didn’t know how to react. Liz, my sister, called me up the other morning. Liz was giggling. I asked her what was so funny early morning. I was told amidst more giggles, “Some cute guy gave a bunch of flowers to Rachael!” I was like “What?” I wanted to know more, but after having blurting this out led to more laughter. I knew there was more to it. I begged her to continue. Suddenly Rachael grabber her phone and yelled out, “Don’t you listen to mom! Mom’s exaggerating!” I wanted to listen to the exaggeration too!

After a some more shouting from Rachael and laughter by Liz, I heard Liz’s voice again. “Well it so happened,” Liz continued, desperately swallowing the desire to laugh, “this guy came up to Rachael and gave her these flowers. The roses were beautiful Bob! I saw them.” Which means Rachael accepted the flowers, interesting. I was eager for more. “But,”her voice crackled again, “would you believe what Rachael told the guy? The silly girl told him, ‘Are these flowers?’.” Another burst of laughter. This time even I was laughing my heart out!

“So Rachael took them, right?” I asked after a minute of hysterical laughter at both ends. “Yeah! Rachael refused at first. But the guy apparently made such a sad face that Rachael took pity on the poor little soul and took the flowers!” Now that’s the Rachael we know. Kind and generous, before anything else. I asked Liz if Rachael was embarrassed about this flower thing. Liz said that it was nothing like that and would have reacted the same way if that guy gave her a dictionary. I was amused at the reply and after some more small talk, the call was over. But the incident remained in my mind. I think this is not the end of the story. What do you think?

After Ethan and Emily was down with hay fever (it’s Spring, it’s expected!), now it’s Fred who’s down with an illness. He was at the pub, having a drink or two with his old friends. Suddenly he developed pain n the stomach. The pain was sharp but didn’t last long. So he didn’t give it another thought. That’s typical of Fred. Unless it’s something that totally incapacitates him, he’s not someone to budge to illness or any physical shortcoming. His friends wanted to drop him home, but he waved away their concern. So his friends went their way, wishing him well

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The matter didn’t end there. Next morning he was out to get groceries and he had another pain attack. When he got back home, he couldn’t help but lie down. I called him up to ask if he can be there for Eleanor’s Easter egg hunt. He said that he would try to be there. His voice sounded tired. I asked him if all was well. He didn’t mention anything about his illness. I had a doubt at the back of my mind. I decided to pay him a visit in the evening. When I got there I learned about all this.

I tried to persuade him to go see the doctor, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He believes if he takes rest, he can recover quickly. “I can’t afford the time for a doctor and their numerous tests. I have work to do Bob. No time to rest.” I looked at him, stupefied. The twinkle in his eyes was so inspiring! Look at this man, lying on the bed, obviously in pain, doesn’t want to go to the doctor, but talking with such determination about the tasks that need to be done. I requested him to take rest for a couple of days and came out of his pad, inspired and ready to face anything.

This week’s Zen quote is from William James: “Life, is in the transitions.” The quote sums up our times very precisely. It is actually a very important phase in history and we are lucky to have got the responsibility to bring about that transition. More power to you!