I know, I know - this is not ethical to blog while I am still at work! But why so? When it's absolutely ethical to work when at home :P
Been a long since I wrote a single line. Have been missing my blog! LOL. Well there have been so many things keeping me busy lately. Work, work and lots of work - followed by a somewhat relaxed Friday afternoon :-) Have been going through a fire drill at work which is sort of over now. And this tiny lil stream will lead me to the ocean finally. Yup that's right - gigantic amount of work will follow very soon. But who cares right now when I have got time to blog on a Friday afternoon! So I am just gonna live upto this moment and enjoy. I know everything is temporary!
Have been venturing into some strange activities lately. Well I am not going to disclose at this moment, because I am yet to see how long my enthu lasts in that area. Plus you will find it funny. I mentioned it to my sis last nite and she sure did find it very funny :)) Well to be truthful she laughed at me :P. So another deciding factor is to see if I really wanna give public the opportunity to make fun of me.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A blog about blog..
I have been wondering how long has it been since I posted something on my blog. And the answer is - pretty long if I look back at the frequency when I just started blogging! I had this doubt in my head at that point as well. I was all excited when I just started writing and felt like writing every other day like maintaining a dairy :P. I used to ponder how long would that enthu live. And I can pretty much see that it has been aging quite drastically. Even faster than I expected. Guess it's suffering from Progeria.
This pattern is not just limited to activities like blogging. I see it in every small thing in my life. It's the newness of a thing that excites me. But I tend to get 'used to'; actually 'bored' would be more appropriate; very soon! It's both good and bad. Good in a way that I keep looking for new things and thus exploring and learning new stuff however petty it may seem. But at the same time, it's wasteful. I buy something new with great excitement and within a few days (you won't believe, but sometimes within a few hours) the excitement starts wearing out. It's wasteful specially in case of materialistic things. And it's not very positive on the other front too; when I get excited about a new activity and start off with a great passion. But soon I start loosing interest and quest for something different starts. This again is both good and bad. I get to try my hands at many things, but then at the end of the day, I don't feel that I am good at any of them!!
It's more like a cycle..I come to start liking the same things again when I come across them after a long time..not sure if this is the right way to go about things..but it's not entirely in my hands right? You like something and you don't like something. What can you really do about it?
Guess it's pretty late at night to find answers to such complex questions of life :P
I better go to sleep now. May be I will find a solution in my dreams :D
To be continued..
This pattern is not just limited to activities like blogging. I see it in every small thing in my life. It's the newness of a thing that excites me. But I tend to get 'used to'; actually 'bored' would be more appropriate; very soon! It's both good and bad. Good in a way that I keep looking for new things and thus exploring and learning new stuff however petty it may seem. But at the same time, it's wasteful. I buy something new with great excitement and within a few days (you won't believe, but sometimes within a few hours) the excitement starts wearing out. It's wasteful specially in case of materialistic things. And it's not very positive on the other front too; when I get excited about a new activity and start off with a great passion. But soon I start loosing interest and quest for something different starts. This again is both good and bad. I get to try my hands at many things, but then at the end of the day, I don't feel that I am good at any of them!!
It's more like a cycle..I come to start liking the same things again when I come across them after a long time..not sure if this is the right way to go about things..but it's not entirely in my hands right? You like something and you don't like something. What can you really do about it?
Guess it's pretty late at night to find answers to such complex questions of life :P
I better go to sleep now. May be I will find a solution in my dreams :D
To be continued..
Monday, November 9, 2009
Expressiveness!!
"My life is an open book" - a lot of us say this all the time. But do we all really mean it? For the past few days, I have been thinking if only people were more expressive; probably half the problems in our daily lives would go away! But it's one of the hardest things to do I believe. It may not result in pleasant consequences always. I like being subtle at many points, probably because that's just easy to do. May be we need the right composition of expressiveness and subtlety. Excess or dearth of both these can lead us to many problems, common among them being misunderstandings, hidden hatred, wrong opinions - sort of a cold war at times!
There are two opposite sides to it as is the case with every coin. Expression of Joy and expression of sorrow. Being expressive is hard in both cases, second being much harder than the first.
Many a times, we make a pessimistic assumption about others capabilities. Believe it or not, it's our loved ones who we feel are the weakest and thus shirk telling them everything. One reason we give to ourselves is that we don't wanna give them unnecessary tension. Second, it's always hard to come upfront with our failures, especially the people we are close with. We have a hidden fear they would start thinking less of us, they wont have the same respect as they have now, thoughts like "Oh i can just deal with it. there is no point bringing it up at home"
This starts small and adds up, as our problems start small and slowly build up into a monster!! And that's the time, we can't hide it anymore. This is the time, we portray ourselves at our worst. Biggest failures in life. We loose trust of our dear ones. We suffer and make them suffer even more. There exists unspoken tension, unspoken friction that's hard to express. We just try to put up with this mess and continue living the same way. Trying to be more expressive, but failing miserably at every point. And thus becoming out permanent habit to hide things - however small or big...
Is there a coming back? Ofcourse there is. It's never too late to do anything.
It's never too late to set things right if we have the will and if we place a little most trust in our dear ones. They are the ones who become our support system ultimately. However weak they may seem, they would come out as the strongest beings we have ever known. Isn't their still putting up with us a sign of how strong they are. They could have turned their back on us and left us at anytime.
This is the time to hold their hand, to place our trust in them, to express, to share and to sort out everything. Afterall two minds can think more than one, four hands can do more work than two, and beyond all this the morale boosts non-linearly!
But all this could be avoided if we try to be more expressive in first place. In little things and in big. Lets share, the joys and sorrows of this life - for togetherness is better than loneliness!
There are two opposite sides to it as is the case with every coin. Expression of Joy and expression of sorrow. Being expressive is hard in both cases, second being much harder than the first.
Many a times, we make a pessimistic assumption about others capabilities. Believe it or not, it's our loved ones who we feel are the weakest and thus shirk telling them everything. One reason we give to ourselves is that we don't wanna give them unnecessary tension. Second, it's always hard to come upfront with our failures, especially the people we are close with. We have a hidden fear they would start thinking less of us, they wont have the same respect as they have now, thoughts like "Oh i can just deal with it. there is no point bringing it up at home"
This starts small and adds up, as our problems start small and slowly build up into a monster!! And that's the time, we can't hide it anymore. This is the time, we portray ourselves at our worst. Biggest failures in life. We loose trust of our dear ones. We suffer and make them suffer even more. There exists unspoken tension, unspoken friction that's hard to express. We just try to put up with this mess and continue living the same way. Trying to be more expressive, but failing miserably at every point. And thus becoming out permanent habit to hide things - however small or big...
Is there a coming back? Ofcourse there is. It's never too late to do anything.
It's never too late to set things right if we have the will and if we place a little most trust in our dear ones. They are the ones who become our support system ultimately. However weak they may seem, they would come out as the strongest beings we have ever known. Isn't their still putting up with us a sign of how strong they are. They could have turned their back on us and left us at anytime.
This is the time to hold their hand, to place our trust in them, to express, to share and to sort out everything. Afterall two minds can think more than one, four hands can do more work than two, and beyond all this the morale boosts non-linearly!
But all this could be avoided if we try to be more expressive in first place. In little things and in big. Lets share, the joys and sorrows of this life - for togetherness is better than loneliness!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Festival of lights....
Diwali, The Indian festivals of lights...the name itself brings so many things to our minds - beautiful earthen lamps and candles, sweets, rangoli, new dresses, fire crackers usually top the list :)Just like Christmas, people like to celebrate Diwali eve at their homes while exchanging gifts throughout the week and sharing the fun with friends and relatives. Being away from India, I do miss the family bit of this festival a lot! But I try to make up for the fun part as much as a I can :)
I celebrated this Diwali with all the things that topped my list :P - sequence of phone calls to India (talking to my family and close knit friends), preparation of some savories like Besan ladoo (agreed that I had to look up the internet for a recipe, the end result was mouth watering :P), Livermore temple visit (agreed that we spent more time in the queue for the yummy prasad than inside the temple), lunch get together at a friend's place (agreed that the friend cooked most of it :D ), watching Golmaal :D, lighting candles and diyas, making Rangoli (agreed that it looked like a art n craft project of a 5 yr old :P, there were pros to give it a finishing touch :) ), dancing, playing games, taking pictures, getting back home and lighting candles at my own place (agreed that everybody was already asleep and it was 1:00 am in the night :P) and oh I almost forgot getting dressed up in traditional clothes.....
Well that was my way of celebrating Diwali and I did have a lot of fun :)
Happy Diwali....
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Those were the days....
Those were the days, when festivals used to be so colorful, when enthusiasm was in abundance, when our home used to be fragrant with home made festive delicacies, when we would start preparing for the festive season 2 months before, when we used to sit with our dad and make a huge list of things to buy, when we used to sparkle clean our home for festivities and still not get tired, when we used to go to Ram Leela every night during navratri, when we used to invite lil girls for food at our home, when we used to go see Dusshera festival where they burnt Ravan Statue, when we used to make our own Ravan Statue and fill it with fire-crackers, when all the ladies and girls would sit together for decorating their hands with Hena late at night and still manage to get up early in the morning to start Karwa Chauth, when staying hungry during fasts used to be so much fun, when Diwali used to knock months before with loud fireworks, when we would pester our mom to buy more n more diyas and candles to light our home, when we used to pester our dad to buy more n more crackers, when we used to make greeting cards with hands for everyone, when we used to buy new colorful dresses for the festivals, when we used to light our entire home with bright candles and diyas and not electrical lights, when we all used to sit for pooja on Diwali eve, when mom's Halwa Poori used to taste more delicious than a 7 star hotel gourmet food, when we used to get happiness from life's little pleasures, when we all used to be together!!
I miss those days, I miss India, I miss those festivals, I miss my home, I miss being together with my family.....
I miss those days, I miss India, I miss those festivals, I miss my home, I miss being together with my family.....
Sunday, September 20, 2009
They say - Body is mortal while soul is not. Does that mean it is any less important than the soul?
I am not really a follower of spirituality, not that I am against it or anything. I have not just gotten into it as much! But the little that I know about it, they say Body is mortal, while soul is not. Does that mean it is any less important than soul?
Well if we are talking about the life beyond this world (that none of us has really seen); may be 'yes', but right here where we all live, on this earth, in this world - that doesn't seem like the case to me! I don't really have a lot to say, because others might have strong opinions about this topic. The point of my post here is not to argue against spirituality or against anyone's beliefs.
I was watching this movie the other day - Just Like Heaven - that made me ponder on this. Deep down somewhere, even I believe that we will all leave our bodies and our soul be part of the eternal power. And at the same time, I also believe in respecting the body that God has given us. We must take good care of it by exercising, giving it what it needs to stay healthy. But I had never looked at it from a different perspective.
What if our soul and body are both alive - but disconnected!!
May be it's not even possible in reality, but the movie portrayed something like this - Elizabeth met with an accident that put her into an indefinite coma. Her soul was no more connected to her body and that's what made the soul so helpless!! The body was there, lying on that hospital bed, still breathing, but totally disconnected to the soul. And there was the soul, healthy, but not able to talk to anyone (well not 100% true, but lets not add any more drama here than there already is :-) ), not able to touch anything, not able to make it visible.....Sounds funny or stupid?? Well it might be, but just think for a sec, what if this was true? Although the soul is our real being - we really need it's visible existence to connect to rest of this world. And while we are alive, its this world that we care about right and not the unseen afterlife world? Our body gives our being a visible existence and that's something we need to be able to live in this world, be able to do things, be able to give this life a meaning....
Well if we are talking about the life beyond this world (that none of us has really seen); may be 'yes', but right here where we all live, on this earth, in this world - that doesn't seem like the case to me! I don't really have a lot to say, because others might have strong opinions about this topic. The point of my post here is not to argue against spirituality or against anyone's beliefs.
I was watching this movie the other day - Just Like Heaven - that made me ponder on this. Deep down somewhere, even I believe that we will all leave our bodies and our soul be part of the eternal power. And at the same time, I also believe in respecting the body that God has given us. We must take good care of it by exercising, giving it what it needs to stay healthy. But I had never looked at it from a different perspective.
What if our soul and body are both alive - but disconnected!!
May be it's not even possible in reality, but the movie portrayed something like this - Elizabeth met with an accident that put her into an indefinite coma. Her soul was no more connected to her body and that's what made the soul so helpless!! The body was there, lying on that hospital bed, still breathing, but totally disconnected to the soul. And there was the soul, healthy, but not able to talk to anyone (well not 100% true, but lets not add any more drama here than there already is :-) ), not able to touch anything, not able to make it visible.....Sounds funny or stupid?? Well it might be, but just think for a sec, what if this was true? Although the soul is our real being - we really need it's visible existence to connect to rest of this world. And while we are alive, its this world that we care about right and not the unseen afterlife world? Our body gives our being a visible existence and that's something we need to be able to live in this world, be able to do things, be able to give this life a meaning....
House on Water!
I have been meaning to write this a long time ago - well about 2 weeks ago to be honest! But I have been traveling crazy for the last few days. Not that I don't like traveling, I absolutely love it; but it does take a lot of time and energy. Had been sleep deprived for 2-3 weeks now. I think I am digressing a lot here - you must be wondering how the hell does all this relate to the title of this post "House on Water"....
It was the Labor Day weekend and we rented a houseboat on Lake Shasta and that's what I have been calling a house on water :-) it was soooooo much fun, I still feel at times, that I am sailing away on the waters on Lake Shasta! There were seven of us and all newbies on house-boating front. When the idea was in nascent stage, we couldn't believe that we would be captains of our own boat. Nobody else would accompany us for steering/docking/taking care of the boat. Plus the idea of staying with so many people on one boat, in one single room wasn't something usual :P
But believe me after all this nervousness and all these doubts, it was such a awesome trip! I am glad I did it and conviced other 6 to join for this nobel cause :P
We did everything - Modeling (well models pose for the pictures all the time, and the place to scenic it was almost inevitable), Swimming (so what if it was with life jackets; none of us had swum in 250 feet deep waters before), Board games (yup Settlers of Catan it was and that particular game turne dout to be so interesting we took a picture of the board at the end :P), Cooking (So what if it was just Maggie :D), Baking (Oh yes we baked a pecan pie and it came out pretty well after all the major blunders such as a mixing egg in the pie filling, replacing Cane sugar syrup with water to mention a few :-) ), Star gazing (oh it such an amazing experience lying down on the boat roof and gazing at the stars), Story telling (the ambience turned out to be pretty conducive to ghost story telling :D ).......
Oh I almost forgot to mention - it happened to be my birthday as well :)
My friends successfully hid my bday cake! Although I unloaded almost all of the food stuff from the cars, the cake managed to escape my eyes! I was pleasantly surprised to see a cake at the roof top at midnight :-)
Wow how to describe how it felt like cutting the cake on the roof of the boat admidst Lake Shasta - absolutely sensational :P
Long story short, it was one of the best trips I have made so far - the combination was just perfect (Company of awesome friends (including some very special ones :-) ), calm, soothing waters of Lake Shasta and my birthday :P)
It was the Labor Day weekend and we rented a houseboat on Lake Shasta and that's what I have been calling a house on water :-) it was soooooo much fun, I still feel at times, that I am sailing away on the waters on Lake Shasta! There were seven of us and all newbies on house-boating front. When the idea was in nascent stage, we couldn't believe that we would be captains of our own boat. Nobody else would accompany us for steering/docking/taking care of the boat. Plus the idea of staying with so many people on one boat, in one single room wasn't something usual :P
But believe me after all this nervousness and all these doubts, it was such a awesome trip! I am glad I did it and conviced other 6 to join for this nobel cause :P
We did everything - Modeling (well models pose for the pictures all the time, and the place to scenic it was almost inevitable), Swimming (so what if it was with life jackets; none of us had swum in 250 feet deep waters before), Board games (yup Settlers of Catan it was and that particular game turne dout to be so interesting we took a picture of the board at the end :P), Cooking (So what if it was just Maggie :D), Baking (Oh yes we baked a pecan pie and it came out pretty well after all the major blunders such as a mixing egg in the pie filling, replacing Cane sugar syrup with water to mention a few :-) ), Star gazing (oh it such an amazing experience lying down on the boat roof and gazing at the stars), Story telling (the ambience turned out to be pretty conducive to ghost story telling :D ).......
Oh I almost forgot to mention - it happened to be my birthday as well :)
My friends successfully hid my bday cake! Although I unloaded almost all of the food stuff from the cars, the cake managed to escape my eyes! I was pleasantly surprised to see a cake at the roof top at midnight :-)
Wow how to describe how it felt like cutting the cake on the roof of the boat admidst Lake Shasta - absolutely sensational :P
Long story short, it was one of the best trips I have made so far - the combination was just perfect (Company of awesome friends (including some very special ones :-) ), calm, soothing waters of Lake Shasta and my birthday :P)
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