Anaya...... freedom

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Her wedding dress laid discarded on the floor. It was time..... time to act on her decision that she had contemplated about for so long.

As she walked out of the room, she went back in time when all of it started.

Anaya was a simple, educated and a very care-free girl who believed in enjoying life to the fullest. As per her desires, she had graduated from a very reupted college in the city and had been immeditely picked up by the top most designing boutique. She had explored her creativity and designed clothes creating her own signature style.

One thing led to another and before she knew her parents were talking about her wedding. She met Adarsh in one such traditional match fixing date and had instantly taken a liking towards his straight forward and down to earth nature. She had given her approval to her parents and the prepareations for her wedding started. Her parents were exicted about their only daughter's wedding and being very wealthy did not want to leave any stone unturned for her wedding. They had spent a lot of money and had only the grandest & finest things arranged for her wedding.

Vermilion

She woke up to the early morning sun rays playing hide and seek with her bedroom's curtains. She turned to look at the face sleeping next to her and smiled a lazy smile wondering on how life had been throwing surprises at her when she least expected it.

She drifted back in time, when things were not so pleasant as they seem and she had gone to the extent of contemplating suicide.

Purvi hailed from an economically backward village situated in the remotest corner of Karnataka where girls were married of even before they achieved puberty. She was the first one to defy the culture of the village and stalled getting married till she completed her tenth. This was completely unheard of in her village and she was already the target of the village elders because of this act of hers!

Although her parents supported her decision initially, they couldn't do so for long and had to bow down to the wish of the elders of the village. Her wedding was fixed with a guy from neighboring village who was employed in the city.

Her marriage we performed in the village according to the customs & traditions. She hadn’t even met her husband before the wedding and was scared on what was in store for her.

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Deceit.............

Bhishma laid on his bed of arrows. Just two days since he fell to the prowess of his grandson Arjun and his charioteer Krishna. He had sworn that he would not leave the Earthly plane till the Kuru dynasty was in safe hands. He had no choice but to wait for the outcome of the war of Kurukshetra.

From the camps of the Kauravas he could hear loud noises and sounds of elation. While the Pandavas camp was quiet and mournful. Something terrible had happened, of that he was certain. He asked his torch-bearer if he knew what the commotion was about. The torch-bearer nodded and hung his head in shame. "Looks like the war is over Pitamah, the Kauravas have won."

Bhishma creased his brow and narrowed his eyes,"Tell me what has happened Manav," he asked his torch-bearer.

"It is the thirteenth day of the war, as you know Pitamah, but a day that will go down as the most shameful day in the history of the Kuru," the torch-bearer said sorrowfully. "They have killed a hapless sixteen year old boy today Pitamah, the Kauravas have."

"Don't mince your words boy, tell me what is it?!!" thundered the Pitamah.

A Timeless New Year’s Resolution

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You and I have something in common. We will both have 24 hours to live every day, and another 12 months till we’re here again, on New Year’s Eve.

We’re both going to make a choice on how we live these days. We can either choose to let our days control us, or we can choose to control our days. Somedays, it will be Murphy’s law.

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. On other’s, we’ll feel like we’re on top of the world. No matter what happens, your choices will create the state of mind and being that you experience in the present, prepare for the future, and whether you hold on to the past.

A modern twist to the ancient Dashavataram

Things were going exactly as Srinivasan had feared, his Mother would come in from India and crush his American way of life under her strong South Indian influence. For a genetic scientist like Vasu, as Srinivasan was called by his friends, the only kind of order was disorder. So consumed he was by his research that the world and it's affairs mattered little to him. When his last girlfriend walked out on him, "Find a girl on planet Srinivasan," she had screamed as she stomped out.

Now Vasu's Mother had taken over the administration of the planet. It irritated him, this milk at night and chywanprash every morning. "Have you been wearing the same pair of Jeans for the past three days?" Mother was beginning her morning interrogation.

Vasu stared at the hot idlis in front of him, the chywanprash to follow and the wardrobe interrogation that had begun. Something snapped in his mind. "Mom I love you and I love that you come all the way from India to take care of me but plesse don't fuss over me! It irritates me! And then I cannot work!"

His Mother did not really care if Vasu was upset, "The idlis are getting cold," was her matter of fact response.

"You don't really care, do you Mom?"

"I care about you Vasu. The work you do is alright. If you don't do it, someone else will do it."

My life my rulez!!!

A mother of a 25 year old Indian woman went to a party.

She was welcomed by the host, who promptly asked her, 'We look forward to the next big event now- your daughter's wedding!', to which the mother replied, 'Why? What is so great about that?'

To which the other lady replied, 'Are you not bothered? She is already 'settled' in a stable job, you should look for someone now, she should marry by the time she is 27-28 at least!'

The mother, who had been asked the same question everywhere she went, took a deep breath. She replied, 'Wouldn't it be a big event if my daughter won the Pulitzer? Or if she cracked the UPSC? Or even if she received a promotion in her job and became a Manager at the young age of 27-28? Or even if she decides to live her life to the fullest and take a vacation on her own, travelling the world, wouldn't that be a big event?'

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Are you a carrot, egg or a coffee bean?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

It seemed that, as one problem was solved, a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?"

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He loves me, He loves me not

My husband is an Engineer by profession, I love him for his steady nature, and I love the warm feeling when I lean against his broad shoulders.

Three years of courtship and now, two years into marriage, I would have to admit, that I am getting tired of it. The reasons of me loving him before, has now transformed into the cause of all my restlessness.

I am a sentimental woman and extremely sensitive when it comes to a relationship and my feelings, I yearn for the romantic moments, like a little girl yearning for candy. My husband is my complete opposite, his lack of sensitivity, and the inability of bringing romantic moments into our marriage has disheartened me about love.

One day, I finally decided to tell him my decision, that I wanted a divorce.

“Why?” he asked, shocked. “I am tired; there are no reasons for everything in the world!” I answered. He kept silent the whole night, seems to be in deep thought with a lighted cigarette at all times. My feeling of disappointment only increased, here was a man who can’t even express his predicament, what else can I hope from him? And finally he asked me:” What can I do to change your mind?”

Somebody said it right, it’s hard to change a person’s personality, and I guess, I have started losing faith in him. Looking deep into his eyes I slowly answered : “Here is the question, if you can answer and convince my heart, I will change my mind, Let’s say, I want a flower located on the face of a mountain cliff, and we both are sure that picking the flower will cause your death, will you do it for me?” He said :” I will give you your answer tomorrow….” My hopes just sank by listening to his response.

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The Scion of Ikshavaku

Reading books is was and will be the best way i can possibly spend my time.

Now a days, reading books have had the most profound impact on me. There are some books that I am in such a hurry to finish that even after 4 - 5 readings I barely manage to remember the outline of the plot, and there are some that with just reading a parah it sets me thinking ...

I have just started reading the latest book by Amish Tripati- The Scion of Ikshavaku which is about Lord Ram - supposedly another version of The Ramayana made reachable and readable to laymen.

There are many writers of late who look like they have done a lot of research into the ancient works of Ramayana & Mahabharata, but are out there just to deframe the very God they worship.

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Choice......

With trembling hands she started to apply make up to the scars that marked her face – a gift her husband had given for their 5^th anniversary. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw empty grey eyes looking back at her with a lost look.  Her hair was a mess, cut roughly – yet another gift by her husband.

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As she applied make up absent mindedly, she drifted back into time when things were all rosy and nice.

Back with (hopefully) a bang!!!

It’s been 4 years since the world cup and 4 years since I’ve last posted on this blog (except for the one off blog entry on 'The Immortals of Meluha'). 4 year has been quite a long time to go on a hiatus.

But 4 years is definitely a long time for copious changes to happen in one’s life. From being Ms. to Mrs., from being in HR to becoming a part of an instructional designing team, from being Mrs. to almost taking the next step of becoming a mom but losing it mid way and from being employed to becoming unemployed. Numerous changes, numerous emotions, numerous gains and numerous pains. That just sums up my life for the last 4 years.

Over the course of these past 4 years life has been a constant teacher. It has allowed me to make mistakes, corrected me when needed, made me restless when my goals haven’t been achieved, given me the satisfaction and the much needed rest when I have been able to reach the next milestone in my life, given me the opportunity to be at my happiest best and made me grieve over what’s lost.

I met my special somebody, my future family whom I’ve come to believe as my own, made new friends, made new connections that last me a life time, met new people and carried on with life.

The past years has shown me both ups and downs, shown me my best and my worst, shown me who’s mine and who isn’t. I’ve lived every minute, every second of these past years. I’ve enjoyed my life for whatever it is during these years. I only hope that the future years have something good stored in them. Something memorable, something that makes life worth living!

Neelkanth........................... Mahadev

After a really really long time, I read a book that was gripping enough to keep me at the edge of my seat as I turned each page.

Although it was released almost a year and half back, I got to know about it only after one of my colleagues kept raving that it was the book that couldn’t be put down until it was finished. She claimed it was the next ‘Harry Potter series’ only to be written by an Indian author. Now being a hardcore Harry Potter fan, I found it a little unsettling, but nevertheless thought it was a shot worth trying.

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After much an await, I finally laid my hand on – ‘The immortals of Meluha’ – the first of the ‘Shiva Trilogy’ written by yet another IIM pass out. Now, don’t get me wrong.  I have nothing against the IIM’s guys.  But most of the IIM pass-outs who have turned out to become writers have ventured into the already trodden path of - college life, rich dads, poor girl friends, sex, inter-religion/inter-caste marriage, starting their own business and the likes of it. And I thought this guy was no different.

But, for a change, Amish’s writing turned out to be different. His writing was a journey of a lesser known tribesman to become one of the greatest Gods known to the mankind – that of Shiva, Neelkanth or Mahadev as he comes to be identified as! Not only had he done his homework on the subject, but he transcended them into such easy flowing words – that it was impossible to put the book down! The book is definitely a page turner!

The March of Daffodils

The month of March is here. It's the month of colours (Holi), the month of Woman's day and how can I forget……. It's the month of exams.

I remember slogging my *** off in school during the month of March. Coz that was the month when I finally woke up, realized the enormous amount of lessons I had to study, panic on whether I would be able to finish them before the exams begun, set into an absolutely biologically impossible rhythm trying to finish off the enormous portions in an absolutely limited time frame and finally bow down to the powers of almighty to have me scrap through the exams with a decent percentage which would give me the courage to stand before my teachers & parents when I went to collect my marks card.

High School was particularly difficult for me for the simple reason that I choose to have my first language as English when compared to the horror of having to choose Sanskrit. I prefer to be bred as a decent English lady than being bred as a Sanskrit pundit wherein I wouldn't be using the language for any other reason than to get good grades during the 3 years of my high school.

So obviously the language of English was accompanied by its entire clan of phonetics, sentence formation, correct usage of words and dissecting the sentences into simple & complex sentences. Not to mention that the Subject itself was split up into Literature, grammar & poetry. How did I manage to get through those 3 years of absolute drudgery??? I still wonder about it sometimes!

As much as I hated doing all the boring work in the subject, what particularly interested me was the part of poetry. I loved 'The Daffodils' by William Wordsworth.

The Best Religion…..

A brief dialogue between a Brazilian theologist Leonardo Boff and the Dalai Lama.

In a round table discussion about religion and freedom in which Dalai Lama and myself (Leonardo Boff) were participating at recess, I maliciously and also with interest asked him: “Your holiness what is the best religion?”

I thought he would say “The Tibetan Buddhism” or “The oriental religions, much older than Christianity.”

The Dalai Lama paused, smiled and looked me in the eyes which surprised me because I knew of the malice contained in my question. He answered “The best religion is that one that gets your closer to God. It is the one that makes you a better person.” 

To get out of my embarrassment with such a wise answer, I asked: What is that makes me better?”

He responded “Whatever makes you more compassionate, more sensible, more detached, more loving, more humanitarian, more responsive, and more ethical. The religion that will do that for you is the best religion”.

I was silent for a moment marveling and even today thinking of his wise and irrefutable reply. “I am not interested, my friend about your religion, or if you are religious or not. What really is important to me is your behavior in front of your peers, family, work commitment and in front of the world. Remember the universe is the echo of our actions and our thoughts.” “The law of action and reaction is not exclusively for physics. It is also of human relations. If I act with goodness, I will receive goodness. If I act with evil, I will get evil.”

“What our grand-parents told us is the pure truth. You will always have what your desire for others. Being happy is not a matter of desire. It is a matter of options.”

Finally, he said: “Take care of your Thoughts because they become your Words. Take care of your Words because they become your Actions. Take care of your Actions because they become your Habits. Take care of your Habits because they become your Character. Take care of your Character because they become your Destiny and your Destiny will be your Life and “There is no religion higher than Truth.”

~ Borrowed from the internet

Full Circle

It's strange how life turns around when you are least expecting it.

2008 - 2010 has been extremely taxing on me, in terms of personal life, relationships, professional life and in terms of maintaining my sanity as a person, as an individual. I always had this thoughts that I was bound with shackles which was making it very difficult for me to think, strategize and come out with a solution. It was like I was on the brink of insanity and many of my previous posts have reflected this.

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The last 2 years, I've realized emotions which I've never expected, experienced frustration at its peak, desperation clawing in me and depression killing me from inside. But if there's something that I must be proud about in these 2 years, it is the ability of having grown as a person internally and individually. The ability of having to withstand negative emotions without reacting to it. The ability of being indifferent towards people and towards circumstances which I no longer cared about. The ability of controlling my anger towards people and towards circumstances.

Just when I had given up hopes of a brighter tomorrow, the sun shone with its glorious rays encapsulating me with a warm glow of contentment from within.

Delays are not denials - I had read this as somebody's status message on gtalk a couple of days ago. When i had read the message, I was filled with rage. Because for me, delays have always turned out to be denials.

But then I also do believe in the adage of a silver lining for every dark cloud. And Trust me; I believe this now more than ever.

It's strange how life turns a full circle when you are least expecting it.

Unconditional Love

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A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco.

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."

"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."

A Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime

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People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON . . . It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die.

Sometimes they walk away.

Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.

What we must realise is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON . . . Because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. 

~ Borrowed from the internet

The Great Greek king, Alexander

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The great Greek king, Alexander, after conquering many kingdoms, was returning home. On the way, he fell ill and he was bedridden for months. With death drawing close, Alexander realized how his conquests, his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth were of no use.

He called his generals and said, “I will depart from this world soon. But I have three wishes. Please fulfill my wishes without fail.” With tears flowing down their cheeks, the generals agreed to abide by their king’s last wishes.

“My first desire is that,” said Alexander, “my physicians alone must carry my coffin. Secondly, when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard should be strewn with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected in my treasury. My third and last wish is that both my hands should be kept dangling out of my coffin.” The people who had gathered there wondered at the king’s strange wishes. But no one dared to question. Alexander’s favorite general kissed his hand and pressed them to his heart. “O king, we assure you that your wishes will all be fulfilled. But tell us why do you make such strange wishes?

At this Alexander took a deep breath and said, “I would like the world to know of the three lessons I have just learnt.

I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor can really cure anybody. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted.

The second wish of strewing gold, silver and other riches on the way to the graveyard is to tell people that not even a fraction of gold can be taken by me. Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth.

And about my third wish of having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I want people to know that I came empty handed into this world and empty handed I go out of this world.”

Alexander’s last words: “Bury my body, do not build any monument, keep my hands outside so that the world knows the person who won the world had nothing in his hands when dying.”

~ Borrowed from the internet

The hope of a brighter tomorrow

* Dedicated to every student who has failed in the board exams but has had the spirit to fight back and emerge as a winner!

She sat on the bed with the bottle in her hand, tears flowing down her cheeks. She dint remember for how long she was crying. She didn’t even attempt to stop the tears from flowing or to wipe them from her cheeks.

Her bedroom was a total mess. There were papers, clothes and other personal articles strewn everywhere. Her question paper was lying in tatters on the floor. She was still trying to come out of the shock of what happened. How could she do something so stupid like this?

Sanjana was in her 12^th standard. She had taken Science as her specialization. Although she was handling all her subjects well she faced difficulty with Physics. So she had been extremely careful when she was preparing of her board exams. She had paid particular attention in studying the subject, referring previous year’s papers, textbooks and notes. She had made sure she had prepared well.

But as she sat down in the exams hall she started feeling nervous. When the exam paper was handed over to her, she had one look at it and she started sweating nervously. She felt a little faint and completely blanked out. It was then she realized what would be in store for her. Tears started to well up in her eyes. She knew she would never pass in the exam. In spite of it, she wrote what she knew. But that was not what she wanted or expected out of herself.

Justice after all............

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After almost a year, she had stepped out of the house today. It was a year and it almost seemed like yesterday.

Pranav had been extremely busy with his new business venture of late and had taken extra strain and stress on himself. She had complained to him often about it but he just wouldn’t stop. He was extremely passionate about his business venture. She would often find him logged on to his computer late at night designing proposals for clients. And when there was a long weekend ahead for them, it seemed like a welcome break for her and Pranav to catch up. Pranav was still trying to master the art of driving, but he had coaxed her into taking their car for their weekend get away. It was their first out of town drive in their brand new car. Those 3 days were blissfully spent in a wonderful resort. Having their daughter with them was like an added bonus. She got more time to spend with Pranav and she was very happy about it.