Beauty!

When I started writing this post all I could think of is the teasing I got from Sushant and Sho on the day we went for our a week awaited "Trip to Cincinnati Zoo". The funny part being that since I have started blogging the most expected next blog was supposed to be "Trip to the zoo". I wish I had traveled so much and been to so many places that I could write a travel blog, but sadly I haven't. As a result, didn't write for some days, but something kept telling me I had to say something. OMG! I took five days to realize what it was ;-) . The picture you see above is of a flower I took on the last stop of our zoo endeavor, "The Reptile Center". When we were going inside I told Sho that I have to click this one otherwise the 160 pics that I took would seem incomplete. When I went inside I was fascinated by the snake and other reptile collection they had (sadly though there is just too little space for them, probably stressing them out a lot). However even though the number and kind of reptiles was intriguing I still wanted to go out to that one flower. After spending about 15-20 mins inside the center when we went out I was damn excited. The bed of flowers in red looked beautiful. So I decided to take two shots instead one, picturing the bed of flowers and then a closeup of the "Beautiful Flower". The beauty of the flower was mesmerizing, I kept looking at the picture again and again everyday after I clicked it. I started thinking, What is so striking about it? What is so fascinating? The only answer I had was the "BEAUTY". It is so wonderful to see how a small creation like a flower can hold so much beauty in it. The beautiful color, mostly red with a tinge of white showed one of the best color blendings I have ever seen. The way the petals were held together in unison is one of the best bonding, and underneath all this lies the beauty of creation. The flower not only enchanted me but also made me understand the beauty that each creation of this world holds, then whether it be flowers, humans or the numerous animals I saw that day at the zoo. The peacock or the ducks, the ferocious polar bear or the acrobatic manatee. Even the poisonous snakes, funny monkeys and the not even slightly harmful parakeets and parrots. All of them, no matter how colorful or colorless they were, showed how much beauty lies in the world in form of all these creations. The only lesson that I took back from the zoo that day was, "No matter how hard things get in life there is always beauty of creation around us and the more we try to see it, the easier would it be to tackle these hardships", because this beauty freshens us and make us think positive and help us find that one way that we need to resolve all the troubles we are facing.
Thanks to the fun filled, a bit tiring and enlightening day at the zoo!

We Learn what We wanna Learn

Few weeks back I met a Bala a fellow student at UC who was about to host a lecture on "Art of Living" and I knowingly or unknowingly for whatever reason got into an argument with him on all this "Art of Living" kind of stuff. Its has always been a debatable and no agreement kind of topic for me. Everytime I meet a person who goes to different classes like these (Good Lord, you have numerous of them in India and all over the world) I have just one sentence to say "We learn what We wanna Learn". It really thrills me that how people go to these "CLASSES" as I call them, and think that life would change. There would be enlightening and everything would just work out fine. I am unable to comprehend that what do we exactly gain out of listening to a person preaching what to do and what not because ultimately we do what we think is right according to our own value system and no one else's. Ultimately if we would do what we think is correct because we grew up thinking that it is right then what is the need to go spend time, energy and money on these classes.
All my thoughts about not supporting any of these classes got even stronger due to this once incident (its true not made up...trust me) that happened when I was in XI. I went on a vacation to Goa with my family (mom, dad, sis and my brother) to celebrate New Year along with another family friend of ours. Our tickets back from Goa to Bhopal were not confirmed (waiting list) despite of the fact that we made our reservations on the first day that reservations open (the 2 month timeline). We were the first 9 people on waiting list. Hoping that few seats would confirm we went ahead. To our surprise when we boarded the train at Madgaon it was empty and our seats were still not confirmed. We were perplexed, only to discover the reason why it happened the next day, when there a storm of people, storm literally means storm (about 500 or so) boarded the train at Ratnagiri "The famous India city for Alphanso". All these people that is men, women, kids (under 10), teens, mid 2os etc. etc. were at a camp called "SAHAJYOG" by Nirmala Mataji (it's her picture in the post). Well, at that point of time I thought, damn, so many people follow her, there must be something really good about her. I thought these people must be really good at heart even if not naturally but because they have just heard discourses teaching them to be one. But as I expected and would have happened anyways none of these people showed any respect towards other human beings, leave us aside not even the one who were with them at the camp. The moment they got on to the train there was immense fighting for available seats, several of these people also did not have confirmed seats just like us. Since we were already on the train and were left with almost another 12 hours of journey (Goa to Bhopal is exact 24 hrs by train), we had no choice but to sit near the area close to the taps in train (people who have travelled on waiting list know what I am talking about). To be frank we were not expecting any kind of help for seating from these people, just some consideration of not sprinkling water on us as most people do after they wash their hands.
Most of these travellers were frustrated I don't know for what reasons and there was this guy (mid 30s) who was constantly talking about the preachings they had just heard with other people from the camp. He decides to go to the bathroom right about the time we were having lunch and comes out. I still remember very clearly my dad requesting him to not sprinkle the water on us and the food after he washed his hand and the next thing you know is he knowingly does it and said he did not see we were eating nor did he hear dad requesting him not to do so. The next thing I heard was "Why the hell are you guys here in the first place, you don't belong here and that we shouldn't have boarded the train." He was almost ready to fight, thank god my dad chose to stop there itself. Dad who had not heard any kind of preaching knew very well what to do and this guy who not only heard the supposedly "GOOD THOUGHTS" from a learned woman, but was also preaching them himself in the train did not know what is wrong.
Well the whole thing got imprinted on my brain and I still remember it after 9 years. Ultimately he could not learn the barest good he should have from any of those discourses, then what the use? Any person cant adopt a value unless he or she has thought about it from within. No person in this world except your parents can teach you how you should be. Once we are past the stage of learning from parents we only learn what we want to learn. No matter how hard we try to adopt the values they don't come into us unless we introspect, unless we think they are right!
I know there might be many many people who would not agree! I don't wish to make anyone agree anyway. But, I surely want people who read the blog to ask a question to themselves "IS IT OF USE? DID I CHANGE? IF I DID, WHAT CAUSED THOSE CHANGES?"

BLOGGING

I try and read a lot of blogs, some of which I follow very closely. If you see my blog its spread over a long time span. Its amazing how we end up writing things we wanna share. I have finally made up my mind to keep writing something time and again and this time more frequently not just because I follow blogs but because I dont wanna loose my old habit (diaries are by gone). Moreover for me blogging is thought processing and penning them down would probably help me winding up a book someday!

Hope that some of you would have interest in same areas and would like to read what I write!

Baby Frio Kumar

Well....the most exciting moment for me last week was when I heard that Baby Frio Kumar was here!!!! Yes, the name sounds funny for an American but that was what we called him until now....infact still now!!!! Ever since Jay (my supervisor at ECSS) and Kathy came to know that they were expecting a baby boy the tussle to choose a reference name started. The fact that Jay is mostly surrounded by Indians (many....if not all) at workplace might have motivated him to refer to his would be son as Frio Kumar!!!!! The name is sweet as its a mixture of east and west and because its a name for a baby!!!! Ever since I was a kid I was very fond of new born babies, it has always been a wish to go and see the baby very first day and take him/her in my arms!!!! Phew....I still remember when my brother was born in 92, I wanted to see him so much that I had to give a DAIRY MILK (as a bribe) to the nurse to get into the nursery! However, here its becomes rather very difficult as many people don't like strangers or even the people they know to take their kids in arms....Thanks to Jay and Kathy that let me take Frio Kumar into my arms when I went to see him. Ever since I have been to US, Frio was the first kid I held in my arms and the feeling of happiness was beyond explanation!

A funny thing happened when I heard Baby Frio's news....I came to know in the evening that Baby Frio will be here sometime soon and I called Jay to ask, that what is the news. In my excitement I missed the part where Jay said that he was already there and I asked him, " So do you think, he'll be here pretty soon" and Jay had to repeat saying that he is already here :)..and despite of the repetition I didn't realize in all the happiness that, that was the first thing he told in the conversation!!!!

Just to mention that....whenever I see some lady holding her kid all I can think of is that it is the purest form of love and affection that GOD has made on earth! Its just amazing that how a new life can take all the attention and care that he/she needs without saying a word!!!!

I miss home a lot as far as kids are concerned....all my life back home there hasn't been a single day when we didn't have someone's kid (whether it be a family friend or even neighbours' kid) come and play in our house....I miss the days when I use to take care of the kids and play with them....give them food or just watch them sleep!!!!

On a closing note....in 2 years of my stay in US I have not been happier than the moment when Baby Frio Kumar (named as ELLIOT) was in my arms and Jay clicked that lovely pic of his which you see in the BLOG! Wish you both (Kathy and Frio) a very very Happy Birthday!!!! ( The 12th August, 2007)

MOVING

Moving.....Well its a small word with elaborate work involved. When I landed here and was temping at Jaya's place I was very happy until the day I had to pack my bags and move into my own apartment. It wasn't too large of a distance to travel....2 mins by a car, but bringing the stuff out of Jaya's place, putting it into the car and then taking it to just...just one floor above the ground killed me. On that day, I thought, I will stay in this apartment forever and never move. I promised myself that I am not going to increase the number of things I own even by a unit. But what.... all in vain, by the end of the year, I forgot the first and the most important pledge of not moving, also I more than doubled the amount of things I had!!!!! I didn't realise it until I had to go through the adventure all over again. This time with the amount to be moved the distance between my new and old apartment also increased. I still curse the day, but had no choice. I still remember a funny but dangerous adventure that happened the final night of my moving out. Out of the three roommates I had, one was on internship and other had a new house to setup.... so I and one of my friends volunteered to take care of the furniture that we had.....Oh!!!!!How much I wished that we hadn't taken that into the house just because we were getting it for free, but we did!!! Well...the fun just started when we started moving the big, bulky wooden furniture out of the house. After removing all the bits and pieces, we were left with the most heavy piece of furniture we owned, the "TABLE". It was a lovely wood table with a glass top, however we used mostly the base of the table to store trash paper, books and magazines.....Poor table must be cursing us for such a demeaning treatment we gave it. I guess it must have accumulated all that hatred especially for me, cause I never gave any attention to it while cleaning. The day of moving was the one and only chance for its revenge. Moving that table even one floor down was a hassle and was very difficult because it had no possible areas where we could hold it and lift it. With a lot of effort we got it out of the door, but the real fun started when we had to take it down the stairs. We thought probably holding it tilted or upside down will help us in having enough grip so that it doesn't fall down. All the concern for the table to not fall down was not because we wanted to preserve it or suddenly I had feelings for it. It was all the selfish thought about myself that what happens if the glass falls onto me and that was the only reason of being so cautious to not cause any harm to the table. I guess the table initially did not realise this but as soon as I said that lets hold it upside down, my intentions were known to it.... Amazingly the glass that was so rigidly fixed to the table....as we thought and looked like that it was glued to the wood.....came down in a fraction of second. God!!!!!! I almost screamed in a moment filled with the fear of hurting my friend as I was on the safer side. Luckily, the glass just fell right down and did not slide down the stairs and my friend was saved. I just could not stop thinking that what would have happened if I had been on the other side of the table and what if the glass would have slided instead of breaking into pieces right at the spot where it fell? Since I stationed myself on the safer side, probably the table thought of not taking the revenge but showing me a glimpse of what it was capable of. Moral of the story is that we shouldn't treat anyone like a non living object with no feelings and to remember everyone deserves respect even a TABLE!!!!!!
All the memories of me moving from one apartment to another got refreshed when we had to move our office from Zimmer Hall to Rievschl almost two floors up. Thank god we had a lift that helped us do that!!!! But the fear of the adventure or misadventure as I say a year ago made me so apprehensive that I just volunteered to put the things back in order on to the shelves. Poor guys must have done a lot of work in just one day which was almost 10 times that me and my friend did that night.
Moving or switching places involves a lot of memories especially when it is done with a bunch of people involved, the whole day yesterday was fun at least for me as I should say, with my comments changing from "I don't like this new place" to "Well...it was fun moving and arranging stuff, with throwing trash out....today".
Last but not the least, despite of all the fun...the idea of moving again brings a kind of restlessness and fear in me and I just wish one thing...."Oh God!!! Please not again!!!!!"

Stars around the head

Well....I always thought what will happen if someone bangs hard on my head. Will stars revolve round my head? Ever since I had been watching cartoons, I observed whatever happens to your head (beating, falling down etc. etc.) makes stars revolve round your head. Sometimes even birds come and do that, as if they are all making fun on your stupidity of hurting your head. Many times I wanted to try it on myself but was too scared to do it. Thought, what if I pass away and the whole motive behind the exercise is lost. But I could not believe it unless I personally experienced it. What to do next was the question. While I was in midst of this turmoil, something really funny happened and my journey to the stars reached its destination.

It was a Friday morning, as usual I woke up!!!! Fridays have recently been days of hunger for me. Generally, I thought of fasting....well fasting has different dimensions for different people. For some its a way to please the Lord, kinda bribing him in order to achieve ulterior motives. For me as most of my friends know my secret desire to remain fit, its a reason to diet for a complete day. Though 1 Day dieting doesn't help much but gives me satisfaction of being hungry for the whole day!!!! Anyways....I didn't have the usual Good Morning milk, thought of skipping liquids too, for this Lucky Fri- day. It was a bit cold that morning and I took real hot shower....more than I usually do, too hot just enough not to burn my skin and have boils instead of tan!(Well Indians don't need tanning). By the time it was all done the bathroom looked like a hot water spa filled with steam. I could hear water dripping sound in the bathroom and I was sure that no taps were open. To my surprise the sink had started leaking and I bent down to see if it was manageable problem or we would need experts. Good thing was a simple m seal would do the work, but I didn't have it in hand. A bit disappointed, I stood up and suddenly a vast BLACK SPACE was in front of my eyes!!!!! To my suprise, I could actually see stars revolving round my head! The time period was too short for the birds to fly in!!! But I had the experience of a blackout and stars, something that I always wanted to experience. Childhood wish came true in a very unexpected manner. Amazing!!!! I did not know that it has to be the cartoon way always to experience what I wanted. Despite of all the want for this experience, the blackout freaked me out. For few seconds I went completely blind! After the lovely mishap I promised to myself, no matter what happens I am not skipping the good morning milk, though the resolution to fast (to diet) still remains applicable.
Please be cautious these stunts can be done only by professionals like me!