Yes, I believe. And I have been through situations, which I reckon, are the miracles I could live through. A 'spiritual leader' making ash appear in his closed fists, is not something I consider a miracle.
Learning that a selfless,whole hearted wish for a loved one came true - is a miracle! Somebody once said, life is but a struggle mostly. However, it is peppered with numerous tiny moments of joy that make the struggle completely worth while! I agree one hundred percent.
For example, did you ever pot a plant and experience the joy of seeing it bloom? Didn't it feel like a miracle when you first noticed your plant bloom? Now, didn't that make the trouble you took in potting it,completely worth while? Or, weren't you thrilled when the song you have been humming all day is played on your favorite radio station?
Over the years, I began to acknowledge that as we appreciate smaller joys in life, we begin to see more of them. One has to experience the calm & peace such a realization can bring into one's life, to truly appreciate it. Give it a shot!
I'd like to leave you guys with this video :
Enjoy!
PS: If you were wondering what kept me away for such a long time, think no harder - yes, I witnessed a couple of miracles :)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
My precious
I saw him that day on a busy market street, in Bangalore. It was instant. His sparkling eyes stole my heart. I couldn't help staring at him. His smile mesmerized me.
I saw myself falling head over heals but just couldn't help it. I had to get my dad meet him, immediately! That day marked the beginning of our association. And now, he has become an integral part of my life.
My life, my family wouldn't be the same without him. He has been with me through thick and thin. One hug, and he makes my fears & tears vanish! What would I do without him?
What would I do without you, my stuffed monkey! :)
I saw myself falling head over heals but just couldn't help it. I had to get my dad meet him, immediately! That day marked the beginning of our association. And now, he has become an integral part of my life.
My life, my family wouldn't be the same without him. He has been with me through thick and thin. One hug, and he makes my fears & tears vanish! What would I do without him?
What would I do without you, my stuffed monkey! :)
Friday, March 5, 2010
Hooked to Horror flicks?
My husband complains when I suggest watching a horror movie. His reason? Well, why do you want to pay money to get scared? What's the point? He argues.
Why do adventure enthusiasts jump off a cliff or do a bungee jump? How did racing come into existence? Isn't the thrill involved, a BIG factor? Astronauts?
Are spaceships fool-proof?
All-right! I understand I'm going slightly overboard with my comparisions. The fact is, we all like thrills. Human mind seeks something to pump up the adrenalin..To get away from the mundaneness of daily existence. But not all of us go to any extent for it.Some thrills do kill.
Hence, my dear friends, I conclude that for all of us who do not indulge in the 'greater' risks, horror flicks are the best bets!
Go for them! Even if it means you watch the movie with your TV muted or hiding under the couch! Go watch! Feel the fear, the next time you are all alone at home.
Prove it to yourself that you outlived your fears. Go watch! ;)
Monday, March 1, 2010
Whats wrong if...
a woman ....
...Challenges the notion that 'lady of the house' needs to take care of domestic needs ?
...Wears clothes that she chooses to wear?
...Refuses to be stereotyped to a 'traditional Indian wife/mother' - ever accommodating,ever pleasing and self sacrificial?
...Is disturbed on learning about the ill-treatment met unto other women?
...Condemns religious restrictions imposed only on women?
...Condemns treatment of women as a inferior race?
...Questions the interpretations of religious texts that dictate women to be 'submissive' & 'ever pleasing' ?
Is she being uber feminist? Are these the characteristics of a FCP (female chauvinistic pig) ? Does she needs to be rebuked for acting immature or trying to ape the so called *New Age Woman* ? Are her thoughts very shallow and selfish?
Who is a feminist?
.
.
.
.
.
Per dictionary:
feminist fe-mu-nist:
Of or relating to or advocating equal rights for women
Hello folks! I'm back after a long pause. Pause - not because I was out of topics to blog about, but because I was trying to put together some of my thoughts , bits and pieces from the conversations I had with some of my friends on this topic. ....So, here I go!
Yes, so all you ladies out there reading my blog, do you think you are an extreme feminist?
All you men, what do you think? Do you encourage your daughter,wife,sister,colleague when you catch her reacting this way or chide her for being a FCP?
If you ask me, I don't think any of the points I listed above make one a FCP or a super extreme feminist. I believe, in these changing times, men & women should learn to adapt and cope with the changes around. These are not the same times , when educating a girl child or sending her to an expensive college are considered a waste of money! Times have changed a lot! Many of the modern parents treat their kids equally - boy or girl, doesn't matter.
Given this background, its not surprising to find a woman who is as educated & earning equally (or more) than her husband, more now than back in our parent's time. With her education and the financial independence, the woman of today has come to believe that she is equal, in all respects, to the male. And,what's wrong with that? For example, what is wrong if she expects her husband to share all of the domestic chores with her? Isn't she slogging the same way he does?
Indian men are notorious for their ego levels. I will not say every man has a bloated ego, but yes, some of them do have a superiority feeling and think they are superior to the female population. Leave alone helping with domestic work, this kind of man gets threatened because his wife is "better" than him. Women married to this breed of men, I'm not sure how they survive! (Thankfully, mine doesn't belong to this breed.Amen.)
Being sensitive to each other, showing abundant understanding, being adaptive and some amount of tolerance towards each other, is the key for any new age marriage to survive.
Having said that, I'd now like to throw open this blog for discussions/dissections :) . I'm open to both. I urge my readers to please share your views/opinions on this topic.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Just another attack!
Came across this nice article in the paper today, which discusses democracy vs dictatorship, Indian vs Chinese governments. Creating a new post, only to save the article on my blog.
Forget the fact that the Chinese economy has grown faster than India's. Forget the fact that in terms of infrastructural development - be it power plants and highways or hospitals and schools China is way ahead. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between China the world's largest dictatorship - and India - the world's most populous democracy - is the vulnerability of each to terror.
China has its share of internal problems, its discontented minorities, like the Uighurs and the Falun Gong sect. But dissent, even non-violent dissent, has been ruthlessly nipped in the bud before it can erupt into extremist action. The scars of Tiananmen Square are a deterrent testimony to the consequences of dissidence in any form.
China's relative immunity to terror is due to the fact that it is a 'hard' state, perhaps the hardest in the world. When terrorists attack hard states as happened when Chechen extremists held a schoolful of children hostage in Beslan in 2004 the response of the state is often so swift and brutal that it out-terrorises the terrorists. In the Russian case, the final death toll included some 200 children who were sacrificed by the iron-fisted authorities as unavoidable 'collateral damage'.
The game plan of terror or what is sometimes called 'propaganda by deed' is to ensure media coverage in order to highlight the supposed cause the terrorists are fighting for. In hard states like China and to a lesser extent Russia the media can be, and are, kept on a tight rein. In China certainly, a terror strike would be totally blanked out by the state-controlled media, thus negating the publicity value of such an attack. If a tree falls in a forest where there is none to hear it fall, does it make a sound?
In a hard state like China which with impunity recently violated the privacy rights of its Google users real or imagined anti-state elements are denied freedom of movement and information before they can get themselves organised. India's anarchic democracy in which each and every one of us does exactly what we please is the diametric opposite of China's police state, where the freedom of the individual is stringently monitored and curtailed every step of the way.
Yes, India is a free society, and China is a muzzled and shackled polity. None of us or at least not many of us would willingly trade places with China on that count. But the in-built Achilles' heel of any democracy particularly one as determinedly indisciplined as India's is its susceptibility to subversion.
Is exposure to terror the price that we have to pay for the freedom of which we are so justly proud? The freedom to travel the length and breadth of the country as David Coleman Headley did without hindrance. The freedom to congregate in public, as the victims of the Pune bomb blast were doing. The freedom of our media openly to report news, even when such reportage jeopardises rescue operations as happened during the live TV coverage of the Taj Hotel siege during 26/11.
When the intrusive Homeland Security Act was introduced in the US after 9/11, many asked if in the name of deterring terrorism America was undermining the freedom by which it defined itself. If indeed it has done that, then the terrorists have already won. Similar questions might be raised in India. Will the recent tightening of visa and entry rules for foreign visitors be a genuine safeguard against terrorism, or will they merely deter tourists and business travellers, to India's detriment? Will re-introduction of oppressive laws like TADA curb terror or promote more human rights violations?
Is democracy doomed to be the unwitting bedfellow of terror? That's the truly terrifying question.
Terrifying question
Jug Suraiya, 23 February 2010, 08:59 PM IST
Would a Pune-style bomb blast have happened in a Chinese city? Or a 26/11? Or any of the scores of terror attacks that India has been subjected to over the years?
Forget the fact that the Chinese economy has grown faster than India's. Forget the fact that in terms of infrastructural development - be it power plants and highways or hospitals and schools China is way ahead. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between China the world's largest dictatorship - and India - the world's most populous democracy - is the vulnerability of each to terror.
China has its share of internal problems, its discontented minorities, like the Uighurs and the Falun Gong sect. But dissent, even non-violent dissent, has been ruthlessly nipped in the bud before it can erupt into extremist action. The scars of Tiananmen Square are a deterrent testimony to the consequences of dissidence in any form.
China's relative immunity to terror is due to the fact that it is a 'hard' state, perhaps the hardest in the world. When terrorists attack hard states as happened when Chechen extremists held a schoolful of children hostage in Beslan in 2004 the response of the state is often so swift and brutal that it out-terrorises the terrorists. In the Russian case, the final death toll included some 200 children who were sacrificed by the iron-fisted authorities as unavoidable 'collateral damage'.
The game plan of terror or what is sometimes called 'propaganda by deed' is to ensure media coverage in order to highlight the supposed cause the terrorists are fighting for. In hard states like China and to a lesser extent Russia the media can be, and are, kept on a tight rein. In China certainly, a terror strike would be totally blanked out by the state-controlled media, thus negating the publicity value of such an attack. If a tree falls in a forest where there is none to hear it fall, does it make a sound?
In a hard state like China which with impunity recently violated the privacy rights of its Google users real or imagined anti-state elements are denied freedom of movement and information before they can get themselves organised. India's anarchic democracy in which each and every one of us does exactly what we please is the diametric opposite of China's police state, where the freedom of the individual is stringently monitored and curtailed every step of the way.
Yes, India is a free society, and China is a muzzled and shackled polity. None of us or at least not many of us would willingly trade places with China on that count. But the in-built Achilles' heel of any democracy particularly one as determinedly indisciplined as India's is its susceptibility to subversion.
Is exposure to terror the price that we have to pay for the freedom of which we are so justly proud? The freedom to travel the length and breadth of the country as David Coleman Headley did without hindrance. The freedom to congregate in public, as the victims of the Pune bomb blast were doing. The freedom of our media openly to report news, even when such reportage jeopardises rescue operations as happened during the live TV coverage of the Taj Hotel siege during 26/11.
When the intrusive Homeland Security Act was introduced in the US after 9/11, many asked if in the name of deterring terrorism America was undermining the freedom by which it defined itself. If indeed it has done that, then the terrorists have already won. Similar questions might be raised in India. Will the recent tightening of visa and entry rules for foreign visitors be a genuine safeguard against terrorism, or will they merely deter tourists and business travellers, to India's detriment? Will re-introduction of oppressive laws like TADA curb terror or promote more human rights violations?
Is democracy doomed to be the unwitting bedfellow of terror? That's the truly terrifying question.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Stone Soup
This one belongs to my 'Nostalgia' series.
Its a short story named "The Stone Soup". I studied this story as part of the school curriculum. Back then,the idea of making soup out of stone, fascinated me no end. In fact,inspired by the lesson, I had even pestered mum to make some for me!
Cookery shows that promise scrumptious meal using umpteen spices,dry fruits and other savories, propel my memories (& mum's) back to the *stone soup*!
We tell each other : " A dish prepared from so many delicious ingredients has to taste good despite the recipe! ;)"
So here you go - enjoy this simple,cute story :)
The Stone Soup
Its a short story named "The Stone Soup". I studied this story as part of the school curriculum. Back then,the idea of making soup out of stone, fascinated me no end. In fact,inspired by the lesson, I had even pestered mum to make some for me!
Cookery shows that promise scrumptious meal using umpteen spices,dry fruits and other savories, propel my memories (& mum's) back to the *stone soup*!
We tell each other : " A dish prepared from so many delicious ingredients has to taste good despite the recipe! ;)"
So here you go - enjoy this simple,cute story :)
The Stone Soup
Friday, December 18, 2009
Laws (loss?) of the Land
How or why do people get away with so much destruction of public property, murder, rape, communal/terrorist attacks and other such crimes? And...importantly, why doesn't it matter any more, unless a *celebrity* is involved? Is our law administration system flawed? Most of the crimes seemed to fall into a particular category and a pattern is soon visible - that of belonging to one of the several cases where, if I dare say, Indian law seems to be failing! These thoughts plagued my mind whenever I came across a disturbing article in the newspaper. I never intended to pen-down these thoughts, but had to give a way to the constant mounting disappointment in me.
Read this article : After 36 years of misery, a fresh hope of death
The first thought that crossed my mind is why the hell did the culprit get only 7 years of sentence? Isn't the crime he committed as serious as a murder? In reality, I believe,its worse. He caused the poor lady to not have any life of her own, banished to a mere ward bed for about thirty six years. What kind of justice system is this? Directly or indirectly, isn't it in the criminal's favour?
Kasab's case is one more saga of never-ending twists.Only God knows when the victims' families would get some respite and when his *trial* comes to an end!
A brief search on the net tells me that the average age of a criminal case(i.e. from the time of committing a crime to the culprit getting punished) is somewhere between 5 years to 40 years or more!! Unbelievable, isn't it? Well, with such a law administration system as the backbone for providing justice to its people, I'm sure countries like India can promise only so much.
Quicker resolution of cases and stricter punishment to those who violate the Law may hopefully,bring in some good changes to the system.
While our great politicians strive hard to break this country into tinier bits and pieces, let us only pray that some common sense dawns on them sooner or later. Then probably,we might have bills passed in the Parliament for amendment of the Law Administration in the country.
Fingers crossed!
Read this article : After 36 years of misery, a fresh hope of death
The first thought that crossed my mind is why the hell did the culprit get only 7 years of sentence? Isn't the crime he committed as serious as a murder? In reality, I believe,its worse. He caused the poor lady to not have any life of her own, banished to a mere ward bed for about thirty six years. What kind of justice system is this? Directly or indirectly, isn't it in the criminal's favour?
Kasab's case is one more saga of never-ending twists.Only God knows when the victims' families would get some respite and when his *trial* comes to an end!
A brief search on the net tells me that the average age of a criminal case(i.e. from the time of committing a crime to the culprit getting punished) is somewhere between 5 years to 40 years or more!! Unbelievable, isn't it? Well, with such a law administration system as the backbone for providing justice to its people, I'm sure countries like India can promise only so much.
Quicker resolution of cases and stricter punishment to those who violate the Law may hopefully,bring in some good changes to the system.
While our great politicians strive hard to break this country into tinier bits and pieces, let us only pray that some common sense dawns on them sooner or later. Then probably,we might have bills passed in the Parliament for amendment of the Law Administration in the country.
Fingers crossed!
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