Valentine's Day

The perception changes every year, along with passing birthdays.....

Adolescence has its own conceptions. Emotions during that period are most important, as I usually say- One thinks by Hormones rather than Brain.

In  that phase of life, every Hollywood actor is a hunk and every Bollywood hero becomes a fantasy. Every actress becomes a Dream Girl

Red roses uplifts the spirits and love seems definitely to be in the air. It is no doubt very festive and glowy, but more of a show. A show to prove to the world that you are in love rather than showing to your Love meaningfully what love means to you!

To the opposite end are couples who have been together for half or more than half of their lives. For them, its just any other day! The most common stereotypic statement off them is- If you are in love, every day is a Valentine's day, Love is not celebrated just for a Day! and blah blah blah......

Something new that just came across me recently is Singleton Awareness Day (SAD), which apparently is 14th February for singles. Is that a red light for singletons- to be wary of the part and parcel of being in a relationship or to be wary of being spinsters and baldies for the rest of the lives?

There is the beautiful verse that I read somewhere which is exactly what every lover (also those who are not in love but have kept their hearts and minds open to welcome love) feel-

When we open ourselves

you yourself to me and I myself to you,

when we submerge

you into me and I into you,

when we vanish

you into me and I into you,

Then

am I me

and you are you?

A toast to St Valentine and those lovers who are celebrating each other and their love!

Anecdote

A graduate called Joe had just finished his degree and was looking for a job. After some time without success he finally landed a job as an assistant at the local zoo.

One day the bear at the zoo died. The zoo was facing a financial crisis and could not afford to buy another bear, so they asked Joe to dress up in a bear costume and pretend that he was a bear.

Well the money they offered was a small increase and so he took the job. He was put into a cage and in time became very good at imitating a bear, but he had one worry: the bars between his cage and the next were loose and in the next cage was a very ferocious looking lion.

One day his worst fears were realized and a bar broke. The lion jumped through the gap and raced up to Joe.

Extending his paw, the lion said, "Hi, I'm Phil, a drama graduate from Brum!"

LIFE

Compromise

The Trickiest situations are when you have to decide what to compromise and whom for. Its all relative but still there are as such no set parameters. That according to me is a test of your own self- degree of stubbornness and adapting at the same time!

Would you settle for less and have regrets of lifetime? Or would you rather not settle for less, living in the hopes to achieve what you've desired and may be waste the moments of your life?

A very close friend once made a statement. He liked this particular girl but that girl didnt seem to reciprocate his feelings. He seemed to be truly in love until he said something that shook me to the core. He said-

If she loves me even a bit, I am kind of a guy who would love her back 5 times more than she does to me!

I wasn't in any stand to tell him anything (one lesson of life I've learnt- when someone's in love/obsession, they forget the ethos of friendship). But it has made me give a deep thinking on that what he said

Is his love 'conditional'- based on IF she loves him? What is she doesnt love him? Ok, realistic world would say move on and forget her....but my emotional world says you love her still the same while you learn to move on. This is not sour grapes that because the fox didn't get it, he became a critic.

Learning to 'live with it' is moving on in a true sense. That's what makes us strong!

Superstition

A very meaningful story that explains the root of any superstition.

Some 400 years ago, there used to be a priest. He lived in a village with his wife and a kid of 5. His was a simple, god fearing family. Priest was a higly qualified and noble man, very educated about scriptures and religious books. He used to conduct all the rituals of weddings, funerals, house-warming and birth for everyone in the town.

One day, he was invited to a neighouring village to conduct a certain religious ceremony. On his way, he found an injured baby-goat. Poor thing was moaning, and the noble priest's heart went out for him. He took it onto the side, nursed his wounds, gave some water and a piece of his own bread. He looked around to find out if this goat belonged to anyone.

Some time passed, and when he could'nt see anyone, he thought to take the goat with him to his house. And that's how the baby-goat found a house to live in.

Priest's son became his friend and the baby-goat became an integral part of the family. Every morning, when preist used to perform his daily worships, his son and the goat used to play in the courtyard.

Time went on and the baby-goat grew up. Now he used to playfully disturb the priest in his rituals. Priest secretly liked that, but could not concentrate on his worship. So he made this idea of tying the goat to a pole in his courtyard until his prayers finish. And that became a routine.
Every morning he used to tie goat to the pole and start his prayers. His son watched all this everyday but never questioned his father. This went on for long until priest's son took over his old dad and even the goat had reproduced.

But the ritual of tying goat to a pole remained the same. The priest's son got married, and started his own family. His son also saw this' goat tying' ritual every day being followed in his house. And he too never questioned his dad as of what was the necessity of tying a goat. Now tying a goat before performing rituals and offering prayers became a ritual in itself.

Generations after generations went on, times as well as people changed but this ritual didnt change. After some 5 generations, once the then priest somehow didnt tie a goat before his worship and coincidently, something untoward happened that hindered his prayers. And the conclusion came out was that because a goat wasnt tied to pole, prayer went unsuccessful.

To cut a long story short, conclusion of the story fits in exactly with the lines of Steve Wonder's song
When you belive in things that you dont understand, Then you Suffer.
Supertition ain't the way....

Conscience without judgement is Superstition and a fearful mind is the main source of Superstitions.

Homeland

you can learn to fly and you can chase your dreams
you can laugh and cry but everybody knows
you'll always find your way back home- as the song goes...sooo true!!!!

No matter how many thousand pounds or dollars you earn, the high profile sophisticated society you live in and the high tech world around you, Home is that all matters end of the day!
5 years in Britain....5 precious years of youth dedicated for a hard earned career...5 years away from Family....5 years away from India!

Time flies...it indeed does. You don't realise and in a blink, it becomes a distant memory!

The boom of Foreign education in India is growing by leaps and bounds. And to be honest, I was one among those thousands of hopeful fools (oops, sorry.....not that I regret after all these years) who wanted to leave India and come to London.

Fair enough, foreign education system has its own merits over India and its nothing wrong to choose. But I had a second thought after reading this (Dr Shubha Tole) www.indiaboscience.org/index.php?q=node/74

Her choice of India over States. And not just her, there are ample Indian Scientists and peers who has taken that step and shown that It Is Possible.

If she can, why cannot any of us? Why cannot I?

That is what I call courage and dedication. Courage to build something, Courage to have a confidence to try something, Courage to go against the tide and Dedication towards one's own Nation!

Old age poets has given India the status and respect of Mum. The one who is ever there to welcome you with arms wide open and all the love she has in her heart! And they are not wrong. Took me 5 years to get the real understanding behind it. Not that I had any disrespect towards it. But I guess you can only know the importance of something when you are missing it, just a typical human psychology!

This is for my Home, my Culture that's in my blood, the values that are in me just as my DNA and for all those fellow Indian Scientists who are the biggest source of motivation!

My first blog ...though the idea had been brewing up since few months. But it just needed an invisible push (:p) to actually play with the keys on the keyboard and let the thoughts come out here.
Less than 3 weeks and we'll say good-bye to 2009. Its been a roller coaster , but overall looking at it now, I've come out stronger. The biggest thing I have learnt off this year is

" Be friendly with everyone. But don't be friends with them".

One of the very few good things happened to me is St John Ambulance. That has given me a new goal, it teaches me everyday that Money isn't everything. Being useful and worthy for the community has its own rewards. All I know now is its the committement I would never regret, be always proud of and shall always stick to the values it brings with the name.

Transferring an old lady last evening from one Care home to another was disturbing enough. Those 30 minutes spent with her in the ambulance, listening her about her life (glimpses here and there of her 70 something years), of her children and grandchildren made me think-
Is that IT?

You work like a donkey and you get treated like a dog (hope my manager doesn't read this :p) and all you end up is in a care home because your own children doesn't have time to 'care' for you!!! Another blow was she paid us for that 30-minute job £100 off her personal savings, and she said we were 'God send'. That was really humiliating moment. I wish we would have known earleir, I would have never taken that money......

Anyways.....all this makes me think what our elders used to (and they still do until this date) say- Make a habit of doing one good deed a day, even if its just a smile at someone. You never know if that's the only sunshine he would have in that day !!!

Time to go now....will be back.