Love-Time-Connection !!!!

Sometimes you are so caught by surprise & so touched with the gestures of your loved ones ..that u begin contemplating if u r actually worthy and if u actually deserve all that Love...

It all just seems so SURREAL !!

The acts may seem small n insignificant to others, but for the one who is experiencing the sincerity, soulfulness & the thoughtfulness of the act, it is nothing but a profound emotion that is worthy of an equally intense & a heartwarming reciprocation.

I don't know.. but I assume that this expression of thought has a lot of bearing to the fact that I am truly missing my family & friends back in India...

Offlate , there have been many instances which have touched me, moved me, stirred me to the very core and have made me thank God each time with the deepest sense of gratitude !!

I just feel so blessed to be surrounded by such lovely people with such magnanimous heart which has the capacity to shower Love unconditionally & without even an ounce of an expectation in return !!

Such is their greatness!!

They invest their TIME and which according to me is the BEST EXPRESSION of LOVE !!

Time is your most precious gift because you only have a limited amount of it . When you give someone more time , you are giving out a portion of your life that you will never get back. That is why , the greatest gift you can give someone is your time !!

Relationships take time and effort and that is why the best way to spell love is T-I-M-E.

The most desired gift of Love is focused attention . Love concentrates so intently on another person that you forget yourself at that moment. Attention says " I value you enough to give you my most precious asset- my time". Wwhenever you give your time , you are making a sacrifice and sacrifice is the essence of love.

Relationships must have priority in your life above everything else because relationship is what life is all about.. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving.

Last but not the least Love leaves a LEGACY. How you treated other people , not your wealth or accomplishments is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth. As Mother Teresa said " It is not what you do , but how much love you put into it that matters "

LOVE IS THE SECRET OF LASTING HERITAGE!!

Love you all !!

IPL begins!!

DLF INDIAN PREMIERE LEAGUE 2008- What an incredible event!!!

With the advent of this event , we all knew that CRICKET was to change forever !!

The overwhelming memory of the tournament , however was the extent to which it captured the Indian public's imagination . From billboards to TV commercials, from chat in the street to analysis in the papers , the IPL quite simply became the part of daily life for millions of Indians .

For me the Indian Premiere League 2008 was indeed an event to remember......specially because I had the priviledge of watching two important matches n that too with my gang at L&T... :).. so it was nothing less than a treat !!

The matches were:
1. Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knightriders
2. The Grand FINALE : Chennai Superkings vs Rajasthan Royals ( My very own !!)

The first match was the one where we all went hysterical with all the sound n the cheer around... :)Painted in the colour of the Mumbai Indians.. Donned in royal Blue.. all we did was chant for the Mumbai Team!!! weren't silent for a second...danced ,screamed n laughed till we ran out of breath...

Being the only female in the gang, I had to keep up with my male counterparts in terms of the decibal levels...so u can imagine how much I must have tortured my throat...but then all I wanted at that moment was to channelise my energies till the last straw to cheer for the Mumbai Indians !!

The atmosphere was euphoric, with the crowds swooning to the tunes of " duniya hila denge" along with the lovely cheerleaders !! They were indeed a royal treat for the male fraternity!!

For me, getting to see Sachin, Sharukh, Shaun Pollock, Sanath Jaisurya, Ajay Jadeja, Ishant Sharma.. and a whole lot of other players was nothing but a dream come true!!

Trust me .. it was an amazing evening....and we savoured the victory of Mumbai Indians & the rocking experience of it for a long long time !!!

The second match however was the one which did not witness us in any kind of frenzy... probably because all of us were still recuperating from the hangover of the prev match as well as a bad throat .....This time around we were forced to be a lot more controlled ;)

Unlike the previous match which was one sided , this one was a true HOOKER.. ..A perfect FINALE...

And woooooh!!! my happiness knew no bounds, when the Rajasthan Royals emerged victorious...not just because they were considered as the underdogs n that they broke all perceptions but because their victory in so many ways reinforced the fact that no matter how small or insignificant the world may consider you to be , you still can make a difference only if you believe in the POWER vested in you by the Almighty.. The POWER of ONE!!

And for bringing out that spirit n belief in his team, Shane Warne deserved nothing but a standing ovation !! For the way he cajoled the youngsters in his Jaipur Franchise to a glorious triumph , he is the man to look out for in IPL 2009 !!

HALLA BOL- Rajasthan Royals ROCK !!!

My very first poem - Class VIII !!

Was going through my old diaries n this is what I found...

My very first poem....
To be honest the lines are actually by heart, but then when I came across them once again... I couldn't resist the urge to post it onto my blog.. So here we go...

People say I m bad,
But I don't find a reason to be sad.

Why should I care a fig,
For those people with wigs.

Coz they don't understand,
the real place where they stand.

God I wish these people had sense,
for then there would have been no pretence.

GOD if only I could wish !!!

PS : Please don't be critical !! At that age each one of us thinks
" I am the BEST " :)

From the Movie - "Under the Tuscan Sun"

Regrets are a waste of time.
They are the past crippling you in the present !

If you smash into something good ,
you should hold on to it until it is time to let go !

Happy Vishu People !!

First Vishu after marriage was indeed special !! You really need to experience it!

All these years it was mom who use to wake us up, and take us with closed eyes to see the "Vishu Kanni" in the morning. Now there I was .. doing the same thing n waking up my hubby to the glow of the velakku (lamp that is lighted) and the fragrance of the mullapoo (Jasmine) & the incense sticks and seeking Lord Krishna's blessings.

Now I do not know , how many of you have actually understood the significance of the day I am talking about. So lemme just give u a brief background of Vishu.

Vishu is the astronomical new year day of Kerala.
The festival is marked with offerings to the divine called Vishukkani. The offerings consist of a ritual arrangement in the room of auspicious articles like raw rice, fresh linen, golden cucumber, betel leaves, arecanut, meta mirror, the yellow flowers konna and a holy text and coins, in a bell metal vessel called URULI . A lighted bell metal lamp called nilavilalaku is also placed alongside.

This arrangement is completed the previous night.( I prefered doing it early morning ) On the day of Vishu, the custom is to wake up at dawn and go to the puja room with the eyes closed so that the Vishukkani is the first sight of the new season.

Post which , the younger ones in the family have the priviledge to ask elders for Vishu kaineetam ( Gifts ) and being the younger one in the family, that was one thing I truly missed. Now these are occasions when u feel , you shoud have been with the FAMILY..Missed my Mum in law more than anyone, esp because this was the first one after marriage :(

Now the biggest achievement for me for the day was preparing the "sadhya" ( the feast) on my own, that too early in the morning before rushing off to the office...it was nothing less than an achievement.. lemme tell u.. coz what we r talking about here is almost 5-6 dishes ;)

Sambar, Avial, Thoran, Payasam.. hmmm my mouth has already started watering folks!!.. so lemme just say good bye n head for dinner... Happy Vishu !!

The Beauty within !!

Read this poem somewhere n it so touched my heart!! Its worth a read !!

I saw a golden swan once
That had a terrible pain
Reflecting in its eyes

I asked of it
I asked "why"
It looked at me
A sad smile

I wondered then
How ironical

With the beauty it possesses
It flaunts
An equal amount of sadness
Queer...

The swan replied
No one sees
What's beneath

The real gold
Is not the glitter
Outside
Said she

Her sad gaze
Fixed deep into my eyes
That real gold
is within

A golden heart

And at that point
I saw
A golden glow
That was not metallic
Nor cold

A beauty
So heart warming
That which
Not many people hold

Do you !!!

Live Life!!

Life is best for those who want to live it,
Life is difficult for those who want to analyse it ,
Life is worst for those who want to criticize it.

OUR ATTITUDE DEFINES LIFE !!

And truly so... in my own 26 years of life , I have experienced the first two stages !!

LIFE BEING BEST AND LIFE BEING DIFFICULT !

In your younger years, you are a go getter, too involved in attaining what you dream of..
too busy chalking out your plans for your future to actually sit n analyse
your actions or LIFE in general...

So those years undoubtedly turn out to be your best !! You are HAPPY, you are vivacious, you are inncocent ,you are spirited..in all ... you are all of the good adjectives you can think off !!

Truly life is nothing but BLISSFUL !

Now then when is it that u start analysing life is the Million Dollar Question !!

We human beings are never short of goals in life and neither are we free.. infact we are too busy realising our dreams, to be actually taking out time for this so called analysis of LIFE!

Woooof!!! Ab bata bhi do yaar !!!

To lo suno!!!

The Analysis part creeps in when we face hurdles in realising those dreams.. now that could be on either fronts ... PERSONAL OR PROFESSIONAL !!

A broken relatinship, a near miss at something, a lost opportunity.... there can be examples galore!!!

That is precisely when we keep asking either ourselves or GOD as to why ME????
n then we do nothing but start digging..... deeper n deeper .. sometimes to the extent of being critical n BINGO!!.. thats when u have it !!!...

So instead if we just keep it at analysing the problem or the situation at hand .. n don't take it down to the perosnal level .. LIFE would be a lot SIMPLER & EASIER to live !!

There can be times when the tides are real rough and can bog you down... but then all u need to do is brush yourself... get up... n get going....!! n trust me.. it won't take you long to revisit the same situation mentally with a smile on ur face !!!

so folks... Enjoy your life, laugh hard, live well ,fight hard & STAY POSITIVE !!!

Lemme just conclude by saying.. " khul ke hanso, khush raho, dil se jiyo... kya pata .. KAL HO NA HO !! "

Cheers!!

My Precious!!

One look at that pic n I knew I was missing her more than ever !!
Emotions came gushing in !!! Just wished she was here right beside me right here right now!! such was the intensity of the feelings that I was hit with !!!

woooo hoooooo wait wait wait!!!!....

First things first!! Now let me get this straight....... my orientations are straight and whatever I pen down .. is purely for the love that I have for this lady!!

PURE PLATONIC LOVE !! ;)

She is known to many in my circle but for those who are not aware... she is my one of my closest PAL from College!!.she is Ms Niha Rai !!

She is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent females I have come across, and without a doubt.. she is the only one I have ever aspired to be like....coz she is all of me n more !!! Now thats a huge compliment lady!!.. u better be ready to treat me the next time I come to India.

To get to know her , u have to cross certain benchmarks u see :).. The first and the most important one is to be in her good books...and if thru.. buddy.. trust me u have earned a pal for life !!!

I just feel so blessed to have her as a part of my life.. There is so much that I have learned from her and I m sure will continue to...as long as she is there and willing to teach me!

You know Niha, u r probably the only one I completely surrender to happily... on all fronts....... U know me... I would rather die than surrender!!
My defenses just go down the drain when it comes to you...
Even when I'm not WRONG....I do not mind apologising to you for the mere fact that u r too precious to be lost !!

Let me conclude with these lines ..

If I could catch a rainbow
I would do it for you.
And share with you it's beauty
On the days you're feeling blue.

If I could build a mountain
You could call your very own.
A place to find serenity
A place to be alone.

If I could take your troubles
I would toss them in the sea.
But all these things
I am finding are impossible for me.

I cannot build a mountain
Or catch a rainbow fair
But let me be...what I know best,
a friend that's always there !!!

Love u loads Niha and miss u even more !! God Bless!!

Forgiveness continued!!

Just a while ago, had a discussion wid my hubby regarding my previous post.. n a new angle was brought in !!

P.Chidambaram according to him, would have reacted in no other manner, nor would have any other politician for that matter who had been in that role.

"Any irresponsible reaction / action would have had political implications and damaging repurcussions " is what Deepak felt.

To support the above statement he said that the sailing of the UPA government has not been smooth lately and with many of its allies snapping ties, the chances of them forming a government yet again after the upcoming elections are FEEBLE!

The tide is rough and Congress is in a vulnerable position, so under such circumstances, any sensible diplomat would do the same as what Mr. P.Chidambaram did !!

Woof!! now see the difference in the way a man and a woman perceive things.

EQ vs IQ.

For me , to an extent ignorance played its role. Not being aware of the facts , I was lead to conclude a certain perspective, but I am happy, that even in that ignorance, I only ended coming up with something positive and I am happy about it !!

IGNORANCE IS BLISS TRULY !

But on the other hand, for my hubby, it was his awareness of politics and his mature understanding of life which I m sure is far more holistic & superior than mine!!

Forgiveness!!

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong!!!

Thats precisely what I felt when saw Mr. P Chidamambaram's press conference review in one of the news channels where a shoe was thrown at him by one of the journalist.

Now I donot know what was going on in the mind of that person to resort to an act like that and whatever that it was, would have in anyway justified his act!! But what definitely struck me was the way our Defense Minister reacted. Unperturbed & with a smile on his face , he politely asked the security people to take him away gently. At that very instant , it was evident that he had nothing against this guy n that the journalist was forgiven!!

Now thats what I call a magnanimous heart with an insurmountable capacity to FORGIVE... I donot know under those circumstances how many politicians would have reacted the way he did.. forget politicians.. how many of us would have reacted to a situation like that in a way he did...the first reaction would have been anger..which could have been either displayed by a noisy outburst or probably we would have blanketed the same by Silence.

Now.. we can't be Mr Chidambaram...and neither is it required of us to be... but what we certainly can imbibe is that one quality which would stand by us all though our life.. n that is learning to FORGIVE!!

So guys.. be forgiving .. be strong!!

Rules!

Life is short
Break the rules
Forgive quickly
Kiss passionately
Love truly
Laugh constantly
And never stop smiling
No matter how strange life is !!!

Life is not always the party we expect it to be,
But as long as we are here, we should smile and be grateful.

LOVE

Read this quote and felt as if Josh Mc Dowell had just lend beautiful words to my thoughts perfectly...

How do you spell love?... when you reach the point where the happiness, security, and development of another person is as much of a driving force to you as your own happiness, security, and development, then you have a mature love.

True love is spelled G-I-V-E. It is not based on what you can get, but rooted in what you can give to the other person.

From Rocky 6!!

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows.

It is a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.

But it ain't about how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.

Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth.

But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!"

Quote Unquote!!

There is this something someone in my office mentioned... which I thought was worthy of finding a mention in my Blog.

" When something is only in your head, it eventually ends up being Forgotten.
When something is only in your heart, it goes through the process of Fading.
But when something gets from your heart to your head, it seldom leaves you.
And that happens very rarely in Life!! "

Nature Untouched!!

Was just going through someone's profile on Orkut... and I found this beautiful pic.... Staying in Dubai..getting to see nature untouched like this is overwhelming!! Here in Dubai... almost everything is artificial...... But still what they have made out of this dead land.. with their sheer grit n determination is noteworthy and absolutely commendable...

It is always said , value of ANYTHING is known best when you are devoid of it.. or when it is beyond your reach or when achieveing it is extremely difficult..that is when u realize what place it holds in your heart and how desperate you are to achieve it...

In India we are blessed with abundance of Natural Wealth... but then who has the time to admire such wealth..Everyone is too entangled in their own web of problems to take some time out for appreciating the beauty of Mother Nature .Whereas here in Middle East , it is noteworthy to see how these people have transformed a desert into the world's one of the most sought after cities, by balancing it with a mix of both urban panache and scenic divinity!!