Just Do It (JDI)

New Year is here, and one thing that comes to mind to almost everyone who wants to succeed in life is the famous phrase "NEW YEAR RESOLUTION" - the phrase that's set for personal commitment to complete certain goals for the year. But do they really work...the urge to fulfill goals is stronger at the beginning...but as days pass by...goals and their strength fades away....only few people can make it to the end of the year and if you are one of them..HATS OFF to you.

To certain extent, we do accept the fact that NEW YEAR resolutions always don't work the way we think. Why not JUST DO IT whatever we have in our mind? But how? Unlike work culture where goals are set to fulfill company needs and have a cross check in terms of personal performance reviews, who will review our own personal goals? YES..it's none other than ME...the inner ME.

Sometimes at work, when my boss says, "we have no solid requirements, but we must complete this work by certain date...so JDI(Just Do It)"....in turn, our team response will be JDI(Just Doing It). Even though it’s used in a witty way, there is certain driving force in it. When dates are set with no final requirements...just start doing it with whatever requirements we've at hand, gives us an opportunity to raise questions, and further understand and discuss the requirements with the team well ahead in time. So why not JDI to get a better understanding of the product and start some ground work? If requirements do change completely, the learning curve stays with us...whether it's a failure or success. If requirements are in-line with the initial set, we are close to achieving the deadlines.

Unlike the goals set for us by others, how about our own personal goals? Everyone dreams of doing something in life. Dreams or thoughts are the stepping stones for our actions and in turn our goals. If you have the goal to turn your dreams into reality, judge yourself whether certain dreams can be met in real. Judging and preparing no-commitment list is another challenge that goes a long way and saves lots of time.

This raises another question, do you always do things with SUCCESS tag in mind? Well, things always won't work for success...and that results in disappointed soul. It's good to dream of success in life...but be ready for the outcome, whether it be success or failure. The laws of action   - "Karma" are very well defined in Bhagavad Gita. Try your best with positive attitude to reach your goals and leave the rest on God.

Still remember the message conveyed in the movie Ashwini Nachappa ..."try your best to be number one....but don't compare with others". There is so much truth in it...when we start comparing with others, that implants a feeling of egoism and selfishness...when the struggle is with self...that raises the bar far from the competing world, close to God and then to self-realization.  If possible, adopt good things that made others achieve their goals and learn lessons from failures to pave the path to success. 

So what should we do to achieve our goals? Is NEW YEAR RESOLUTION the start? In addition to the long-term goals set in mind, you better pen down the goals daily. Don’t leave commitments in your brain. Whether you dream or think of something, putting it on paper gives clarity and sets you for the rest of the day. As the little drops make a mighty ocean, doing a bit everyday helps us achieve our goals. The strategy that's helping me is the mighty TO DO LIST..whether it be POST-IT-NOTES at work or DIARY on my desk. 

With so many electronic gadgets in hand, nobody wants to touch a pen ;-). But penning down the TO-DO-LIST gives so much joy once you are addicted to it:

• If you are a computer geek and never hold a pen, it helps you honor the writing you learnt for ages.
• We tend to forget things with so many distractions in life, writing them down let's your mind free from remembrance.
• Whether it's household work, paying bills, kids activities, attending parties.... writing them down by date alerts you with due dates and lets you plan ahead.
• If you have a list at hand, you know what's more important and what not, and that helps you prioritize tasks for the day.
• When you are feeling low or depressed, the actions written down drive your day. At least, try doing some of the light actions that can divert your mind and give the happiness of completing certain tasks.
• Not just that, when your mind feels cluttered with so many things, writing them down brings clarity in your thinking.
• If you have a goal that spans more than one day, divide the work and do it in chunks... like reading tech books, divide chapters by day. If you can’t get it in one day, postpone it to next day….but keep writing the task…after sometime, finishing off the work makes you feel happier than writing it again….testing your own patience you know ;-)
•  In doing so, you'll get into the habit of DOING the work and be satisfied rather than DOING it for success or failure.
• Also write down things that you don’t want to do for the day. Sometimes, this NOT-TO-DO list fetches more time to target your actual goals.
• And ultimate happiness comes when you start striking out the completed items...one of my favorite :-)

The DIARY sitting on my desk is not a reflection of my past...but stepping stone in to the future. Successfully completed my 2011 diary...my TO-DO-LIST scrapbook. And the new one is ready to be filled with items that will be struck out at the end of the day, to give a smile on my face.

Started implementing the same with my kids, especially when they are off from school, and they love it. They may not know the ultimate goal of this activity...but kids definitely like the idea of striking out the items once done :-)

Feels funny when my younger one strikes out items even before doing them, and then explains me "mamma, don't worry, I'm doing it now..". Whatever it is, it's good to get them into the habit of visualizing the actions for the day. Hope this post inspires someone for the year...and do share your thoughts.

And when it's our turn to spend time with loved ones, all the other goals take backseat and it takes top priority. Something that's written in heart... not on a piece of paper.

Before leaving the post, just want to say one thing..JUST DO IT doesn't mean you'll just do whatever you want and wherever you want... ;-)

DO THE RIGHT THING IN A RIGHT WAY AT THE RIGHT PLACE.

Thanks for reading this post and Wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous well TO-DO New Year!!

FM....FM...FM...Family media

Never thought I'd be so addicted to FM radio. It's a great way to uplift the soul without stressing eyes. And good part is its ability to allow you perform parallel processing and enhance your imagination to never seen songs. Well....if you like a song...you can always go to Youtube to override your creative mind :-).

FM radio was the only media to entertain the boring souls when I was a kid. Waking up to early morning Venkateswara Suprabhatam and then daily news digest at 7am...don't think I'll ever forget those days...and especially the All India radio signature tune...feels like I'm back to my lonely days ;-).

When TV sets entered the market, we entered neighbour's houses with great enthu. And when TV entered our house, we let others share the joy with great pride. Wonder how we survived those days with so many people at home, and even serving them chai paani at times. And those Shivaratri days...watching movies in our front yard among 50 people, with no one paying attention to Lord Shiva, but just there to stay awake all night in the name of Jaagaran... anyways, love those days. And now, it's a treat to listen the trio singing Doordarshan tune in the latest flick ZNMD...

After TV, FM took a backseat to some extent. Over time, with FM installed in cars, it's back to life on roads. With so many soothing songs in the air, got myself one FM radio. And it's the best family media I've at home after games. Unlike TV shows, I don't need to worry about switching channels when kids are around. But still there are songs that can't be avoided on FM too ...after Munni and Sheela, the latest Himesh Reshammiya's flick "no touching, no touching....only seeing, only seeing..". ...kya kare...kids catch those songs pretty fast :-(. Anyways, much better than seeing those songs on TV, and someone better compile FM version of the song "....no seeing, no seeing....only listening, only listening..." :-).

With only one hour TV time for kids, FM radio with its soft musical background makes us feel like someone is home all the time, and our maids don't mind syncing to songs to ease their work. All I can say, FM has the power to paint the mood with surprising songs ranging from old to new, sad to happy and much more....so just tune to FM and enjoy life!!

What's in a name?

Well, to be precise, what's in a last name? That's the exact question popped up in my mind when I applied for my driver license in India few months back.

Like any budding Indian driver, I went to RTO to apply my DL(driver license). Felt relieved when one of my friend told that we don't need to go through written or driving test if we have a valid out-of-country DL. So marched into RTO with the hope to get my identity soon.

As soon as I entered the RTO complex with my husband, we were surrounded by agents in no time. There were more agents than applicants. We disappointed them by applying directly. After some struggle in finding the exact officer and his sitting location, we submitted required documents and got approval. Voila....we were happy to go home with the feeling "after 7 days, we'll have our DL".

With assumed slow process in India, we visited RTO after 10 days. As they couldn't locate our DLs, we had to go there again. Next day, they found my husband's DL...but not mine :-(. When asked "why?",  no one could answer....as the concerned person was on leave. Another trip to RTO revealed that my documents are not complete.

When I questioned the officer sitting there, "how come mine got rejected when we both submitted the same documents for address and age proof?", he verified with other workers and replied that my marriage certificate was missing. With a smile, I asked him "well, you didn't ask that for my husband". All he could reply was a big smile saying "that is the process here ma'm...". My immediate response to his smile "you wasted three days of our valuable time by not saying it before". Well, he replied our concern with another big smile. 

I had that document ready to surprise him. He couldn't resist to ask "so you already knew that you need to submit the marriage certificate?". haha...couldn't control my laugh and told him "just carried in case if I need it for any reason...". 

All this mess was the result of mismatched last name with my husband's last name. When we came out, my husband was happy and raised his collar by saying "see, you don't have an identity without me" :-). Even though he never asked me to change my last name, I could see a big smile on his face. What to say of those husbands whose wives changed their last names forever. Anyways, I was happy to give few moments of happiness to my dear husband.

It's a good way to tag family with one last name. In olden days, with women sitting at home, taking care of household activities, with no facial identity outside, and a man biased by his physical strength, it made complete sense to identify family with man's name.

Including spouse's name is dated back to puranas... Seetharam, Radhakrishna, Parvatiparameswar. But the only difference ....those are the names of men who took their wife's name after marriage or eternal love. And those men are all GODS. And instead of suffixing, they prefixed their better halves in their names. Well, their stories are limited to books, no one follows them in real ;-). Even if they follow, it's in news for sure More men taking wives' last names.

OK I got my driver license. Congrats to me ..:-). But something I learned in my few visits to RTO, people don't even bother to keep their working environment clean. Walls are decorated with betel leaf spit and stairs are filled with shit and no one even bothers to get it cleaned.

Went after 15 days, still the same. Dunno if I need to pity the people working there or praise them for ignoring it. Pathetic...and I could see some new improvement...ants digging mud in the middle of the main entrance :-(.

OK. I'm done with name concern and clean concern :-).

In case if you are an NRI with valid DL and moved to India for some reason, here is the list of documents required to get permanent license:
- Address proof document (index-II/  telephone bill/ electricity bill etc...)
- Age proof document (passport/ birth certificate/ school leaving certificate etc...)
- Document or proof explaining the type of license you had and the vehicle you were allowed to drive
- And girls, if your last name is different from your husband's, do submit your marriage certificate without fail

Awesome weather...

It's raining here in Pune...sky covered with layer of darkness, rhythmic sound of water droplets...dust settling down to earth.... smell of fresh earth...happy me sitting and watching the show...craving for mirchi bajjis and cup of ginger tea...but for now, laptop in my lap to capture these moments....

With no doubt, my mom remembers me a lot when it rains...she knows that her girl enjoys rain and loves it from the core of her heart. At times, I even got curses when it rains...as if I'm the one to pour water from the sky to disturb others work ;-)....anyways, what a good way to connect me with rain.

Rain...rain and rain, it brings back all the old memories....wonder why I enjoyed rain when I was a kid? Back then, there were no past memories to recollect ....then why? Was it the feel of fresh air? Or the innocent mind happy to record all those moments for later recovery?

Whatever it is, love those days...eagerly waiting for the rains...enjoying few drizzles....then go inside the house to watch it from the window...wrap blanket just to feel the chill....make fake huts with mats, umbrella and what not....wait for the pakodas or bajjis to spice up the show....

And as the rain settles down, go out to find friends to play...enjoy the earth's smell...make small paper boats to compete with others...visit small water streams to hunt small fish for fun....and then as years passed, changed the course to go for a walk to find small tomateo and marigold plants on the roadside, bring them home to plant...smile when they stand straight after few days...and then as years passed, save money to buy seeds for vegetation, feel happy when my mom allows cats and dog to stay with me inside the house....

And then those hostel days.... drench without fear of parents, look for peacocks to come out and dance for me...go out with friends for hot and spicy samosa and chai..... 

....simply love those days.......nostalgic moments become stronger when mother nature showers them in the form of rain.....all put beautifully in the song 'Kagaz ki kashti'...

Of course, too much of anything is not good...and when there is thunder in the rhythm, it spoils the mood. Hope this year's monsoon brings good memories in everyone's life. For now, telling my kids not to get wet in the rain :-)

ok...time for me to prepare chai and garam bajjis for everyone at home.....

Emotions

Few weeks back, I remember saying to one of my FoF(Friend on Facebook), that I'm gonna write a blog post on Emotions. Very interesting to see how I was taken on an emotional ride with my father being in emergency care. By God's grace, my emotional meter is back to normal now.

E-M-O-T-I-O-N ...the word itself is so complex, it bites every heart once in a while. If you don't have emotions, you are not a human being in good health for sure...or PATHAR DILWALE ;-). Emotions are like pillars that bond family and friends together. Emotions in cats, dogs and other animals show up until their offspings are well trained to feed themselves. But we, being the sophisticated animals, extend our emotional bonding beyond that circle and look back to see what we can do to our parents or people who took care of us and loved us unconditionally.

There are some emotions that make us feel good and some that make us feel bad. Wikipedia lists more than 50 emotions. But the one that tops the list for most of us is the emotion of LOVE. Want to know why?...coz it has emotions engraved in it... Lots Of Variety Emotions. Often the word LOVE is associated with broken hearts, no wonder it has links to so many other emotions, so use it cautiously. On the contrary, too much LOVE may lead to heart enlargements... good that there are heart enlargement treatments, but never heard of heart shrinkage treatments. 

We are all blessed with in-built emotional intelligence. But, what if we are drowning in emotional unintelligence? For few moments, its gravity pulls us down completely. Is there a way out? It's hard, but yes, just forget about it or avoid thinking about it... as if nothing happened. When our emotional intelligence wakes up, it will find its way out. Or share it with loved ones or close friends who can tap our emotional intelligence.

OK. Emotions make things even more complicated for women than men. It is Lord Brahma to blame for blowing everblooming emotions into woman's brain. See the video to know the difference between women's and men's brains ;-)

Woman's brain is not just super highway of interconnected emotions, also an expressway that needs the other person to be more expressive. Hope you got what I mean ;-). If you love a woman... especially your mom, don't just keep it in your heart, express it and you'll get a big smile for sure. Belated HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mothers who are not subset of my FoF.

btw, sometimes don't forget to listen to music to uplift your emotions and enjoy your time with family. In that line, enjoy the song that's on the top list for me this week......melodious voice, heart touching lyrics, mesmerizing flute, soothing violin....what a beautiful song......

Label it

"Label me...otherwise I'm gonna spoil your taste", those were the words spoken by the crazy containers in my kitchen closet. Life becomes easy when the unlabeled food containers are under ONE (wo)MAN ARMY control. They confuse us with their talents(tastes) when more people enter their territory.

Now you know what I'm talking ;-). Yes...it's the problem with unlabeled Masala and other powders in the kitchen closet. When it comes to storing grains and powders, I prefer transparent containers, and one of my favorite brand is PearlPet. Thanks to my sister-in-law for introducing me to PearlPet.

These containers are much better than Steel dabbas that make me google around until I find the target. But still there is another problem..how about the unlabeled powders that deceive your eyes? And YES...it happened to us once when my parents visited few years back. 

With BP patients at home, we reduced our salt intake. But didn't relalize why our food was bland even after pouring so much salt. This mystery continued for four days. First day, we blamed the tomatoes, Second & Third days, blamed the poor onions. Fourth day, I got a call from my dear husband who was WFH on Ganesh Chaturthi. He called me to share the most exciting moments of his life "you know what, today Ganesh is so happy, even butter milk is tasting sweet". OMG, I couldn't stop laughing and immediately asked my mother to taste the salt powder. Voila...that was not salt...but Sugar. All happened when my mother poured Sugar into Masala Dabba. Big lesson learned and will never forget in my life ;-).

That makes all the confusing powders in my kitchen closet to display their identity. Good exercise..but worth spending time in labeling them. Can't imagine all these white powders without labels...

 

Not just white powders, those spicy indian masala powders are siblings to the confusing category.

Small tip before I end this post...if you have printer, use it to print the labels. If not, just cut and use the labels on the covers to label the containers.

All you need is scissor, cellotape and few minutes of your time. Enjoy..

Do trees have feelings?

Last month my parents visited Kurnool (in Andhra Pradesh, India) to meet friends and relatives. On my request, they paid a visit to the house where I spent 23 years of my life. Whenever I think of my birth place, the first thing that comes to my mind is the big Neem tree (Vepa Chettu in Telugu) that has grown with me and of course, part of my entire childhood.

How can I forget the tree that gave lots of fresh air to breathe....

How can I forget the fresh breeze that took away all my tiredness....

How can I forget the gentle movements of tree branches for the tunes of my mother's Chandamaama Raave lullaby...

How can I forget the smell of spicy food when the tired labors rested and ate under the shade of the tree....

How can I forget the tree that attracted monkeys to show off their naughty tricks....

How can I forget the tree that showered sweet Neem fruits in summer..and of course lots of flies...

How can I forget the labors who collected dry Neem seeds to earn money...
How can I forget the warmth of winter mornings sitting around the campfire of dry leaves....

How can I forget the taste of bitter brush to beat the bacteria...

How can I forget the moments of peeping through the tree branches to get a glimpse of the Moon and shining stars by resting on nulaka mancham(cot made with ropes)....

How can I forget the tunes of Koyal sitting on the tree and asking us to compete with its tunes...

How can I forget the tree that made me sit under its shade to study....

How can I forget the swing hanging from the tree to bring a chuckle on my chins....

How can I forget the taste of the tree's tender leaves to test my tongue....

How can I forget Vepa puvvu (neem flowers), the essential ingredient of Vepa Pachchadi on UGADI, the start of Telugu new Year...

Wish I could go back in time and spend time with the loving tree. For me, it's more than a tree...a friend...a mother and God. I was shocked to learn that the tree is dead dry now. Only one question lingering in my mind, how can such a big and healthy tree die so soon? Was it missing the Carbon dioxide and Oxygen cycle that bonded us together? 

Research has proved that trees grow healthy with music around. So was it missing the music of our voices? Didn't realize that a tree can bring tears to my eyes. Hard to digest the fact that the healthy and young tree is no more. But happy that the tree's bark made my God's list for the last 11 years. It will live its life in my heart forever and ever.... 

To all my Telugu friends, UGADI SHUBHAKAANKSHALU and HAPPY GUDI PADWA to all Maharashtrians. On the start of this new year, give life to a plant or tree if you can.

PRALAY

On March 11^th, world witnessed the most devastating Tsunami in Japan, caused by massive earthquake. It’s really hard to see people, vehicles and even houses moving like toys. Can’t imagine people watching their loved ones floating away from them, finding pieces of clothes with no body inside, even if bodies are found, they are dead or injured to bear the pain.  

Mother nature took its turn causing Tsunami, which is hard to predict even with so much scientific advancement. But species close to mother nature can predict the calamities to some extent.  Many stories explain how dogs bark before an earthquake, and even evidence of animals escaping to higher grounds during 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. As they say, it could be their response to an increase in low-frequency electromagnetic signals. If interested, read more on Unusual Animal Behavior Prior to Earthquakes.

In Hindu mythology, there are terms like Pralay, which causes large amounts of devastation, and there is MahaPralay, which is much bigger than Pralay, with no one left to see the devastation. IMHO, Mahapralay is much better than Pralay. As per Hindu calculations, Mahapralay will come at the end of Kaliyug whose duration is 432,000 years. Read more on Vedic calculations at The Maha Yug SatYug,TretaYug,Dwapar Yug,KalYug. 

Even though I never watched Pralay in person, I experienced it many times in my dreams.... even before I knew what Tsunami is. Until now, I didn’t watch the movie “2012: Doomsday". I know, if I watch it, it’s going to add more fiction to my dreams ;-).  btw, here are some of my experiences of Pralay through my dreams:

• Tsunami with high tides rushing towards me
• Tsunami like fire chasing me with no place to hide or save myself
• And those quiet moments, when everyone knows that the world is going to end, all gathered on a piece of land surrounded by water, with complete darkness, witnessing mother nature’s live show in the sky, which looks something similar to laser show… but on a large scale in the sky. Can’t explain the beauty of that show in words.

Wonder why I get those dreams. Is God preparing me to face the truth? Is he showing me prototypes into future? Whatever it is, I’m blessed to see mother nature’s beauty in my dreams. But when it comes to reality, it's really hard to imagine the truth.

I pray God for the victims of Japan’s Tsunami. Hope there are no more earthquakes as an effect of Supermoon today.

FACE BOOK

You might be wondering why I put an extra space in the title, it's not by mistake, just to emphasize my opinion of facebook, ONLINE BOOK OF FACES. If you don't have FACE aka profile picture, please upload your FACE. No FACE is like a book with no INDEX, hard to find the content, especially if your name is very common and tagged with many FACES and your info is private.

If you don't want to show your FACE, that's a different story, just FACE OFF. Also, if you don't want your friends to catch you, NO FACE is your inner choice. But by human nature, we want to be invited by our friends, so uploading a FACE might help you and your friends.

We being Social animals love to connect with friends. I find Facebook to be a great tool to connect with old pals. Never imagined I'll get back in touch with my friends after 15 years. Also it's there to make new relationships and has the power to break existing relationships if you don't mind your tongue.

Facebook is liked by many, but not by all, heard some companies banning its use at work with the fear of less productivity by employees. Also heard someone saying "If you are on Facebook, it means you have no work". But there are people doing business through Facebook. Many think it consumes lots of time, it might be true if you consider Facebook as the only friend in your life. But for me, it saves lots of time in connecting and conversing with real friends. Can't imagine pulling friend's emails with the fear of missing someone in conveying wishes on any occasion. With Facebook, I just need to share my WISH post. Things can't be easier than that.

Birthday events on Facebook remind friend's Birthdays, this is another great advantage of being connected through Facebook. And if you are bored, there might be some funny post, a good song, an inspirationl speech, an interesting game or friend's album waiting for you to bring a BIG smile on your face. Also helps you share your SMILE instantly with other friends. That said, there are privacy issues too, please go through your account settings and don't accept requests from unknown identifiers. Beware not to become Facebookaholic. If you have time, read the article on Pros and Cons of Facebook.

btw, the inspiration behind this blog is the poster on the way to my kids school. This shows how Facebook is being used as an add-on to mobile ads.

And there is an interesting story of a man who named his daughter after Facebook, Egyptian man names daughter Facebook. For sure Facebook has taken the world by storm.

Social networking and its effect on human relations triggered a great product idea in my mind,

shared it with my husband, but he warned me not to share product ideas publicly <he has a point>. Hope I'll find sometime to patent my idea ;-).

Pocket money

Few weeks back, my elder daughter Harshita came to me and asked “Mommy, I think you should give me some pocket money”. When asked why, her answer was “because my friends get pocket money from their parents”. Didn’t know what to derive out of it, it’s just an effect of PEER PRESSURE. When asked out of curiosity what she’ll do with the pocket money, her answer was “even I dunno”.

When I was a kid, I used to get pocket money, typically to enjoy the snacks outside the school gate. But my kids get snacks in their school itself, if not, mommy prepares whatever they want, if not, mommy gets whatever they want. So literally they don’t need pocket money :-).

So why should I give her pocket money? Then thought, rather than GIVING them pocket money, how about making them EARN their pocket money. So started this funda of EARNING pocket money with a piggy bank and a deal of 2 rupees if they massage my head.

Coming to head massage, it all started with my younger daughter pulling my hair when she was young. With her gentle pulls, I used to feel very relaxed and now I got into the habit of asking them to massage my head whenever I feel stressed out.

OK, let’s get back to pocket money funda. So I made a deal with my kids that for each 5 minutes of head or leg massage, I’ll give them 2 rupees. They instantly agreed and felt happy to put it to work. So far, it’s going great without them saying  “No mommy…not again”. Also it’s good to see kids learning so many things implicitly. Here is the list of things I observed so far:

• Time management: As the deal is for 5 minutes, they make sure they follow the time. They learned the art of looking at time and doing things, in other words learned the value of time.
• Sharing: When I go to shop and tell my kids to buy snacks using their pocket money, I see them sharing the pocket money if the price exceeds their individual contribution and if they both like the same snack.
• Partnership: I saw them making plans together to buy things next in their wish list.
• Accounting: Rather than giving them 2 rupees each time, I give them 10 or 5 rupees. They patiently do the math and give me the correct amount. If I tell them to extend the work for 5 more minutes, they know how much I owe them.
• Auditing: From time to time, they check their piggy bank to see how much they earned and make sure no one is stealing their money ;-).
• Self confidence: When I hand over the money to them, I can see their face glowing with great confidence that they actually earned money by doing some work.
• Bonding with their mommy: More than anything, it is the bonding that makes us feel happy when we talk while they are busy doing their job. And feels great when they tell me “mommy, today you don’t need to give us pocket money, because you are also doing massage to us na..” :-).

At the end of the day, I’m happy that my kids are learning something new.

If you are interested, read more on pocket money at http://www.indiachildren.com/growing/10to15y/pocketmoney.htm

Escape into nature

Most of my blog time this weekend has been taken by my other blog Incredible India. Without further ado, providing links to open the gates to nature's beauty...

• Greenwoods nature camp
• Doddabetta
• Pykara falls
• Pykara Lake
• Gopalaswamy temple
• Bandipur and Mudumalai national parks 
• Bhannerghatta national park 
• Butterfly park

PAST is PAST????

Our lives entered into yet another great year and now it's almost end of first month. Most of us make lots of resolutions for the new year, looking forward for the FUTURE to fulfill our wishes. But how about PAST? Is it completely gone from our life?

Whenever I hear someone saying PAST IS PAST, wonder if that's really true. Past has so many good and bad memories mixed together. What should we do out of it? Good memories set path for success in the future whereas bad memories showcase what went wrong and also set path for success, only if interpreted in a correct way. It's all about the way we think.

Mind accumulates so many memories over time. After a while, feels like we are dreaming into past, vague faces, clear faces with forgotten names etc...etc... But few memories make such great impression on our lives, we never want to forget them, even if we want to, our poor heart doesn't let them go. I still remember my teacher scolding me for not trimming my nails. I was in 3rd grade and really took it to heart...of course who wants to be scolded in front of other kids ;-). But one thing I can never forget is the fact she told "there is so much dirt under your nails, you need to trim them and keep them clean". From that point onwards, even if I want to grow my nails, her words remind me to trim them. Small things, but change the way we live, again depends on how we take it.

Recently I stayed with my friend in Banglore. Almost after 15 years, we still cherish the combined studies, sleep over in each other's place and great meals provided by our parents. These memories have no success or failure tagged to them, but bring a BIG smile on our faces.

And there is this PAST that has memories of innocence and eagerness to compete with others for no reason. Still remember SANKRANTI when my father (not my mother) used to help us in doing Rangoli. The famous Rangoli for us was the beautiful peacock. After I clean and wax the floor with cow dung, my father used to help me in making the designs which were not typical Rangoli patters, but modern art ;-). Then I fill the colors with my brother's help. We used to stay up all night to make it perfect and make sure ours is the best in the colony. We even mixed Upma Rava instead of sand/rangoli to give extra effect to the Peacock, but we had to guard it from ants and other animals ;-). Good lesson learned out of innocence which again brings a BIG smile on our faces.

And there are some memories that inspire us to mimic PAST. One instance is the Bhogi day meals we had at home. Visit my food blog to get a flavor of my PAST. Nevertheless to say, PAST is PAST, but our future is definitely reflection of our PAST. Have a great YEAR ahead and do cherish all those memories you spent with your loves ones.

Guzaarish

From the moment I saw Guzaarish movie ad on TV, I knew I'll definitely like it. But wanted to watch it with my husband by my side. When I heard the movie did not do well at the box office, I was bit disappointed. When there are hit movies with songs like "Munni badnaam huyi" and "Sheela ki jawani", no wonder why this movie is a flop.

As my husband was away from home, I had no time or interest to watch it alone....instead asked him to watch it in US. We both being creatures with bundle of emotions, felt happy to hear the review from my husband and as usual, he wanted to watch it again with me. Now he is home and the movie is gone from the theaters here in Pune. We tried to watch it in Hyderabad and Banglore during our vacation...but no luck...box office collection didn't let it stay for long.

When we came home, pay-per-view service by Tata sky compelled us to purchase our first pay-per-view movie on TV.  I must say..WHAT A MOVIE....Bengali Dada Sanjay Leela Bansali has done a fabulous job in cleaning our eyes with natural tears. And what to say of Hrithik's action, the person who is good at his dance moves was thrown onto bed with his legs and hands paralyzed....still he proved to be a great actor with his facial moves...and Aishwarya's dance moves were graceful as usual.

While we were watching the movie, it reminded us our father-in-law who suffered from a rare disease called ALS(Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). A person who was perfectly all right and had great zeal to help me in removing our backyard lawn (which was around 3000sqft that made my husband think we were crazy) and prepared it for vegetation. The disease started with his thumb being numb and then slowly crawled to other parts of his body... paralyzing him completely within one year.

If a disease paralyzes mind with body, then no problem...but ALS is horrible..mind works with body pain poking the soul's patience. Remember him saying "I want to die, I can't take this pain anymore". I still remember the moment on the last day of his life...he wanted to convey something ...the only thing he could move was his eye balls....giving all sorts of signs...but I had tough time decoding them. After half an hour of hard work, his eyes settled in peace when I touched his legs. All he wanted to say was to massage his legs which were in great pain. I felt like doing parakaya pravesham to understand what he wanted to say.

Human achieved great success in transplanting kidney, liver and heart...BUT soul transplant can only be done by God.... with the side effect of losing past history :-(. Anyways, we truly enjoyed watching the movie and the climax is beautiful with the message <as I decode it>....it is not lust, but TRUE LOVE that binds two people together... if you LOVE TRULY, happiness overflows out of pain.