Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Beautiful!

Nobody is so beautiful that under certain circumstances he or she will not look ugly. Beauty visible to eyes may last only until one gets to really know a person's likes and dislikes, interests and passion, true behaviour, lifestyle, things that he or she finds happiness in, how that person talks and mingles with all. Then the perception of beauty begins to change. If one is still beautiful, then its not just the beauty visible to the eyes, its the beauty visible to the heart, selflessness, generosity, service-mindedness, contentment.True beauty is a smile that lasts through all times, happy and sad. Of course its not a joke to keep smiling when a loved one departs or when loneliness dawns or when you can't see a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel. Its how quickly you get out of all the quagmire in life, pep it up with some music and dance and give those 14 muscles on the face a big workout. :-) And that is beauty!

Every soul in the universe is beautiful, in one way or the other. Somebody's innocence may be beautiful while somebody Else's knowledge may be beautiful. They are made more beautiful by others who love them. When loved ones praise you and glorify you and admire you, it creates so much positivity in you, you tend to believe it so deeply that you really start becoming beautiful even if you are not so beautiful. There is a small amount of beauty that comes by birth and more that comes to you as you grow up., in your attitude towards life and other people, by situations from which you learn and grow stronger, and of course your own effort to seek, know and learn. Nobody can alter the amount of beauty one is born with. That depends on one's genes. But the beauty one acquires over time can be enhanced, one, with a will to enhance it and work to refine and polish thoughts, words and actions. Two, by people around who love unconditionally, criticize a fault positively, giving you more enthusiasm to correct it and not make you feel like you're fit for nothing.

People crib about the society being ugly with corrupt, selfish, mean people, but seldom realize that they can actually make some difference to make it beautiful and sometimes even contribute to make it ugly. Positive words create positive vibes around and influence people and their minds positively. This may seem minuscule, but its very important for everybody to inculcate positiveness in life! There's NOBODY who is ugly on earth. God has created everyone and we have no right to comment on some one's looks and call him or her ugly when being ugly or beautiful by looks is not what that person can change. If at all someone is ugly, for me, it would only be their attitude or behaviour that is ugly and not the actual person, and even the ugly attitude would have reasons behind it for it to be so. Frustration, submission, being deprived of love and respect, lots of them that we need to empathize with and not strengthen by ostracizing him or her as the ugly duckling! This quality of acceptance, not finding an intention behind the ugliness and creating so much positivity and beauty around that the ugliness gets subdued by the beauty of kindness, forgiveness, friendliness, cheerfulness, open-mindedness, compassion, trust and love is what makes us more beautiful, whether it has an effect on the other person or not, and that's what matters! :-)

Friday, November 28, 2008

Mumbai's 9/11

A middle aged man, goes to the Taj with a photograph of two of his young daughters and comes out unconsolably weeping.


A young man, lots to live for, calls his dad at 2.30 am and says, “Papa, are you sleeping? Switch on the TV, let me talk to Mamma and my brother” and never returns.


How horrifying can it get!!! Armed men enter hospitals, railway stations and just shoot anybody and everybody! Innocent men and women, kids and even dogs are not spared!
Imagine going to the Taj or the Oberoi for a night out, just to dine and party and maybe a dance…and not getting back home.
Why? Why innocent people? The terrorists are not to be blamed. It’s the terror. Its not who are these criminals, but why this crime? The terrorists who have been brainwashed from the age of 4 about being rewarded with wine and women in heaven if they die for Jihad and their religion, and who are suicide bombers and die either in a blast or get brutally tortured by the army for their whereabouts if they get caught, or live an entire life of violence and terror and trauma for some heavenly bliss which no one knows is really true…are they to be blamed or the entire origin of terror and the wrong ideology in this class of people? What do we do about this whole situation then? A situation where terror goes on and on with more kids brainwashed to grow up into terrorists like the ones who killed hundres of people in Mumbai? About mothers crying for their sons who haven’t returned home, be it the mothers of army commandos or terrorists or just laymen at the 5 star hotels…all tears have the same pain behind them.


And still, people have misunderstandings unsorted, misconceptions, frustration, and so much negativity towards other people…at this time of uncertainity of life, of whether we would really return home after going to watch a movie or shopping to a mall. Why cant we just forgive and let go? Life is so small, so transcient, so uncertain. What meaning does all this cold war between families and ‘no talking’ between people who loved each other once have? Everyone’s going to die one day…why not live a life where you don’t hate anyone, you don’t have even one person in life that you cannot show your face to, why not life happily, help as many people as possible ?


Awe inspiring was the act of the South African commandos who were on a vacation at the Taj, while they heard firing and blasts and secured the restaurant they were in by arming people there with whatever available, knives, forks, whatever, evacuating 150 people from there, including a 90 year old woman. This is true secularism of the world, true humanity, true presence of mind and sense of brotherhood. …and people like Raj Thackrey go beat up innocent cab drivers just ‘coz they are Bihari…who were the commandos who fought without fearing their lives to evacuate all those hostages? South Indians and North Indians and not just Mumbaikars.


Everything is predetermined, by fate and God, one friend dies in the restaurant in the ground floor being shot in the neck, while his friend who decided to have room service for dinner that night survives and gets back home…what is this but sheer fate? All this horror happened and can't be helped now. We do not know how well we can secure ourselves from such terror that might show its ugly head again. But, all that we can do, is live a life of peace for self and others, forgive enemies, love all, let there be no person who turns away his face when he looks at you, spread goodness, good thoughts, good actions, to make a better society.


Hats off to everyone of those who saved lives in Mumbai..condolence to families who have lost their near and dear ones..God be with them.



"Watch your thoughts 'coz they become your words, watch your words, 'coz they become your actions, watch your actions 'coz they become your habits, watch your habits, 'coz they become your destiny." Prayers to all those terrorists whose destiny today is the result of the thoughts, words and actions of their masters and leaders, fie upon violent thoughts, violent actions...who knows even eating non-veg, may instill a violent nature in us to start with. All the pain that the poultry and the cattle go through when they are slaughtered manifests as negativity in the ones who eat them, right? Hope more and more people realize this and love oneself and others and spread joy and positivity and make the world a better place to live in. Amen.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Who am I?

This is my first post. And if anyone is really reading my blog, and you want to know who I am, here it goes....

Who am I? This question looks very simple and direct, but there is a lot of depth to it. I will describe to my best both simply as well as with that contemplation to it.

I am a simple, nice, helpful Indian girl...wait a minute...simple? My mind gets so complex at times, it feels like a deadlock! If reading the word deadlock triggers something about the operating system's deadlock management and deadlock related issues in your mind, then yes, I am a computer science student too, so that explains the use of that particular word. I am nice, both outside and inside...I mean to look at (as others have quoted :-D, I'm not bragging...) and to be with. Being helpful equates with being Indian. Proud to be one! So, being Indian has instilled many qualities in me, which by default come with just 'being born Indian' , kudos to India and her culture. If someone is wondering why India is referred to as 'her' always and not 'him', thats the greatness we attribute to the female clan...many very feminine qualities of caring, sharing, sacrificing and loving unconditionally come with being an Indian. Its in the blood of Indians who live its culture. I will write a different post completely dedicated to India and its culture...let me not digress from ME now...HEHEHE.

I did my schooling in Bangalore where I was born and brought up and live even now. I studied in a convent, all girls school. I'm 20 now. My high school life was good. But my pre-university life sucked! That college, the lecturers, the whole ambience sucked....literally! Except for a few good friends I gathered. My engineering phase of life, which I am in now, is the best! I just love my college, the lecturers..Divya M'am my favourite..my lovely friends...7 of them that fill my life with colour like the rainbow on a bright sunny day. Nitya the Violet, Prithvi the....hey wait a minute, I paint too...so I love colours. And its so beautiful what each colour symbolizes and its even more beautiful to characterize my friends with these colours. Let me describe each one of them with a colour....

Nitya - Violet.

Just like Violet symbolizes harmony of the universe and the planets in the solar system because of the combination of red(known as yang) and blue (known as yin), Nitty darlin makes everything harmonious among the 8 of us. Popes use violet or the royal purple for their robes..to symbolize power and responsibility...thats what our Nitya is too...power house of our friendship and a very responsible person.

Teddy - Indigo.

Indigo, the colour of deep midnight sky...this is Teddy, aka Prithvi Hegde. The calm and serene soul as she always is....profound insight of self, spontaneous humour (often PJs!!! :-D)...purity of thought and attitude, just as Virgin Mary who is depicted with Indigo.

Dodo - Blue.

Blue is the colour of depth, stability, vastness like the ocean and the sky...this is what our Dodo is...Sadhwika is her name, but she is fondly called Dodo, although the bird dodo was supposed to be meek and defence-less, she is not so, she's just called so. :D Dodo is typical blue symbolizing trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Priya - Green.

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony and freshness just like our ever-green Priya..who always springs with joy and spreads it all over.

Boogu - Yellow.

Don't ask me why we call Sharanya Boogu...its highly censored..hehehe...But she is typical yellow, chirpy, bubbly, jolly, all smiles for all, always like the bright yellow sunshine, warm and energetic. :-)

Suppi - Orange.

Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics just like Suppi... determination, attraction, success, encouragement is what she is.

Cleo - Red.

Queen Cleopatra after whom she was nicknamed Cleo...Veena is the passionate red...symbolizing fire and love and strength. Bright and attractive, eye-catching and pretty, smart and sweet...the little red riding hood - our cleo.

So these are my rainbow colours, the VIBGYOR of my life! :-)

Lemme not digress....coming back to ME :-D .... The WHO AM I question which intrigues me demands a lot of contemplation. Questions like Who am I, why am I here, what is the purpose of my life, how can I make my life better and useful to more and more people have always made me muse and I'm still musing on it...so I would definitely post an article on it once I completely decipher the subject. :-)