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December 21, 2004

Children

Is there anything in life more joyous than the pure, saintly, almost beatific smile of a child? Is there a greater joy in life than to welcome a child's spontaneous hug with open arms? Does anything in life gives us more, a sense of fulfilment than a child wrapping his little hand around your fingers as if to say, you are perfect, you are my guardian angel and you are my hero!

A child is truly a miracle, bestowed on man to teach him what he has long forgotten, to tech him what unconditional love is, to teach him to be satisfied with simple gifts of life, to teach him, what goodness is all about...

Have you ever noticed, how simple it is to please a baby? You smile at him and he is happy and smiles back at you...a profound act lost in the world of thoughtlessness and dissatisfaction...

How easy is it to engage a child's attention, to divert him when he is crying? Do we get consoled so easily? How many days of anger and self-pity do we dwell in before we cleanse ourselves of the hurt? How long and hard have we cried for our plights behind closed doors turning a deaf ear to consoling worlds and sympathetic eyes?

All he asks for is loads of love and he is happy and willing to fight the world for us and yet, why do we not learn? Why do we need uncountable things to satisfy us? to be at peace with ourselves and the world?

Take a moment to learn from this bundle of joy what it is to love, to care, to rejoice...and learn today, that indeed,
"The child is the father of man".

Friends...

Friends...they come and go, its when they have gone that you realize you wanted to spend more time with them; share, just a few more things with them; exchange, just a few more stories, thoughts...you get this inexplicable urge to just be together with them to share and understand the silence and the unspoken words...but then reality dawns and the cloud vanishes and things become clear, the tugging feeling in your heart, the lump in the throat reappear and you realize you cannot change the past...

Your friend has moved on and so should you...the mind insists, but the heart does not listen, there is always the faint hope lurking deep within that keeps saying that he (she) will come back to you...

But then, when the intensity of any such unfortunate happening lessens, it always reveals a silver lining beneath the dark, impregnable cloud of unhappiness...it strikes you like a bolt, albeit a pleasant one...revealing brightness, happiness - the sudden realization that the friends who stayed behind are precious enough to smile through your tears - a smile that teaches you a lesson, that teaches you that you have a lot to be merry about and to sing like a lark; a smile clarifying all doubts and apprehensions, a smile that teaches you that you are lucky to have someone you can turn to, no matter what happens, someone, for you...forever.

December 14, 2004

Just something nice and that I can relate to (From "Life of Pi" - Yann Martel)

I am a Hindu because of sculptured cones of red kumkum powder and baskets of yellow turmeric nuggets, because of garlands of flowers and pieces of broken coconut, because of the clanging of bells to announce one's arrival to God, because of the whine of the reedy nadaswaram and the beating of drums, because of the patter of bare feet against stone floors down dark corridors pierced by shafts of sunlight, because of the fragrance of incense, because of flames of arati lamps circling in the darkness, because of bhajans being sweetly sung, because of elephants standing around to bless, because of colorful murals telling colorful stories, because of foreheads carrying variously signified, the same word - faith.

December 13, 2004

The first few snow flakes of the year fell today...it was magical...who am I kidding?! I hate snow. The first time I saw snow here (in 2000), I went crazy with joy, it was beautiful and I was thrilled to play in it, smack people with snow balls and cycle in the snow but now after 4 years, yeah it looks lovely, when you are inside the house, snuggled in a nice warm robe with a book in hand and an extra-large mug of steaming hot chocolate by the side!

Anyway, the point of my blog today (and as DeGeneres says, "and I do have one...") is this - Are Girls relationship-control-freaks?

From what I have noticed about relationships here, I see that its mostly girls who get their way. "Their way" ranges from only seeing the movie that they want to see, eating only at the places they want to eat, to making their guys do all the house work including cooking! How healthy is such a relationship and will it survive? Well, here's my take on the issue - I think any relationship is healthy as long as the girl and the guy involved continue to respect and be courteous to each other. I mean the world is never happy with any relationshiop, if the guy does everything the girl bids, the guy is a spineless-doormat. If the guy doesnt do this - he is an MCP. I mean, how can the poor guy win? The solution is simple - forget what the world things (easier for guys to do than girls, believe me!) - recently, I saw a couple whom (or who - ok, I am not perfect!) I thought were perfect for each other and 6 months later, they had broken up. I mean, life is never a bed of roses without the thorns (God, I hate using cliche's) - it always look better to you since you are on this side of the grass, I mean the green side of the grass, I mean "The grass is always greener on the other side" (safe bet - use cliche's - you do not have to worry about grammar and punctuation, although I noticed that I got my apostrophe wrong in "cliche's", but was too lazy to go all the way back and correct it!) - you probably have a really sweet and strong relationship going on with your guy - dont spoil it by taking a peek at other relationships, which are probably not as great as yours!

December 10, 2004

Its 3:13 PM, Kentucky time and am sitting at work twiddling my thumbs and counting the number of movies that I HAVE to watch this weekend. Its 3.14 Kentucky time now... incase you didnt notice, I have the habit of specifying time with the State I am in. After having lived in India for 20 years and then here for 4 years and with friends in the west coast and one in Arizona, I have completely given up trying to keep track of time! I mean, its 3:14 here, 2:14 or is it 4:14 in Chicago?! Its 1:14, now 1:15 in California and Arizona has this weird ego issue, it doesnt do this daylight saving thing, so, its umm...2:14 I think, actually 4:14...ok I dont get this. I know its a nice concept, this day light saving thing and this whole different time thing but it makes everything more confusing like we dont have enough to make us go crazy!

Speaking of crazy, I finished reading "The mango season", could relate to it 1.5% and
rest couldn't. I just cannot bad mouth India just because I have stayed here for
a couple of years. Well, maybe after 8 years...no, just kidding. I wont do it or atleast try not to do it.

This blog has been one disorganized, ugly blog, thanks to all the javascript that
I am trying to write, oh, I AM still at work and its 5:11 Kentucky time now, so going to call it a day and a night, in India...

December 09, 2004

6 more working days before vacation time!!! This has been a loong and booring year and a particularly stressful one, what with dad not talking to me and mom and dad fighting all the time and me and k fighting about mom and dad are fighting and me and k fighting about dad not talking to me and what with the war in iraq....wait, the last one is not one of the reasons the year has been stressful..sorry, felt like a news reporter reporting "the year at a glance" and got carried away!

Sooo...an interesting thing happened yesterday, an event that explains the emotional differences between man and woman, as simple as that :)
I got an email from a Ms.A at work and I thought the email was a tad rude, you know, just a little bit, so I told k about this. k, as we all know, is my boy friend - one of the reasons for the fights mentioned in the paragraph above, before the iraq war. So, anyway, I told k about this and he said "Oh come on now, you are reading too much into the email, just do what she says". So, I pondered about this for an hour and a half, during which time I didnt do much work since I was pondering (surprised, I still get paid at this place!). Finally, I replied to the email, fighting the impulse to make my response a tad rude too. I emailed clearing Ms.A's doubts and still a bit annoyed about her email. I got a response back in 2 minutes! Ms.A said "Oh sorry, I think you misunderstood what I was talking about, I meant xyz and not abc!". So, there you go, I was right and k was wrong. The woman proves that she is emotionally more umm...let me get back to you on that word that I want to use here, lets call it "I" for now. The woman proves that she is emotionally more "I" than the man, that didnt quite sound like I wanted it to sound. Anyway...so there, I proved a point. Men tend to take things too lightly, not get affected by ANYTHING and just react less altogether, I just cannot understand that! How can you not be annoyed at a rude email?! How can you not be annoyed at men?!!!

December 08, 2004

I was reading "The Mango season" by Amulya Malladi last night before I fell asleep and the similarities between this book and "The Monsoon diary: A memoir with recipes" By Shobha Narayanan were striking. They both discuss India in vivid, colorful, aromatic details and they both have recipes included in the book. If I had to choose between the two, my vote would go to Shoba Nar..'s book any day. Firstly, she doesnt put down everything in India after returning back to India from US, secondly, her command over the language seems to be better. Anyway, who am I to sit on my high seat and judge these authors? Well, its my opinion and am free to express it and I just did :) Another boring day at work, vacation starts in 7 days (!!!) but am certainly not looking forward to my wisdom teeth removal :(
RS

December 07, 2004

OK, this is the nth time that I am trying to blog some of my random thoughts, and hopefully this wont be another one of my painful, time consuming and unsuccessful attempts to create a mind-blowing blog and get recognized for it. Do I really want to get recognition through my blogs? hmm...I dont know, that will be kind of cool...oh, come on now! Who is going to recognize a blog that says "that will be kind of cool..."..."kind of", 2 words that I think should never be used in any decent conversation...another such word "like"...I mean, how does this sound? "You know, I mean like, it would kind of cool, like, if you, like..."....yes, I second that (although I first(ed?) it also :)), is that a word? can you first something like you second it? Well, now thats a decent sized first blog, more later!

RS
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