Theirs vs Ours

My office route at Tampa included numerous passing by Moffit Cancer Institute as Residence Inn where I stayed housed many Moffit patients and one of the complimentary services was a pick and drop.

So, most of the patients it seemed were traveling alone to the hospital or it seemed to be accompanied by their spouse. I rarely noticed anyone whose children accompanied them. There were occasional moments when the whole family was there but most of the time it pained me to see an old ailing man accompanied by his husband or wife, which was old herself/himself.  I wondered where the children were! At rare moments, it made me proud to think that they were independent and that they cared for each other so much.

In my country India, however, whenever I have accompanied by mum to a hospital, I did not fail to notice that that old people were mostly accompanied by their children.

I also never a fellow Australian colleague with contempt when I remember his conversation about how his mother disturbed him because she would walk around in her sleep and that he got a huge relief when he put her an old age home. Well, so much for all parents do for their children.

I am just an ordinary being and criticism is but a part of me! Cultural differences are always existent but I think love or respect for your parents should be an integral part of every culture.

Sunday Musings

I woke up this Sunday morning and relaized that it was raining outside. Nothing pleases me more than to sleep when it rains and more so when it is a Sunday, you know you can afford it.
So, when I finally woke up and standing on the balcony and watching the wet leaves and flowers, I kept wondering how the definition of Sundays has changed over the years. Back in those times when I was at school, Sundays meant a good breakfast, something different from the other days, then bathing and then watching Ramayan or Mahabharata with family which had almost become a ritual. And not just Ramayana, Sundays meant Vikram Vetal, Panchatantra ki kahaniyan and later Nivn etc.

Sundays in Bangalore were totally different; we lived in a rented place and we 6 girls had different routines from waking up early and washing the clothes to mehnding our hair, or applying multani on the face and then probably a movie day out or some shopping here and there. I particularly remember reading the newspaper over breakfast and this has remained with me till now, I don't enjoy breakfast without a look at the newspaper or reading the newspaper without having the breakfast plate and a cup of tea in front of me.
So, the rains today made a perfect excuse for hot puris and aloo sabzi and the sunday supplement to go with!

The email story...err the intuition story

It has been a few years since this and I write this because something similar has happened just a couple of days back. Back in those the project I worked on had monthly releases, not necessary every month but there was a gap of few months in between. So, one day as I was working on a project and was midway through it, I dont know what happened but I chanced upon a mail by some unintended clicks and that was about the release notes and that my lead had updated it. Now I did not see the dates on that email and assumed that it was just received. I kept the task of reading the updates for later and went on to finish what was immediately needed. But when I got to that task, I could not find that email and all my search went in vain. I wondered if I had deleted the email and asked my lead to re-send the same to me. He was so surprised by my email because he said though he updated the release notes that very day he did not actually send me an email. We were both surprised! Well, what had happened was that some old email with the same subject and intention had opened by chance. Well, a boon since my lead had forgotten to update me, I could have potentially missed the changes but for my luck I was saved the embarrasment.

And just two days back, I had decided to delete mails from an old project since my mailbox was having space issues. And out of nowhere, I received an email from someone involved in that project and for two whole minutes I kept checking if that was not an old email. Well, I take it as a sign not to delete  those as something from there might turn to be useful in the near future!

If your mind is open and uncluttered, I guess we receive these signals; it is just a matter of realizing!

The Rain

The rain fell down heavily
And it seemed like a song, the best song that I ever heard
And all I could do was change my path
And take the path of the rain
I lift my arms, I let myself go
I run, I run, I run to embrace the rain
I lift my arms, I feel one with the rain
And like a song I run and run, with the rain
The green meadows watch me, the shallow waters watch me
The kids wonder, the passers-by question
But I am running, running with the rain
My wings have just opened and I am flying flying with the rain
To feel the rain, to feel the joy

Allowing the bad things to come to you?

The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it..Atlas Shrugged

The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it...this is a favourite quote of mine and as I live and learn in life, I believe in these lines more and more...

I was just now reading about the suicide note that Jia Khan has left behind. Those who don't know who or what I am talking about, Jiah was an actress, a budding one who did not meet fame the way she would have liked  and coupled with personal problems, she ended her life some 10 days back by hanging herself.

Coming back to her suicide note, it seems to be all revolving around Suraj Pancholi, the son of actor Aditya Pancholi, who she was dating. In every line, she mentions rejection, rejection by her lover whether it was about her preferences, her family and worst of it all was about aborting their child.

Well, I think this is something to do about being in love, about forgetting oneself and giving the other person so much importance that you totally forget that you exist. You forget about treating yourself well, you crave for acceptance, you crave for love and attention from that person so much so that you forget you have a world of your own, your friends, your parents and your loved ones and probably a loving husband waiting somewhere...

So, when it happens that your world is just him, you can't accept the fact that you can survive without him. You have given him so much importance that you have ceased to exist and perhaps a nervous breakdown or in Jia's case, a suicide was the most logical next step.

Why could not she focus on her life instead? On her career, on her family and on her friends? Life is never about sticking to just that one choice, life is about changes,about experiences, about learning and still about being able to love. Every person or every event in life is made to happen so you learn, grow and move on. Change is the only constant factor in the arithmetic called life.

So, dear girls and ladies and even emotionally weak guys reeading this post, please make yourself important, let your life not be a waste just because of that one person. That person anyway is perhaps never going to be impacted even after the step that you have taken, it's because your act was an act of cowardice, how can someone be impacted? Suraj will probably lead his life normally and in time marry someone without that girl even impacted by all what happened. Yes, he will find a girl. You should have lived and then you would have eventually found someone who was worth you Jiah!

Luna Park Memories

Oh these rides do give you an amazing experience, to see the world from different angles, and rushing and gushing and at some point thinking that this is the end of the world.

My experience with rides almost all the time has been an initial fear, also kind of an assurance that I am locked up and so shall not fall, and when it's over, a relief, a sense of pride or achievement at having conquered the fear in me.

Back in India, I don't remember if I sat on a ride for a long time. May be I didn't get enough chances, may be I was plane scared or may be it was just too crowded! I am still thinking if I did take a ride on one of those 'melas' in Bangalore but I can't seem to remember clearly and will have to check with one of my friends when I talk to her next.

My real ride experiences happened outside though...the first one being in Luna Park, Sydney. Luna Park has created amazing memories for me in the sense that I don't remember how many times I have been there. The first one was when we walked from our office to the Park and crossed the Harbour Bridge by the evening when the lights were bright and the whole world seemed to be shining. What a memory that was, still fresh in my mind, to be walking with the stars and the cool breeze soothing you. I don't remember taking any rides that though but the experience was still great.

My next visit to Luna Park was also devoid of any rides but even then we had walked all the way from somewhere, where I can't remember well enough now.

But after that I don't know how amny times I have been there and opted for different rides at different point in time. The best one that I remember and probably the scariest one was the one which took you vertically up at 90 degrees and kept you suspended there for a while. You could see the sea from top and the buildings and all you could do was to hope the ride to end. Then they would suddenly drop you and you would think you are finished. We were in a group of 7 or 8 but only three of us dared the same. And initially I was shouting and screaming but later it went on and on and I just kept my eyes closed. What had given me the courage to go for it was the little children who enjoyed and I thought why not me?

I am trying to look up for the pics of that ride on the internet but cannot seem to find one; there is one called the Moon Ranger though which I think must be the improvised version of the one that I rode. Yes, I also remember that on my subsequent visits, this was under renovation or something and I could not probably find it.

The other rides were also good, there was one spider thing, a Tumble bug, and one Columbus ride if I remember right, some through the water and so on. Whatever it is Luna Park does hold a special space in my heart. And not just that I always remember watching with loving memories of the park whenever I was on the North Shore lane.

My other memories of the Luna Park are ofcourse the friends I have been with there and one occasion we did taste some delicious chicken which we could never find again...memories are but one-time specials...

Located at:  1 Olympic Dr  Milsons Point NSW 2061, Australia
How to reach: Just a few minutes walk from Milson's Point train station

The Dream Ride

Oh God, I do have the funniest of dreams. Last evening, I spoke of rides with a friend of mine and we talked of what we have done, what we can and what we will never do. We shared pics, analyzed those and talked about what we like, what scares us and what we had left undone. I will write something on that but first let me write about the dream I had last night.

Well, I saw my hometown, the bylanes and the street where I had spent my each growing day. And then I saw that just across the most happening place there in our colony, that is where the annual Pujas are held, where wedding and birthday celebrations take place, there was a ride, and it was like a long boat. Well well! I saw myself sitting there with some people I knew from my childhood, saw the steep slide downwards and knew it would be fun. I also could see some water bodies around. In reality that area does have a steep and I was mighty glad that they introduced something like this.

And when we rode down, it was fun, it was a great experience having something like this right in the middle of the small town and then the speed was just good for everyone's taste. I rode down and then got off when the ride was done with a sense of pride, the pride coming from the fact that I was kind of an expert with rides and this one was easy.

Then we got down a flight of steps, all too familiar as we had grown up there and followed the others just to get back. Oh but then this girl managed to climb through the stones and the rocks and I could see myself stranded there because I could not go up further, there was not enough space for me to climb. I waited as to what to do next when I woke up...and I smiled for I was not stranded and amazed at the power of my thoughts and dreams...