October 25th….It’s been exactly one month since I started this blog…so happy 1st month anniversary to me! Lol…Thanks to Shalaka, Mini, Rishika, Dolly, Radhi, Gauri, Shafin and Anish for keeping this blog alive!
Hopefully there will be many more better and improved posts to come.
Till then,
Cheers!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Diwali celebrations-why?
Most of us celebrate diwali, but how many of us know the real reasons behind celebrating this festive time of year? It’s not only about having fun but there are mythical reasons behind celebrating diwali. Like…
1.Goddess Lakshmi’s Birthday: The Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi incarnated on the new moon day (amaavasyaa) of the Kartik month during the churning of the ocean (samudra-manthan), hence the association of Diwali with Lakshmi.
2. Vishnu Rescued Lakshmi: On this very day (Diwali day), Lord Vishnu in his fifth incarnation as Vaman-avtaara rescued Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali and this is another reason of worshipping Ma Larkshmi on Diwali.
3. Krishna Killed Narakaasur: On the day preceding Diwali, Lord Krishna killed the demon king Narakaasur and rescued 16,000 women from his captivity. The celebration of this freedom went on for two days including the Diwali day as a victory festival.
4. The Return of the Pandavas: According to the great epic ‘Mahabharata’, it was ‘Kartik Amavashya’ when the Pandavas appeared from their 12 years of banishment as a result of their defeat in the hands of the Kauravas at the game of dice (gambling). The subjects who loved the Pandavas celebrated the day by lighting the earthen lamps.
5. The Victory of Rama: According to the epic ‘Ramayana’, it was the new moon day of Kartik when Lord Ram, Ma Sita and Lakshman returned to Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravana and conquering Lanka. The citizens of Ayodhya decorated the entire city with the earthen lamps and illuminated it like never before.
6. Coronation of Vikramaditya: One of the greatest Hindu King Vikramaditya was coroneted on the Diwali day, hence Diwali became a historical event as well.
7. Special Day for the Arya Samaj: It was the new moon day of Kartik (Diwali day) when Maharshi Dayananda, one of the greatest reformers of Hinduism and the founder of Arya Samaj attained his nirvana.
8. Special Day for the Jains: Mahavir Tirthankar, considered to be the founder of modern Jainism also attained his nirvana on Diwali day.
9. Special Day for the Sikhs: The third Sikh Guru Amar Das institutionalized Diwali as a Red-Letter Day when all Sikhs would gather to receive the Gurus blessings. In 1577, the foundation stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was laid on Diwali. In 1619, the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind, who was held by the Mughal Emperor Jahengir, was released from the Gwalior fort along with 52 kings.
10. The Pope’s Diwali Speech: In 1999, Pope John Paul II performed a special Eucharist in an Indian church where the altar was decorated with Diwali lamps, the Pope had a ‘tilak’ marked on his forehead and his speech was bristled with references to the festival of light.
I didn’t know the causes and reasons behind celebrating diwali but after reading this I realized that celebrating the diwali for the heck of it is different but if we know WHY we celebrate diwali it’s another thing…
I hope all of you have a safe diwali – please be careful if you are bursting crackers & those of you are not in honour of the 11/ 7 victims- way to go!
Enjoy and have fun!
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Why are you waiting?
I had a weird dream last night…and I’m still trying to make sense of it. I dreamt about having just one month to live. I can’t remember for what reason and how I had one month to live but all I knew was that I had 30 days to make the most of it.
The next morning all I could think about was that if such an event actually took place what would be the things that I would want to do before leaving this globe. There were an infinite number of things I could think about, like going back to my birth place – Canada, going to Disneyland, spending those days with my family and friends. Do wacky things like dying my hair blue or bungee jumping, video record all those moments for my brothers to show them what their sister was like etc etc…
It does sound peculiar but it did make me realize that we do take life for granted. I mean I’m not trying to be philosophical or anything all I’m saying is that if we just take a look around our fast paced lives and stop for a moment we do realize that we take life for granted. I just had a dream…. but there are cancer patients who know they don’t have time; they try and live life to their fullest.
It just the thought of not having time that made me realize that there is so much to do and so little time. It is in our human nature to take our lives and existence for granted but I think that we all should just, maybe once in a while try and look around us…and be thankful for our lives.
I don’t know if this has made sense, my point is that try and not to take life for granted and live it to the fullest. Just try and imagine -if it were your last 30 days on this planet, what would you do ….and why are you waiting?
The next morning all I could think about was that if such an event actually took place what would be the things that I would want to do before leaving this globe. There were an infinite number of things I could think about, like going back to my birth place – Canada, going to Disneyland, spending those days with my family and friends. Do wacky things like dying my hair blue or bungee jumping, video record all those moments for my brothers to show them what their sister was like etc etc…
It does sound peculiar but it did make me realize that we do take life for granted. I mean I’m not trying to be philosophical or anything all I’m saying is that if we just take a look around our fast paced lives and stop for a moment we do realize that we take life for granted. I just had a dream…. but there are cancer patients who know they don’t have time; they try and live life to their fullest.
It just the thought of not having time that made me realize that there is so much to do and so little time. It is in our human nature to take our lives and existence for granted but I think that we all should just, maybe once in a while try and look around us…and be thankful for our lives.
I don’t know if this has made sense, my point is that try and not to take life for granted and live it to the fullest. Just try and imagine -if it were your last 30 days on this planet, what would you do ….and why are you waiting?
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Voices Of youth
Hey everyone! I’m sorry I haven’t been updating my blog regularly but let me get to the point. I don’t know how many of you have heard of “voices of youth” (VOY), I am grateful to a friend for introducing me to this site.
Every child has a right to education, yet 115million children miss out.
Almost 12million young people suffer from HIV.
Every year more than 2 million children all over the world are sexually abused for profit.
Did these figures surprise you? I was sure shocked to know that these children suffer so much, It does make us realize that we should count are blessings every day.
In VOY you can read true stories, take part in discussions and polls, go through photo journals etc. If you want to make a difference then please go visit this website and become a member, encourage your friends and family to become a member too.
http://www.unicef.org/voy/
Lets make a difference!
Every child has a right to education, yet 115million children miss out.
Almost 12million young people suffer from HIV.
Every year more than 2 million children all over the world are sexually abused for profit.
Did these figures surprise you? I was sure shocked to know that these children suffer so much, It does make us realize that we should count are blessings every day.
In VOY you can read true stories, take part in discussions and polls, go through photo journals etc. If you want to make a difference then please go visit this website and become a member, encourage your friends and family to become a member too.
http://www.unicef.org/voy/
Lets make a difference!
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Appreciation-do u appreciate?
Hey folks- I’m trying my hand at blogging again and this time I have NO clue what I’m going to write. 10 mins have disappeared and I’m still looking at the blank screen so I figured I should type this out so the screen won’t look blank anymore. I don’t know if that made sense but my screen looks better…
Have u ever bothered to notice the “miniature” details of life? I hadn’t till a few days ago. I sat in class –our teacher went on about some “stories” she heard about our so called notorious and LOUD class…We all looked at her well at least it looked like that. Our eyes were on her our minds as usual were sidetracked somewhere else. Someone was thinking about how they’re going break the haunting news of not getting “first-class” grades to their parents or maybe they were counting the seconds for the bell to ring, waiting for the glorious moment for our teacher to get out of class or how they wanted to drill her head through the wall…but my thoughts for a change weren’t drifted that way.
I looked out the window, at the blue skies staring down at me. We never appreciate the beautiful skies…but manage to crib when the skies change their colour for the day and become grey. I looked at the trees in the quadrangle, we walk pass them everyday without acknowledging the fact they do add to the ambiance of our quad. It might sound brainless but if u try to imagine the quad without the trees you wouldn’t see anything but a barren ground.
Admiring nature is something we do during many points during our lives, but throughout our existence on this globe we should learn to admire the other small things....... for example how my mom never forgets to ask me how my day was when I come back from school or how during every occasion, when I’m feeling blue I manage to find a note from one of my friends may it be Dolly, Rishika or Prerna sitting on my desk. Whenever I get off the phone with my mama’s or mami’s they never forget to remind me that they love me.
In today’s materialistic world it is important that we find happiness by appreciating the small things which at the end of our existence make our lives look larger. Appreciation may be one word but its meaning is so deep. This deepness we can go on reaching and exploring till the end of our lives, if we understand how and what it is to appreciate. Appreciation doesn’t reach ones heart if it isn’t said with compassion and sincerity.
Well I managed to write something….to some extent, whether I got the message through or not I’m not sure but I hope I did. One last thing “constructive criticism” will be appreciated…It’s not the question of not liking all the good comments, but this criticism will just help me to write improved blogs which will make your read more satisfying.
Have u ever bothered to notice the “miniature” details of life? I hadn’t till a few days ago. I sat in class –our teacher went on about some “stories” she heard about our so called notorious and LOUD class…We all looked at her well at least it looked like that. Our eyes were on her our minds as usual were sidetracked somewhere else. Someone was thinking about how they’re going break the haunting news of not getting “first-class” grades to their parents or maybe they were counting the seconds for the bell to ring, waiting for the glorious moment for our teacher to get out of class or how they wanted to drill her head through the wall…but my thoughts for a change weren’t drifted that way.
I looked out the window, at the blue skies staring down at me. We never appreciate the beautiful skies…but manage to crib when the skies change their colour for the day and become grey. I looked at the trees in the quadrangle, we walk pass them everyday without acknowledging the fact they do add to the ambiance of our quad. It might sound brainless but if u try to imagine the quad without the trees you wouldn’t see anything but a barren ground.
Admiring nature is something we do during many points during our lives, but throughout our existence on this globe we should learn to admire the other small things....... for example how my mom never forgets to ask me how my day was when I come back from school or how during every occasion, when I’m feeling blue I manage to find a note from one of my friends may it be Dolly, Rishika or Prerna sitting on my desk. Whenever I get off the phone with my mama’s or mami’s they never forget to remind me that they love me.
In today’s materialistic world it is important that we find happiness by appreciating the small things which at the end of our existence make our lives look larger. Appreciation may be one word but its meaning is so deep. This deepness we can go on reaching and exploring till the end of our lives, if we understand how and what it is to appreciate. Appreciation doesn’t reach ones heart if it isn’t said with compassion and sincerity.
Well I managed to write something….to some extent, whether I got the message through or not I’m not sure but I hope I did. One last thing “constructive criticism” will be appreciated…It’s not the question of not liking all the good comments, but this criticism will just help me to write improved blogs which will make your read more satisfying.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
A book Recomendation...
Hey guys!
Thanks for the positive feedback on my blog. For all of u who sent me emails i would like to recomend this book called "Mayada, Daughter of Iraq" by Jean sasson. I'd like to thank sonya and shibani for introducing me to this book. It is a real eye-opener. Enjoy!
Thanks for the positive feedback on my blog. For all of u who sent me emails i would like to recomend this book called "Mayada, Daughter of Iraq" by Jean sasson. I'd like to thank sonya and shibani for introducing me to this book. It is a real eye-opener. Enjoy!
Monday, September 25, 2006
discrimination against women-why?
This is my first encounter with the whole "blogging business" so forgive me if my blog fails to impress you.This is my first time writing for a blog and i'm pretty much clueless on what to write.I'll just talk about something that happened today.Today on my way home in the bus, a perfectly normal goofy conversation with my friends turned out to become a very serious discussion.
In todays world you see the most powerful women a very good example is Oprah or even someone like Hilary Clinton. These are women who have say in todays world and people especially women look up to them. But have we thought about the women, young and old who are illiterate and have no say in anything including their own lives? Child marriage is BANNED yet in the 21st century, the government is still unable to teach the people about the bad consequences of early marriages. Such weddings are common in Rajasthan. The child marriages are deeply rooted in the populous northern states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
The most important thing is that the law alone cannot control the social practice of child marriage. Women education and empowerment are the two best way to cure this practice. At every chance we get we should try and help these women, girls as young as 5months get "married" in the name of child marriage for money. A case study shows that the price paid for these girls is only between 500-4000Rs. Then they are sent to their so called "in-laws" house at the ages of 11-14 sometimes even when they are 9 or 10 years old. Dont they deserve to go to school and educate themselves like the rest of us?
Such cruel traditions still prevail in the India society. It is upto us "the educated" people to help make a difference.
In todays world you see the most powerful women a very good example is Oprah or even someone like Hilary Clinton. These are women who have say in todays world and people especially women look up to them. But have we thought about the women, young and old who are illiterate and have no say in anything including their own lives? Child marriage is BANNED yet in the 21st century, the government is still unable to teach the people about the bad consequences of early marriages. Such weddings are common in Rajasthan. The child marriages are deeply rooted in the populous northern states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
The most important thing is that the law alone cannot control the social practice of child marriage. Women education and empowerment are the two best way to cure this practice. At every chance we get we should try and help these women, girls as young as 5months get "married" in the name of child marriage for money. A case study shows that the price paid for these girls is only between 500-4000Rs. Then they are sent to their so called "in-laws" house at the ages of 11-14 sometimes even when they are 9 or 10 years old. Dont they deserve to go to school and educate themselves like the rest of us?
Such cruel traditions still prevail in the India society. It is upto us "the educated" people to help make a difference.
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