Holi is not a national event to educate about water conservation. It is the festival to celebrate the spirit of faith,goodness & community gathering. The several other method of water conservation is using 1. Using 20 liters of water in bucket instead of free flowing shower
2.Using 400ml of mug of water to brush teeth
3.the water left in school bottles to be collected in a container to be used later on for washing vegetables,fruits n daal/rice
4.keep one car per family instea...d of flashing 2 cars and use public transport more often(dedicated to all the environment lovers who become concerned about air pollution during diwali conveniently forgetting little things which they can do all through out the year,instead of clamoring environment love during diwali..!) Oh yes..! connection between 1 car & water conservation? arrey baba 1 car less to wash & clean ...see u save water..!!
5.wash your "1 car" with 20 ltrs of water
6.Stop drinking fizzy drinks they use gallons of treated water, so less the demand...less the supply
7.become teetotaler...after all those hard drinks requires soda/water to dilute them while drinking
8.Mop your house every alternate day not everyday...unless of course your cleanliness freak...Work on your OCD..!
9.Join research team of water extraction/conservation of national Or international repute and help set process for water extraction or build dams in water scarce places of india
10.Stop wearing those 2kg of jewellery on your wedding night..! when most of women in india don't even have proper clothes to cover their bare bodies...especially in water scarce region of india
11. Lastly, Donate your jewellery to raise funds for water conservation projects..
12 Most importantly take it with a pinch of salt...after all "bura na mano Holi Hai ".....to be continued in response to any anti-diwali bash ...in here...! :) :)

Counting Blessings.

This is what I am going to do…now.

2008 has gone, and has left memories good, bad, ugly, eventful and Non eventful.

It was definitely a year that came up with mixed achievements’ on personal fronts.

In 2007, I was in Noida.

I was expecting my first baby . The physical discomforts lead to resignation from the current and very new organization. Each passing day I would wish the discomfort just subside but it only aggravated…! It was just getting too much to ask for in terms of corporeal uneasiness…!

The North Indian summers and winters are notorious for its extreme effects.

Day in and day out I would pray to almighty to miraculously take me to a place where either the houses are centrally Air Conditioned or the climate is with in my tolerable limits.

Better still, I wished to be taken to a land where climate is at its moderate best

But God, who always have better plans then we have for ourselves…

JUST DID NOT LISTEN…!
ALAS…!!

I nearly reached D-day and still my dream of shifting from noida did not materialize.

I have had my share of neighbor women doing guess work.
Since my already dark complexion was turning darker or I would say blue..the guess work suggested it to be boy…Whatever…
Even I wanted ahhheeemmmm…a Boy..! :D

But I needed to wait for the D-day..
Which was taking almost forever to arrive…pheww..
Those months of anticipation anguish and ….all those words which usually Sidney Sheldon uses to describe agony …!! Looked Endless…and it felt like HELL. Or may be like a doomsday..!!

At last the d-day was THE REALITY and…immediately those gona away months looked like NOTHING…compared what was going to happen NOW..!!
And it did happen…

My SON was born in the evening :D

And yes those 200 days looked worthwhile.

With in some time, my husband received an interview call from a Company in bangalore and he cleared it. By the onset 2008 we were making plans to BID ADIEU to NOIDA..! :D…:D :D :D

…I still remember how happy I was to even think about relocating to Bangalore.

GOD DOES HAVE BETTER PLANS THAN WE HAVE FOR OURSELVES.

We took our 4 months old son and came flying happily to Bangalore..


And the CLIMATE…!!!
I tell you it is Heavanly…(Tuch wood)
Moderate, tolerable, pleasant and one that inspires poetry and…and …and
But with that happiness came a sudden sense of responsibility towards my kid.
I wanted the BEST for him. I also promised to myself, that come what may, never again I will put myself in a situation where my health goes hay wire. As a result of which my husband is required to take leave from office. In short I did not wanted to be a weak spot in our family system. I was resolute to take good care of myself and my little new family of only three of us.

Bangalore definitely had some challenges, one being language, but English “the lingua Franca” took care of it. And yes “ kannada eelley” was just so effective…with prompt
“ Hindi eeeley” as immediate response …but that did save lots of time and energy. :D

The other challenge is S/W industry which, not only get subjected to and influence the push and pull effect of world economy, but is also responsible for spoiling the unskilled laborers rotten. I mean these maids, carpenters and auto-rickshaw walas they charge Gold …!! They are a definite partials towards their natives..yaar.

My husband was keen to look around for a rented apartment nearest to his office. So, that he can be available (without loosing a single minute ...) at the time of emergency.

With 2 weeks of hard work and lots of contemplation over our budget capacity ( and taking care/ scared of bangalore traffic…. : P ) we managed to get a nice apartment.

It was only 20 minutes walking from his office. Yippie..!!

Two days after our moving in, we had 4-5-6 -7 maids ready to offer their services.
Do not even ask the price they were quoting.

I zeroed upon one..and she still with us ..i mean 10 months down the line and she is still around(..nazar mat laga dena …hee hee ..!)


It is, 2009 I can proudly say that I took very good care of myself and my husband that he did not took any leave from office to attend to me or our son.

My son is an energetic 15 months young toddler now. And I feel these are some of the personal agenda that I managed to achieve.

There are some Bloopers too, but we will talk about them later on.

It is 2009 and time to count my blessings…!!!

I wish to count more this year with lesser number of faux pas..Amen.

Happy New Year.

Rituals and Learnings

Ramayana

One fine afternoon, after I finished singing a lullaby to my baby, I happened to flip channels on TV more out of habit than likeness. I came across this rather amusing promotion of Ramayana Revisiting on one of our channels. Let us look at how relevant is Ramayana to our modern times. I may not like to comment about the way serial is being executed or how tacky the make up was, or for that matter how the particular artiste was acting and blah blah….i would rather try to fathom it is very essence and will make an effort in comprehending its relevance..!

Ramayan is an Epic written in “Sat Yug”. It is about King Dushyant and his three queens…..errr more about the promise made to one of the queens. And it largely rues the Eviction of Eldest son of King

I feel it is more about a personal turmoil, conflict of interest between a husband and his wife.

Whatever great achievements Lord Ram did, were purely driven by personal agenda. Since, the epic by large, is about exile. The classic does not really tell us what Ram as a king has achieved? What Rama, as son has done for his father, besides of course abiding his very last & forced wish..! How dutiful was Ram as son was, towards his mothers? And interestingly, what Sh Ram as husband has done for his wife?

Saving from the Demon King Ravana, was of course more like vidhi ka vidhan..!

And of course Aryan’s prestige was at stake. I mean Sultan Shajahan, professed his love for his beloved late wife Mumtaz, in form of a monument for all living plebian to witness and admire…! That does not make him God, does it?

I really wish there was something more he could for Sita Maa, besides wining her loosing her finally..!

And what Ram as King has done for his rabblements?
No civic achievement…NO Political achievement…NO Great bench mark for common man to look upto on the contrary….wrong social notion sent across plebeians in terms of “Agni Pariksha”…which probably was the mother of evil custom like “Sati “ which was practiced vehemently during the Historic eras of ….of Rajputs.

What makes him GOD of today …perhaps is the persistence he showed while in exile, a lesson for all of us to learn when in grave distress…! That is IT..! But that is of key importance.

Let us have look into that “Sat Yug “…When SoorvyaVanshi aur Rajvaanshi or in short King were the representation of Almighty..!..So they were always looked upon as the mighty ones.and of course they were Trained enough to protect the” junta and Brahmins from “Rakshas..” And protection was one of their moral duties. So protective towards our younger ones and weaker ones is another lesson to learn from the grand story.


In today’s time when we may not be bothered about our next door neighbor, this does teach us a lot about the, responsibility each one of us should have towards society and our community at large..!

Also, Look at Sita she renounced everything to be with Shri Ram. In the Valmiki written saga, it is very beautifully mentioned that Sita would do shringar, assuming the vatika to be her Raj Mahal..! She valued the togetherness more than anything else. In today’s time when relationship are breaking at break neck speed, and no body is ready to share the bad times together, this is refreshing example and an endearing one too. This teaches us to be tolerant in relation ship. And this teaches us to value our partner more than good times and bad times..this also inspires us to think ki kuch tau baat hogi Shri Ram mey, for Sita to sacrifice 14 years of comfort..!

And Yes Last but not the least, Sh Laxman, his contribution can not be disregarded.No avarice for kingdom..! He believed his brother is above & beyond everything and followed him, escorted him even in the hardest of times. Do one get see this level of respect, admiration and samarpan in today’s time? Nah..! So Kudos to Luxman for his exemplary courage, yes it does take courage to go that extreme. Laxman epitomize everything that can help us bring up our sibling better.

You guys must be wondering, Why i have written a blog on ramayan? Because on the occasion of ramnavami, I just couldnot manage to worship..! My 6 month old son,was more demanding..! And I was under guilt pangs, but now I feel more relieved. Penning down the essence of Ramayan is the tribute I wanted to give to Three Great Immortal of that era..!

JAI SHRI RAM ..!

JAI MAA SITA

JAI LAXMAN


Ramayan is beyond all the rituals, which we would like to spend/ waste our time on.
On the occasion of Ramnavami let us look at life with little ramayan perspective, let us be more resilience, persistent and responsible towards each other..

Women Awake..!

Sometimes I feel myself to be like Sue played by Jessica Alba of famous 4, her famous invisible act comes to foreplay only when her intense emotions takes better of her. What exactly has compelled me to come to the electronic print medium is beyond my own comprehension….! But the agenda is to let loose of my concealed emotion about traditional ties rooted in our system. Today I feel emotionally saturated and hence I am ready to make my perspective very clear and visible at least on Ms Word…!

Traditions are good as long it let people grow and prosperous. What good is it for somebody with zeal and grit to excel professionally? I mean In today’s modern times when stakes are high in ones competitive profession wherefore does one have time to entertain unwanted and uninvited relatives, who come with extra luggage and bag gages of expectations and of course Traditions…Those heavy tradition about food, food, foood. And clothes clothes clothes….!!...!!

My experience up till now has always been about discussion on something that happened some good 10 years ago and that is being promoted even in current circumstances which has no resemblance with what the scenarios was a decade back…Imagine this with in few weeks of my marriage I get to hear something like “ hum apni betiyo ko ghar sey bahar padney key liye nahin bhejtey”…and they believe this to be their traditional pride..My god..! As if getting admitted into some prestigious college you need only tradition and no brains or hard work or determination ….all you need is the tradition, culture…I mean Traditional practices should not be confused with achievements.

Sometimes, I actually loath those girls who don’t nurture ambition in the name of tradition…I remember hearing something like “hamrey yaha aisa nahin hota hai crap”…To all those ladies who have never been serious with their profession or ambition and think that following family culture of girls remaining in background are actually stigma to the growing society and more so the developing country like ours. In India where for every 1064 males we have 1000 female( 2006 est) and only 26% working woman imagine the loss to the country in terms of 78% of women population are actually dependants..and they are not even the tax payers …!!!..If I have to make a financial model on this ..i bet the lossess will run into crores..! So women of india wake up ..!

Gone are the days when your “sacrifice” was written in golden words and sung about through out decades…Now your sacrifices are no longer required what is required is action., growth and ambition ...and any action of your which can be converted into an economic value will go a long way in helping our country a better place, a developed place and a lot safer place for working woman..!