Experiencing – People. Places. Food

Today, it’s all about pictures. Enjoy!

Location: Chandigarh, India (It’s my all time favorite place in India.)

Wish you a lot of fun in the holiday season.

So This is True, Yet Again

I knew it and now I know it again. That one negative emotion leads to another and then there is no stopping until you deny them to enter in your mind. Here in my case, the negative emotion is “irritation”. I guess, I would have rather sung a song instead of listening to irritating words.

Anyways, I should not talk about it much.

Have a nice time. And here is the smile

To Afridi, with Love [by Maheen Sadiq]

I came across this article (which is actually a letter) today on Facebook via a friend (J.J.) of mine. I found it really touching. Such lovely words. It really is worth sharing.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

There’s a lot to be said about the cricket tournament, especially our match against India. And it has a lot more to do with Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Gul’s bad luck, and Sachin Tendulkar’s good fortune.

Cricket speaks to our nation in a way our government never has.

And Shahid Afridi addressed the nation in a way our president never has – unselfish, genuine, modest. So when Afridi apologized to Pakistan, millions listened and were humbled by the gesture. Our eyes filled with tears and our hearts with love and strange kind of sorrow. Shahid Afridi, you need not apologize to the nation. We are proud of you and our entire cricket team! You didn’t bring back the cup, but any excitement, any happiness, any hope that Pakistanis have felt in the past few months is because of your brilliance. We’ve been hearing a lot of “Pakistan needs something to celebrate,” but

The One Who Changed the Face of Physics

Of course I’m talking about the great Albert Einstein.

Somehow, I never forget his birthday, i.e, 14th March. One of the reasons might be that the date happens to be just four days after my birthday.

I dedicated a post to him last year and I would do it today as well. It makes me happy!

This year I would like to add an excerpt from his book “The World as I See It”-

Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and desire are the motive forces behind all human endeavour and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present itself to us. Now what are the feelings and needs that have led men to religious thought and belief in the widest sense of the words? A little consideration will suffice to show us that the most varying emotions preside over the birth of religious thought and experience. With primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious notions–fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death. Since at this stage of existence understanding of causal connexions is usually poorly developed, the human mind creates for itself more or less analogous beings on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend. One’s object now is to secure the favour of these beings by carrying out actions and offering sacrifices which, according to the tradition handed down from generation to generation, propitiate them or make them well disposed towards a mortal. I am speaking now of the religion of fear. This, though not created, is in an important degree stabilized by the formation of a special priestly caste which sets up as a mediator between the people and the beings they fear, and erects an hegemony on this basis. In many cases the leader or ruler whose position depends on other factors, or a privileged class, combines priestly functions with its secular authority in order to make the latter more secure; or the political rulers and the priestly caste make common cause in their own interests…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Have a nice time everybody.

God Bless this world.

Porcupines and Solidarity by Paulo Coelho

Illustration by Ken Crane

During the Ice Age many animals died because of the cold. Seeing this situation, the porcupines decided to group together, so they wrapped up well and protected one another.

But they hurt one another with their thorns, and so then they decided to stay apart from one another.

They started to freeze to death again.
So they had to make a choice: either they vanished from the face of the earth or they accepted their neighbor’s thorns.

They wisely decided to stay together again. They learned to live with the small wounds that a very close relationship could cause, because the most important thing was the warmth given by the other.

And in the end they survived.

Re-posted from Paulo Coelho’s Blog

Cheers! Spring is Here.

Winters are on their way back and spring has arrived along with its paraphernalia – colors, flowers, captivating butterflies never seen before, greenery everywhere… Oh what a beautiful sight.

Every season has a lot to offer. And I appreciate all of them. So many memories associated with each one of them, and so many more memories to create…

There are several other reasons which makes me like this season. It is neither too cold nor too hot. People come out of their cozy homes and prefer to walk around. There are many more smiles and happy faces. Well, that really makes my day, a smile, or better, a lot many smiles.

And as they say it - Spring is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) being born. Cheers to new life!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

February is the month of spring. In India, there are two festivals associated with this season. Vasant Panchami and Holi (the festival of colors and fun!). Both are yet to come.

These days, while walking with friends, I often hear “Hey! look at those flowers..”, “Wow! I love flowers”. Well most of the times they sound like as if they are realizing this for the first time. . One of my friends also acknowledged his love for this season/month some days back. Here is what he said: 5 Reasons I Like February.

Who doesn’t love it? Surely everyone. Nature in its best form!

Happy Spring!

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  And everyone deserves a little sunshine.  ~Jeffrey Glassberg

P.S.: Pictures in the slideshow were clicked by me during the past week in the CEERI gardens.

62nd Republic Day

As India celebrated 62nd Republic Day today, i.e. 26th January 2011, CEERI (Pilani) celebrated it with the students of CEERI Vidyamandir (School). The culturally rich program was held for approximately one hour. It was good to watch those

A Visit to McLeod Ganj – the Home of The Dalai Lama

This tour is till date one of my most memorable tours of all. And why shouldn’t it be? It was to McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, India – the home of the Holiness The Dalai Lama. It is also home to several Buddhist monasteries and thousands of Tibetan refugees.

This place is not very far from my birthplace, but never got a chance to visit McLeod Ganj until two and half years back in June, 2008 with my family (Parents and a younger sister). June is a really good time to visit this place since it is at about 2,082 metres (6,831 feet).

My first impression to this place was – Beautiful . Of course, the mountains, the deodars, the fresh air!  And as soon as we reached, it was soon covered by flowing clouds, little drops of rain, and cool winds.

The market was crowded with some native people and mostly by other visitors like me. There was one Buddhist temple under

A Decade Over, a Decade Begins

“O my God,” I said to myself out loud, smiling, when I woke up on 1st January, 2011, “today is the first day of another year! and I’m alive.” Then I thought today is also the beginning of a whole new decade. “Decade” … that sounds huge. … Of course it is huge, it contains ten years, a huge chunk of my entire life. And just when my mind started thinking about the uncertain i.e. about the future ten years of my life, it suddenly chose to think the other way. The past decade of my life. Well… that is quite explicable, since thinking about past is easy since it the past, things which have already happened. And in no more than a second, my mind was full of flashes from my past, this thought, that thought. Flood of images, of moments of laughter and tears, all of them all together.

“Stop!” I told myself. It was 7.30 in the morning, and since I was late to get up (I had decided the last night to wake up early), I had to finish some of the urgent things so that I do not run out of time later. I pushed all the thoughts aside and decided to consider them sometime later that day. After all, the year has just begun!… Show has just started And my memories, well.. they are not going anywhere.

Later that day, I sat down to ponder about the time I spent (or “lived” is a better word to use)  during past ten years. Did I live it right? Or have I really “lived” in those years of my life in a living-sense-of-a-way?

Thinking about the past, really? It’s a bad idea as most people would say. But I say, consider the idea again. I do not think it is a bad idea. Dreading about the bad times is not what I’m suggesting when I ask you to consider to look back through the window of your mind into your past. Give yourself and your life some respect. Everyone has some good and bad times in their lives. One needs to appreciate their life, including all the good things and the difficult times they had to face. Also, include your mistakes. They made you realize you are just a human being, and the most you can make out of them is to learn from them. Forgive all those who left you hurt in some way or the other. I know, not an easy thing to do for most of you out there. But give it a try. It will be easy once you start. And for one thing I’m sure of, most of them are not even in your life now. So forgive. Take that burden out of your shoulders now. Not now then when? On your death-bed? (If you are lucky enough to get there. Mostly, and it is a sad fact, that people die before they realize it). And above all, be grateful to God for everyone and everything in your life.

Well back to myself, I then started recollecting all the events which changed my life in the past ten years. The number of events is difficult to remember, but surely they all were significant. Most of them happened because of the choices I made, and some were not in my hands. They just happened. And all those events shaped my present. And may be that’s why I am able to write in my blog… since one day I made a decision to start a blog and now I’m here. And same goes for the other things in my life.

And now, I am happy that I can say it and I’m gonna say it :

“I’ve truly (may be not fully) “lived” my life in the past decade. Or at least I have tried to. Let me say it like this: I made some tough decisions and made sure that I do not waver, although so many situations came which made me realize that I might be wrong. Thank you Mom and Dad for believing in me, without you I never would have reached till here. What I’m today is because of you two, because you were always there for me. Thank you my sister for being my best friend in this whole world. You are the three most important people in my life. I pray to God that in coming years I can spend time with you as much as I can. Thanks to my friends who were there for me when I needed them. I hope I was there for you too. Thanks to all those people who were rude to me because they made me realize that I should not behave that way to anyone. Thank you God for making me strong enough to handle difficult situations, and helping me in letting go of people I loved when that was the right thing to do. It is always a tough thing to do, but eventually I did succeed. Thank you God for letting me live, for being aware of my thoughts and deeds. I will definitely try to do this more, to live fully, to live for others too… To LIVE more, to do it right…”

God Bless this World.

Happy New Year everyone.

Smile! You are luckier than others out there.

 

 

“I know this love of mine will never die…”

New Year- once again- There are Places I Remember

There are places I’ll remember
all my life, though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better;
some have gone and some remain.

All these places had their moments
with lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living,
in my life I’ve loved them all.

But of all these friends and lovers
there is no one compares with you.
And these mem’ries lose their meaning
when I think of love as something new.

Tho’ I know I’ll never lose affection
for people and things that went before,
I know I’ll often stop and think about them,
in my life I love you more.

Tho’ I know I’ll never lose affection
for people and things that went before,
I know I’ll often stop and think about them,
in my life I love you more.

In my life I love you more.

Source: The Beatles