Former Or Latter?

Dad used to give us a measly Rs. 500/- per month,
in that we were not only able to eat stomachs fill,
but we were able to save too!!!
Now we earn a sum of 20K+, we have no idea
where it goes, let alone saving it!!
Which was better, the former or the latter??? 

                            6 subjects per year, 6 different teachers!
                                            One project since we joined
                                                    and just one manager!!
                             Which was better, the former or the latter???

 We used to make notes;
we used to study for ranks!!
Now we scan thru our mails;
we struggle for our ratings!!!
Which was better, the former or the latter???

                                     We have still not forgotten the people
                                                    in the next section!!
                                           Now we don’t even know who sits
                                                    in the next cubicle!!!
                             Which was better, the former or the latter???

 After getting back from a tiring play,
we used to do our home work!!
Now who knows/cares about home;
all we do is just work!!!
Which was better, the former or the latter??? 

                                       We knew our history and economics!!
                                              Now let alone reading books,
                             we don’t even catch up with the daily news!!!
                             Which was better, the former or the latter???

We had an aim in life;
behind our backs we had our teachers
Now we have no idea about the
future nor do we find any
one who would tell us anything!!
Which was better,
the former or the latter?

These questions were forwarded to me by one of my friends. Though thinking about all of the former aspects has brought back a lot of memories, I also cannot take away the credit of having some really great times in the latter aspects. Did you connect with any specific aspect with your life? Which one was better – former or latter?

The Number Three

 

Finally at 12 in the night I was in the mood for going ahead and doing a tag for which surprisingly I wasn’t tagged and I am doing this one completely voluntarily.  Surprising isn’t it? Well, just close that gaping mouth and read on. Sanity Found had tagged me on a number of tags, which I unfortunately I don’t remember anymore. Yes, Yes, I am very forgetful with certain things. SF, please remind me of the others. I finally saw this one on her blog and said “Now Now, start now on it, before you lose track of it”

Anyway’s, the tag is about listing three of the aspects of your life based on the following categories: 

Three Joys

Oh C’mon, there are so many things for me that I would list as the joys in my life. I am just like SF on a lot of things, so I break the rules as well.

1. The mornings that I have. {hehehe LOL, I get up late than most of you reading this as my work timings are for the noon. la la la }
2. My aunts and my Grand mother.
3. Seeing my friends {indispensable people in my life}
4. WordPress and the People on my Blog Roll {C’mon, let’s be honest here, how many people have this privilege}
5. The fact that I can travel to some parts of the world and meet my old friends there.
6. My Job Profile {which involves a lot of people engagement}
7. Food, Food and different kinds and types of food.
8. Cakes and Chocolates {Tiramisu, Cadbury’s – Yummmsss}

Three Fears

1. Snakes
2. Dogs
3. Loving people and then having to move on. {Sometimes, you gotta do, what you gotta do}
4. Going to the Doctor’s.

Three Goals

1. Being Independent always.
2. Getting my sea facing house.
3. The E Class Mercedes.
4. Finding that HOT blue eyed Italian chef 🙂

Three Current Obsessions

1. My Laptop.
2. My Cell.
3. Chocolates.

Three Random/Surprising Facts

1. I can cook {Don’t smirk! I can if I really want to and it all depends who you are as well}
2. I do believe in a powerful energy who most would refer to as God.
3. I don’t throw people out of my life out my own choice – out of sight just becomes out of mind then goes on to become out of heart!

So if you read it – and feel you are up to – then go on do it.

You Are The Miracle In Your Life That Is The Miracle In Mine.

I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes.

I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprizing a basket of freshly picked green peas.

I paid for my potatoes, but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas.

I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.

“Hello Barry, how are you today?”

“Hello, Mr.  Miller. Fine, thank ya. Just admiring them peas. They sure look good.”

“They are good, Barry. How’s your Ma?”

“Fine. Getting stronger all time.”

“Good. Anything I can help you with?”

“No, Sir. Just admiring them peas.”

“Would you like take some home?” asked Mr. Miller.

“No, Sir . Got nothing to pay for  ’em with.”

“Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?”

“All I got’s my prize marble here.”

“Is that  right? Let me see it” said Miller.

“Here ’tis. She’s a dandy.”

“I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?” the store owner asked.

“Not zackley but almost.”

“Tell you what.  Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble”, Mr. Miller told the boy.

“Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller.”

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me.

With a smile said, “There are two other boys like him in our community; all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever.

When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn’t like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store.”

I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man.

A short time later I moved to Colorado, but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.

Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one.

Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died.

They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them.

Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.

Ahead of us in line were three young men.

One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts…all very professional looking.

They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband’s casket.

Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket.

Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one; each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket.

Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes.

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband’s bartering for marbles.

With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

“Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim ‘traded’ them.

Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size….they came to pay their debt.”

“We’ve never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,” she confided, “but right now, Jim would consider himself the  richest man in Idaho.”

With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.

Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our deeds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I received the above in my email today and at the end it was asking me to send this to the people whom I would never forget. Yes, it would have been a very easy choice to hit a forward and it would have gone to all the people that I know; however I realized that I would then be limiting the knowledge of an amazing and refreshing story to only a select group.

So here it is, all those who have now read this – if I know you or not.

Today I wish you a day of ordinary miracles:

A fresh pot of coffee you didn’t make yourself.

An unexpected phone call from an old friend.

Green stoplights on your way to work.

The fastest line at the grocery store.

A good sing-along song on the radio.

Your keys found right where you left them.

It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.

Vibrations.

Recently, I was introduced to a friend’s cousin. A really nice fun loving lady with challenges in her own life. Couple of hours into our fun night she amazed me with some really accurate insights about me. Here, there was a complete stranger who didn’t know me or anything about me but was reading aspects about my personality in matter of seconds.

My friend was shocked at the revelations she made about me as all of them were true. Some that she made was about my emotions something that even my best friend was not aware about but it was true. After making those revelations she then made some guesses about my zodiac which she got right after I allowed her three guesses.

How did she manage to get every thing so accurate about my personality with out knowing anything about my life, my background or my life experiences? No, she wasn’t an astrologer or a crystal ball reader. She was just a normal house wife. So how did she guess that I am a writer? How did she guess the level of my emotions?

My friend was stunned at her cousin’s revelations about me – who was a complete stranger to her. Trust me, I wasn’t shocked at all. She managed to do what she did through something that we usually don’t pay attention to. It was all through Vibrations. She read my Vibrations which she felt.

Vibrations are another form of unspoken words. If you would have paid attention you would have realized that at times you don’t like the presence of a complete stranger in the same room as you are in. You don’t know that person, never seen or heard of him before and still you don’t like sharing your space with him.

Something about him being in the same space as you doesn’t feel right.  That something is nothing but the vibrations that you are feeling and sensing.

Vibrations are frequency waves as similar to the ones that are emitted by transmission towers that emit the signals on to our television sets. My friend’s cousin sensed and read my vibrations which told her what kind of a person I was. She was aware. And she was paying full attention to people who were within her space.

Vibrations can be positive or negative. It’s a choice that one makes with their body language, signs and facial expressions that emits positive or negative vibes. Vibes can be sensed by any human being. You don’t need some qualification to sense the waves and frequency in your surrounding.

What I spoke about in my post on “True Lies” & “A Known Lie”, was nothing but what I sensed along with a lot of common sense as well. The way a person would answer, the way an individual would look at you, feel you, or even just plain touch your hand; you would know exactly what the vibrations are and if they mean love or hate.

When I spoke about being a giver in my post “The Art of Giving”, stems your vibrations to others around you about who you are. That must be just one way that people read you, but there are so many other actions that you may do during your day to day activities that create those vibes which people may read about you.

Call Vibes as feelings or energies or any other word that you may best relate to, the fact is that you cannot ignore it as they sometimes are responsible for your actions as well. Sometimes we go back in our life and regret certain actions that we may have been a part of – but have we stopped to think that at that time it felt so right to do the same; at that time your vibes were in place to make you do what you did. Is it that you would stop trusting your vibes?

I personally wouldn’t as I feel through them. They are unspoken words. People give out certain vibes based on which they receive the necessary re-actions back to them. If some is throwing a lot of attitude or you feel the person is not the same anymore in a relationship over a period of time – what do they get back usually in return? Their loved ones will feel those vibes and will distance away.

No matter how many words you use to deny what you feel, your vibes would accurately say everything that you are thinking and feeling. Accept or deny; your vibrations can create you or your illusion of denial.

Stop The Crap!

This time again there were five blasts in Delhi. Oh! C’mon how many more people are supposed to die thanks to our nonsensical government not being able to do anything about it? How many more innocent lives are going to be taken just in a flash of a second?

My blood is rushing through my veins as I am watching the news that’s been coming in making me remember my own experience. In all the possible overcrowded markets and in theatres the bombs have either gone off or have been found live and diffused in time. The news channel have just been emphasizing as to how there were already warnings given out that Delhi was going to be the next target. Damn the Government. If there were warnings already given out, what on earth all the freaking politicians were doing all this while?

How on earth has it been so easy for these terrorists to transport their ammunition across the country so easily? How on earth has NO BODY been able to catch them while they have been making these plans? Are the Anti Terrorist Squad networks so horrible? While the politicians are busy making plans as to how the new Shivaji statue should be installed as how the view should look like – there are innocent people who are losing their lives. While some of our high profile so called “Maharashtra Patriots” are busy destroying public property over having all businesses Marathi sign boards – the basic right to have peace and harmony in the country has been overlooked.

STOP IT! Stop showing that you folks in power EVEN HAVE SOME POWER in your hands to control a group of small handful people who are just going around creating terror every month killing innocent women, innocent children who barely even understand the meaning of terrorism . All those who came on the news channel after the blasts condemning it have done nothing except for giving out absolutely rubbish statements on how you condemn it.

We as citizens don’t want to hear what you condemn or how you condemn. Just keep that big trap of a mouth shut, if you can’t do anything about it. Just stay at home, don’t show us your faces. Don’t brag as to how you have been working to put some anti terror force law in place from the last couple of months, till you have actually shown that you have done it. We don’t want to hear any of your rubbish nonsense anymore.

You bloody crappy politicians and people in power have opinions about every other country. US should do this, they should not do this, if they do this, then this is how it will impact India; what on earth have you done first in your own country. What on earth have you done to protect the lives of your own citizens, the very same people in front of whom you go on joining hands begging for votes every election time.

Every citizen of this country has the right to be safe. You don’t deserve to be in power, if you cant ensure that this right has its respect. You don’t deserve the right to your own life, if you can’t keep the citizens of your own country safe.

The Cupid’s Game About Love.

“Love” a word that I have most conveniently avoided very successfully in my life, till Nikhil comes along and hands over a tag. Thank God it isn’t some game show about love or else I would have found myself getting all lost. Any ways, its all about being a sport and playing the game. For the uninitiated, its not like I am an anti “love” activists or something, but it has just never been my forte. 

When I started reading the questions for the tag from Nikhil’s blog, I found it to be really fun. Before I head along, there are some rules of this game:

RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.


RULE #2 Tag 8 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
   Most humanly hurt and in pain, but would ask him to move along with who ever he loves making my life and his simple to live without any drama.
   
2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
   Get my sea facing apartment from where I can get up just hearing the rush of waves in the morning and sleep watching the moonlight in my bedroom. 🙂
   
3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
   Nikhil’s for Tagging me on this one.
   
4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
   Get my apartment along with my Mercedes first. Set aside enough maintenance for both of them then invest and pass on the interest to some orphanages.
   
5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
   Hahahahah bet he is going to read this one for sure and no I can’t fall in love with him as he is happily married 🙂
   
6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
   This is more easier than I thought it was going to be. Thanks Niks. The latter for sure. Being loved by someone who cares for you, supports you and is there for you unconditionally is the most powerful blessing that one can ever have. Hope people appreciate and realize the same too.
   
7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
   There! Finally the dreaded question comes along. You cannot bind love with time or time with love. They both are independent of each other. {Yipeee!}
   
8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
   I would at least let the person know and leave him to make a choice that is best for him and go and find someone else secretly as well 🙂
   
9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? Your gf/bf or an actress/actor?
   Hehe my friends! Some of them are the best in this field and can bring out the best in me as well 😛
   
10. What takes you down the fastest?
    Lies. Doesn’t need any further explanation does it?
    
11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
    Wow. I have just finished planning my next 6 months as that’s the most I can do. Ten year planning not for me at all.
    
12. What’s your fear?
    Losing people I love the most & snakes.
    
13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
    He is a Joker in one word and a brilliant writer. I just love his blogs.
    
14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?
    Single and Rich sounds good to be at this point in time in my life for sure. Especially when I can see so many becoming poor after marriage. 😛
    
15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
    Say my gratitude that alls still well in my life and then check my cell phone too look out for having my most favorite conversations with some people that I love talking to first thing when I get up.
    
16. Would you give all in a relationship?
    Yes, not my self respect.
    
17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
    Tell both that I love them. Just telling them won’t be a crime I believe.
    
18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?
    Another dreaded one. I can’t as I have seen myself been taken for granted when I have and simply dug my own grave time and again. So this time around. No I don’t think, I will be able to, even if I want to.
    
19. Original Question: Do you prefer being single or having a relationship? (Niks had changed this question to: Will you marry me? so changing it back as I don’t have any proposals to give out yet)
    Single.
    
20. List 6 people to tag:
    Sanity Found, Reema, thatdudeyouknow, Vanessa, tobeme, Amber.

True Lies…

It’s a little past my bed time and I am sitting here feeling the stab of a new wound within me after my previous post “The Known Lie”. The pain and the burning sensation of the wound is making me think real hard. I am thinking why would people lie in their most closest relationships. What is it that gives them this need to lie? At one point in time, they will tell you that you mean a lot to them and that they love you and blah blah and more blah but still would turn around and will lie to you about the most silliest of things – what would you choose to believe they they truly love you or lying comes easiest to them?

A plain simple thought also crosses my mind. These people may be have got so accustomed in lying that they don’t really seem to realize that lying is coming very naturally and easy to them. It’s as if it has got embedded in their personalities. They have lost the realization to realize that they maybe lying. They themselves have got it installed as a software in their brains which has now lost its capacity to recognize the signals that the words and thoughts which are being communicated across is a lie and that it needs to be stopped.

I am not sure, but have these people also lost the awareness that lies are something that anyone would most easily catch? People would know that you are lying to them, doesn’t matter how many post graduate degrees, you think you would have earned in this subject. How many times do you think you would get away by lying? You would really think that the others are such fools that they would never feel or realize at any time – especially people who are close to you & the ones that read and understand you?

Or is it that truth in today’s times has become really difficult to be spoken about. You have a loved one whom you are constantly lying to, every time and over and over again. The lies would be over the most regular day to day activities and conversations. You may even have a zillion reasons to do the same – insecurity, ego or maybe just plain sadist pleasure; whatever it is you know the best. However, just “STOP” your self for a moment here.

Just what are you really getting out of it in return; after the pleasant sound of sadist pleasure and ego dies out? Would you still have the trust, the relationship, the compassion and the love of the person with whom you have just lied to? Have you ever thought about that you are holding a dagger in your hand and digging out big holes in your own relationship with that person?

Have you stopped to think, what your personality has gotten changed to, by doing this frequently day in day out? Are you the real person that you were meant to be?

Fine, let me buy this argument and aspect that from the lying person’s perspective that no one knows or can prove that they have been lying. All right, none of your loved one has realized that you have been lying and keeping the real truth away from them.

They don’t know BUT “YOU DO”.
YOUR conscience does.
YOUR Mind does.
YOU will always know that you DID lie about something which you didn’t had to in the first place and there was no need or fear for you to.
YOU SIMPLY DO.

Can you simply live with yourself even after knowing the above? If the answer to this question is “NO”, then you still have the chance to fix it. You know best what you need to do.

September 11th 2001…

Courtesy: http://news.hereisthecity.com

It was an exceptionally clear summer morning in New York City. As former City mayor Rudolph Giuliani said, ‘the skyline was surreally beautiful against a backdrop of the purest blue.’ It was September 11th, 2001. 2,792 people were to lose their lives that day, after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

For many who work in the financial markets, the story of Cantor Fitzgerald has become a symbol of the tragedy that overcame the civilised world seven year’s ago………..

‘If they set out to bomb American capitalism – to hit at the heart of the American economy – the terrorists could not have done better than to kill off Cantor Fitzgerald. The international brokerage firm was responsible for transacting 200 billion dollars of securities a day, or 50 trillion dollars a year – more then than the American and New York Stock Exchanges and Nasdaq combined.

Its brokers and traders were, for the most part, young and extremely successful, an abundance of alpha males and females working high in the sky, a hundred floors above Wall Street. Many of them met when they were single and then passed all the milestones together. They went to each other’s weddings, the christenings of their children. They rented summer houses together. They hired siblings and friends. Nepotism wasn’t frowned on – it was encouraged. Brothers hired brothers and brothers-in-law, and second cousins. Friends hired friends…….

At 8.46am on September 11th, American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles from Boston’s Logan Airport, tore through the clear Manhattan sky and struck the north side of Tower One of the World Trade Center. The twenty thousand gallons of fuel the Boeing 767 was carrying for the cross-country flight ignited on impact, causing fires that burned at more than two thousand degrees.

The plane…hit at the 93rd floor….Cantor Fitzgerald operated out of the 101st through 105th floors. Of the firm’s 1,000 New York employees, 658 were lost…….In the coming days the number of dead and missing will be staggering. Of the wives, thirty-eight were pregnant, fourteen of them for the first time. Forty-six of the lost were engaged to be married; there were at least two weddings planned for the following weekend. Worst of all, these were young people with young families, some with three and four children. Nine hundred and fifty-five sons and daughters lost a father or a mother’.

This and all those who lost their lives that day, we must never forget.

Excerpts from ‘On Top Of The World – The Remarkable Story of Howard Lutnick, Cantor Fitzgerald and The Twin Towers Attack’ by Tom Barbash.

The value of life didn’t seem to exist in the minds of those who masterminded this. This was truly heart wrenching for me when I read this. “Nine hundred and fifty-five sons and daughters lost a father or a mother” – what on earth did these people do to deserve this?

Ubuntu – I Am Because You Are

A concept, that I was introduced at Sanity Found. What really got me attracted to this concept was its tag line and Meaning “I Am Because You Are”. It’s powerful when you hear some one say it and the entire feeling of this one tag line with mere five words in it goes to say and mean quite a lot.

What would Ubuntu mean to me? In one line, it means to people all the people in my life who have loved me unconditionally – My friends, my family, my mentors, my tutors, my coaches – everyone who comes here and reads my blogs and comments.

People have been parts of my past have contributed in their own way in the past; to make my present. People who form my present are contributing to make my future. No matter who ever you are and where you are located, the mere relationship with you even if it’s for a mean second is making me who I am.

It’s your kindness, your brutal honesty, your feedback, your love, your gifts, your touch and that presence of a feeling that you exist in my life makes me who I am. People need people to help them be successful – doesn’t matter if you are related or complete strangers to them.

You may not be even aware that you would have been a reason for someone else’s success as well. It’s all a chain all connected by that feeling of something being present in all of us -a connection or a bond if I had to put some words to describe it.

This post on “I Am Because You Are” is my way of saying Thank You for being who you have been to me all this while – a friend, a foe, an acquaintance or a family member; doesn’t matter what your relationship with me is – “I Am Because You Are”.

The Privileged Factor!

The idea of having the ideal parents in your life would be on all our wish list. It’s after all having that ideal supportive family environment that lays the base and the foundation of one having their mental and emotional stability. Really?

However what if one is not lucky and was not born with a set of the most perfect parents. What if one didn’t have any or either of them? Are they considered any less privileged than the others?

Let’s be honest, some of our most cultured and so called “Educated and Sophisticated” Indian Society still happens to thinks otherwise. Giving those look of sympathies and the exclamations “Oh! How bad, he/she doesn’t have a mother/father”. The judgmental behavior of not wanting to be associated or forming any new relation with someone just because their parents don’t exist in a way like everyone else’s is rampant like a plaque.

Being nosy about one’s background and past comes very easy to some to be able to form a complete brick wall image about someone who wasn’t as lucky to have a “Mother” or “Father” who existed the way the “Society” would deem fit.

This is for all those ignorant “so called Educated” yet “absolutely illiterate’s in their Heads and Soul” – look around in your own house and relations. Before sending out the sounds of those ultrasonic sympathies clean your glasses or get your eye sight completely examined. These very same people are neither unlucky nor under privileged in any way. They are “Human Beings” first. Hear them and pay attention to them, they are those who understand the meaning of relations and value and also know how to appreciate it  far better any of you would do.

They know the meaning of a real family and will in fact turn around to be the best parents themselves. Have a good look at some of these people, they will be some who will be the most down to earth and humble with what they have achieved in their life unlike those who have everything and still seem to rant non stop about things that they lack in their life.

The basis of judging one can’t be about what their “F$C#&D up” parents did, but what constitutes within them as real persons in their own individual life. Take pride that you know such people in your personal life who can teach you the real meaning of having those relations that you currently boast non stop about.

Consider yourself blessed that probably now you have an opportunity in your life to be the strength in that individual’s life that doesn’t have what you must have always had. Being someone’s strength is a blessing in disguise and you would be the one turning your own blessings into a curse.