Questions to God

I wish I could meet God..not coz I have a wish-list that need immediate attention but ‘coz I have a list of Qs for which I need answers… ASAP! . I want to ask God What was his plan

->When a relationship that has survived so many years n almost defined love suddenly breaks up?
->When he kills the husband (who has been very healthy and shows no symptoms of death) just months before a couple celebrates their 25th Wedding Anniversary
->When he breaks up/separates a couple who have been married for 25 odd years
->When he kills the father of a 18-yr old.
->When he doesn’t give a baby to a couple who has been praying for one for many many yrs
->When a woman gets pregnant inspite of the couple not planning to have a baby...
->...n then they grow to love their li’l one..look forward to its birth but eventually the baby is born dead?

I want to know what God was thinking thru’ all these events that he planned.

N See this… Incredible Modern India indeed!

PS: None of the above Qs is a piece of my imagination. All of it is the reality happening to some people I know!

Ur View..

If some faceless and nameless character told u nasty things about another faceless but named person..would u believe it? Would u give it a 2nd thought and think of the probability of truth in the nasty things? Would your attitude towards the named person change?

Does a faceless and nameless character have the right to voice his/her opinion on the named person ?

If the Nasty comments are ignored, would u think the person is Accepting all that is being said as the truth?

I want YOUR view only if your willing to share your name

PS: Name could be blogname or ur actual name or ur email!

Discrimination

This post does not intend to offend to anyone.

I love my country. I really do. N I absolutely adore Bangalore. After all home is where the heart is!

N Being away from India for the last 1 yr….has made it possible for me to point out the specifics of what I really like about India and Indians and the things which really annoy me.

Being in the USA…I really yearn for some “Indian stuff”. Like while in India I would not crave Indian food but now I do. I would not get excited about huge get-togethers at home, but now I look forward to it. I was not into watching too many Indian movies, but now I kinda do. I had stopped watching cricket after the match-fixing controversy, but now I’m following the IPL matches pretty closely! I love meeting fellow Indians n talking a dozen about India n this n that …

‘Coz of some experiences I feel I Indians are the biggest discriminators I’ve come across….I’ve listed below some of these experiences and u can feel free to share ur experience.

- During my 1st few weeks in the US, I realized the culture here is to say “Hello , How r u”…to pretty much any1 who crosses ur way. N even back in India I used to keep smiling at strangers..There it was a kind of problem, Here it wasn’t and so I was more than happy to smile at any1 and every1. Now, most Indians have seem to hv learnt this culture. But the problem is they practice it with only the phirangis..not other “fellow” Indians. I don’t get it! What is their problem in smiling at Indians?!?!

- My hubby’s office has mostly Telugu- speaking people. They speak to each other in their language knowing very well that some ppl don’t u’stand it. They don’t care about it and I believe scream across the office to each other in Telugu. Even the Americans don’t like it. All the Telugu-ites lunch together and my hubby is not welcome to this daily lunch routine of theirs. And there have been a few parties to which only he was not invited coz hes not telugu-speaking! Not like he cares! But I find it ridiculous!

- On Jan 1st….we had gone to the temple. It’s a routine..I follow every yr. So while we were eating the yummy food at the temple.. there was this girl n 2 guys sitting opposite us. She was talking in Tamil about some friend of hers (From her conversation I gathered shez from Chennai) n she tells the guys ..”Yeah X is like tht..anywez wat else can u expect from Blr n pune gurls..All of ‘em drink n smoke”! I could have slapped her, really! Not coz I care abt wat she thinks but coz shes sitting in a temple and b***h-ing shamelessly! I think drinking n smoking is okay…but not wat she was doing!

Back in India I hear

- Karnataka and Tamil Nadu continue to fight over water (They have been fighting over it on n off for the last n years!). It won’t take more than a day in Blr for u to realize that Blr has very few kannadigas. The place has Tamils, North-Indians, ppl from Nepal, the north-east and wat not. So the kannadigas(Not all. Mostly the politicians and a few jobless ppl) got insecure. They got smart and said that movies of any other language will be released only 1 mth after its release in the rest of India. They were trying to make ppl watch Kannada movies…For heavensake! Obviously it din’t work. If they send non-kannadigas out of Blr….there won’t be any Blr!

- Shiv sena is trying similar stuff in Mumbai. My friend retaliates…If there were no Gujjus , Mumbai would have no money! I can’t help feeling sad!

These people have truly lost it! Sense of humor is okay…But I’m tired of hearing abt north-Indian(NI), south-Indian(SI). 2 people (1 my friend) who were roomies were arguing…I don’t like NI..coz they eat only roti! The other one says I don’t like SI coz they eat too much rice! Phew! Why can’t people eat what they want and stop categorizing according to language n state!

Isn't Unity in Diversity suppose to be a matter of pride for India?

If each one of us start truly n honestly reflecting on our behavior…we’ll realize, that probably we also discriminate. Sometimes in a subtle manner and at other times quite obviously! Being affectionate towards out hometown, the place we grew up, our mother-tongue is not wrong. But ridiculing all else is most definitely not Right!

I feel sad to say Indians are indeed the biggest Discriminators I’ve come across!

Hide n Seek Pic

Here is the pic ..I promised I would post.The 1st pic I'm posting on blogger! Wah Wah..kya achievement hai?! ;-) For details on Hide n Seek..pls read the post below.

In the pic

The one on the rite is Pankaj...He wasn't hidin there...he couldn't fit in (only small me could!!) but he insisted on being a part of the pic!

We had the cupboard doors closed(obviously, we were playing hide n seek!!). Nam would stand rite in front of the cupboard and cry with frustration about not being able to find us and that were playing an "ILLEGAL game"!!!!!(Watever he meant by that?!) Harry was sitting on top and munching away some nuts(God knows how many yrs old!) happily. I look comfortably tucked in, but my legs did hurt. All 3 of us tried to not breathe too loudly or giggle, lest the whining boy heard us n we did succeed!

Hide n Seek

Part of the ‘Crazzzy Times” series.

In my college we had many guys who had come from different parts of India and not local-ites… ‘coz of that there were 3 bachelor houses – Nam’s place , Vek’s place(my 1st home during college days!) and Tavrakare home. All of us would gang up at one of these places for lunch or on holidays or random afternoons when there was no class. Those were such fun times…n the cooks in each of these guys’ places were AWESOME! So yummy food was guaranteed.

On one such holiday we all ganged up at Nam’s place. I can’t recollect for lunch or after lunch. N then having nothing to do…we decided we’ll play hide-n-seek. The people on scene were: Tarun, Nam, Pankaj, Harry, Varsha, Sowm, Div and Yours Truly! (Not too sure if I’m missing out any1). A few argument and finally we decided on who has to Seek. The game was fun and so was the day… The particular incidents which make this day so memorable are :

This one time when Pankaj was trying to push me onto the attic…He lifted me up and kept pushing me. It was real filthy up there (Attics generally are and imagine an Attic at a Bachelor’s place!). I was like “Pankaj pls leave me..i cant go up ther…Stop pushing me up. Drop me down.” But in vain! I kicked him hard and he let me free…by then I didn’t have much time to find a good hiding spot and so I jumped onto the bed and pulled the blanket over me! N Hahahahaha..i could not be spotted! Being small does pay off!

Tarun had to seek n we all locked ourselves up in 1 room. He knew we were in there and kept knocking on the door. Bu we refused to open it..n were inside dancing to some music ;-)

N then the best part..we hid in the cupboard... 3 of us- Sowm, Harry n me! Nam had to find us and after about 2-3 turns he gave up n stared whining.. “I’m tired, I cant find ‘em. Not fair!Boo hoo!" Haha…Thinking of it makes me Laugh Out Loud!

N after all the masti we got into some crazzzy pillow fights! Pankaj beat Div so bad, he left a mark on her hand.It was black for a week!

N then we started water fight. Throwing water all over the place. Varsha emptied the dustbin, filled water in it and started throwing it over every1! Ewwwwwwww

Those days will never be back! Thank God for memories!

PS: I will upload the pic of us hiding in the cupboard once I’ve figured out how to!

BEST FRIEND

Blogsphere is talking so much about Friendship and so I decided its time I publish this post that has been in draft forever now!

Let me first start by saying I do not have a Best Friend and take plenty of care to avoid creating that relationship with any of my Friends. Now before u feel sad for me or feel like advising me on why its kinda essential to have atleast one Best Friend, please read on.

As a child..I became really close to this girl in my class. In Class V and VI she and I were best friends. She was a Punjabi, fair n all. N I was a Bangalorean a li’l dark n all. We spent quite sometime together n I really grew close to her. It din’t matter to me that her li’l sis(class I) would walk upto us and tell her “ Didi, mamma told u not to have lunch with the kaali South Indian girl. I’ll tell mummy” . (I guess her mom had something against dark ppl or south Indians)We continued to visit each other’s home and I can’t recollect any bad treatment. N then at the end of class VI , her family moved to Delhi. We exchanged a few letters initially but slowly lost touch. I often wonder how and what Shireen Warickoo is doing. I looked for her on Orkut but in vain.Did she stop writing to me ‘coz she found new friends or did her mom not let her write to me. It used to hurt me for quite a bit then. I had lost my 1st Best Friend!

Class VIII & IX.. I grew really close to “A”. We were so called ‘Best Friends’ I will not mention her name ‘coz im yet in touch with her. We were quite grown up then. It was time for dirty jokes n pranks n loads of masti. In school I was known as “chatter-Box” as I talked endlessly and was an "average" student. My friend A was part of the gang playing pranks and laughing at dirty jokes but she was a “good” student. Her mom was in touch with plenty of the school teachers. School reopened in June and Class IX began. She was behaving a li’l weird; not talking like we always do. On June 9th , she told me that her mom had told her that our LKG teacher (Pam ma’am) had warned aunty to ask A to stop being my friend and hanging out with me as I wasn’t a good girl. I don’t remember if there was an explanation given. But I know I was stumped n hurt that...
- A teacher could b***h about their own students! Pam Ma’am had seen me as a 4 yr old and this is what she was telling mothers about me!
- My friend’s mother thought it appropriate to give her 14 yr old daughter this information
- My “Best Friend” was getting influenced by this information!

For 2 months, we both would walk away from each other, try not looking into each other’s eyes n all that. It really was so hard to do. I recollect having gone home and crying to my ma about it and she asked me to not care about such people. N then on Friendship Day A gave me the most beautiful card ‘Sorry’ card n letter. It was hard not to accept it. We were back to being friends.

Again in Class XII, we both had some problems n this time after several months when we started conversing again. We never went back to what we were, though she was special until about early 2007.

When I started college. I had already lost faith in Best Friends. But there used to be one girl “D” (who I’m in touch with). She n I were good friends. But slowly I realized I couldn’t live upto her expectations. She was extremely possessive of me and was v. insistent about us being Best Friends. She wanted me to keep her posted if I met with any of my other friends and was so jealous about it!We used to fight so often and it used to make me so sad and helpless.It was hard to explain or rationalize things wit her. It is yet so hard!

Now I have a couple of people in my life..who mean the world to me. Among these people there is just 1 girl and the rest all guys. Since my college days I’ve realized it’s so much easier to be friends with a guy! They expect less and that way the relationship remains good. That 1 girl has been one of the pillars that support my life!These people are my dearest friends who I trust! I will not call ‘em my BEST FRIENDS ‘coz I’m scared I’ll lose them the minute I assign that tag!

PS:I have been holding back this post for so long ‘coz I was worried abt hurting some people. If any of u reading this post was that Best friend of mine, pls don’t be hurt. U know, I just said the truth.

Visit to the Cup Vision Lady

This is the 1st of my blog series of “Those Crazzy Times” . This week I’ve been catching up with loads of friends and we have been talking so much about the ol’ times and the gone-by days. So I’m super nostalgic n decided to blog abt the fun times! Here goes the story about The Cup Vision Lady:

September 2004

So Div (my dearest friend) n I were at work. These were the times in life when every li’l thing seemed like it was the end of the world and both of us were confused n worried about certain things in or life! One of our friends told us about this Cup Vision Lady(Ms Nawalghani) and how she was “so right” when she predicted the future. We call Ms Nawalghani and ask when we can come, how much she charges, where she is at etc etc. She was quite expensive, I think 700 Rs for one session per person. But we had started earning now..so it would be allright. N she said we must go that afternoon ‘coz she would be out of Bangalore for a month after that.That did it. We decided we must visit her.

Both of us tell our manager that we are sick and took half day off work.We took an auto to reach her place in shivajinagar from Dairy Circle. The stairway to her place was so narrow. We were a bundle of nerves, I remember. We knock on her door and there was this lady with reallly long frizzy brown hair, left open. She was tall and kinda huge, the magician types..if u know wat im talking about (Wish I had clicked pictures, but we din’t have a camera back then). She called her maid to attend to us. The maid made us sit in this roof garden kinda place. It looked so old n rusted. The maid told us she ll be right back. We had 2 mins to talk n both of us were freaked out by how Ms. Nawalghani looked!

The maid comes back n she gives us this coffee cup with black coffee in it. N asked us to drink most of it and leave behind a little. We were like…. OMG! We have to drink sumthing,wat if its poisoned or had sumthing to drug us?! We hadn’t even told our parents we were coming here. No one but the 2 of us knew where we were at.We hadn't said our last good-byes!We were contemplating walking away. But the “miseries of life and desire to know the future” got the better of us and we stayed back.

Now I really don’t like black coffee so with lot of difficulty I gulped it down. It tasted bad! Div din’t mind the taste at all. The maid came n took away our cups and then we sat waiting by ourselves for several minutes.mabbe 15 mins. n then we were called in one-by-one. Both of us wanted to go in together n din’t mind each other’s presence n so we did.

Ms Nawalghani asked us to look into our cups n think of the Qs we wanted to ask her. We did n then she started with my cup. It was weird..they way she kept looking into the cup deep like she was studying something and answering my Qs in exactly the same order that I had thought of them in my head! N some of what she said has actually come true. For Eg, she told me I’ll marry a guy whoz in Canada and Vinod is in Vermont, 2 hrs drive from Canada!

Even Div had the same kind of experience with her.

We are not sure if we blv her or not. But it was fun ‘coz both of us din’t take it too seriously n believed in what we wanted to believe in. It was fun n till date we laugh about it.

After that we both met up with S n vek (our friends) n had an awesome night out :). Oh those crazzzy times... how much I miss ‘em!

PS: I yet have Nawalghani’s business card if any of u want her number !!!

Everything Does Happen for the Best

Those who know me…know that I take on the role of playing “Aunt Agony” often n can go on endlessly with my gyaan. A blogger friend who I recently added on gtalk will vouch for this. This post is mainly for her and I would like to share this story with the rest of u all as well.

So yeah..my gyaan sessions almost always ends with “Keep the smile and faith. Remember Everything Happens for the Best”. I’m not sure how or by whom this idea about everything happening for the best got into my head. But it did and even back in school days I remember saying and believing in it strongly. This is what pulls me thru’ a zillion hard situations in life. But one situation made me Q this thought..

2004
When I started working, I had a colleague, let’s call her ‘A’. We were initially just that, colleagues and went on to become good friends. We would talk endlessly and confide in each other. She shared with me an incident that had happened to her sister about 2 months back. Her sister, say ‘S’, was seeing a guy n the 2 of ‘em were supposedly madly in love with each other. They had told parents on either side abut the relationship and sought agreement to marriage. They were waiting for A to get married as she was the elder one and then planned to get married themselves. The details of their love story was simply so beautiful. The guy was into trekking and hiking and other adventure sports and was visiting Bangalore for one such trekking expedition. He lost balance and fell off the cliff. He didn’t survive. S’s life became empty. The families were shattered. It was unbelievable that, he could be snatched away like that… Just like that!
When I heard this story…I couldn’t say my fav words, words that I believed in so much.. “Keep the smile and faith. Remember everything happens for the best”. I felt weak and couldn’t face S. Inside my brains I really struggled , trying to find a reason, draw some explanation as to what good would come.

2006
S met another guy, ‘G’, who she fell in love with. Then began the process of her faith in life being restored.Things started looking sunny n beautiful again.

I begun to gain back the faith in my fav words. Mabbe they were true.

2008
S and G got married in Feb. They look so happy n content together! Touchwood!

And I 2nd and 3rd the words “Keep the smile and faith. Remember Everything Happens for the Best”. There is a reason why God chooses to make happen all that happens. It’s important to trust, do our bit and leave the rest to him.

PS : Story -Telling is not my skillset, pls u'stand that thats not wat this post is about.