A Beautiful Morning

It was a beautiful morning today... As usual my morning started with me cooking food for my family, which now includes a task of mashing everything so that my boy can chew it easily and swallow. After my son left for school, I decided to spend some time in the balcony, sit on the grass though its artificial and just watch outside while listening to some music. And it resulted in me doing a full fledged stretching surrounded by nature around me. 

Yesterday I shifted the 6 big bricks to the terrace 3 floors up. And then with the help of Dinu shifted the granite piece lying in the backside of the house. I cleaned the terrace and arranged the bricks and granite slab in the center of it. The purpose is so one can sit there from time to time, soak in the sunrays, relax on a calm windy day. It was beautiful in the evening, lying down and observe the sky, the birds flying around, many gliding in the wind giving the sky an amazing beauty. Even the half moon in an early eveing sky looked so beautiful. It felt wonderful looking at everything straight up without lifting your chin. 

If the mosquitoes wouldn't have been there then I would have slept on the roof. Have to find a way to achieve that. Reminds me of my time in my native and in my village where we used to sleep on the terrace on Summers.

Anyways, after my husband returned from school, showered and left for office, I went upstairs and lied down on the granite piece and soaked in the shadowy sunrays. It wasn't harsh sun, yet it was so bright, looking straight up at the sky was impossible. So, I just closed my eyes and listened to all the sounds around me. Well, can't spend the whole day there, who would do the chores then?? Had my lunch and took a nap. When my son returned, made him coffee and sweetpotato chops. And dropped him for his badminton coaching. Husband picked him up after he returned from office. 

It was raining in batches through out the day today. Took few pics and videos while it was raining. It was serene. The parrots were sitting on high trees taking bath in the gentle shower. And then again I was busy with the chores again. No study time today, no reading books. 

Well, I have made some food preparations for tomorrow, so the work would be a little easy. All dishes sparkling clean too. Son's request is already there to make him some aaloo bhujia. Well, it would be experiment time for me. Wish me luck.

And I would be going to sleep in sometime from now. Just felt like writing while listening to the piano pieces by Austin Farwell. 

Good Night...

~Smile.

Fake Friends

Words have the power to make or break someone. Yet, often people casually taunt others, criticise others without realising whether the person at whom it's directed will get disheartened by it or not. Everyone has their own story. Just because you are in a superior position, than the other person, doesn't give you the right to taunt, or criticise them. 

Recently, I faced some situation like this where a person casually started comparing with another person, then taunted me on another occasion. Usually, I take the jokes lightly. This time too I took the comparison lightly. But, it continued and I couldn't take it any more and left the place. 

Another instance where another person started blaming me for not being informed by the instructor or the other fellow members. 

Bloody hell, am I a dustbin where everyone puts their complaint garbage or am I "Mandir ka Ghanta" / "Temple's Bell" whom everyone comes and beats.

I regret listening to the elders and changing myself from a straightforward person to someone who always thinks "whether I should upfront or not", "what if the other person is hurt by my words", "I should be more understanding of that person", "the other person is frustrated, so let me just listen to them so that their anger subsides". I wish I was the same old "Muhn phat". Alas, the change is permanent now. 

Yet, I heard in one video where the student was asking the Guru, "How much chance should we give to the other person who is hurting me?" And the guru said, "How much poison will you take before you die?"

Well, I think I have tolerated enough, I have forgiven enough. Now, I don't want to be in an environment where I'm constantly taken advantage of, or criticised for nothing and compared with others. 

Also, I quit the gossip groups because it is said, "The moment  you are out of the gossipping group, the next gossip topic will be you."

So, this time the lesson I got is - the new people who become your friends can't be your true friend. They will look for their selfishness. Won't even bother to know if they hurt you someway. Fake Friends.

~Smile

Identity Crisis - Who am I?

Who am I?

The identity crisis that I'm pondering over these days.

With these recent road rages related to the different language... And people's behavior towards non-State people is just so perplexing.

In our own country we fight among ourselves, First, in the name is religion - Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Chritian; Second, in the name is state/language - ODiya, KannaDika, Telugu, TamiL, Maharashtrian etc. 

Then inside state we would fight in the name of castes - Brahmin, KaraN, GouDa, SC, ST etc.

Inside each caste we would fight in the name of sub-castes - SoLakhanDiya GouDa, Gopa GouDa, Nanda GouDa etc.

In the root level we would fight in the name of gender.

Why do people adapt Hindi or English language to communicate?

In my childhood days, there were barely any English medium school. And it was a luxury to study in English medium school.

People wanted to dream high and reach out to the outer world which was propering faster because of the common laguages being spoken between countries. So, most would get their kids admission in English medium school. 

My siblings studied in English medium. I studied in Odia medium, state government school. 

I wrote, spoke and learnt everything in Odia till my 10th. I used to be terrified of English language and would feel feverish during the exams due the the fear of it. 11th was as if a lightning stroke on me. Everything was in English. It took me 11th grade completely to get adjusted with English and I was way behind my fellow students who were from English medium. 12th grade was finally a bit easy for by then my written English had improved.

Then Engineering was way better. However, my spoken English was still broken. And when the time for interviews came I was panicking. I have to speak the answers not write. It was a challenge. And I love challenges. So, yes, I had to work hard to be able to speak without fear. Practice, practice and practice... That's what I did. Finally clicked through the interviews and got my campus selection.

Fortunately and luckily we had a 3 months of Software Engieer Trainings, where we learnt various programming skills as well as communication skills. The trainers gave us tasks like News paper reading like an anchor, presentation skills, dining skills, listening to English radio channels, watching English movies without subtitles and rewind and repeat unless we understand the Americam accent.

I worked hard to be able to speak with customers, clients, colleagues from different countries. And yet, now I and the new generation kids are urged to learn all different state languages.

It's not like our days when we were surrounded by people from our own language. I never bothered to learn English, thinking I would be staying here in my state, why do I need to learn English. For me, life was Odisha, world was Odisha. Everything else didn't matter. However, as I grew and moved across few countries and many states in India, I realised that the common language that many respond to easily is Hindi and English. We were girls from Odisha, Karnataka, Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat, Banaras, Hyderabad staying together in a house, sharing our food, our songs, our movies, our cosmetics and were happy conversing in English and Hindi. Our goal was to be successful in our profession and raise the name of our family, our caste, our gender. We didn't think about state. We thought of our family name first, then the castes we belonged to. Being women we wanted to prove that we too are beauty with brains. And next thing that came to mind was keeping the pride of our nation when we were out of our country.

I haven't met so far any IT professional who cribs about prople not knowing their language. People who deal with foreigners, have been to other countries too, have seen the different cultures - try to inculcate their culture in their kids, they show by example, they do themselves first and not just command others to do. They are the ones who have seen the world and know the value of knowing the other languages well too. 

The ones who have not even been outside their own state keep their minds closed, conservative and orthdox.

Once, everyone (from other states) learns the other state language, these same people would find some other reason to complain, fight and harrass others like gender may be or not being born in their state.

May be one day the animals would also start speaking and start harrassing us humans for not being animals.

As humans what we should do is save the kids from having these Identity Crisis, for they learn English language so that they can communicate with all the different state people that they live with. How many languages will they learn? Already the education pressure is huge, much more than what we studied in our times. And becoming experts in multiple languages is just overloading them and is taking away their fun childhood. 

Keeping them interested to learn all the different languages is definitely a challenge, but telling them, "You are living in our state, using our resources, breathing our air, eating our food but not showing interest to learn our language" is not going to create any interest or love in them to learn the language. They would just revolt and want to finish study fast and do higher studies and get out of the country, to a place they can live freely, away from these politics. 

With what's happening in our country, we better not complain in other countries that they are showing racism towards Indians. You are showing racism in your own country, then you have no right to complain about it when others do it to you, to your relatives or to your kids. Open up your minds and find different approach to create love in the kids heart to learn all different languages. All these languages have a beauty, a poetic form, a musical way in their vocabularies. Use that to create interest, may be create RAP songs in your own language and make it popular, so kids want to learn to understand. Take example from BrodhaV - I love his all different songs inculcating the different South Indian languages, it's memorable because of his beautiful lyrics and music. 

Love is what can bring things closer to one's heart. 

Hatred would just repell all your efforts.

Well, to address "Who am I?", I want peace of mind, so, "I am a human" is my answer. And I love (and learn) all different languages of the entire world and their unique cultures. 

With Love

~ Smile

Just few thoughts - 02

Unless they face the problem themselves, they will always say you are being ridiculous about it. 

After they face the same problem they will exaggerate how huge it was, thus they had to get rid of that problem and how they couldn't live with it. 🤥

#People and their #Opinions... It changes when they are placed on that same spot as you. 

Just few thoughts - 01

We are women and we are unique in our own way. We have our own capabilities, our own qualities. We don't need any comparison with anybody. We are special in our own way. We don't need to become masculine just because we want to be independent. Being feminine we can achieve so much more. So better to compare with our own self and see what better things we can do than we have already done. 

UGLY

Can something be 'Ugly'? How can we say that this IS ugly? Something that's ugly to me can be beautiful to you, someone whose ugly to you can feel amazing to me. So, can something or someone be ever ugly to ALL of us in the whole world? Can we have a consensus on a particular 'Ugly' living or non-living thing? I don't think so. And in that case there is nothing in this world that's UGLY. Period.

~ Smile

What was I doing being away from Blogger?

Wow! I haven't written a single word in my blog for past 2 years. Can't believe that 2 years have gone by. And this now forces me to think, to look back and really ponder about what have I been doing for past 2 years.

Well, writing posts I had left long back. However, not posting a single blog... Hmm... It was eventful 2 years of my life. There were disturbing parts which I would not want me or you to ponder over. And there were so many wonderful parts that I would love to recall again and again. 

And today I don't know why but I just felt like jotting down my thoughts like I used to before. 

Well, in these past 2 years 

1. I learnt yoga practices though for a short period of time,  
2. attended Bhagvat Geeta level 1 course, 
3. did my inner engineering program, 
4. got a back injury by an excited happy little one while playing with him, 
5. learnt keyboard from my 8 year old son, 
6. explored the ways of repairing the house (which includes, scrubbing - oiling - painting of iron grills, fixing hairline cracks, grouting of floors, putty work of walls), 
7. explored about painting of walls in a structured manner, 
8. painted designs in the walls (recently I applied so much of what I learnt in my parent's house, repaired my mom's kitchen and guest bedroom, re-organised everything, repaired the walls and painted the rooms from roof to sides, and painted designs in the room - it looks fabulous), 

After a long time.... Be a responsible parent, or don't become one at all

Hopefully, this year I'll start writing blogs again.

And yeah just a thought to the parents... If you can't give your time to your children, teaching them right from wrong, good manners, discipline, but leave it up to the kids to learn on their own, better don't have any kids of your own, cause the limited time that you spend with them, pampering them in those limited time, you are creating nothing but criminals and monsters who bully and torture other kids, unknown to the fact that they are taking out their frustrations from home on outsiders.

If you can't commit to parenthood, better don't become one. Cause it's really annoying to see the expressionless faces while your kid continues to bully and has no respect for others.

Become a responsible parent...

Just a thought - 02 (Surprising myself)

Most of the time rather than people surprising me, I keep surprising myself... I guess that's called as Maturity. My friends ask me several questions about my choices by seeing the display photos in my profile in various socializing platforms. Not that I'm in so many, yet the very few I have, to be exact WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, I use it frequently. I give them reasons too. And while giving them reasons I realize about my own choices and thought levels too. When I tell them about what the DP is and why I have set it, it amazes not just them but it amazes me too. Funny and ridiculous haan ... Well it is what it is. And anyway it feels nice to explain to them. Some really appreciate it and some just make fun of it. In either case I realize the importance of those Das in my life. Be it just a celebrity's pic or a beautiful photo of nature, the wonderful quotes or a movie poster. Each one of them or those have influence in my life, in my thinking, teach wisdom to me. And realizing and remembering those wisdoms while talking about the photos makes me so happy. I hope I remain happy like this forever.

Want to know about my DP now. It's photos of few celebrities for now. And Michael Jackson is one of them. Today on June 25th I miss that sweet and marvelous person and wish to have him born again in mother Earth. Yet I know there can never be another Michael Jackson on this planet.

Hope he is resting in peace. I wish to be happy and keep on learning for as long as I am alive.

Smile

Try, try, try... No matter how far you have to go

When some doctor tells you that, "Sorry but there's nothing that can be done at the moment. Sorry, it's already gone. I can't help you now. We have to amputate.", he actually means that he doesn't have the expertise to help you out. So, in that situation rather than loosing your hope, go visit other doctors.

One doctor denies that doesn't mean it's the end of world. Don't believe a negative comment unless you have tried all your options. Try, try, try... Unless you loose all your options. Search for the best surgeons and visit them no matter how far you stay.

Beware of doctors who tell you that it's the end of the world for you.

Who is mental?

I saw a person in hospital yesterday who was talking to himself with expression. There were other people with me who saw him too and said his mental state is disturbed or may be he is mental. He was talking to himself, just the way we talk to our near and dear. Who better near and dear one would have other than himself / herself.

After that discussion was over, I was sitting in the cafeteria and wondering about my husband who has undergone a surgery few days back, and then I noticed that I too talk to myself, about my worries, about what happened, what could have prevented and all the things that went wrong which led to the surgery. My talking was limited to my thoughts and an occasional silent / not much noticeable nodding of the head. Then I wondered that the guy who was talking to himself may or may not be a mental. If he is then all we people are a little 'mental' at some point. Some find themselves alone during the bad times and react differently.

One should always have company in hospital otherwise you never know when the attendant will also become a mental patient. There should be someone with whom the attendant could share the feelings. Keeping the feelings inside is a very bad thing.

To complete the article - who is mental? - I would say we all are at some point.

Just a thought... The Shawshank Redemption Syndrome

Was watching "The Shawshank Redemption"... The part where Old Brooks was released from the jail and scenes afterwards, they felt so similar to me. "These walls are funny. First you hate them. Then you get used to them." These lines are actually lived by me. Not the jail walls, but the home walls with my family. I was so scared when I went Mumbai to join my first job just like Brooks was. The world looked so anonymous and scary for I was out of my home on my own for the first time. Everything was new, the culture, the people, the food... Everything! I wished then that I should have stayed in a hostel or boarding for sometime.

I am sure like me there are many of you who felt the same... :)

Happiness is...

Happiness is...
Gossiping with Mommy

Happiness is...
Talking to brother about everything

Happiness is...
Creativity and Art

Happiness is...
My little bundle of joy

Happiness is...
Holding the little finger of Daddy and walking

Happiness is...
Getting support for everything from my Love

Happiness is...
Giving a lift to children and poor people while traveling

Happiness is...
Saving someone's life

Happiness is...
Being Human

💓💜

Happiness is...
Writing blog
😊

Bajrangi Bhaijaan - Movie review - my thoughts

Watched #BajrangiBhaijaan... And felt great about it. It's a beautiful story with good direction. Every scene, every song, each character is so well portrayed by the actors be it #Kareena, #Harshali, #Salman, #Nawazuddin or the other important and supporting actors. A movie that even my 3 year old enjoyed. The only place where I found lost is just before the ending. I guess the script writers had to find a way to remove Salman's shirt and thus the scene was planned that way. However, it could have been better. I can't suggest how because then I would become a script writer. Yet I loved the acting of Salman Khan. So far his best acted film. And Harshali you rock girl. Have seen your acting in TV shows yet your acting in main stream movie is just mind blowing. Way to go you girl! It was time well spent!

"Aaj ki party mere taraf se..." and all the featured songs are beautiful!!

When do you really become old!?

One should never let the kid inside oneself die! For the day it dies the day you become actually old and everything would seem colorless and boring... One should always be like Santa Clause who sees beauty and wonder in everything!!  :) #GGSays #SantaClause #Thoughts

Biased behavior of men towards women

#Observation - be it our food court, cafeteria or KFC or other food counters - customers normally bash the #women service providers. With #men they argue but their tone remains a bit less harsh! Amazing partiality!! Men should be ashamed of their biased behavior.

Tanu Weds Manu Returns - movie review

I know, I know .... It's too late to write any review about this movie as it's old now. But I just want to pour out my thoughts in my own blog. I have already done in my Facebook. Yet this blog is one treasure of mine and I wanna treasure some of my memory while I still can. So, here it goes...

One of the best movie, amazing actors, great direction. A movie that had no gaps, not a Single moment where you become lost for few minutes or seconds for that matter. Completely captivating! A movie worth spending money, get mesmerizing entertainment.

The best part of the movie is even though Kangana is playing double role, the two characters played by her are so distinct that one would feel like there's a twin of Kangana who's playing the role. I would say after Vidya it's Kangana who makes me feel and say "Wow! Now that's called acting!" And more amazing thing is there's not a single actor who you can criticize for their acting. I totally, utterly and downright loved the movie!

The consistent and silent acting of Madhavan is something that makes me fall in love with him everytime I watch his performance.

I feel lost...

So many thoughts now-a-days just come and go... and with this busy schedule of my day, I keep forgetting what had come to my mind. :(

Well, I guess I am not trying hard to find some time for blogging... for jotting down my thoughts and because of this only I guess I feel lost at times...

I have watched some good movies recently... and I feel like writing my views about the movies... about how I enjoyed those and why and what...

Yeah... that should be good enough to re-start/invent/discover my writing abilities...

Wish me luck!!

♥ ~ Smile

Common (wo)men's fashion show!!

Have you ever been to a common men's fashion show?

No!!

I don't believe it. If you are not a star / a celebrity - then you are a part of the common men's fashion show. If you are a poor person - who I am sure you are not; you won't be reading my blog post here otherwise - then you may not be a part of the show.

Every middle class and yeah sometime high class too, is a part of this fashion show. The audiences of the show have some of their members as part of this show.

Come on! Guess, guess, guess...

OK, I give you a clue - It's a hit show on weekends.

Ok, ok... I give you another clue - It's a super hit show during holidays - in almost every mall.

Are you able to guess now?

I hope so... Alright, time to disclose the secret.

The common men's fashion show happens in front of all the trial rooms, in the trial sections. Mostly, it happens with women. They would go in with a whole set of clothes - a whole wardrobe, to be precise; Try one by one. They come out wearing each dress one by one and show it to their partner. The partner could be their roommates, boyfriend, husband and colleagues. 99% of the women go for others' opinion, besides their own. And the fun part is they would be communicating it mostly through non-verbal body-language. And not only the shopping partner but the whole army of men would be looking all those women from outside the trial area. Men! - They don't have the privilege to go near the trial rooms, unless there is a single trial room in the middle of the floor.

About men taking part in the show as models, rarely does someone come out to show it to the partner (especially to ladies). They decide for themselves. And if someone does come out then it's only because they want to avoid arguments with the ladies, like my husband does :).

Yeah, there are exceptions and those exceptions are for those guys who are hesitant to buy something and are confused about whether they will really look good in it. They need some approvals in the form of support and sincere comments, which increases their self confidence.

Also, there's one more category where the guy has a little feminine characteristic in him and they are the ones who have many girls as just his friends and he needs all their approval before buying anything. Whatever these girls ask him to buy he buys. Loll.

So, the men's fashion show is not much popular as compared to the women's - never seen any such show of men. If you watch they do let me know your findings, observations!!

If you want to watch one, go to the big malls in the weekend. Lights on!! Music on!! Enjoy the show with the A/C on!!

♥ ~ Smile

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder...

The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, not touched, but are felt in the heart.

~ Helen Keller

I feel so relaxed when I look at the sea... Whenever I see a beautiful picture with the sea in it's background, I feel so joyous and delighted.

This picture (taken from Michelle Sedas's blog) gave that feeling... So, thought of keeping it in my blog too...

And yeah, whenever I see a beautiful sea, I recall Andamaan Island every time; The only sea beaches me and my husband enjoyed together.

♥ ~ Smile