Friday, January 29, 2010

I Dream Of...

I dream of ...

Clean Blue sky with a sun smiling at me.
White spongy strides from velvety blue endless sea.
Simmering of sand with glow of the sun.
Feeling the warmth with the cool breeze playing with shiny hairs.
A few colourful pebbles reflecting the happy mood.
A relaxing wooden chair with a big colourful umbrella.
A orange flowery wrap with a nice big hat & cool dark shades...
A big coconut with a straw in hand.
or may be sweet lime juice and some brownie sundaes...
Long walks by the sea holding slippers in the hand....
Watching sky turning red forming a beautiful calming landscape.
A dinner watching sunset with a pinacolada in hand...
A soft white bed to go sleep like a kid...
Calming soft music and sleeping in the shorts with no thick blankets...
Golden sunrise over the sea... sipping my favourite tea in the balcony .
A bunch of beautiful memories, to be tucked away in that dusty old cellars, just like that old fine wine.
Aaah and me, at peace with the world.


P.S. While i read this what i wrote in my day dreaming state, that reminds me of our first trip after marriage... Goa !!


Photo Courtsey:
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-801310/stock-photo-attractive-fit-and-tanned-girl-sitting-on-white-sandy-beach-in-the-sun-adjusting-white-straw-hat.html
http://graphicshunt.com/images/beach-9619.htm

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

No, It's mine !

It was again proved this weekend, how absent minded I can be... me...yes me who doesn’t like things which are not done perfectly, who can notice the difference if any thing has been touched by someone else than me ... and still at times there I stand!

I don't know what was on my mind that day, may be cooking... ya sometimes I get cooking attacks too when I cook, cook and cook and try to compensate all the laziness I showed in cooking in last few days.

That day was also something like that...it started with my madness at cleaning, and I decided to take one room at a time and so while I worked on one room I disposed everything which I thought shouldn't belong to that room to the next room.

And then as I was tired of cleaning I thought to take bath, leaving that last room for later. And I just picked up jeans, from the heap of the cloths in that other room, scheduled to be worked upon later.
Then I stand in the kitchen with my next mission of cooking!

I was maniacally chopping something, Ashu came at back and hugged me smiling, surprising me with what's wrong!

"Why are you wearing my Jeans?"
"No it's mine!”

He laughed, turned me back, did my t-shirt a bit up and looked at the brand tag and confirmed.

"No, it's mine"
ummm...hmm...what?...nooo....ohhh... @$&#@...OHHH...

Ok I see the length.

"How did you know I was wearing yours?
"Because of the fitting!”

Ohh yeah right, fitting!!
It was too long for me; it didn’t stay stuck to my legs, a bit loose and overall too comfortable!

"I see, it had actually crossed my mind that wow this jeans is very comfortable!”

And we laughed and laughed!

I had never ever expected from me, even in my dreams!
I have no words, but to say.... crazy me... yeah again!


Image Courtsey: www.cartoonstock.com


Sunday, January 24, 2010

Happiest Kids...

The headline in the Dutch Daily News says " Dutch kids are the happiest in Europe".
Various surveys say so.
And this is not the first time I am reading this. I have been coming across quite a lot lately.
Main reason given is Dutch society is very child-centred, parents go out of their way to please kids and parents share a special relationship with their children, and teachers expect less of them than some of their European counterparts.

Once a couple has a kid, i love how they start giving more time at home, working part-times, taking mother day, father day Off.

It always amazes me, parents and kid relationship.

Last week we were at Ice skating and i loved the way parents were trying to teach their kids to skate, and i was more amazed when i saw a mother teaching a toddler, who wasn't even walking properly, to skate.
Reason? He might not be doing it right now, but because he is in this environment and feeling it, it will come naturally to him and he won't be afraid of falling down, amazing isn't it?

Or may be i felt so, because from where i come from, we are very family oriented society, as much that we pamper the kids so much that you will see mom running before kid had actually slipped or fallen down, too protective. Protective is good actually, here i will say over-protective. Touchwood I had parents exception to that in a way they believed loving and caring is to support us in whatever we want to do in stead of restricting us with over-protectiveness on the name of loving more !.

Yes that protectiveness is mother's love after all, but when those kids are grown up with such a protective environment, one can imagine the difficulty and stress they have to go through when they are out there in the competitive world, there is no one to protect and then when they are afraid to fall down, they are restricting their growth themselves by not moving forward.

Yesterday i saw one another such scene at swimming, there were this new parents with their kid, hardly 3 months old. ( Guy works there as an instructor )
They were taking him in water and i was so so so surprised. I asked the instructor if it is possible to teach young kid, and reply came, no but he will not be afraid of water then and he will learn floating and then always can start with dogie style ! Whoaa, i was speechless !

Kids really rule !

Image Courtesy:

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

No earth beneath ... !

I was just reading news that another aftershock hits Haiti this morning of around a magnitude 6.1, just eight days after 7.0 earthquake shook Port Au Prince and devastated the Caribbean country with the worst earthquake in the region in more than 200 years !

It just makes me wonder what not this one of the poorest and least developed countries “Haiti” has suffered in recent years. Problems ranging from near-constant political upheaval, health crises, severe environmental degradation and an annual barrage of hurricanes, which caused vast damage in 2008. So much for this country!


Reading about earthquakes and devastation caused by it, reminds me of my first face-to-face with "Earthquake".
At that time it was a funny experience to talk about and to have a good laugh ! Yeah, only to realise our immaturity !

It was 26th January 2001, 51st Republic Day of India.
Location : Gujarat, Western state of India.

Most of the people were getting ready to go for flag hosting ceremonies. I in my graduation studies at that times and it being a public holiday was at home. Typical of me to be lazy on holidays and specially when visiting home, so I had just woke up and after the morning routine I was lying on couch in hall ( yes lying, and not sitting), reading newspaper.

It was 08:46 am IST, and suddenly I felt my news paper was shaking, making me unable to read.
I thought it was my younger brother or sister trying to tease me, irritate me.
Thinking how kiddish of them to try such petty tactics, I shouted "get off" in the air without even trying to look who it was !
But no change !
It was stil shaking, aahhh now this is too much. I moved newspaper aside from front of my face to snap whoever was doing that and surprisingly there was no one in the room !

And then it sunk in. No one was shaking my newspaper, in fact whole room was shaking !
My mom came running from inside room give a lots of instruction and information at the same time.... it's earth quack... stand... run... get out of the house... leave home, go out in the open area.
I still remember we didn't even go through main gate of house garden. We just jumped the compound wall and were on the other side. And there we stand almost everyone outside standing on the road, hand in hand and we watched our homes shaking as if made from paper!

We all stood there outside our home for somtime which i don't remember how long, but then asn all the houses started ringing with phones and we felt safe, we went inside.
Papa called us to ask if we all were alright, he had left for office when it happened as he was suppose to do flag hosting at 9:30 am, and so at that particular time he was driving.
He told us about how he felt suddenly his car was sliding on the side as if all tires were punctured, and we laughed.

Soon we all were stucked to our phones, even public telephone booths were jammed, everyone was busy talking with all the friends and relative, asking their well being, repeating same stories, laughing sharing own experiences and talking about who was doing what at that time! How some uncle or Aunty ran without proper dressing up and how some one was bathing at that time! We went to the school from where I had passed out as my younger sister was going to be awarded gold medal for the best student in her batch, quite a proud moment and we were there to be a part of that. Whole ceremony went on as a routine, with a topic of the day being Morning earthquake tremors.

And then as we were home, free and watching news on television, we started to realize, there was nothing funny about morning. We started to realize the severity of what had happened. It measured 7.9 on the Richter scale.

Epicenter was in the western part of Gujarat region, near the Pakistan border and we were living in south of Gujarat and that is why we were not that affected as the western part of state. There was no contact possible with that part of state, as most of the infrastructure was damaged. Later on as more information got available we came to know City of Bhuj, situated only 20 kilometers (14 miles) from the epicenter, was the most devastated town. The quake destroyed around 90% of the homes in Bhuj, eight schools, and flattened two hospitals. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat's commercial capital and a city of 4.6 million populations, as many as 50 multi storied buildings collapsed and several hundred people were killed. Total property damage was estimated at $5.5 billion and rising. The quake destroyed 75% of Kutch District, and over 80% of usable food and water supplies.
Also the shock waves spread 700km. 21 districts were affected and 600 000 people left homeless! It was true, it had happened and there was nothing to laugh about!

We had some friends from college from that region and we were all trying to reach them, but no contact. Only after a few days we could contact some of them to know if they were alright. After some days we were back to routine life, we were back to hostel, back to college and our friends from that effected part of state were still not back.

And when situation stabilized, when we saw them back to college, I cannot describe that relieved feeling in words, I still feel lump in my throat when I am trying to recollect those moments and I still feel those emotions we went through.
Unfortunately not everything was same, at least for those from that part, some people never returned! A few who had returned had lost their loved ones, some had lost their homes and they were always worried about their family back home.
In a way we all were worried. We all were thinking same in one part of our minds - not necessary if it wasn't severe in this part of region this time, next time also it won’t be!

That was the first time we were face to face with the reality, I don't know if prior to that I or may be most of us ever gave it a thought more than it being one chapter of geographic studies back school!
We never thought it can happen here, it can happen with us! But it did making us think that it can be anywhere. However advanced we go, however good we get at forecasting and trends, but still at times nature always manages to surprise us.

R.I.P all victims of this tragedy.
May all those suffering from loses have courage to pass this.
God bless all.

Courtesy:
Images in the order of appearence:
http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/Earthquake%20in%20China_12804
questgarden.com/71/26/9/081013095448/

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Gujarat_earthquake
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/cache/offonce/pid/1248

Monday, January 11, 2010

We,a tiny part of this universe ...

I came through this video and loved it. Hope you will like it too!



I have seen similar to this earlier also, but every time i see something like this, it makes me think / feel, how tiny part we form of the universe... and when we are such a tiny part, there must be somewhere , some form of other life existing, if it could happen on earth, there might be much more favourable planets too for life and as life there could be the whole different definition of life existing, something we have never seen, something we have never imagined, something beyond our thinking.

Whether it will be ever possible to discover the whole of the universe that exists... if it will be then how considering the time it takes to travel to even other galaxy with average human life and then there isn't just one of it to explore.

It's just like there is no end of where you are going and where you want to go. Pretty amazing ! Or shall i say mind boggling.

P.S. Ohh all this just didn't rush to my mind as i watched the video i had first thought like his back in school, attending my science class while learning about universe, galaxies, black holes and what not ! This video just triggered it again to make a post ! :)

Courtsey : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U&feature=player_embedded

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Sweating in the cold...

Do you feel sweating in -5 degree C?

I do.
Indeed did today.

I decided i will walk to office today that too wearing my regular office shoes! Yeah i realised my mistake as soon as i was out of my street, i wanted to go back and change but one part of me told me, come-on Lopa, how bad that can be?
Yeah, my adventurous soul ! And so that kept me walking.

When snow is compressed, it becomes a thin layer of "ice" and with this office shoes walking on "ice"... aah it's one hell of a balancing exercise.
It became more difficult as i left main road, at every step i was slipping and balancing trying not to fall down and then i saw beside the walking street "white snow" where there used to be grass, and suddenly it struck to my mind.... aaah that doesn't seem like slippery, that is snow, and i am walking on ice !

So i started walking where in normal days we are not suppose to walk and then i was at least 3 times faster than before.

I think changing shoes might would have made that a bit easier, perhaps, but yeah still not free of balancing exercise !

Anyway walking on snow in stead of ice helped me to reach office in 25 mins, which i thought will take forever considering my speed initially, my estimate was it wont take less than 40-45 mins if i continued at that speed. ( Normally in good condition, it takes me 20 mins and if i am walking really fast 17-18 mins.)
And this post because while i was walking feeling perspiring in -5 degree C cold, ( I actually have to loosen up my scarf) i kept my mind busy thinking about this is an experience i am gonna share !

Ok i admit i did slip, almost falling down to be precise, once when balance didn't work. I looked around if anyone noticed, yes there was someone just in front of me stepping down from a van, but he just ignored me, may be he saw many slipping and falling down incidents that he did not feel it worth attention ! Good for me ;)
But then against that i did balanced almost 25 times while i was about to slip, so not bad, not bad, atleast to me ;)

Image Courtsey:
1st Pic copied from : http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mba/lowres/mban2452l.jpg
2nd Pic copied from : http://visualrian.com/storage/PreviewWM/3657/55/365755.jpg

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

For someone, i love more with every passing day...

I had written this for him for his Birthday, but being on vacation has it's own disadvantages... So here it goes with a Belated Happy Birthday wish....... which would have been on 1st of January !


Who knew, what started with a "Bye" will end up being a start !
I am glad, I had that bad day, went on to be the most memorable day of my life !

Seeing you for the first time, never felt being a first time !
Time lead us to the directions, we would rather not have gone,
It might would have been darkness, just waiting for the light !
The day you came my way, Never a day seemed like a night.

I am glad, I believed in "mutual responsibilities",
I am glad, You mentioned them !
Thank you for taking me on this ride...

I am glad, I can be myself knowing you always be there..
You make me feel confident, like nothing can go wrong
I get this tingly feeling inside, like forever it's a first date !

Thanks for everything, Thanks for being there, thanks for being with me, love you, love you more everyday...


May you always shine like a star, May there never be clouds !
Wish you all the happiness in the world...
Belated Happy Birthday Ashu ! :)

P.S. Sorry if it doesn't make any sense to those all of you reading it, One day i might simplify it :)

Picture Courtesy : http://media.photobucket.com
 

Life as it goes on... | Desenvolvido por EMPORIUM DIGITAL