WIKIMAPIA

Check out this totally AWESOME site. I could practically see my parents’ home !!! Tuscaloosa isn’t showing up too well though!!! Enter the name of the city/ locality and search for a place of interest…the last time I checked Google earth hadn’t expanded to cover as much of India/the world as it does now .
WIKIMAPIA

God is in your heart and on your computer screen!!!

I was about to rant in the previous entry about how distressed I was during my trip to India ,when I couldn’t enter the temple of the deity, whom I looked for help in my past two years away from family . I guess I wasn’t destined too go in at that time!!! My dad felt for me , though I behaved like a brat at the time, and reminded me that it’s not visiting temples that counts because after all God is in your heart…he took me to Siddhi Vinayak and Mahalakshmi Temples in Mumbai to make up for it( incidentally the last time he was at Mahalakshmi Temple was on his wedding day, some twenty six year before that day in January).

Anyway why am I bringing this up and why am I not ranting? Because I believe religion is personal , and I don’t think I’ve faced religious discrimination as a woman,atleast not in a way that truly affects me because I choose to let it not affect me, though at times I think we have a Da Vinci code type scenario happening in our own backyard as well!!!

That isn’t the point of this post though, I’ve been pretty much browsing the net like nobody’s business the past few months , but today was the first day when searching for information for the previous blog I keyed in Devi in wikipeida, and saw stuff I already knew , then I thought “Well specifically I ought to click on Durga”; and I did , and I read the Durga Mahishasur story, and scrolled down the page , and I see four links and the last one is about the very temple I was feeling bad about not being able to visit, I was happy but really surprised ,there are many other more famous Durga temples in India and in South Kanara as a matter of fact!!! It wouldn’t be a big deal if it was a large famous temple because then of course there would be wiki about it , but it’s actually a small temple in a rural ( and I mean rural!!!) part of South Kanara, most of the devotees are from the village, I’m sure if my dad hadn’t married my mom he might not have heard of the temple. The priest mentioned in the article is the temple priest , and he’s a Wikipedia celebrity !!!! We usually take our family deity from our mothers side , Durgaparmeshwari is like my guardian angel, and I carry a picture in my wallet , wherever I go, I usually get questions about the picture , which I happily answer.

I guess it goes back to my dads principle of God being in your heart , and I found God when I was thinking about her the most!!!

Why I sometimes wonder about who made the rules anyway????

1) Because I believe that God doesn’t care what you wear to a temple , sari, salwar, pants or a skirt, and I believe dress codes shouldn’t exist for either men or women , though women are forced to adhere more.


2) I know India has a large number of AIDS affected , it’s on all the newspapers and TV for heaven’s sake, I get a little tense whenever I have to have an injection ( though that doesn't stop me from donating blood in India whenever I can ) ; and I make sure the syringe is disposable (it always is) , but you know just for my own mental satisfaction, I remember the one time I was really scared when I was in college and I got my ear pierced without telling my parents, I did it in a small shop.. I’m not too sure if they cleaned the instrument they used and I’m sure they used the same thing on everyone, ( how many people would have come in contact with it???), I was really worried for a while, but apart from minor chiding my parents and friends weren’t overly worried .Anyway I passed all those medical tests before leaving India and donated blood and so I guess I’m clean. I’ll be more careful when I get my tattoo. Anyway I’m sharing this because I want to provide some background. As soon as I got out of college I told my mom that when and if I got married the guy would have to take a blood test ( I don’t know but do you have to do this anyway, before you get married ??) and she thought it was a good idea. Well last week I had a similar conversation with my cousin in the States and when I told her this ,( she’s married ), her response was ,“Are you crazy?? Do you think ‘insert community name” men will do that????” . “Oh ,well” I said, “ I guess if they are in the States then would have been tested and must be alright” …. I mean is it wrong to worry about your body ???

3) Caste as woman
This clearly exists in India and very much in religious observances, and I follow them, I cant say I see much sense in them, and at times I wonder was it God who decided this or was it people ( I put my money on people)…… we’ve moved ahead by leaps and bounds I should say , and I wonder if in another 300 years these relics from the past will cease to exist all together….


4)Because I find this post interesting and want to read the book!!!

Songs Part 2

The other .. is another one of my favorites; Sitting, Waiting ,Wishing by Jack Johnson ..the video is really cool so watch it….. Jack Johnson has a couple of other good songs as well namely Taylor and Upside Down….

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing –Jack Johnson

Well I was sitting, waiting, wishing
You believed in superstitions
Then maybe you'd see the signs

The Lord knows that this world is cruel
I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Learning lovin' somebody don't make them love you

Must I always be waiting, waiting on you
Must I always be playing, playing your fool

I sang your songs, I danced your dance
I gave your friends all a chance
But putting up with them
Wasn't worth never having you

Maybe you've been through this before
But it's my first time so please ignore
The next few lines cause they're directed at you

I can't always be waiting, waiting on you
I can't always be playing, playing your fool

I keep playing your part
But it's not my scene
Want this plot to twist
I've had enough mystery
Keep building it up
Then shooting me down
But I'm already down

Just wait a minute
Just sitting, waiting
Just wait a minute
Just sitting, waiting

Well, if I was in your position
I'd put down all my ammunition
I'd wonder why'd it taken me so long

But Lord knows that I'm not you
And if I was, I wouldn't be so cruel
Cause waitin' on love aint so easy to do

Must I always be waiting, waiting on you
Must I always be playing, playing your fool

No, I can't I always be waiting, waiting on you
I can't always be playing, playing your fool


Depending on my mood , listening to one of these songs always makes me feel good !!! :)

Songs part 1

Sorry for subjecting y’all to that previous post….. if I had to write an original blog entry at this particular moment. It would be something on the lines of “Please help me get a job or how to kick start your career …..or my personal experiences at the beginning of the job search process .” yada,yada,yada…….

In the meanwhile I’ll leave you with two songs I’m listening to while writing this blog entry . I love this song, reminds me of the 80’s .. nice and mushy!!!


Time after Time –Cyndi Lauper

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick,
and think of you
caught up in circles confusion--
is nothing new
Flashback--warm nights--
almost left behind
suitcases of memories,
time after--

sometimes you picture me--
I'm walking too far ahead
you're calling to me, I can't hear
what you've said--
Then you say--go slow--
I fall behind--
the second hand unwinds

chorus:
if you're lost you can look--and you will find me
time after time
if you fall I will catch you--I'll be waiting
time after time

after my picture fades and darkness has
turned to gray
watching through windows--you're wondering
if I'm OK
secrets stolen from deep inside
the drum beats out of time--

chorus:
if you're lost...

you said go slow--
I fall behind
the second hand unwinds--

chorus:
if you're lost...
...time after time
time after time
time after time
time after time

Aquarius

No matter how much I search ( and I do a lot of searching on this subject!!) I never find another description of my star sign that I like better , this one makes me sound much more interesting than I really am!! I keep going back to it over the years. Every one knows that Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs is the touchstone in its field. Since I don’t believe so much in links on my blog postings I’m going to paste the entire 6730 word description of Aquarians and Aquarian Females to act as ready reference whenever I need it ……. for the few of you out there who may be interested …here’s a link to the online version of the book.


From "Linda Goodman's Sun Signs"

AQUARIUS, the Water Bearer
January 21st through February 19th

How to Recognize AQUARIUS

"In spring, when -woods are getting green, I'll try and tell you what I mean:
In summer, when the days are long, Perhaps you'll understand the song.'"
"For this must ever be -A secret
Kept from all the rest Between yourself and me."

Lots of people like rainbows. Children make wishes on them, artists paint them, dreamers chase them, but the Aquarian is ahead of everybody. He lives on one. What's more, he's taken it apart and examined it, piece by piece, color by color, and he still believes in it. It isn't easy to believe in something after you know what it's really like, but the Aquarian is essentially a realist, even though his address is tomorrow, with a wild-blue-yonder zip code.
Like the bewildered Alice, taken through the maze of Wonderland by Aquarian Lewis Carroll, you'll have to be constantly prepared for the unexpected with Uranians. Generally kindly and tranquil by nature, Aquarians never¬theless enjoy defying public opinion, and they secretly delight in shocking more conventional people with oc¬casional erratic conduct. These normally soft-spoken and courteous souls can suddenly short circuit you with the most amazing statements and actions at the most unpredict¬able times. The typical Uranian is half Albert Schweitzer and half Mickey Mouse. His feet can be wearing sandals, boots, oxfords, or hush puppies, and he'll seldom bother to check whether they're appropriate for the occasion. He'll show up barefoot if he feels like it, and laugh at you for laughing at him. Aquarians often deliberately adopt weird attire to show their refusal to conform.
You can often recognize people born under this fixed, air sign by their frequent use of the word friend, Aquarian Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats invariably began with, "My friends . . ." and the typical Uranus question after a broken romance is, "Can't we still be friends?" Aquarius is neither jaded nor naive, neither enthusiastic nor blase. Continuous experimentation simply leaves him curious to penetrate the next mystery, and the next mystery could be you. That person who seems to be either a million miles away mentally, or else dissecting you under an invisible microscope, is probably an Aquarian. It can be disconcert¬ing to discover, after all his intense, nattering curiosity, that he's just as deeply interested in the personal lives of the corner policeman, the bartender, the bellboy, the night club singer or the inmates of the funny house as he is in yours. Politics fascinate him, sports absorb him and chil¬dren intrigue him. But then so do horses, automobiles, elderly people, medical discoveries, authors, astronauts, alcoholics, pianos, pinwheels and prayers-not to mention baseball and Louis Armstrong. Join the crowd and toss your ego in the wastebasket, or his coolly impersonal ap¬proach will be sure to bruise it.
Look for a strange, faraway look in the eyes, as if they contained some kind of magic, mysterious knowledge you can't penetrate. Aquarius eyes are typically vague, with a dreamy, wandering expression, and often (but not always) blue, green or gray. The hair is frequently straight and silky, likely to be blonde, sandy or light brown; the com¬plexion is pale and the height is usually taller than average (though the ascendant can modify the appearance of any Sun sign). You'll notice a marked nobility of profile. Uranus features are finely chiseled, suggestive of Roman emperors cut on old gold coins. True Aquarians will often adopt the pose of the drooping head when they're thinking about a problem, or just after they've asked a question. The head drops abruptly forward, or cocks to one side, waiting for your reaction. Curiously, thanks to the dual sexuality of Uranus, there are often feminine characteristics in the male bodies, such as broad hips, for example-and masculine characteristics in the female body, such as broad shoulders.
Freedom-loving Uranians can be acutely funny, perverse, original, conceited and independent, but they can also be diplomatic, gentle, sympathetic and timid. The Aquarian will almost desperately seek the security of crowds and saturate himself with friendship. Then hell fall into a gloomy, morose spell of loneliness, and want to be strictly left alone. But whether he's mingling or singling, he'll retain his sharp perception, which is at once both deeper and quicker than others. Uranus makes him a natural rebel who instinctively feels that all old customs are wrong, and that drastic alteration and revolutionary change is what the world and people need (although if he's in politics, he's clever enough not to broadcast his views prematurely and spoil his strategy).
To this end, Aquarians are always analyzing situations, friends and strangers. It can be disturbing when they start asking pointblank questions, with a bare minimum of tact, as they probe into the heart of your private feelings. When they discover the puzzle wasn't so complex after all, they become bored, sometimes even upset. Nothing is more insulting than to have an Aquarian tire of his game of microscopic examination and turn to the next interesting person, just when he's convinced you he thinks you are the most important human being on earth. It stings.
Despite their fixation on friendship, Aquarians don't have many intimates. They seek quantity rather than quality in their associations, and they seldom settle down to a steady relationship for more than a limited period. There's too much to discover around the next comer to remain tied to one or two friendships exclusively. It does little good to make an emotional appeal to such an im¬personal nature, but if you touch the heart of an Aquarian (which is not the same thing as mere emotion), he'll usually get off his bicycle and come back to see what he might have missed.
A peculiar sort of isolation hangs over the Uranian, and he's often misunderstood by mankind. That's because man¬kind hasn't yet caught up with the Aquarian Utopia. Since the water bearer lives in the future, coming back only briefly to the present, he can seem just plain pixilated to more mundane souls. He senses this, and it deepens his sense of isolation. But just because others can't keep up with him is no reason in his opinion to go backwards. So he wanders among his lonely clouds, while we mere mortals wonder what he's doing way out there. Astrology teaches us that "As the Aquarian thinks, so will the world think in fifty years." That may be true, but it certainly doesn't narrow the gap between the Uranus-ruled and the rest of us today. This Sun sign is known as the sign of genius, and so it is, since over seventy percent of the people in the Hall of Fame are either Sun Aquarians or have Aquarian ascendants. On the other hand, a substantially high per¬centage of those confined in mental institutions, or who drop in for regular couch sessions with an analyst, are also Aquarians. There's a fine line, they say, between genius and insanity, and your Uranian friends can some¬times make you wonder which side of the line they're on. A great deal of the confusion is due to man's tendency to belittle his prophets. The familiar quotes that "they laughed at Fulton and his steamboat," "they thought Edison was mentally retarded," and "they wanted to lock up Louis Pasteur," are examples of the attitude of the materialistic world toward those whose senses are tuned to higher spheres of thought.
Uranians are a curious mixture of cold, practicality and eccentric instability, and they seem to have an instinctive empathy with the mentally disturbed. It's a curious fact that almost any Aquarian can substantially reduce the anxiety of the insane simply by talking to them quietly. He has a marvelous knack for calming hysterical people and soothing frightened children. Is it because of his own thinly-covered, highly acute nervous system that he has such deep understanding?
The Aquarian outlook is so broad that youll seldom find one who is prejudiced, unless there are severe planetary influences in the natal chart. Even then, he'll be deeply shocked when his prejudice is pointed out. The brother¬hood instinct is so strong in him that when a rare Aquarian is guilty of being intolerant, he's not only unaware of it, he hates the label. Ordinarily, everyone is his brother or sister. He'll wander through affluent society and the slums alike with his symbolic jar, gathering the waters of knowl¬edge and pouring them out again, except for those occa¬sional lapses into hibernation. But his hiding put periods seldom last long, and before you get a chance to miss him the Uranian is back gregariously making the rounds again. Don't try to interrupt his solitude. When he wants to be alone, he wants to be alone, but he hasn't retired from the mainstream permanently, even if he does take a sudden Uranus notion to get an unlisted phone number. His address hasn't changed, and neither has he. He can never renounce people for long. Ignore him and he'll soon be walking around town on those home-made stilts, as alert and inquisitive as ever.
Ordinarily, it's difficult to get an Aquarian to make a precise appointment. He'd rather keep it loose, because he doesn't like to be pinned down to specific duties or obliga¬tions at specific times. He prefers a casual "111 see you around-maybe sometime Tuesday" to a definite hour for a meeting. (And he sometimes means the second Tuesday of next week.) However, I will say that once you've suc¬ceeded in nailing him and he gives you his word he'll meet you at a particular hour he will be there on the dot. You can count on it, even set your watch by his punctuality, and you'd better not be late yourself. Hell show up dependably, unless he's been kidnapped on the way (which, being an Aquarian, he could be. Anything can happen to these people at any time. I mean but anything).
You can expect him to give his opinion frankly, but he won't try to dictate how you should think or how you should live your life. Conversely, he doesn't intend to let you tell him how he should think or live his. Unlike Aries and Leo or Gemini, he has no desire to hard sell his ideas to others. The Aquarian philosophy is that everyone has fais thing, his special yearning. Each person dances to his own fiddle music, and individuality should be respected. It's interesting to see that, as the world moves into the Aquarian Age, the heralds of the new era are the flower people and the Gurus. In exaggerated fashion, they are simply reflect¬ing the Aquarian ideals: equality-brotherhood-love for all-live and let live-seek the truth-experiment-and retire to meditate.
You'll rarely find the Aquarian fighting fiercely for a cause. They live their code, and feel that's enough. Let Aries, Scorpio, Leo and Sagittarius grab the sword and battle gloriously to free the downtrodden. The Uranus-ruled souls are too busy figuring out the reason for the revolution, listening to people's troubles and sharing sym¬pathetic understanding. Aquarius believes in violent change, but he leaves the violence to others. He's not a moral or a physical coward. He just isn't geared for battle. When a fight catches him unaware, he may strike out blindly in confusion, or he may simply agree, to end the argument. His reaction is unpredictable, but one thing is certain. The next day his opinion will be as fixed as it was before. Any¬one skilled in debate can usually get the best of him, since his attention can so easily wander to the abstract in a battle of wits. The Aquarian fights best with his hat. He puts it on and leaves. His truth-respecting mind, however, won't budge an inch when he has a firm conviction, despite his distaste for unpleasant confrontations. All the shouting and emotional pressure in the world won't keep him from determinedly going his own way with his independent ideas, while the fireworks explode all around him. Our two Aquarian Presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, demonstrate this principle perfectly. The con¬cepts were equally original and strikingly unpopular in both cases. There was no aggressive insistence on personal theories, yet the sweeping reforms were made, regardless of lack of cooperation and bitter opposition.
Another reason why Uranians often meet with hostile criticism is that they're so full of surprises. They can lead you west, then suddenly turn and march east, without warning. Aquarius has an obstinate way of not letting you know what he's up to. For weeks, the February-born father of a friend of mine ignored his wife's complaints about a stove that didn't work. He buried himself in his newspaper, oblivious to her desperate hints. Suddenly one day a truck pulled up, two men unloaded a brand new stove and con¬nected it in the kitchen under the surprised eyes of his wife, who should have learned to expect such behavior.
Trusting people doesn't come naturally to the Aquarian until after he's scrutinized your motives, even your .soul, if possible. It's easy to grow restive under his intent analysis of your every word and gesture. You get the feeling it's all being filed away in that penetrating mind for future refer¬ence, and it is. He may seem to be in a dreamy fog now and then, but don't you believe it. He can probably tell you how many eyelashes you have. Never expect the Uranian to take you at face value. His innate courtesy will never keep him from shining the Uranus spotlight on you from head to toe. He wants to know what's behind that face, and he'll ask some mighty embarrassing questions to find out. But it's comforting to know that once you're accepted hell be loyal and his friendship will be unshaken by malicious gossip. If you're his real friend, he won't believe the nasty whispers of your enemies, although hell undoubtedly listen to them out of sheer curiosity. Rest assured, however, that he’ll make up his own mind in the final analysis.
Uranus illnesses are usually connected with the circulatory system. Aquarians shiver and shake in the winter, and suffer with the humidity in the summer. They're susceptible to varicose veins and hardening of the arteries in old age, if their emotions are directed into negative channels, and they tend to have accidents to the legs, especially the shin and ankles. The ankle bones are often weak, and there may be pains in the legs, due to poor circulation; frequent sort throats; and sometimes heart palpitation, usually not serious unless there are severe afflictions in the natal chart. Uranians need lots of fresh air, sleep and exercise, but they seldom take advantage of these remedies. They don't get much fresh air because they close their windows, pile on the blankets and still complain that they're freezing. The high frequency nervous tension that accompanies Uranus mental activity keeps them from getting enough sleep, and often the rest they do get is troubled by strange dreams. As for exercise, unless the Aquarian developed an early love of sports by playing stickball in his neighborhood, it's difficult to prod him into moving fast, let alone running around the track. His mind gets a continual workout, but the body needs a strong push. Aquarian health is usually excellent in child¬hood, barring weird, Uranian complaints-impossible to diagnose. The real troubles don't begin until maturity in¬creases stubbornness. These people are extremely suscepti¬ble to hypnosis. Intuitively, lots of them sense this and won't expose themselves to it for love nor money, but this is a mistake, because hypnotic suggestion from a good medical hypnotist could successfully remove their myriad phobias. They're acutely responsive to electrical treatment, too, which can be just as beneficial.
Aquarians don't have the best memories in the world, but then they really don't need to memorize much, since they seem to pick up knowledge out of thin air, with some kind of invisible antennae. Why should they clutter their minds with information they may never need, when they can reach out by osmosis and grasp just about anything they want? They're likely to come home from the store without the most important item on the grocery list, be¬cause they can't be bothered with remembering what is, to them, non-essential. The typical Aquarian is the em¬bodiment of the legendary absent-minded professor. I know one who planned to meet his wife in front of the City Squire Motel at noon. But he arrived early and ran into an old friend. (Aquarians are always running into old friends. In Africa or the Aleutian Islands they will be sure to find somebody they know.) The Uranian was engrossed in conversation with his pal when his wife approached, all smiles. As she came closer he stared at her blankly, gal¬lantly tipped his hat, then turned, took his friend's arm and walked down the street, deep in conversation, leaving the furious, frustrated woman standing on the comer, alone and forgotten.
The Uranus power of concentration can be awesome. Yet, they're also able to pick up things going on around and behind them when they choose, like a radar screen. They can carry on a complicated discussion and still not miss an inflection of what's happening in the other part of the room, if they decide to tune in. Sometimes you could swear the Aquarian paid no attention to anything you said, but the next day he'll repeat it back to you like a tape recorder. Never underestimate the Uranian process of soaking up knowledge while they seem to be oblivious, even though now and then they get lost in concentration, like my friend who left his wife standing on the street, in a mood to kill.
What the Aquarius man or woman thinks is always a clue to tomorrow. The uncanny Uranus ability to plunge into the unknown and absorb mystical secrets without half trying leads to a peculiar sort of intuition which gives them a high degree of psychic precognition. I know one who literally answers the phone before it rings, and what's more, he knows who's on the other end before a word is spoken. Abraham Lincoln had several premonitions of his own death in startling detail. Almost every Aquarian has a unique kind of sensitivity that lets him know your inner desires. Without talk, he understands a need buried so deep that you're almost unaware of it yourself. Using that magical osmosis, the Aquarian can transmit his own thoughts with an unseen charge of electrical current. Even when his back is turned, he can project strong feelings by this strange process. During a long silence on the telephone, he may be sending and receiving vibrations when you think he's fallen asleep. Some Uranians don't need Western Union to send a telegram.
Yet, there's nothing superstitious about their thinking. A true scientist even if he's a mechanic or a musician, the Uranian won't jump to a conclusion until it's passed the test of his keen mind. However, once he forms an opinon, it remains firmly fixed in his brain, and I do mean firmly. As strongly as he loves change in society and government, he won't change his own idea one iota for anybody. He's completely open-minded about world progress, but his mind clamps shut when it involves his personal behavior, which can be unexpectedly conservative. You can see that his liberalism has its boundaries.
Aquarians despise lying and cheating, and they avoid borrowing and lending. They'll give you money as a gift, but don't ask them for a loan. Did you ever try to touch Aquarian Jack Benny for a fast fifty? Jack may surprise you by saying yes, but be sure you pay him back promptly. A broken promise or bad debt can put a wide crack in your friendship. Aquarians keep their word and pay their bills, and they expect others to do the same. Charge ac¬counts don't normally excite them and credit cards can frighten them. All this love of honesty, however, can sometimes be distorted into questionable behavior. As much as he hates hypocrisy and double-dealing, the Aquarian can somehow answer questions so cleverly that he gives a false impression. Yet hell be outspokenly indignant if he catches anyone else guilty of such a delicate nuance of deception. He'll seldom tell an outright lie, but he can fool you in very subtle ways, which is hardly the essence of the honesty he so constantly preaches. His un¬relenting search for truth and the desire to hide his own motives are incompatible traits, and the Aquarian must eventually face this inconsistency if he's going to learn the real truth about himself.
Aquarians get credit for being idealists, perhaps too much credit, for true idealism consists of blind faith and optimism, and the Uranian is too shrewd to fool himself with lost causes for long. He knows that most dreams are illusions, like the rainbow he has examined so closely and still loves. Tradition and authority leave him unimpressed. He'll politely respect them, but they won't stop his com¬pulsive drive to uncover fallacies, distortions and illogical assumptions.
His mind and body must both be as free as the wind. To try to pin down the Aquarian is to try to stabilize the butterfly, to stuff a spring breeze into a closet or confine a winter gale in a bottle. It can't be done, and besides, who in the world would want to try? Though he's so far ahead of his time that you have trouble catching his view¬point immediately, it's still worthwhile to make the at¬tempt. You'll always come away a little wiser, if a little bewildered. His astrological flower is the daffodil-and now you know the derivation of the word "daffy."
The soul of the water bearer is constantly torn asunder by Uranus, the unpredictable and violent planet of change which lets him see ahead with electric blue clarity to the future. Aquarius belongs to mankind. He represents its truest hopes and its deepest ideals. Even his metal, uranium, is not really a metal, but a radioactive, metallic chemical, found only in combinations. It's important in atomic re¬search, and it can undergo continuous fission. The magnetic majesty of eight bolts of brilliant lightning reflected in the Aquarian sapphire can split open his secrets for those who seek to know him-but only for an instant can you see into his lonely heart, long ago infused with Saturn's ancient wisdom-unless you too live in tomorrow.

Famous Aquarius Personalities

Francis Bacon Oprah Winfrey Jennifer Aniston Tallulah Bankhead John Barrymore Jack Benny Shelley Bennan George Burns Lewis Carroll Katharine Cornell Charles Darwin Jimmy Dean Charles Dickens Jimmy Durante Thomas Edison Mia Farrow Clark Gable Galileo
Langston Hughes Jack Lemmon Abraham Lincoln Charles Lindbergh Somerset Maugham Jeanne Moreau Paul Newman Louis Nizer Kim Novak S. J. Perelman Leontyne Price Ronald Reagan Vanessa Redgrave Norman Rockwell Franklin Roosevelt

The AQUARIUS Woman

But Alice had got so much into the -way
of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen
that it seemed quite dull and stupid
for life to go on in the common way ...
Put cats in the coffee, and mice in the tea- And welcome Queen Alice with thirty times three!

The safest way to enter into romance with an Aquarian female is to remember she's as paradoxical in love as she is in everything else. That way, you won't be expecting Priscilla Alden and get Pocahontas.
This girl has all the faithfulness of the fixed signs when she's in love, but she also has the detachment and lack of emotion of the air element. It's possible to have a happy relationship with the Uranus woman if you leave her free to pursue her myriad interests and circulate among her friends. Never try to tie her to the stove or the bedpost. Ask the man who's tried. She can suddenly decide to study ballet, meditate in the mountains or join the Peace Corps. Remember the story of the princess with the long, golden hair who lived high in a tower? That's the Aquarius fe¬male. Cutting off her flowing tresses won't change her any more than it did in the fairy tale. She dreams different dreams than you or I. She hears a distant drummer-and follows a star most of us have never seen.
She belongs to everyone, and yet to no one. Her love can be tender and inspired, but there will always be a vaguely elusive quality about it, like a half-remembered song. You can hum the melody, but the lyrics keep slipping away. The Aquarian girl's demand for freedom is insistent, but her allegiance to anyone who can accept romance with¬in such limits is boundless. Here's something you'll like:
She won't be terribly interested in your bank book (unless Cancer or Capricorn or Taurus is on her ascendant). Money is never the prime consideration of the typical Aquarian woman. She won't care if you're not the richest man in town, but she'll expect you to be respected in some way for your intellectual achievements. Dr. Christian Bamard and his heart transplants or Wemher von Braun and his rockets interest her far more than J. Paul Getty and his billions.
When you set out to catch this butterfly in your net, remember that she'll never spend her unpredictable life with a man who isn't true to himself. Her own code of ethics may be as weird as anything you've ever come across, and quite different from the accepted codes of society, but she lives up to it totally. She'll understand that your rules may also be highly individual. That's fine with her, but don't compromise those rules. If you're looking for a passion flower, you've picked the wrong daisy. Passion is not her forte if she's a typical Aquarian. She'll think physical love is pleasant enough, if it's not overemphasized. In other words, she can take it or leave it alone. Uranus fe¬males can respond to lovemaking with a haunting, deep intensity, but if you prefer to keep it platonic for long periods of time, that's all right, too. Like all Aquarians, she may have an unconscious fear that desire for one per¬son will imprison the spirit in some way, and keep her from being true to her one great love-freedom. Freedom to ex¬periment and investigate and freedom to give time to hu¬manity. Also freedom to pursue her rather kicky, off-beat fancies.
She's an ideal girl if you're planning a political, scientific or educational career. You couldn't do better, unless you happen to run across an Aquarian girl with adverse planetary positions in her natal chart who enjoys shock¬ing people by walking barefoot down Main Street or smok¬ing big black cigars on buses. There are some pretty wild, way-out Uranian females here and there. But the average girl born under the sign of the water bearer is a social delight. She's graceful, witty, bright as a penny, and ex¬tremely adaptable to all forms of society, high and low and in the middle.
Her lack of suspicion under normal circumstances is a special bonus. A traveling salesman should find his dream girl in the typical Aquarian female. If she actually catches you being unfaithful, it will cause a deep wound to her sensitive nature. You'll know it the minute you look into those strange, dreamy eyes. But she won't suspect you without cause, and she'll rarely doubt your word. The typical Uranus woman will never check up on you after you leave, phone you at the office, inspect your handker¬chiefs for lipstick stains or look for blonde hairs caught in your cuff link. Deception will have to be brought forcibly to her attention; she won't go out looking for it. Before you give her too much credit, consider that her lack of pas¬sionate jealousy is due to something more than strength of character. First of all, she probably dissected your psyche under a microscope before she gave you a second glance. Besides, she has so many outside interests and so many people who turn her on to talk with, there's not much time for her to worry about what you're doing when you're out of sight. Out of sight can often mean out of mind for Aquarians of both sexes. Absence seldom makes the Uranus heart grow fonder. Occasionally, an Aquarian woman will suffer a promiscuous or flirtatious mate, be¬cause there's something she needs which she can find only with him, so she looks the other way. On the other hand, if she doesn't really need you, that moral strength will work in reverse at the first actual proof of infidelity. Shell simply walk away. Don't try to kindle the embers, they're stone cold dead. Of course, you can still be friends. Why not?
She's willing. It never embarrasses an. Aquarian girl to be chummy with ex-lovers or husbands. She's forgotten the past and wiped the slate clean of memories.
There is one peculiar and notable exception to the rule. Like the Uranus man, the Uranian female will remember the first true and honest love for a lifetime. Only the first, however. Are you wondering whether that Aquarius girl you once knew still remembers you? The answer lies in her definition of love. It could have something to do with the first boy who gave her a bunch of sweet peas when she was nine-the boy who walked her through the park in the rain-or the one with the funny ears who knew the clown at the circus, and used to feed her peanuts.
Uranus women involved in extra-marital affairs are rare. They can be tempted in exceptional situations, but a dis¬honest relationship goes against their chemistry. It won't be long until an undercover romance is broken off for good. Yet, there are many Aquarian divorcees. There's a reason. If a situation becomes intolerable, the Uranian nature turns cold suddenly. They can disappear overnight, and never look back. They don't seek or enjoy divorce, but it isn't the shock to them it is to their more sentimental sisters. Uranus rules change, you know. Since she's such an individualist, with a list of friends several miles long, the Aquarian female never hesitates to make her way alone if the need arises.
Expect her to probe into your heart until you haven't a secret left, or a dream that hasn't been analyzed. But don't try to dissect her private thoughts. That's not the way the game is played with Aquarians. She'll keep her motives hidden, and sometimes take a perverse pleasure in de¬liberately confusing you. She'll usually be truthful to a fault, but remember, with an Aquarian, telling a lie is one thing. Refraining from telling the whole story is another.
It's comforting to know that an Aquarian girl is pretty cagey with a buck. That is, it's comforting to know unless you're planning to hit her for a loan. She might say yes a time or two, but if you let your credit rating slip, she can be colder than the guy at the bank when you skip your car payment. On the rare occasions when she ac¬cepts a small loan herself, you'll get back every penny with no stalling, excuses or feminine wiles, if she's a typical Uranus female. As for every man's nightmare of charge accounts, you'll have little worry on that score. Aquarian women are uncomfortable about owing money. Bad debts don't fit in with the Uranus code.
Her appearance is puzzling. Most Aquarian women are lovely, with a haunting, wistful beauty. But they're change¬able. They can give an impression of smooth whipped cream, then suddenly switch to salty pizza as quickly as a bright, blue, zig-zag bolt of Uranian electricity. Next to Librans, Aquarian females are often the most beautiful women in the zodiac. At the very least, they're interesting-looking. The Aquarian manner of dressing can stop you dead in your tracks. There are a few of them who could grace the cover of a fashion magazine, but the average Aquarian girl is anything but conventional about her cos¬tumes. She can wear some outfits a gypsy would envy, and her naked individuality can produce some mighty unique combinations. She'll usually be the first to wear a new fad, no matter how zany it is, yet she can also stick to Grand¬ma's styles-even great-grandma's styles. With typical - Aquarian indifference, she'll mix yesterday's lace snood with today's metallic jump suit, and the effect can be a little startling. She'll wear her lace nightgown to a formal ban¬quet, ostrich feathers to the supermarket, bell bottom slacks to the opera, sneakers to the theater, diamonds when she visits the zoo-and top it all off with a faded Mother Hubbard she picked up in a thrift shop.
Your Aquarian girl will probably have an unusual way of wearing her hair. Her tresses are as unpredictable as her personality. They can be worn braided, pig-tailed, pinned in a bun, flowing down like a waterfall, short as a marine's, in Mary Pickford curls or as straight as a poker. One thing you can depend on. Her hair won't look like the hair of any other female on this planet.
A conversation with her can be remarkable, to say the least. She has charming manners, and usually behaves in a timid, almost reserved way. Then comes one of those sudden Uranus urges, and out will pop a remark with absolutely no relation to what anyone is saying. You'll be talking about the fluctuations of the stock market, and she'll interrupt out of nowhere with: "Did you know that Woodrow Wilson, Jack Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Calvin Coolidge, Benjamin Harrison, Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley all have double letters in their names?" There's only one way to answer a question like that. Tell her she missed Millard
Fillmore, Ulysses Grant and Thomas Jefferson. Then gen¬tly, but firmly, lead the discussion back to the stock market. Other minds may progress in fairly logical steps, but hers rigs into tomorrow, then zags back into today with no more sense of direction than a flash of lightning. Now and then she'll toss off an unexpectedly poignant phrase. You'll ask her what she thinks of space travel and she'll answer, "When I was a little girl, I thought the stars were holes in the floor of heaven where the light shone through." If she's in a different mood, you'll say that melted snowmen make you sad, and shell counter with: "A melted snowman is just a pile of slush, Charlie." First misty-then practical. First timid-then rowdy. Aquarian women will rudely ridicule flying saucers, then tell you a story about a polka-dotted elf on a windowsill. Never talk down to an Aquarian female. She'll resent not being considered your equal, and an unsympathetic attitude will cause her to retreat and become unapproachable.
Since Uranus rules the future, you might imagine that these girls would be natural mothers. Children do, after all, belong to the future. But the average Aquarian woman may be bewildered by motherhood in the beginning. She has to adjust to devoting all her attention and energy ex¬clusively to one human being for a period of time, when she's used to spreading herself far and wide, and this can take some practice. Her natural aloofness may make it difficult for her to demonstrate warm affection outwardly. The typical Aquarian mother is devoted to her offspring, but also somewhat detached toward them. But shell prob¬ably be the most willing PTA worker in the neighborhood. She'll talk happily for hours with their small friends on their own level without patronizing them, and she'll give up her afternoons to work for a school project. The chil¬dren will learn the lessons of brotherhood and humanity from her by observation. Aquarian mothers are never fiercely protective of their children. They take a tolerant view of the most startling confession. A Uranus woman will seldom punish a child for telling the truth, no matter what he's done. With her unprejudiced viewpoint, she'll gain the complete confidence of her little ones. She's great at reassuring young minds about everything from monsters hiding under the bed to the pain of being ignored in the playground. She can turn their tears to laughter in minutes. Your children will find her jolly fun, a little helter-skelter, relaxed about housework, helpful with homework and gentle when they're ill. She won't smother them with affection, and she'll seldom nag. Maybe Tommy didn't wash his hands the third time he was told, but she's more interested in what he learned in science class.
We may be a little ahead of ourselves. Even though Uranus likes to reverse the existing orders of things, before your Aquarian girl becomes a mother she has to become a wife. And before she becomes your wife, you'll have to convince her that marriage isn't synonymous with Al-catraz. She won't exactly rush into matrimony. She's in no hurry to take your name until she's weighed you, sorted you, tested you, and found out what makes you tick. The opinions of her friends and family will mean nothing, though she may ask them what they think out of curiosity. She has her own yardstick for measuring you. Assuming you pass her test, marriage to an Aquarian girl can be confusing. She'll listen pleasantly when you give her advice, but there's something in the Uranian make-up that prevents her from following directions explicitly. She can't stick to the recipe when she bakes one of her angel food cakes anymore than she can park the car exactly where you told her to. There's some kind of a snag in her thinking that causes her to believe just a little twist will improve any¬thing. But shell smile agreeably as she goes on her own sweet way. There's a constant urge to experiment with a different way to make the coffee, fill her pen, fasten her ice skates or cross the street. She'll wear a sweater back¬wards, mix her brandy with milk, arrange flowers in a fish bowl, rinse her hair in shaving lotion or make a rock garden on your desk. But don't ask her why. She doesn't know herself. The unique and unusual is her wave-length, that's all.
Because her nature is so impersonal, expressions of deep feeling won't come easily. Except for those sudden remarks that sound likes a combination of Robert Frost and Yogi Berra, she has few words with which to express her love, and her pattern of physical passion is woven closely with threads connected to the mind and soul. Although the unique Uranus outlook leads some Aquarian girls into peculiar attachments, once they find the right mate their marriages are usually models of happiness.
Your Aquarian woman can float through her days and nights with all the grace of a proud swan, but she may behave like a clumsy bear in romantic situations. The line between friendship and love is often all but invisible to Aquarius. Love songs about people who only have eyes for each other strike her as silly. There are so many miracles in the world for eyes to behold, it seems to her a terrible waste for two pairs of them to do nothing but gaze into each other's depths. Shell be glad to let you take her hand and walk beside her as she looks with happy delight on the sunrise, an antique car, the milkman's horse, a yel¬low garbage pail, a stuffed owl or a red balloon caught in a church steeple. But don't distract her with too much to-getherness. Let her wander through her wonderland alone when she chooses, and she'll never question your pinochle games with the boys.
The quickest ways to lose her are to show jealousy, pos-sessiveness or prejudice; to be critical, stuffy or ultra-conservative. You'll also have to like her friends, who will come in odd, assorted sizes and shapes.
She's susceptible to sudden flashes of inspiration, and her intuition is remarkable. Her judgment may not seem sound or practical at first, because she sees months and years ahead. The Aquarian girl lives in tomorrow, and you can only visit there through her. What she says will come true, perhaps after many delays and troubles, but it will come true. I suppose, after all, that's the most special thing about your February woman. She's a little bit magic.
　
　
　

Courtesy calls....

According to this ,already very much in the news ,Readers Digest Ranking New York City is the most polite city in the world, while Mumbai carries the distinction of being the least polite.

I want to move to NYC, LOL….. Mumbai ( I’ll take it as representative of India) fared the worst, well I won’t contest that, I mean after all that smiling at strangers and wishing them good morning , and thanking bus drivers, etc ,etc in NZ and to some extent in Alabama , if I did the same thing in India I’d get weird stares…may be ,just may be the folks who conducted the survey are prejudiced but it’s a dog eat dog world back home ,and people don’t try to hide it .

A simple hello in the West is just that, a greeting, sometimes you feel “Oh wow! That person keeps greeting me and saying hi, they must really like me”.. But the fact of the matter is, that it’s just force of habit, don’t expect the person who greeted you so nicely a to listen to the problems in your life.

Getting back to India , its tough , some times you get chided by peers just for saying please and thank you, and in the process lose any good manners you were brought up with , people think twice before giving up a hard earned bus seat to some one who probably needs it more, not everyone treats domestic help with respect , I don’t see many young nineteen year olds treating fifty five or sixty year old strangers with any particular respect , I like to think that under that core of brashness exists a national heart of gold , I bet it still exists , but it's getting harder and harder to find these days!!!

About Bombay

OK, you folks from Mumbai, don’t trash Sharath, he’s a good guy and is entitled to his opinion , I’m just posting this blog entry because
1) I don’t quite agree with it , and I’m not quite satisfied with my retort
2) I know Bombay is polluted , as is pretty much any other city from what were the original four metros in India .


Overdone Mumbaikar spirit - Why Raj Kapoors movies were a superhit in Communist world
By The Broadcaster


The next time someone talks about the so-called 'indomitable spirit' of Mumbai, I am going to commit a crime that is seriously punishable ! This is about Mumbai - from here.

We are 18 million people crammed onto one tiny island, with a population density of 43,898 per sq km. (Compare this to just 9033 per sq km in Delhi). * Real estate prices are so unreal that in downtown Mumbai you could pay Rs 60,000 for a single sq ft.

• Yet, there are 19,846 buildings in danger of collapsing. And eight million people — nearly half of Mumbai’s citizens — live in subhuman slums, where every public toilet is shared by 4,000 people.

• Two million others commute like slaughterhouse animals on the hopelessly inadequate suburban train system, and another four million use moonscaped roads, pockmarked with an estimated 23,639 potholes. There is only one bus for every 1,300 people and only two public parking spots for every 1,000 cars.

• We have a water shortage of 1000 million litres. The commodity is so scarce that swanky skyscrapers have to rely on private suppliers, and those who can’t afford to eat must shell out Rs 20 for a bucket to drink.

• With a deficit of 1500 MW, the city is on the verge of a power crisis.

• We generate 7,800 tonnes of garbage everyday — only half that of New York — but much of it lies uncollected because there are only three municipal dumps.


What is this indomitable spirit all about - is it the spirit that makes you guys tolerate anything, everything and go about your life living in desolate conditions ? What use is this spirit of afterall ? Each time there is a major tragedy in Bombay, the legislator/MP comes in and makes a speech about Mumbaikars are resilient and go about their life the very day after floods, after bomb blast, after building collapse etc. as if nothing happened. The media too joins in and sings the same song. All Mumbaikars are not only convinced but they are also happy and proud that their city's resilience is being bandied about. End of story.

Its much like the early years of the 1950s and 60s when Raj Kapoor's RK Films produced movies that glorified poverty and decadence. You just have to look at the lyrics of the title song from Jis Desh Main Ganga Behti Hai, a part of which goes like this -

(mehamaa.n jo hamaaraa hotaa hai vo jaan se pyaaraa hotaa hai ) - 2 zyaadaa kii nahii.n laalach hamako tho.De me guzaaraa hotaa hai - 2 bachcho.n ke liye jo dharatii maa.N sadiyo.n se sabhii kuchha sahatii hai ham us desh ke vaasii hai.n, ham us desh ke vaasii hai.n

Translated, the text in bold, says something to the effect that "We manage with what we have, for we arent a greedy people. Our mother Earth gives us whatever we want, as has been going for years." Then in the next para he goes,

ye puurab hai puurabavaale har jaan kii kiimat jaanate hai.n

Translated, this means - "We are the people of the east, we appreciate the value of life."

Wait a minute, did he actually say that ? Or is there some sarcasm there ? I am a major fan of old Hindi music and Shailendra has produced some gems no doubt ( Guide (1965) is just an example ). But these songs of those years tell us something about that age much like today's reflect current mores. And now you know why Raj Kapoor's movies were a superhit in Russia, Eastern Europe and parts of Africa. This is basically the socialist/communist/collectivist utopic vision of society - "be happy with what you have and celebrate your penury, scarcity and despair - these are obligations you have to the fellow members of society. " Mumbaikars, I dont believe you are a bunch of gullibles - over a million strong. If this is the spirit you so much love and proud of, you shall forever be condemned to the life you live and nobody will shed a tear for you - you deserve what you get because you didnt ask for anything more. So long !

My comment:

I’ll tell you what the indomitable Mumbai spirit is about-
It is quite frankly the most cosmopolitan city in India!! The city has welcomed generations before us from various nooks and corners of the country with open arms, the city lacks pretentiousness ….. and I feel it’s the closest we have to an open minded western society, most (if not all) of the successful inter community love marriages I know of happened in Mumbai, with both partners having being brought up in the city, homosexuals , “outsiders”, women and ,barring riots, religious minorities aren’t persecuted as much ,cultural conservatives coexist but cant dominate , the mindset is very different from people in the other parts of India … the only claim I have to the city is that I was born there… I’m from Karnataka and I love my home town , but my favorite city in India has to be Mumbai , I don’t know; may be I’m biased but no other city comes close ,sorry Bangalore!!! I agree the infrastructure needs major rework, but it’s getting there ..it’s better than it was 8 years ago!
FYI – My dad left Mumbai in 1975 , because he found it too polluted and crowded!! I’ve never traveled by local train , BEST bus all the way, on my last trip five months ago ,I tried the AC one , it was good!!…. The last time my mom was on a local train was when she was in college…

In retrospect did I make Mumbai sound very Decadent?? Gah!!!! There’s much more to it man….

The Zahir

I’m a fan of The Alchemist, I believe it’s an inspiring book, and gave me insight when I needed it the most. For those who haven’t read The Alchemist, it’s a story about achieving your dreams …. a fable that you can read in one go, I wouldn’t call it ‘heavy’ reading, and that’s the good part!!!
Anyway moving on to The Zahir, Paulo Coelho’s latest novel , I haven’t read a non text book for a while now (the last book I read was probably last summer)!! I was also a bit jaded with the message in The Alchemist …sometimes you want something with all your heart and the universe will conspire to help you get it, but you wont get it , or if you do you realize its not what you wanted after all!!! Having said this, even when I believed more in the message in the Alchemist, I didn’t think of Paulo Coelho as some kind of Prophet /Messiah /spiritual type person , or atleast I don’t now!! He’s just a person who writes books and I believe to an extent he believes and practices the messages in his writings.

Anyway, unlike The Alchemist , The Zahir is rather longwinded. The protagonists lead unconventional lives….for me the book started getting interesting mid way into the story, which incidentally is about a world renowned author’s search for his missing ‘ex’ wife.. However like The Alchemist, Mr. Coelho does have some very good insights on life, Some interesting quotes by the author , related to “The Zahir”

“There's a lot of me in it. But the character( the lead protagonist) is more egotistical. I'm also egotistical, but not the way the character is. This guy is successful, he has everything, but his wife has left him. The most important value - love - is missing. What is wrong with this institution called 'marriage'? What is wrong with this institution called 'the pursuit of happiness'?”

"I realized I don't need a lot of things to be happy,"

“Anyone who fails to obey the voice and arrives sooner or later than he should will never get what he wants .”


“I think it is a problem of our society that we don't enjoy (ourselves.) We have these values, like, you have to be rich, you have to get a diploma, you have to work hard, otherwise you are useless, you are nothing but a pariah. And the book asks, 'Is it true? This is what my mom told me, but is it true?”

I for one would really like to meet the person who thought of these ‘values’ and the other ‘mental blocks” , society ,myself included , entertain.. though I’m making a conscious effort to discard these and other unreasonable values ;)

From Author Paulo Coelho living simple life by ANGELA DOLAND of the Associated Press:
The central theme of the novel centers on conquering the obsessive goals people believe they must reach to attain happiness. In this case, the object of obsession is the main character's wife. But it can be anything, Coelho says - making money, finding love or having children.
Such single-minded, goal-driven passions merely deplete an individual, he says. He calls those passions "zahirs" - an Arabic word meaning "visible" or "present" which inspired a tale by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. For Coelho, a zahir is "something which, once touched or seen, can never be forgotten, and which gradually so fills our thoughts that we are driven to madness."
When you're obsessed with something, "you don't follow the signs, you don't relax. You don't even understand why you want it, you want it like a child," Coelho says. "You start living for the obsession alone ... You want to arrive somewhere regardless of whether you're enjoying the road or not.

O.K. before I completed reading the book , I was a bit worried that right now I didn’t have a personal Zahir..now I realise that it’s a good thing :)

Weekend Television

So number 1 on VH1’s VSpot Top 20 countdown for at least a couple of weeks now has been “Not ready to make nice" by the Dixie Chicks . It’s a good song , about having your own opinion , having a right to lawfully stick by it and the freedom to voice it out. How difficult it is to be true to yourself, go against popular opinion and not be judged in today’s world !!!!

I also like the All American Rejects’ and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ latest ,Shakira was alright , the rest in the top 20 were just about OK…..

Talking about TV, I’m watching the Simple Life episode where Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie spend a day with the Ghauri’s ; a Pakistani Family. This is the first episode of The Simple Life I’ve watched, obviously its scripted , but Paris and Nicole come off as total MORON’s when compared to the Pakistani family !!! Some gems…. Pakistani Pepperoni Pizza!!, giving the Dad clubbing advice, when asked by the Family what the official language of Pakistan was they said “Pakistanian”.. and when the girls were asked if they knew what the major religion in Pakistan was ..( they didn’t know??!!) ..so the dad gave a hint “it’s been in the news a lot (these days)”..and Paris Hilton says “ Kaballah??!” ..Yeah right!!!

I guess I shouldn’t hold this lack of general knowledge against them !!! There are a few other cultural faux pas in this episode .. You should probably watch if you’re interested!!!

Anyway .. all in all a good effort at culture appreciation… Paris came off as the more thoughtful and mature of the two… from what I’ve seen of the show so far anyway …

Dear John

Another Chicken soup for the Soul installment :
I don’t remember if I’ve seen this before in a book, but I found it online today and liked it; so read when you have the time!

Dear John

By Cynthia M. Hamond


It was the last day of school; the last day I would ever walk down those halls as a student. I had a few things to take care of before the rehearsal for our graduation ceremony. I had to return my school library books and pay a shop-class fine from my sophomore year when I had broken Seth's project and was supposed to pay to replace his kit.


I was always clumsy around him, and that time I had knocked over the birdhouse he had made. It had tumbled and shattered at our feet.
We were on our knees picking up the pieces when our hands brushed against each other. I felt the same electricity I had first felt in fourth grade when he grabbed my hand for a Red Rover game.

I looked into his eyes, and he looked into mine. I thought that maybe this time he would notice me. My heart fluttered. I flushed with embarrassment and anticipation. Just an inch closer and he could kiss me.

Seth parted his lips and said, "Hey, why are you all red? It's not that hot in here." I guess it wasn't.

Seth and I had a different circle of friends. His were the outgoing, athletic, school council, homecoming court, merit scholar type. Mine weren't.
As our class assembled in the gym for graduation rehearsal, I couldn't help but feel sentimental. My mood lifted when Seth sat down in front of me, until I remembered that this would be the last day he would be part of my daily life.
The announcements droned on and on. Yearbooks started circulating for last minute signings. When Seth's was handed to me, I autographed my senior picture and was about to pass it to the next person when the thought hit me. What did I have to lose by telling him now?

I tapped my pen on my teeth while I composed the note in my head. It had to be perfect. My hand shook when I began to write.

Dear Seth,
I have been in the background of your life since
elementary school. You have meant more to me
than I have to you. I wished that we could have
known each other better and spent some time
together. I will always remember you and wish
you a great life.
Forever,
Cindy


I closed his book and passed it on before I could change my mind. As I scribbled my name in other books, I began to imagine and then to hope that maybe, just maybe, my yearbook would come back to me with a similar message from Seth.

It wasn't until the bus ride home that afternoon, that I finally had the nerve to open my book and look for Seth's picture. In its corner he had written, "To Cindy, whoever you are, Seth."
I can't say that I was crushed. I didn't expect anything more, really. I could've worried about what I wrote in his book, but I guessed he wouldn't know or care who I was, anyway. Still, his terse message did hurt. He didn't have to prove that I was invisible to him.
I was one step away from a "what a jerk" conclusion, but I just couldn't go that far after years of holding his perfect image in my mind.
I was putting my book into my backpack when the guy behind me tapped me on the shoulder. "Sign my book?"

"Sure," I said and handed him mine. I found my picture again and scribbled, "Good luck, from Cindy."

With the whirl of graduation and the activity of early summer days, it was a week before I thought to open my backpack. My yearbook was on top, and I sat down on the edge of my bed to thumb through it. I cringed when I reread Seth's message to me.
What a sorry thing that a guy could just overlook someone, no matter how nice she might be or how much she cared about him, just because she wasn't part of his circle.
It was then that I noticed another inscription. The friendly smile in the picture looked vaguely familiar.

Dear Cindy,
I was new this year. You are the first person I
noticed. I've been sitting behind you in English Lit
and I looked for you to come in every day. I wished
we could've gotten to know each other and spent
time together. I will always think of you and
remember you.
Forever,
John

My heart sank as I realized the truth. I had done to John what Seth had done to me. I hadn't taken the time to know him, because, well, I didn't already know him. I had dismissed him without really seeing him.
I still feel a pinch of remorse when I remember that moment. Ever since that day, I have tried to notice and acknowledge the people in my daily life.
I had barely taken a thought to scribbling my name in John's book, but his message to me has been written across my life.

Choices....

“Life is a sum of all your choices.”
-Albert Camus


Wake up at 6:00 like you used to when it was your parents responsibility to send you off to school…..or wake up half an hour before you absolutely have to be in class be it 8am or 2 pm!!!

Have the burrito with the cheese and the sour cream and the diet coke to fulfill your pre exam, snack craving… else behave like a sensible 25 year old and snack on carrot sticks…..


Start working out in the quad, the minute your summer vacations begin …or wait till you feel like it, however by that time hurricane season’s started so you can't go out and run even if you want to!!!



“All we see of someone at any moment is a snapshot of their life, there in riches or poverty, in joy or despair. Snapshots don't show the million decisions that led to that moment.”
-Richard Bach

Big Love...

So right now one of my current favorite shows on TV is “Big Love” on HBO, the story is about this family that practices polygamy , but without sensationalizing it. It’s just a regular family drama, where you’ve got three moms instead of one.

The casting is impressive Bill Paxton from Twister , Chloe Sevigny from Boys don’t Cry and the series is produced by Tom Hanks. Anyway what got me thinking was Ok so here Bill Paxton’s character loves more than one person as his wife and well this just goes against the whole soul mate concept right!!!??!!

I mean for a long time I didn’t get how people could fall in love more than once ( “So it wasn’t love the first few times ??”) but you know it happens you love people in different ways , a spouse passes away a person remarries and its all good , but you know what if there’s more to life than all of us just being molecules that just got lucky living in a planet which coincidentally was the right distance from the sun so that we didn’t all get fried,but close enough to it so that life could evolve …. Then that would mean that a higher power exists ,and hopefully all of us wont just turn into dust when we die ( which for me is the scariest thought ever!!!!) ;which means that along with dad, mom, bro, sis, best friends , you have first wife and second wife all together in heaven for all eternity ,Then what !!!I mean how would the wives share their husband then for all eternity , shared soul mate??!!??

Ok. Ok I know you don’t have to have your wife die to get another one ( do you notice I’ve always used the case of a guy marrying again , I don’t know I guess I’ve been programmed to believe that men do such things!! AlrightI don’t believe that at all ,when I say he I mean he OR she) , people get divorced or estranged and move on and hopefully you find someone else to love ….

Then maybe all of this is scientifically explainable and The Symmetry Thesis can be applied – it just says that how much you love a person depends on how much a person loves you back….well that’s the same as saying you choose your friends based on how much you can get out of them or some such thing…… it’s just not right!!!! I found out about the Symmetry thesis from a link in Sharath’s blog.. The theory pretty much takes the magic out of everything, however the post and comments make for interesting reading ..check it out when you have the time.

Well so I believe that love can’t be quantified or measured or symmetrically induced or whatever…but I still wonder about The One…

I think Ethan Hawke got it right in Before Sunrise, the prelude to Before Sunset (if you haven’t seen this movie watch it !!! )

Ethan Hawke plays Jesse and Julie Delpy plays Celine. Here’s some dialogue from their movie long conversation….

Jesse: Do you believe in reincarnation?
Celine: Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.
Jesse: Yeah, right. Well, most people, you know, a lot of people talk about past lives and things like that, you know? And even if they don't believe it in some specific way, you know, people have some kind of notion of an eternal soul, right?
Celine: Yeah.
Jesse: OK, well this was my thought: 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there's, like, two million people on the planet. Now there's between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? You know, are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? 'Cause if they are, that represents a 5,000 to 1 split of each soul in the last 50,000 years, which is, like, a blip in the Earth's time. You know, so at best we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking...I mean, is that why we're so scattered? You know, is that why we're all so specialized?
Celine: I don't know. Wait a minute, I'm not sure...I don't...
Jesse: Yeah, hang on, hang on. It's a, it's a totally scattered thought. It...which is kind of why it makes sense.

So that’s probably it , because people were so complete before , there was less of searching for more and more people to complete themselves , so marriages lasted longer, even the polygamous ones!!! Rats that’s tough, so going by Jesse’s ( Ethan Hawkes’ theory) it means that unless we get the world population down to pre historic times the chances of finding the one composite Mr Right is going to be a little difficult , Note: I said difficult NOT impossible!!!

Have you ever....

Wished upon a shooting star – I remember doing so once around 6-7 years ago( Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was still fresh in my mind ), cant remember what I wished for or if it even came true, I haven’t seen too many shooting stars though I may have seen the occasional orbiting satellites or something!!!

Well now that I’m in the U.S., the land of UFO sightings, the X-files and alien abductions, I think I should start looking out for space ships. Anecdotally , I have a cousin who lives in Roswell, Georgia , ( Roswell, New Mexico is famous for UFO sightings). So this is the conversation I had when I found out my cousin lived in a place called Roswell (he’s been in the US for a quite a long time).

Me: Cool so you stay in Roswell, have you seen any aliens lately?
Cousin: Huh???
Me: No like there’s this place called Roswell in Arizona or Nevada or something , which is famous for UFO sightings, I think the place where you stay is different.
Cousin: Well, a lot of people who stay here behave like they are from another planet..
Me :Ok….

( To make things clear for all you people who reside in the US , I’m talking about aliens from a different planet, not from a different country!!).

Wished on a fallen eyelash??? All the time ....

Drawn water from a well…yeah lots of times more often when I was younger and used to vacation in India , lot less when I actually started to live in India, its fun I could do it the whole day ….

Used a hand powered water pump….yeah been there done that, again part of my Indian holidays ……I never did the real fun stuff like climb a tree or anything ….. I was a really blasé child that way ..still am…..

Fallen asleep while talking on the phone? Yea, at times I come close ..I’m not much of a phone person……

Thought of something funny and started laughing out loud in the presence of others? Yes, though more often I just smile to myself.

Used your city’s telephone directory or parents address books as casual reading – I used to at times especially as a child and some times even after that, but it had to be in the same house as my parents and I’d have to be terribly bored and jobless… I never READ the directory , just skim through to check out various surnames and phone districts.
Eaten kim-chi (a typical Korean food)?
Yess, yess just last week !!!!

Have you after reading all those Three investigators and Famous Fives ....formed a detective agency ?

Yes along with my childhood friends. we had fingerprint identifiers, magnifying glasses , invisible ink , clue books the whole shebang , just didn’t have any cases to solve.

We also formed our own circulating library consisting of our precious books which we kindly donated and kept in a box which used to circulate every week between our three houses …admittedly we were the only patrons of the library .

Oh and inspired by all those Enid Blyton’s we used to have our afternoon tea parties under the building staircase…. cookies ,chocolate ,ice cream, mint cordial and ginger ale ..not all at once: ) … gosh those days were fun ..we were five of us who stayed in the same building and we used to meet pretty much everyday for about five years playing hopscotch ,blind mans buff, net ball along with our crime solving , book circulating and tea partying. I got back in touch with two of them after 10 years, that was great ,still on the look out for my friend Gigi Tun , who was the mastermind behind all this fun!!!!

Have you ever had a really memorable New Year's Eve.. of course all New Years are events by themselves, but I think the millennium New Year’s Eve was especially cool… we went way out to make sure that we started the new millennium with a bang … It’s a good story , will probably tell you if you ask …


Have you a recollection of where you were…..

The day Princess Diana died ? We found out a little late, i.e. when my dad picked my mom ,sis and me from the airport, we were on a flight from Chennai to Dubai when it happened. A week later Mother Teresa passed away, and the day after that was Teachers’ Day in school , when 11th and 12th graders get to wear saris and act like teachers ,anyway mom was a bit bummed out with everyone dying and so was I to an extent ; and we didn’t have the enthusiasm to dress me up in a sari ( it would have been my second time in one ) so we decided I would wear a nice salwar kameez instead, Anyway when I went to school , you guessed it , I was the only girl who hadn’t worn a sari… Oh Well!!!
You cant say I didn’t mourn for Lady Di and Mother Teresa!!!

September 11 ,2001 … I was at home in India, it was the vacation after third year undergrad ,it was around 7 in the evening in India ,and Dad was surfing news channels, where we saw the day’s events unfold.

Celebrity Face Match!!

Just because I had time to kill and was dying to know, i used myheritage.com , to find out which celebrities my friends look like...

This girl looked 71% like Kate Winslet .



This doggy looked 62% like David Hassellhoff ,from BayWatch



And this girl looked 75% like Kareena Kapoor!!



The answers changed when I used different photos of myself , Kajol turned up a couple of times as did Emmy Rossum from Poseidon!!

Try it out !! Find out the celebrity in you!! And tell me!!!
Here's the link:
MyHeritageFaceRecognition