Summary of Life

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:


1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.

2) When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair.

3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.

4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.

5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.

6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.

7) Never hold a dust-buster and a cat at the same time.

8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.

9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.

10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.




GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:


1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.

2) Wrinkles don't hurt.

3) Families are like fudge... mostly sweet, with a few nuts.

4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.

5) Laughing is good exercise... it's like jogging on the inside.

6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.




GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD:


1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.

2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.

4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.

5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.

6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.

7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.




THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:


1 -- You believe in Santa Claus.

2 -- You don't believe in Santa Claus.

3 -- You are Santa Claus.

4 -- You look like Santa Claus.



SUCCESS:


At age 4 success is... not peeing in your pants.

At age 12 success is... having friends.

At age 17 success is... having a driver's license.

At age 35 success is... having money.

At age 50 success is... having money.

At age 70 success is... having a driver license.

At age 75 success is... having friends.

At age 80 success is... not peeing in your pants.



Pass this on to someone who could use a laugh.

Try to forget the troubles that pass your way;

BUT NEVER forget the blessings that come each day.

Have a wonderful day with many Smiles.

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Illusion

Look at the image below and see if you can read what it says. I’m sure most of you must have already attempted this little optical illusion puzzle some time or the other in your over 10 years of "www" experience!



Remember the trick? You need to back off a bit from the screen, squinting a little -- just close your eyes about 90% -- the idea is to make the image go “out of focus”. (I wear glasses, so it’s easy for me. I just take them off and the image is nicely “out of focus”, and I can easily read what it says!)

Had fun then, didn’t you? But did you realize something? The image is sitting right in front of your eyes all along, but unless & until you look at it from *just the right angle*, you get a completely distorted version of it! In other words, you need to have the right *perspective* to see the image correctly!

Oh, but we all already know this fact, don’t we? We’ve been doing puzzles like these for years now! We are pros at this!

And yet, we completely forget this principle when it comes to interacting with people in our lives, or dealing with situations in our life!

We look at something with a certain perspective, and suppose we don’t like what we see. What do we do? We BLOW OFF! We simply refuse to pause for a moment and think about the possibility of there being a different perspective! We just take the first interpretation that our mind offers us… which could be completely off-track for all we know… and off we go… like those “Rocket bikes” in the movie “Dhoom”!

For example, all of us know (theoretically at least) that it’s difficult to gauge the true meaning of a message received through an “impersonal medium” – like an SMS or an email or a text chat (or even a “snail mail”) – because the “words” of the message are not “backed up” with the “tell-tale” tone of voice or facial expressions or the body language of the sender.

In fact, emails and letters at least allow you to complete what you want to say, before the other person starts replying… but with SMS & chats, even THAT is a problem! You don’t even wait to let the other person complete his message, before you “pounce” on it, with a completely wrong perspective of course, and then blow your head off through the roof, at the sight of “a-horribly-distorted-version-of-an-incomplete-picture”… that YOU created yourself!

“Effective communication” was a part of my first semester syllabus for this PGDBA thing that I’m currently doing. It mentioned something called “media richness”… but I’m sure all my intelligent and highly educated readers are already aware of what this term means!

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Responsibility

Over two years ago, I realized some things about myself that I never knew till then. Most important of them was my fear of commitment! And that was the time I made myself a commitment… that I will get over this fear no matter what it took me, or how long it took me! I took responsibility for my life and promised myself that I will recreate my life… that I will heal my badly bruised and wounded spirit!

Today is the time for a Self-Assessment… to see how far I’ve come and how much I’ve still to cover…


The picture above shows my results of a Chakra Test (http://www.eclecticenergies.com/chakras/chakratest.php) I’d taken in May 2007 and then again today morning. As is obvious, I have come a long long way from what I was 2 years ago. I shared these results with my Reiki 3 teacher and he was very happy about it. I just shared them with my Dad, and he said it was a remarkable improvement! I could see he was proud of me, ‘coz it was written all over his face! My lower 3 chakras need more work… so those are the areas where I’m going to focus my self-healings more, from now on.

For those of my readers who have no clue as to what I’m writing about, digest this…

If you feel discontent in any aspect of your life… if you have problems with any part of your life (be it relationships or job or finances or health or creativity)… or if you find you are unable to express yourself in certain situations… it simply means that your chakras are not in alignment, open, active and balanced.

In short, if there is any part of your life which feels less than perfect or ABNORMAL, then there’s a problem with one or more of your chakras. Addictions, depression, obesity, financial lack, emotional blocks, abnormal appetite for sex, even AIDS – it doesn’t mean you are a bad person or a “loser”. It simply means that your chakras are not in their optimally healthy state.


Yes, you have the power to heal them... each one of you. But you are the one who’s going to have to make that choice. It’s the same as making the decision to consult a doctor regarding a broken bone or not… or the decision about whether to buy a particular pair of jeans or not… or about whether to go watch 'Delhi 6' or 'Dev D'... or a re-run of 'Slumdog Millionaire'!

I made my decision 2 years ago, and I’m sticking to it. And I share this post here so that my readers can also take the test and assess their own spiritual health… eventually, making the decision on whether or not they’d like to improve it.

I believe that if each one of us takes full responsibility for just our own self (“Let everybody else do whatever they want to do... I am concerned only about the health and vibrancy of my own chakras!”)… then the world around us will change automatically! (Don’t ask me how I reached to that conclusion though… ‘coz it will take another at-least 3-page long post to explain all the fundas!) But if you really care for the world… and our beautiful planet… then go ahead and take this test.

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A Smile...

... that set everything right...

... every time...

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Rain

Red tulips... washed by the rains...

Love... so pure...


Picture Credit: Webshots

P.S. - I love Tulips.

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Random Update

Today, I met someone who shares his birthday with "miss_teerious" here... my blog!

Pretty awesome haan! :-D

Oh and I'm still in hibernation btw...

Stay good... stay healthy... stay happy...

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Going Underground

Hey all!

I'm going to be hibernating (again!) for a few days...

Don't miss me too much...

See you when I see you...

Cheers!

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Am I Just Too Smart For My Own Good?

A few days ago, I received a personal message from a member on Bharat Matrimony. In that message, he gave me links to his website, blog & Facebook profile... & said he hoped to interact further. When I went through his profile there, something just didn’t seem right! I wasn’t able to pin-point exactly what, but his profile seemed to speak out to me – “I have no intention of getting married here!” So I “declined” his message.

But, he had given his blog link in the message… & I don’t know why, but, I simply can’t stop myself from browsing through strangers’ blogs! I have always loved reading books, and since I started blogging, I seem to have developed a sort of fascination for other people’s blogs too… especially personal blogs, rather than informative ones! For me, it’s like each one of us has his/her own story… and reading someone’s blog makes me feel like I’m reading that person’s story… and that too, without having to pay for the book!

So I decided to “check out” this member’s blog too. It was on Google blogger btw… less than a month old, with a black blog theme & the posts in gray text against a white background! Most “reader-UNfriendly”! I should have clicked on the “X” on the top-right corner straightaway, right? But, you forget! I don’t “give-up” so easily! So I ploughed away… straining my eyes against that most illogical foreground-background combination… trying to read what this fellow blogger’s creative juices had spilled out!

The guy wrote well – easy and humorous style of writing – very fluid! And, as all those who know me here, know – I’m never too stingy to leave an appreciative or encouraging comment on someone’s blog! So I left one on his blog too! And also suggested he might want to change the background color of the posts to something more readable. He did that! And he also added a cartoon in his blog’s “side bar”… like the “Pumpkin” I have on mine!

His next post was one of those “25-Random-Facts-About-Me” things. Going through that post, I again got this strong feeling “This guy isn’t really interested in settling down!”… Even though there was no obvious “clue” in the post which might have given that impression! And it felt really odd… feeling this way about a complete stranger without any reason!

Another thing that felt really odd was the tags he had used for all his blog posts. Each one of them had been consistently labeled with 3 tags – his first name, his last name, and one other word, which was completely non-relevant to the context of all the posts! Every single post on his blog carried these 3 tags, regardless of what they were about! And I thought to myself – “Who in the world tags his blog posts with his name? It looks like the poor guy doesn’t really know how to use tags yet!”

And then, just out of curiosity… (They say it killed the cat, didn’t it? Well, one day it’s going to kill me too then!) I decided to Google those 3 keywords and see in what order would his blog posts be displayed! Guess what I found! (Hahhhhh! You’ll never believe it! Even I couldn’t believe it!)

Google told me that this person who had contacted me (on a ** matrimonial site **, of all the places) DOES NOT EVEN EXIST! Yes! This person has no real existence! He is just a character out of a stupid upcoming Hindi movie! This blog & the website & that Facebook profile – they are all simply a part of some major internet marketing gimmick! (MTv Bakra, right? Go on… laugh away!)

But while it may sound funny, there are some serious implications here that need to be considered. Creating a website or a blog, or using social networking websites for internet marketing is all fine! But matrimonial sites are NOT just some social networking sites! People who create their profiles on matrimonial sites mean serious business! And you actually go ahead and contact females on matrimonial sites, just for some cheap publicity for your new movie! How low can you get now?

I made sure they know how cheap they are! Left another comment on the blog! I know someone reads those comments, ‘coz they changed the background color on my feedback! Oh and I also informed Bharat Matrimony’s customer care! Gave them all the necessary links and the profile ID etc… and told them this was a fake profile! And asked them to take legal action if possible against this movie’s producer! :-D (Hope they don’t give these guys some more free publicity though! That’s the reason I haven’t mentioned the 3 tags here – the first 2 are for this character’s name & the last one is the name of the movie!)

But I’m wondering – why do such things happen with me? Why do I always happen to simply “land” on the truth like this? At times, even I get scared with my “extra-sensory powers” you know! I mean all I wanted to do was see what Google did with those tags! And what did I find instead? Something that I’d definitely not expected to find… not even in my wildest dreams!


I’m thinking… maybe I should add a few lines to my matrimony profile! “The girl possesses a deadly combination of instincts and logic! So all those of you who are in the habit of lying or hiding the truth, or those who plan to get involved in an EMA, may please refrain from contacting her! She’ll be able to figure out what you’re up to, even if she doesn’t want to!” Hmmmm!

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Found my Long Lost Love Again!

… Ricky Martin’s album “Vuelve”!



I fell in love with it almost 11 years ago, back in 1998… when my family was still in Kanpur. In those days, I rarely bought audio cassettes, because I usually liked just 1 or 2 tracks of the albums. So I instead bought blank cassettes, and then had this guy in my local market copy the songs I wanted onto those blank cassettes. That way I could listen to all my favorite songs at one go… no need to FF or Rewind!

But not “Vuelve”! Nope. This was one album I bought the complete audio cassette for… ‘coz I liked so many of its songs! Another reason was that the cassette’s inlay had the lyrics of all the songs in English… which meant that I could learn a few Spanish songs too, without knowing a single word of that language! :-P

“La Copa De La Vida”, “Maria”, “La Bomba”, “Lola Lola”, "Marcia Baila", “Por Ariba” and the title song “Vuelve” – these are some of the tracks that I can be seen grooving to (again, after so many years!)… in my kitchen… while cooking lunch/dinner… much to my Dad’s dismay… for, while he has learnt to tolerate me singing along with English songs at the top of my voice, Spanish is still a bit too much for him!

Oh well… what a pity! By the way, some of the slow numbers of this album are also good for dancing… just need a partner for them though…

. . .

Here's more in Music and in Videos!

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Human “Black Holes”

My friend “Wiki” says “a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light), can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon.” In other words, nothing – including light – ever comes out of it!


Human black holes are similar – “one-way streets”! You share your life with them, they don’t. You send emails to them; never get an email out of them though! Same with phone calls, blog comments… you name it! They’re like this eternally hungry giant… you throw anything towards them… even insulting comments… they swallow everything! Nothing ever comes out of them! Don’t they ever explode?

“Black” – used to be my favorite color loooooong ago… & I mean really looooonnng ago! Now, it just reminds me of school shoes, of strictly formal social gatherings… of anything too disciplined as a matter of fact!

It is the color of a smoke-filled chest… the color of a star-less night… the color of a blind man’s world! Black is for darkness of soul… for the space where we feel lost! It stands for no rainbows, no hopes, no dreams… no love?

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Another Love Story...

This is a story about 3 guys… no, not Ir Bir Phatte! The three guys in this story are… well let’s call them for the moment, ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. Ok so this is a story about ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’!


Act I – Scene 1

Once upon a time, there were two “best friends” - ‘A’ and ‘B’. They were truly the “best of friends”! In fact, their friendship was as “best” as friendships could possibly be! They had practically grown up together. You would never ever see one without the other. They were friends for joys and for sorrows; for life and for death!

[Track plays in the background: “Ye dosti hum nahin todenge… todenge dum magar, tera saath na… chodenge!”]


Act II – Scene 1

Seasons change. Sceneries change. And one day, A met this third person of the story, ‘C’. It was ‘love at first sight’ for him. No one knows why or how, but it was! Even B could sense immediately that his best friend A was hooked completely by C.

A [like a love struck teenager]: Sighhhhh! Kitni pyari baatein karti hai yaar!
B [disapproval written on his face]: Pyari nahin, bahut saari baatein karti hai!


(What? You think I’m writing about Sholay? Read on…)


Act II – Scene 2

With repetitive discouraging remarks (such as the above) from B, A tries hard to keep his heart in its place (sub-sternal, center thoracic, superior to the stomach with the apex on the left), but it, nevertheless, keeps trying to leap out into C’s thoracic cavity!


Act III – Scene 1

By now, B is beginning to feel that his crown is slipping away – the crown which he had carried uncontested, for the last 30 odd years or so. He’s not ready to give up the throne – not ready to give up his best friend… so he does this…

B goes upto C’s “Mausiji” with a marriage proposal for C, on A’s behalf.

Mausiji: Bura mat manna, magar itna to poochna hi padta hai… ladke ka khandaan kaisa hai, uske lakshan kaise hai, kamata kitna hai?

B: Kamane ka to ye hai Mausi ki ek baar biwi bachon ki jimmedaari sar pe aa gayi, to kamane bhi lagega!

Mausiji: To kya abhi kuch bhi nahin kamata?

B: Nahin nahin Mausi… kamata hai… lekin ab roz roz aadmi jeet to nahin sakta na, kabhi haar bhi jaata hai bechara… ab ye kambakth jua cheej hi aisi hai…!

Mausiji: To kya juari hai?

B: Chee chee! Woh to bahut hi nek aur shareef ladka hai Mausi… lekin ek baar sharaab haath lag gayi na, to kahan achche-bure ka hosh rehta hai! Haath pakad ke bitha liya kisine jua khelne, to ismein uska kya dosh hai!

Mausiji: Thik kehte ho… juari ho, sharaabi ho, lekin uska koi dosh nahin!

B: Mausi aap to mere dost ko galat samajh rahi hain… ek baar uski shaadi ho gayi to woh us gaane waali ke paas jaana band kar dega bas! Sharaab apne aap chhoot jayegi…

Mausiji: Hai hai! Bas yahi ek kami reh gayi thi?

B: To ismein kaun si buri baat hai Mausi! Arre gaana sunne to Raja Maharaja aur oochen oochen khandan ke log jaate hain!

Mausiji: To beta, ye bhi batate jao ki tumhare ye “gunwaan” dost kis khandan ke hain!

B: Bas Mausi, khandan ka pata chalte hi hum aapko khabar kar denge!

Mausiji: Ek baat boloongi beta, bhale hi tumhare dost mein sau burayi hon, magar tumhare mooh se uske liye sirf tareefein hi nikalti hain!

B: Ab kya karoon Mausi, mera to dil hi kuch aisa hai! To ye rishta pakka samjhoon main?

Mausiji: Pakka? Bhale hi ladki jindagi bhar kuwari baithi reh jaaye, magar main aise aadmi ke saath uska byaah hargiz nahin karoongi! X-(


Mission successful! B manages to show A in such bad light, that there’s no way now C would agree to marry him! Meaning that B could now have A all to himself… just as always!


(You still think I’m talking about Veeru, Jai & Basanti? You need to continue reading in that case…)


Act IV – Scene 1

A refuses to give up his love for C. It’s now a matter of life or death for him. So he climbs up a 70 feet high water tank & threatens to jump down from there & commit suicide [Jab angrez log marte ho to usko soosaad bolte hain!] … if he is not united with C forever!


Act V – Scene 1

C agrees to marry A, Mausiji also agrees to let them marry each other… and B tosses a double-headed coin, chooses “heads” and dies… taking all the other “bad guys” in A & B’s life with him!

[Track plays in the background: “Ye ishq na mit payega, tu ishq mein mit jayega… Hai ishq mein mitna aisa… koi naya janam ho jaisa! Kambakth ishq hai jo…”]


(Ok… so now you think I’ve moved from Sholay to “Pyar Tune Kya Kiya”? Hahhh! Well substitute ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ now with “Man”, “Ego” and “Woman”.)


Man & his Ego… inseparable. In comes the Woman. Man falls in love with her. Ego knows his position is threatened even before Man realizes he’s in love! Ego knows this instinctively! And also that he must die if their Love is to live. And so, Ego fights for survival... against Love!

At first he tries to make the Man dislike the Woman -- “She wears yellow for God’s sake! Now who in the world wears that shade of yellow?” -- and most love stories, thus, end at Act II–Scene 1.

For the ones that move on to the next scene, Ego then plays the Act III–Scene 1… “She hates cream on the cake? Oh good! Let me apply just one thin layer on it in that case… ok, one more then… and a strawberry one too… just to make sure...!”

Majority of the rest of the love stories die at this point... for you'll rarely find a Veeru in reality, who has the guts to make it to Act IV–Scene 1... against the incessant efforts of his “best friend”, Jai, to screw up his love life!

And yet, those who DO make it to the “water tank” make it to the very end, when eventually, the Ego has to die for Love, “for neither can live while the other survives”…!

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"Cat Nap" on a Lazy Afternoon!

This is what I wish I was doing right now...


Picture Credit: Webshots

Lying like a log,
limbs surrendered to gravity,
the warm sun caressing my back like a lover,
a fraction of a lazy smile touching my lips...
mmmmmmmmm

I have a class to attend in an hour instead! Sighhhhhhh...

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Is Time Slipping Past You?

I'm sure we all have read this or other similar short stories, dozens of times, floating randomly on the web. Yet, there can never possibly be enough reminders of it for any one of us! So sharing a forwarded mail again...

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

DAD: "Yeah sure, what is it?" replied the man.

SON: "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.

SON: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "If you must know, I make Rs.100 an hour."

SON: "Oh," the little boy replied, with his head down.

SON: "Daddy, may I please borrow Rs.50?"

The father was furious, "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for this childish behavior."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down and started to think: "May be there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs. 50 and he really didn't ask for money very often."

The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door. "Are you asleep, son?" He asked.

"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier" said the man. "It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the Rs. 50 you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. "Oh, thank you daddy!" He yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

"Why do you want more money if you already have some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied. "Daddy, I have Rs. 100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.


It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that Rs. 100 worth of your time with someone you love.

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

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"Keywords" for the Universe!

Yesterday, I created a beautiful picture on my blog here. Later that night, I received a comment on it, in my inbox, which I wasn’t quite able to understand completely, but, which was loaded with red-flag words like "argument", "expectations", "dominance", "obligation" and "disappointments"!

Under normal circumstances, I would have simply ignored the comment. But, as the person who sent that comment is well aware of the Laws of Creation & Attraction, I thought maybe I was missing something, and that maybe this message had a positive meaning after all. So I read and re-read and re-read that comment… like maybe 15 times or more… trying to figure out what the sender meant by it. Eventually, I just decided to give up & have another look at it in the morning with a fresh mind.

But guess what! I had churned those words so many times in my mind already… like a chant you know… that their energy had already been dispatched into the Universe! And the Universe… is like a pet dog! You throw a ball for it… it brings you back the ball; you throw a rotten tomato for it… it brings you back exactly that! INSTANTLY!

Unknowingly, I had set into motion a disastrous chain of events for myself… with that repeated mental churning of the wrong kind of words! One thing led to another, even crappier thing… so that eventually it looked like the day was going to end in a complete catastrophe! In fact, catastrophe doesn’t even come close to describing it!

Luckily though, that final incident of the day… after one small moment of complete panic & despair… gave way to complete unadulterated love instead! My entire focus shifted on the keywords “God”, “faith” and “love”! Absolutely one-track! There was simply no space for any other thought in my mind then! And lo and behold! My world suddenly turned right again… INSTANTLY!


In the last 2 years, I have read & heard from so many different sources… about how we create our own reality with our thoughts. I have researched and analyzed on this in such depth that each and every jig-saw piece of this concept has become crystal clear in my mind… at least theoretically that is! However, it wasn’t until last night that I realized the full potential of our thoughts!

The speed with which the Universe reacts… it’s amazing! No ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ or ‘howevers’! You ask for it, you get it… INSTANTLY! The Universe is programmed to find the shortest and quickest route to deliver your wishes to you. You send out an energy vibration (or a ‘data packet’)… it immediately runs it through its ‘search index’… and your Mozilla browser displays the results! Time taken: less than 0.06 seconds!

And the best part is that 99% of the time, we are not even aware of what words or thoughts we are allowing to enter into our minds! We keep creating a web of disappointments and miseries and unhappiness around us… and then we blame others, or the circumstances, or even God and our destiny… if we can’t find anything else to blame!

But do we honestly believe that God has the time to run our lives for us? He’s created everything else in this Universe with a self-sustainable pattern. Everything works in perfect sync and in a perfectly logical manner. Had it not been the case, then we wouldn’t have been able to predict the daily times of sunrise and sunsets, the seasons, the eclipses, the high tides, the low tides, the rainfalls… you name it!

Galaxies form and dissolve on their own, in a perfectly systematic way! Glaciers melt into rivers! Seeds turn into plants, plants produce flowers, which in turn produce more seeds and then form fruits! A miniscule egg & sperm develop into such a complex structure of organs, tissues, nerves, bones, skins & blood… all on its own! If God created everything else as self-sustainable units, why would He choose to create us humans as powerless, helpless entities that He has to control/operate every single moment? Makes no sense!

But coming back to my previous blog-post… tell me something… when an artist starts on a new painting, does he immediately start thinking about spilling paint on it accidentally? When a singer starts recording a new song, does he/she start focusing on a sore throat? When you go for an interview in an MNC, do you immediately start asking questions about your annual leave entitlement? When you go digging for diamonds, do you focus on the coal you have to sift through? Then why focus on compromises and disappointments when you are out to create a beautiful relationship for yourself?

But that’s what we are all doing all the time. We have become so used to seeing ugliness around us (even within us!) that it has become a part of our lives now. We just can’t think otherwise any more. Look at the soap-operas we give the high TRPs to… the news channels…! Ask a young man what kind of woman he wants to spend his life with… & he immediately comes up with “Oh! She shouldn’t be a nag!” Well, hello! I asked what you want, not what you don’t want!

Yesterday, when I wrote that post, I went through it like 3-4 times… to make sure I hadn’t inadvertently used a negative or limiting word or phrase anywhere. Or that I hadn’t focused on something that I didn’t want in that relationship. And then I asked a friend to come online on chat to review it. Guess what! He was able to pick up another 2-3 red-flags in the post… that I had missed even after my multiple scans! Bottomline: we are just not aware of how limiting our vocabulary has become!

I created this picture with the keywords “faith”, “love” and “acceptance”. And I choose to hold that picture in my mind with those same keywords.

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What's on My Menu for Marriage?

Recently, just like me, another fellow blogger has also decided to settle down in a committed relationship... after having bid her final goodbyes to all the major commitment related blocks she had. And now that she's opened her heart and mind to welcome "that most familiar stranger" in her life, she has "placed an order" for this man, to the Universe, describing CLEARLY and EXACTLY what she wants.

As I went through this post on her blog, it struck me that while I have also now made up my mind about getting married, I haven’t yet given a clear order to the Universe, as to the kind of man It should send to me. Better late than never, I guess! So I decided to copy her idea… and post my detailed “order” on my blog too. Here it goes…


The kind of man I see myself spending the rest of my life “happily ever after” with is:

LOL! No, that's not my wishlist! That's just an image I found on Google. It sort of tickled my funny bone, so used it for this post! But, my actual wishlist is here:

* Someone who vibes with me at the intellectual, emotional and physical planes.
* An absolute romantic! (It’s only fitting… ‘coz I’m exactly that too! :-p)
* A nature lover… loves watching the sunsets & sunrises more than the news on the TV! :-D
* Very well read and knowledgeable (“a walking-talking encyclopedia” was the phrase I used a few years ago!)
* Having a passion for teaching others & encouraging others to try out new stuff (which obviously includes satisfying my own zillions of spurts of curiosity! :-p)
* An Indian (definitely!) who’s able to converse comfortably in both Hindi and English.
* Having a healthy curiosity and appreciation for the various different cultures around the globe.
* Very fond of traveling! In fact, if asked to choose between a new cell phone worth Rs. 15K or a family holiday for the same cost, he would instantly go for the latter, without the blink of an eye!
* Professionally & financially competent – yes, with the ideology that “you earn more, just so you can spend more”! (Or, in other words, “holiday more”! :-p)
* Always able to maintain a smooth balance between personal & professional life, with enough time & space for both aspects of his life.
* Able to give and receive freely & equally in all aspects of the relationship.
* Possessing enough “domestic skills” to “hold the fort” on his own when I’m not in the mood to “play housewife” (which will most certainly happen at least twice a week!)
* Naughty and playful, with plenty of boyish enthusiasm about life and all things in it… even carom-board & computer games!
* Someone who is comfortable with what/who he is and wants out of life.
* More spiritual than religious!
* Having an excellent sense of humor – witty, subtle, satirical & dry!
* Lastly, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, reciprocating the same inner desire, to be in a committed, monogamous, mutually satisfying and nurturing relationship! (But that’s obvious, isn’t it?)


Physical Attributes:

* A normal healthy person, obviously... with all body parts intact.
* 5 to 8 inches taller than me (don’t know why, but the probability of sharing a strong physical chemistry increases for me with tall men!)
* CLEAN looking – with a strong sense of personal hygiene.
* Having a “Killer smile” – yes! (That can always diffuse one of my stormy outbursts! A must-have “weapon” for him!)
* Having the most expressive pair of eyes – sometimes full of mischief, sometimes overflowing with excitement… curious, bewildered, sad, angry, happy & passionate – completely revealing! :-D (Communication is important, you see!)


Communication is so important in fact, that let me emphasize on it separately here!

* Free-flowing & easy, TWO-WAY communication… as both of us promise to be, and allow each other to be, witness to each other’s lives!
* Honesty, integrity & transparency in communication (A MUST!)
* Emotionally open & expressive communication, not necessarily with words though! (That’s why the eyes above… get it now?)
* Both of us able to talk to each other about anything (and I mean, ANYTHING!) under the Sun!


What he loves most about me:

EVERYTHING! … my simplicity, my weird sense of humor (including my claims of being an Alien!), my occasional crankiness, my impulsiveness, my independence, my out-of-this-world concepts, my impractical dreams (ok most of them), my little “chit-chats” with my computer (!!!), my insatiable appetite for learning new things, my imaginative mind, my laid-back & easy-going attitude (marked with the occasional spells of fidgeting of course!), my fondness for food, my fierce loyalty towards those I care for, my… like I said, EVERYTHING! :-D

In short, both of us support each other and inspire each other to be the best that we can be.


So there God… hope that’s CLEAR enough for you! Now please go ahead… get my order ready and deliver it to me! :-D

Oh and while you are at it God, could you please add one more thing? It’s not like a MUST-HAVE, you know, but I figured… if you can put together ALL of the above, surely this one little thing would be as easy as “placing-a-cherry-on-top” for you!

See, while the rest of my cooking is fairly above average, I’m absolutely pathetic at making tea/coffee! So maybe you could add this particular quality in his skill-set too – ability to make good tea/coffee for the both of us… like my Dad does currently!

Think about it God… him and me… the 2 of us in our balcony, holding mugs of steaming hot tea in our hands, listening to “Purani Jeans” on Radio Mirchi (or Red FM… or whichever radio channel it is aired on!), watching another one of your artistic sunsets, humming along with the songs… me, in tune obviously and him, completely off-tune… thanking you of course, for bringing us together…! Cute picture, isn’t it? Think about it… :-D :-p

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