Gender Ponder!

I never knew that to enter into a male changing room, you need not be a male yourself...you just need to be surrounded by the gender incapable...

I just say this as my son makes me realise it much more. I take him to the pool and after swimming while he is shivering, instead of rushing into the changing room we are standing outside and looking at the labels. He says I will not enter the girls changing room and I tell him I cannot enter the other one. Never thought,never ever that I will have to elaborate on this question too, mummaaa why?

Next, I go to mens saloon and get done his haircut ...when its my chance for a haircut and I cannot leave him alone anywhere, and tag him along...all that I get to hear is - mummmaaaa why?

Now...I can answer all questions flowing out his pout, but when I need to answer such a question I ask God WHYYY?

A Festive Discovery!

Just wanted to add my discovery from this festive season...the first year of my marriage and then this year was the one I was fasting for all nine days...During that time I was new to this ritual of fasting for all nine days and I had my husband accompanying me on the hunger pangs, so dint bother much to think of the whys...This year, since I had nothing to eat and no company..I had a lot of time to ponder... I was wondering why do we fast...and spent a good amount of time reading anything related to the nine Goddesses, we fast for the nine days.

It was amazing to know that we fast because, there is a seasonal change and we need to prepare our system to better deal with the changing weather. So we fast, we fast to de toxify, we do not even eat the regular food, so that our body gets treated the same way as crop rotation treats land. We condition the walls of our stomach to different food so that the coming season it is all set to take up everything with a boosting immune system.

And what about the Goddesses.. I have always believed that we do not worship a form when we worship a diety ...WE WORSHIP the QUALITY associated...Like we do not worship Ganesh, we respect his knowledge, we do not worship Hanuman, we look up to the strength he owns, we do not worship Krishna, we remind ouselves of the love we are surrounded by in the form of Gopis, not Surya Dev, but his light...Not Rama but his righteousness..Not DEVI but we revere her SHAKTI. Yes....and we fast for all the nine days cos, each day one Goddess representing one quality/feature, wants us to dedicate one day ..atleast one day doing good for that representation of that Goddess. For example the first day of the fasting is dedicated to a Goddess by name "ShailaPutri" who is herself related to nature...directing our shakti towards mother nature atleast for a day...similar concept for all the nine days.

Now! Does'nt that make sense...I think it does and the day people begin to realise why they do what they do, there will be more meaning added to our acts and of course, people will stop quarelling taking a Diety as support, for a Diety is no image, no form, its a quality to be revered, a trait to be respected and incorporated, cos no God represents such a trait like quarreling!!

Lips that touch liquor shall not touch ours!

I just happened to go through one of these craftiest orations in the history of American politics - the "Whiskey Speech," delivered in April 1952 by a young Mississippi legislator named Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr.


My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.

If when you say "whiskey" you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation and despair and shame and helplessness and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But if when you say "whiskey" you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm, to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.
- Judge Soggy Sweat.

Why don't we write, when we write?

Greatest fears/setbacks-
1. Somebody reading and laughing over what I wrote…
2. I might not use the right words…
3. Ok, the word is right...but not up-to-snuff, hep or cool :-(
4. Spellings…
5. Grammar…
6. Am I making a fool of myself?
7. Oops! I don’t think so that will SEEM to be right to the reader!
8. I am an excellent word chooser, grammarian, best at English but I am too SHY!
9. Will I be the most popular among the unpopular ones?
10. And here comes the tenth one (though I hate to number them): Oh No! They now know what I don't know!
Don’t fear to add your writing fears here. I hope all my friends who own a blog and don’t write just scribble here their inhibitions/fears/any hindrance to write … (Note: Writing is not limited to Blogging)

Kidsdom!

How many cartoon characters are you familiar with? A few – which I regard as my favorites are - Tom n Jerry, Aladdin...a few which I hate to watch – Mr. Bean, a few which I am forced to watch - chota bheem, animated series of Mr. Bean, kumbhakaran.. and the list goes on. My knowledge in this area was very limited and thanks to him – my toddler, for broadening my sphere of knowledge and making me watch all that I don’t.

Ever thought why only these things, like watching cartoons, are contagious? Why we limit our learning from them to the names of these cartoon characters. I know we concur when I say ‘Kids need to learn a lot but we need to learn a lot more from them’.

These toddlers have no work - then what keeps them occupied all day? Some piece of toy some thing which is so trivial for them and where in the course of life did we lose this patience – don’t we hear very often stuff like ‘I am now bored of this task assigned to me’. We speak like this for the job which is our own choice.

We can run campaigns regarding ‘save tigers’ but that genuine love for nature is a quality which reflects in children in its purest form. When was it last that you sat in a park/a garden or your courtyard for a few quiet moments relishing the beauty around you? You are lucky if you can recollect one such occasion.

Often we come across parents nagging their kids... Don’t do this don’t do that… this will harm you, that will prick you. As kids know nothing about the harm some thing can cause, they embrace everything. Such a simple learning- To embrace something, ignore the harm it can cause... half the harm is mitigated by doing so.

The trust with which a little one gropes for his mom in sleep - thinking the default location of this person is next to me, or, plunges into his dads arms - thinking, this person is bound to catch me - is a true definition of blind trust and of course a lovely experience.

I had read somewhere that children do not have sense of time until 5 years of age. If you tell them we will do it later - they hear it as we will do it. The word 'later' is not grasped and they want it to be done then and there. The only time they know of is 'NOW'. They live in the present in true sense - Live in the present! See one more…why don’t we learn this from them (I know I have heard it many times…so many that this line now seems to have lost the value it deserves!).

Ok now, are you of the curious lot or do you fall in the -‘know it all… seen it all… done it all’ category? I ask this as there is one more thing these little creatures teach us…never ending curiosity... they are so inquisitive... keep asking… keep digging things n thoughts, keep exploring… keep learning.. keep growing…OOOps! Does that mean we have stopped growing???

Coffee...Coffeee

“Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.” That’s the recipe for coffee, according to the utterly French statesman Talleyrand (1754-1838).

I was amazed at the fact that coffee has so mannny stories hooked to it..thought to share a few.

The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen in southern Arabia. From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and to the Americas. Firstly it was hard to believe that coffee was grounded by the Arabs, which is now such a craze in the west.

Also, never thought that coffe would fall in the list of banned drinks unlike the aerated drinks being banned nowadays...yes, in Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. As a result, the Ethiopian Church banned its secular consumption. It was banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons,and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe... is this coffee..or?

American scientist Yaser Dorri has suggested that the smell of coffee can restore appetite and refresh olfactory receptors. People can regain their appetite after cooking by smelling coffee beans...hmmm this smells good!

One study suggests that it may have a mixed effect on short-term memory, by improving it when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought but making it more difficult to recall unrelated information...who am I? what am I writing?..huh

What more - The Oromo people(ethnic group found in Ethiopia) would customarily plant a coffee tree on the graves of powerful sorcerers. They believed that the first coffee bush sprang up from the tears that the god of heaven shed over the corpse of a dead sorcerer.

I donno about you, but after all this..I am badly in need of one cup coffee!

Tag it to tune it!

I have not been writing for quite sometime now and I think... when I tried to figure out why, I could list a few reasons:
1. I must have started working at office
2. I must have gone busy - not just at office but also at home
3. I must be feeling it to be a task to update my blog
4. ....

We will stop here because I think the most appropriate reason was where we stopped - the third pick.. 'I have begun to take it as a task, a project, an obligation, a duty'... something mundane...something which demands me to sweat through..drain mentally...hmm, OK!

So what made me write today... I have a free flow of thoughts today and so I am able to write, as simple as that. That implies I am not considering writing to be a task today. It is an expression for me for the day, a conversation with you. Yes, if I rephrase - 'I am blogging today' to 'I am conversing today' - it makes writing easier - its easier to converse than to blog!

Something to mull over - Just a change in thought, a change in tagging something would change what and how I do things I do.

Lets weigh this selftalk - 'I will work on ugrading and uploadng a document today' here I perform as I do daily, against - 'today I will see how I can get this thing done beautifully' - Here I will excel as I am thinking more creatively and creativity in any form entices a human.

Change the name of your work to something you love to do and you would love to work! This implies only if you have any negativity related to the word 'work'. Instead of saying 'I am working today', which will leave you tiring for the day, just say - 'I am enjoying what I am doing today' and that makes all the difference.

This is no gyan line - its just a method to mould our mind... its our brain so it will listen to us.. its just waiting for us to say something...say it...not just to perform better but to gain a control over our train of thoughts...Trust me it helps!