Golden People in Golden City

I was in Amritsar recently because of work and was really looking forward to visiting the Golden Temple. Usually with expectations it is inverse ratio, I mean if you have huge expectations, what you really get or experience is never up to the mark. But in this case I went with a huge expectation, the feel there was supposed to calm a restless soul like me and it sure did.



The tranquility there is divine and is a starck contrast to the pandomonium there due to devotees doing their various types of pooja (prayers), the saints reciting from the holy book, other saint doing the rituals, throngs of tourists waiting in queue to get in, to get out, to explore, to have the langar (term used in the Sikh religion for free food at the Sikh temple).



I met this very nice elderly couple who very kindly showed me around the Golden Temple and narrated the glorious history behind it with many interesting anecdotes of the city and its people. They were kind and hospitable and invited me for breakfast at their place which I just could not refuse.



Being impersonal comes with staying in Bombay. This is not in a negative sense of the word. In Bombay, you learn to keep your distance with people, neither to get personal nor be brusque. I love this city and things it has taught me.



So I went to their house for tea and on my way back was really touched by their hospitality and had requested them to come home when they visit their daughter in Bombay.



When I told my parents about this, my father was very upset in the wake of things happening now adays.



That really brought me back with a jolt to reality, how true is it, we off late do not trust even people we know and yet I (a very "better be cautious than sorry" kind of person) went to an unknown house to an unknown family in an unknown city and yet felt completely safe as these thoughts not even once bothered me when I was with them.

On my way home bound, I left a city not that unknown, left people I knew a bit and carried with me the little peace I gathered at the Temple. 

All is not lost thank god. Good people still are around, heart still can identify them and spirit that all will be well is not lost.

why o why should you cry ?

Off late I hear a lot of " Our country has gone to the dogs", "Life is bitch", "Trust not even your blood", "Good old times" Everybody is today talking a lot  about the stress they are going through and how much worse today the state of affairs are, be it personal or professional or cultural or system related.

But is n't the good old times the best example of things being worse are, our mythology talks about blood being poisonous (Mahabharat and Ramayan), epidemics  would swipe out a nation, concept of democracy and equality was alien, barbaric deaths was based on the whims of the ruler and fate was a lot more in the hands of mother nature. People would die before they hear from someone who was two state away and seeing the world was like seeing God. Education was a treasure of few and women were treated as cattle.

I for one am thankful to God for letting me enjoy the world that exists today. We live in an era where luxuries very easily get converted to basic necessity. Its no longer "water, food and shelter" its  "spring" water, "diet" food, "series" of  shelter.

Most of us lead the life we dreamt of and if we aint being able to do so its mostly because we have not put in enough efforts. Off course there are stray cases of sheer bad luck but then exceptions cant make the rule.

Maybe its time we stop cribbing about what went wrong and look at what more we have and what best we can do with what we have.

Positive vibes attract more positive vibes and end of the day, a normal day looks fulfilling because we attracted positive feelings and let our mind feel oxygenated with good thoughts.

So what if the country has gone to the dogs, dogs are man's faithful friend, what if life is a bitch, she gives the puppies so much love, trust not your blood, trust yourself as in the end that is what you are left with !

Yes we all are alone at the end of the day, but who is stopping you from not being lonely, enjoy your own company, if you cannot bear yourself, no one else will :)

cynical or realistic ?

The wind that Anna Hazare blew, did make some waves, but did it lead to winds of change ? Time alone will tell.

I did not have my hopes too high and still don't. But was pleasantly surprised to see the decibel rise by youth on various social networking sites.

Changing the system is not a project or operation that can have a time frame, its a process which is dependent on so many parameters and the most critical is persistent effort of like minded people without hidden agenda.

The last part is virtually impossible according to me. Today most have a hidden agenda behind every action and if you dont have one, you are labelled naive. 

Maybe this is the beginning of the end of corruption and dichotomy in the system or just another drop in the sea of efforts which may not raise a tsunami of change, but an effort never the less.

I some how don't have my hopes to high. So does that make me a cynic ?

Cynics, how does one be one, is it a 3 step process or 1 ? Can you be cynical with respect to few things in life or most ? In that case do you become a partial cynic or veteran ?

Or am I being realistic in my approach ? Now isn't being realistic being border line cynical ?

Keeping my fingers crossed for a Incredible India dream and is still keeping the faith, albeit a little dimmer by the day, never the less its there. 

Jai Ho 

truth about cats and dogs

I never liked cats and i was petrified of dogs.


Story has changed 50% today;  yes i still dont like cats!

But I strongly  believe in "live and let live".

So initially when Dexter would chase a cat, I would always teach him to let cats be. Honestly I was surprised initially very surprised by this behavior of his as he is a very non violent dog  (only creature he ever chases is mosquito; that too very unsuccessfully !) I thought it would be some genetic coding that makes dogs and cats not like each other.

So whenever I and he would go on walks I would always reprimand him for chasing cats.

Yesterday on our walk I saw a real sweet cat and I became alert, just about to put a leash on Dexy anticipating him to start his chase. But to my pleasant surprise my boy did not bother!

He just gave the cat, "could not care less" look of his and moved on. Just as we moved ahead, I can swear he looked at me  smugly; like he was saying " gotcha !".

I really felt like a proud momma and floated a bit on the air for a as long as my humble weight allowed me (read as nanosecond).

I guess this boy would not stop to make my life full of fun.

But  honestly till date I never understood why cats and dogs dont like each other and not only that it also gets transferred to cat people and dog people !

Some answers in life are best not pursued too much as the essence lies in guessing the answer, the answer itself may be mundane as the thrill is in the chase and not the catch!
but then what is life without a bit of craziness !

art of making friends !

We have relatives from kolkatta.

Before coming here they were very anxious and petrified if i may add, not knowing what to expect when you hear that there is a dog who stays in the same house as the family, shares their bed, is spoilt and pampered silly.(Ha ha I  can imagine their dilemma !)

Their first encounter with Dexter was really funny. I and bro had gone to pick them up and my baba got this brainer that he should take dexter out for a walk at 4:30 am so that he is not home when they come and they get some time to get used to the fact called dexter.

Unfortunately and as usual baba goofed up with the timings so low and behold ,Dexter was down when they arrived and Dexter being Dexter was on red alert as his mom had strangers in her car and came running up to me rescue me from the tangles of strange people he absolutely knew nothing about.

They were devastated not only by his size but also his volume and energy, more so after a long and tiresome journey, the jumping and barking was the most unwelcome welcome anyone would look forward to.


But again Dexter being Dexter..... soon became friends with my relatives. Within the first day they had graduated from being petrified to patting his head with one finger. (But no means a small achievement !)

But then came the next problem, he refused to allow them to sleep on my parents bed as that is the one he shares with them..

So yes guys my guests are sleeping on mattresses on the floor and dexter is ruling the bed !

But thank god for peace returning to our paradise... guests seem to have overcome their fear  and now a days dexter wakes up his new play mate with a lick (which is again unwelcome), hey I never claimed paradise to be perfect !

thank god !!

lot of minor things going wrong with me off late and i have been asking god "why me ?"

and yet today i got saved from a real crazy situation... i completely forgot to fill petrol and the car showed 0 petrol and yet i could reach the petrol pump before i got stranded......

all the way i was praying "god please" & god sure seemed pleased and i got saved from getting stranded.....

i came home and then remembered to thank god....

its so easy to remember to curse god when things go wrong and equally easy to forget to thank him when all is well....

will try next time onwards to thank god faster and curse him slower !!

music of silence !!

everybody has something to say, something to sing, something yell.......sound... high decibel... noise... cacophony ... pandemonium..  misery... 

ironic ... the voices you die to hear one day become noise... the sound of music gives you attacks of panic ... the sound of laughter .. which would lighten up your heart .. today leaves you cold ...

such is the power of sound....

i get migraine attacks due to bright light, shrill sound, stress situations... basically i have trigger happy migraine ... and today was migraine's happy hour  the whole day !!!!!!

my way to play peeka boo with migraine like most of my migraine buddies is hide in a dark room ....

no one with me .. but me and the darkness around me and the silence with me....

lying on my bed i was engulfed by the ghost of the noises of the day ... tearing my head, my heart, my soul.... i lay limp.. waiting for them to leave me.... 

with silence.....

i slowly opened my eyes to silence... even though my eyes were closed i could see silence lurking one corner.. smiling shyly at me.. holding out a hand..... i felt my rigid body slowly relax.. felt a gentle gush of wind go in and charge my senses and leave me welcoming the next gush of wind.....and slowly i started searching for silence... she sang to me a song with no words, a melody with no tune, intoxicating with no spirit ... and a smile left my lips to reach my heart ... and my eyes lids finally made way for sleep to take me away from me......

loved this feeling.. ....

silence i love your music...