The Cricket world cup fever is definitely ON and for someone who claims to be a cricket champion, anything and everything is related to CRICKET!! :)
My sweet hubby who is a vital player of his company's cricket team...definitely wouldnt keep his baby out of the cricket madness. As the baby kicks and is active through out the day, i keep pestering hubby dear to feel the baby's movements. He seems quite impressed by what all the lil one can do inside. He has actually cobbled up his own stories about all that the baby might be doing inside and i cant deny how cute it sounds! So one of these days we were having a late lunch at a restaurant and the hubby was hurrying up to get back home to watch the ever interesting match between India and Endland. The baby usually gets quite active whenever i eat and starts moving around and kicking to make more space as if trying to tell me "Momma dont eat so much, i have no space!". I just cant stop smiling when it kicks! Its the cutest thing i have experienced in my life. So while we were still having lunch the baby wakes up and starts doing its usual kicking and moving around routine. I got all excited to feel the baby's kicks and my immediate reaction was to ask my hubby to feel my lil one's accomplishments. And the hubby's stimulus was to narrate another one of his amusing stories about the baby's world.
So the hubby started by saying: "What you are getting so excited as if you dint know baby is playing in the World Cup!". I was still laughing at his humor when he said, "Baby is playing a crucial match today. It would have hit a six thats why its celebrating by throwing its hands up!!".
Me: And how does the baby have a ball and a bat!?
Hubby: Oww please...its my baby...it doesnt need all that to play. It plays with all that it has! It plays its own matches all by itself. It bowls, and then it runs back to hit, and then it takes all catches by itself!
Me: Isnt it like the vodafone 3G guy?
Hubby: What you are comparing my baby to that 3G guy (though he is cute too) but my baby is jus too extraordinaire!! :)
Me: Cool...i am just happy with the fact that my cute one kicks and keeps talking to me in its own cute ways! The feeling is just matchless!
I've been thinking of consolidating some thoughts that i've been hearing too much these days - courtesy- Of course my husband!
Topic 1: Do Baby's think when their bodies are still developing while their brain is almost fully developed!? AKA the First Trimester!!
Hubby: Of course they think, they have a fully developed brain after all and we think with our brains only na!?
Me: Ya, but we have things to think about. What can they have to think about at all? We have so many issues now, when we were small we never used to think about anything so much. We think only when we have things to worry or think about right?
Hubby: What do u know what all they worry about! They will be talking to the angels now. The angels will be teaching them everything!
(At this i was a little stunned, but somehow i continued the discussions.)
Me: Ok fine if the angels are teaching them stuff. What actually can be the stuff they can be learning inside the uterus now!!??
Hubby: See the baby will be thinking about its daily life! What a boring life i have...i get up and see the same things, same fluid. How boring can life get...and thats all it will sleep. Then again it feels hungry and gets up! Now it thinks about its boring mom! What man, this mom doesnt even know that i get hungry and i need food! Why cant she eat something good and make me happy? Same tablets and same food she eats. And just when i am about to like something she goes and throws up everything outside! She needs some real brains! GOD please make her strong enough not to throw up things that are supposed to reach me please!
Me: Thats adorable. I will try to eat more now.
Hubby: See the baby doesnt even know if its day or night. Poor thing jus keeps waiting for food to reach to itself.
Me: OK OK don try to blackmail me too much. I am already very emotional these days!
Hubby: We think so much about the perfect house that we will build etc etc! How many bedrooms we will have, what kind of a living room and with what kind of furnishings, how many sitout areas, what kind of kitchen etc etc! Poor thing baby cant afford to even imagine all that now. It just has the same place to do everything it can...same place where it eats, sits, sleeps,...jus everything!! It doesnt even have light there to see anything...
.......
......
And my husband's thoughts about what the baby thinks and does inside of me is unending!! :)
i can just sit and adore how cute it is when i hear such things and how impressive GOD's greatness is to have planned everything for the life inside of a mother!!
When you are revisiting the yellow pages of your life...it usually means that you are missing the days gone by too much may be becuz of the mundane life of today or becuz you are hurt too much by your present and long for the days gone by...or it can mean that you had a ball of a time in your past and wish it never ended...or may be in some cases it just simply means that you are BORED....cuz you have absolutely nothing to do!!! :)
Well in my case it simply means i have loads of time on my hands and its been long long long since i have been this idle!! And thats exactly the reason why i do not know what to do with so much time on my hands! Last 2 yrs of my life i feel had given me so much to handle and be engaged with that i had no time to sit back and think of what was happening or what wasnt. Work life had been busy and if it wasnt then there was much happening on the personal front to keep me engaged, and if nothing was keeping me busy at work or personal life i had invented ways to keep myself fully utilized. I was myself doing things as an attempt to make myself a better person making the best of my time and energy. Last few days i had been revisiting my older blog and my older posts...or old mails...or old song playlists! And all of it has given me an insight on what i was in those days and what i am now! All of it reminds me how much i have learnt in the last few years and how much i have changed and grown or matured. I would not list out...not one of my past experiences as something to regret. I have had an amazing spectrum of events which have finally moulded me to what i am now. i am not boasting myself who has/knows everything in life but i know that sometime in my life there have been experiences that everyone doesnt have, and some which everyone has...and i have learnt and grown thru everything.
Do you remember what the fashion scene was when you had first started noticing the world around you? Could you imagine what was the "HEP" or the "IN" thing in the year when you were born? ok leave fashion...the kind of fashion freak that i am may be i cant think of little more practical things.. :) Lets talk about the school curriculum...can you imagine what the curriculum would have been when your parents were in school!!?? Ya many of us might be parents already...and lets compare what we learnt and what our children are learning today. what our children study at school these days is not even close to being similar to what we learnt!! Ok Lets think of something more popular...TV!? Do you remember the first tv serials that you saw as kids... which made you so glued to your tv screens that your mom had to scream to make you switch it off and finish your homeworks!? i still remember how i was so careful in finishing my homework just becuz i dint want to miss my fave tv serial..."Malgudi Days" or how i used to be glued to watching "Tenali Raman" or "The Jungle Book"...so many sweet thoughts come to my mind when i think of my first faves on TV. But when you just start even thinking about TV in these days...you dont know which channel to start with...there are so many channels and so many options. TV has changed from just a simple mode of entertainment to being a big part of our day to day life. If we actually think about some aspects in life...small things in life like brushing your teeth to the bigger things like taking an international holiday...almost everything has changed with time. Some things which we could not have imagined in the days that we were born are somethings which have become so very common these days. We have seen globalisation affect so many aspects of our lives that i doubt if there is anything which has remained the same since the time we were born. Can you think of one thing which has not changed since the time we remember? While watching GOD TV recently, i happened to watch an ad about the way ministry work has progressed since all these years. I couldnt help but gape in awe at how matchless HIS awesomeness is! He has been the same yesterday, today and will be forever. There is no change in the BIBLE, in the way the various pastors and reverends have been working on spreading HIS word and the GOSPEL remains the same yesterday today and forever. Its really awesome to know how things have changed in and around us in so many years but HIS word just remains the same. Being a Christian it gives me so much happiness to know that i have put my life and trust in an everlasting and living GOD who is the same yesterday today and will be forever and ever!!
Havent we always been taught that there are always only 2 solutions to any and every question in the world? One Right and the other Wrong!!?? Well that is how i have been judging every question in life till now! For me everything is either right or wrong, i have never been able to judge anything as anything in between the right or the wrong. Viewing everything as a simple play of black or white is what i have practiced...i have never been able to view world as a shade of grey. It is usually hard for me to think that there can be more to judging situations in life. If there was something that was not right...it was always wrong for me. Recently while taking one of the mandatory trainings for Accenture new joinees i learnt about the right vs right situation. The whole training talks about how diplomatic resources have to be to survive in the corporate world and one of the most important aspect which rules diplomacy is not judging every situation as having a right vs wrong solution. We are constantly learning something or the other in this world and being someone involved in the IT industry i guess we learn pretty more volume of things at a faster rate. When i was leaving HCL i thought i have had alot of experiences both inside India as well as outside India and was well versed to face the IT world. But i guess theres a vast ocean waiting to be conquered and thats so vast in myriad directions that its not easy to conquer it with just a 5 yr experience here...i am here for more time now and am just hoping that i learn enough to survive the right way. :)
Have you ever found yourself sitting helplessly tensed about some issue in Work place, Personal Life or in the life of a loved one? Guess thats something very common, all of us at some point in life do fall trap to some or the other kind of tensions or worries even if we employ fool proof methods to wade off the same. In those times you will always have conversations going on in your mind. Sometimes conscious, while some other times completely unconscious. Your mind tries to analyze the situation, and give answers to your doubts.
I have been pretty tensed and confused about things at office lately and i really dont know which way to proceed or even if i chose a way i dont know how to be sure why to chose that particular way! There literally are battles in the mind and they sometimes bring out different emotions on the outside. I ask myself a question and then satisfy myself with an answer. And then my mind analyses why i chose to answer it that way and tries to find out if theres a better way to answer the same. That inturn gives rise to another answer and again another question and its answer and so on. I did an interesting thing today since i was so tired of thinking and thinking. Instead of letting the conversations in my mind go on, i just jotted down the thoughts as and when they appeared (with whatever answers my mind was making out). I dont say doing so gave me some kind of solution to my confusions but atleast having written it down, gave a kind of clarity to my thoughts. Some strange kind of satisfaction of finding answers to questions that keep arising in mind whenever my mind is at a constant thought process.
Questions in life dont always find the correct answer, actually there is no correct answer to so many questions that our mind comes up with, but still we go on. Even if we make some wrong decisions life just goes on to complete its destined journey. Having conversations with ourselves is as inevitable as Life and Death, but how we deal with it is what makes the big difference. As long as our life exists, our mind tends to continue its work and as long as it does that the conversation in our minds will never cease to exist. Let our conversations with ourselves do something Good for us.
Each new day starts with new desires new dreams and new ambitions. May be it does for everyone or may be it doesnt.
Talking to a friend yesterday a very basic topic sparked the conversation. Everyone wants to be Happy! So very true, Everyone just wants to be HAPPY. Is that so difficult? Is that something so very complicated to attain? I feel its not difficult to achieve Happiness, its just difficult to keep oneself satiated with the feeling of happiness. If i think of my days in New York, I have been staying away from the love of my life for a year now. I dont have close friends here whom i can jus go to and pour out my worries or pains. I dont have family members who can take care of me if i fall sick or am in need of any help. My company doesnt pay me a fortune to lead a luxurious life here. I dont have the BEST working environments and am so surrounded by office politics that i feel vulnerable to breakdown and lose. I am not even so very accustomed to this country that i can jus go places on my own. My brother stays in the same country but i havent been able to visit his place more than once in the last 1 year!! Life in a nutshell hasnt given me the optimum environment to be happy and enjoy a good life here. But still, i cant think of a single day when i had been extremely unhappy or depressed being here! Its jus that one learns to make the best of what is given to him/her. And when you learn that, you spontaneously learn to ask for more from life as well. Once you start enjoying your present circumstances, you think of ways to make it the best possible, to fill it with all the BEST things that you can afford at that stage! It is easy to just always be unhappy and longing for something or the other. But at the same time it is just as easy, to be satiated with whatever we have and enjoy it to the fullest. In our pursuit for making our lives better, for achieving the maximum of everything, We forget to enjoy the BEST of the present. Many will say that if we dont make attempts to make our lives better, others will be ahead of us and we will be left behind. The competition will eat us and not let us be happy! May be thats true as well, as i see people these days their race for being better and ahead of others starts much earlier than even the minute the first ray from the Sun hits the ground. Life is no doubt about the survival of the fittest, but at the same time it is all about being happy and enjoying all that has been bestowed on us.
I once heard it somewhere that the easiest thing to do in life is "To give advice to others". I am no one to give advice to anyone but am hoping that the few who ever get to read my post might know that i went thru quite much of experiences in my life and have learnt some bit about it. Life aint so complicated as we make it or think about it. Life aint about winning everytime cuz everything has its time. Life aint about planning so much about the things which are beyond our control cuz everything falls in place when we let HIM lead it for us. Life is just about living every moment every breath that has been given to us. Life is a blessing and we just have to Live.
Am reading a rather unusual book these days. Its called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I have just started reading it and as much as i have read, it depicts a custom common in China called Foot Binding. While reading itself i feel it sounds so brutal, that i cant imagine what pain is involved in each stage of the custom. Young girls at the age of six are forced to go thru a mandatory custom called foot binding which is a mandatory preparation for a girl to become perfect for her future husband and In-Law's family. It is painful and involves even breaking of the bones of the feet but is believed to give a girl the perfect small feet which is the most desirable trait for a girl to be married to a good family. Each of their foot is bent in such a manner that the toe touches the heel. After the foot is bent in such a painful position it is bound with tight bandages, and then some pointed shoes are forced into their feet in this awkward state and they are made to walk for some specific amount of time in those shoes. Some days into the process the bones in the toes start to break and blood oozes out of the broken areas! Picturing such a sight is beyond disgust. This procedure is believed to give women the perfect small and pointed feet which will raise their status in society and hence give them a good marriage from high society. I dont want to comment on the custom or the book right now but i was just thinking how lucky i am that i am not a chinese. I cannot imagine the pain that those girls will be going thru at such a tender age!
While reading all this i couldnt help but think why girls all over the world have to go thru something or the other to prepare for their future as wives? I was just thinking how scared i was when i was a small girl and i had to get my ears pierced! I couldnt help but smile when i thought about how much of a fuss i made over small things. I have always been scared of piercings...and i remember my parents struggling in those days to put earrings in my earlobes :) I still remember i was so scared that when the jeweller came the first time i cried and made a whole big scene, i was in my grandma's place then and the jeweller had a traditional equipment to do that! I cried so much that even the neighbours started asking what exactly was happening and why was i crying so much...and when they knew that it was just for piercing my ears...they all laughed at me and said you cant cry for such small things! But i was still small i was just 5 or 6 at that time and it was scary for me!! Back then i coudnt have imagined what pain a chinese girl would have gone thru at that age! Anyways finally i did not get my ears pierced that year and my parents used to buy the stick on or button earrings for me! Guess each culture has something to offer to girls as a preparation for their wedding! In india they say that the parents start preparing for a girl's marriage right from the day she is born! Thats a girl's life is it? The day she is born she starts her long journey of preparing herself for her wedding...making herself pleasing to others so that she should not suffer in her husband's family! I cant argue with why all these things happen only to a girl but i do sometiems muse about these customs and their origin.
How much ever you talk about the Women's liberation and equality for women etc etc...nothing changes at its Roots. I can still remember the days when i was just a small girl and my mom used to tell me to learn things cuz i was a girl. Its always so common to see indian mothers telling their daughters learn cooking, learn cleaning, learn to be patient learn to be tolerant etc etc. Ok if these are the qualities of a WIFE why cant the boys be taught everything from their childhood as well? Why dont they learn their responsibilities from their childhood? why is it so that the boys parents allow their boys to get as spoilt as possible and wait for their Daughter-in-Law to come. They expect the daughter-in-Law to come equipped with necessary qualities to correct their spoilt brat!? Why are the sons not taught the skills of treating a lady right, or caring for others or financial stability by saving for the future etc etc from their childhood, so that by the time they get married they are atleast ready to become true HUSBANDS? They being bachelors are allowed to do everything, go every place, eat and drink every spoilt thing but when a girl does the same things they say she wil not get a good groom if she continues to do that!! Why are their no rules or preparations for the groom but only for the bride?? I know many people will say that things like this dont happen in present days, and guys are better than what i am depicting above, but even i have crossed the stage where my parents were looking for alliances for me and i know how safe and pure a girl has to keep herself if she has to get married in a respectable manner to a good guy from a respectable family.
Anyways...reading about the unusual and painful tradition in China, i was just too stirred to remember my childhood days. I still remember how much of a doll i was to my dad, i was almost inseparable from him. To him i was the most precious thing he would thrive for in his life. I can imagine what he would have gone thru when he was giving my hands in another person's hand. All that he and my mom went thru in preparing me for this day was finally coming to happen. And i know soon i will be going thru the same circle of event that they went thru in their lives...thats the Circle of Life!
Strange but true...how many ever changes you challenge to impose on this one circle...the core of it remains same. Life is short and goes in a circle...we just keep shuffling ourselves from one circle to the other...while our life circle remains just the same!
Prologue: The Wedding
Is it possible, I wonder, for a man to truly change? Or do Character and Habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?
I am not gonna ask each and every person i meet to comment on the question that attracted me to the book but i surely do wanna know THE answer to this question. I was talking to one of my friends about these things and he said yes people do change!! He gave me examples about how much he has changed...how much his dad has changed etc etc. Fair enough...may be people change...but i feel what actually changes in a person is just his behaviour and habits...and may be point of view!
Character i feel is a more rigid concept and often cannot be changed! Lemme quote something from what my "Character" is. As i remember myself as and what i know i am...i am the kind of person who has always been more of a people oriented person. More involved in building relationships, making people feel comfortable in my company, having fun and most of all just getting away from any kind of things that can make me tensed. To me what another person thnks about me is kind of a very important thing. Its easy to make me cry as i get hurt easily. But at teh same time its easy to make me laugh also...even small joys can give me alot of happiness. I love to laugh and be completely care free about the major things/issues in life! I have always been the homely kind...decorating home, learning something creative, making artifacts etc etc. I have loved music forever...i always wanted to be able to play some instrument or the other...especially guitar...to sing well...to listen to music whenever i get time.
Well thats a little peep into my Character and may be my hobbies...which are again an extension of my character. Over the years when i have lived far from my family, when i had people around me bitching and backbiting, when i have faced politicts at work place to personal life, when i have seen some really difficult times to some really good and enjoyable times...i guess i have seen and learnt alot. Well everyone learns from experience and so have I. And i know after learning so many things in life...your attitude towards numerous things changes. For ex: when i first started working i used to love my work and respect my managers and use to be happy doing that. I was satisfied with whatever i was doing and never thought that there will be a change to that life...with my manager having a good rapport with me and me enjoying everyday at my work place...i never thought that if a bad time comes no one will think of the good times that we shared...or if i was a good person or not...that i will be dumped out of project cuz of insufficient billing etc etc. I never realised that it was just a job...not a personal thing. As time passed and i worked under different managers and different kind of projects i learnt different realities of work life. And now i have learnt how to handle my work...i know how much priority to be given for what. So i can say...my attitude has changed (Thats still not my character that changed).
Similarly it might happen that i have a point of view about something cuz i am not completely aware of that thing. Some day in my life i learn more about it and that day i realise that what i had been thinking about it all this while was actually wrong. So my point of view changes (Its still not your character that changed).
Similarly say you stay in a place like Adyar, Chennai. Now you have a newspaper mart about 100 feet from your house and you love looking for sales around the city everyday which you get to see in the newspaper. So you started picking the newspaper on the way to office everyday and while you were just interested in looking for sales you kind of started observing the headlines and reading some other news in the paper as well. Finally after a few days it became a habit for you 2 start your day with reading the newspaper on the way commuting to your office everyday. You enjoyed doing that and i guess it became your habit and hobby both. Now you had a change of office or place etc. You dont have any newspaper mart close to the new place of stay. For the first few days you try getting a newspaper cuz you try going out of your way and getting a newspaper. But gradually you stop doing that and find other ways of keeping yourself entertained like may be listening to music on your way commuting to the new office etc. So i guess your hobby/habit changed (Not your character). Now you enjoy listening to music more than reading the newspaper. Not that you will not read a newspaper if you got a chance to do that but right now that is not the priority in your list of things to do for the day.
Similarly your likings and dislikings can change. Say for example that you liked a particular sandwich in your office alot. You liked it because may be it was really good or may be because it was the only breakfast you could have in office thatw as decent enough. Not that there are no better sandwiches in the whole of world. You move to a newer office and start liking another sandwich here...may be cuz it tastes better that the previous one or may be because its the only thing available for you. All i am trying to say is that as per the circumstances your likings might (or might not) change. It might have happened initially that you dont like sandwches at all...you would rather have cornflakes for breakfast...but you couldnt have it then cuz of circumstances you started liking the sandwiches. Its just that your liking to a particular thing is very vulnerable to your surroundings and circumstances. But at most times, not actually your character.
Like for me...if i say my current likings/hobbies are...cooking, knitting, reading (which i never was good at), walking (which always made me tired in the past), Photography (which is one of my newly found passions)...i can very confidently say that most of these things were not my likings before...even if they always existed burried inside my character sometime...while some of your likings are very vulnerable to your surroundings...some others are just too deeply rooted in your inner character to be removed or changed.
The Dictionary defines Character as The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing. It defines Habit as An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Thats exactly what i was trying to accomplish through my contemplation. Character I feel is something so deeply rooted that its hard to change and often does not change while Habit on the other hand is very vulnerable to our environment and circumstances and hence more succeptible to change. To answer the author's question i would say that yes Character and Habit do form immovable boundaries in our lives but not totally immovable while some Habits do change, some are just too deep rooted to our individual character to change.
Of course Change is t he wheeler-dealer who propels the world to its existence and hence even my opinion about Character might change sometime, but as of now these are my thoughts, my conclusion after my contemplation journey.
I started reading a new book today...its by one of my fave authors, Nicholas Sparks. The book is called The Wedding. It is believed to be a sequel to The Notebook which i remember reading atleast 4-5 years back. The first ever book by Nicholas Sparks that i read was A Walk to Remember and trust me that was THE best book i have ever read in my life!! it definitely is the kind of book you just cant put on a shelf and brand as "ONE" of the books that you read. For me it surely takes THE most special place...mostly as a collectible. Collectibe!!?? becuz i dint read any other book as special as this one...i dint find another book which would make me feel so alive with the characters as if i was actually living with them. I dint have to take efforts to imagine the characters the characters just emerged out of the book as i read...its THE best book i have ever read!! I read a couple of Nicholas Sparks after A Walk to Remember...which will include The Notebook, True Believer, The Rescue... and i hav read a couple of other authors too...like Paulo Coelho, Chetan Bhagat, Khaled Hosseini etc etc...but even though i have been moved by some books i still have not been able to find another one like...even close to A Walk to Remember.
Anyways...so this post is not about Nicholas Sparks or about the list of his books or about how much i was moved by the first book that i read of him...its actually about an important question that stirred within me when i started reading this new book! The Prologue of the book starts with a question...its a question that i am sure many of us would have wondered about in the past...many would have found answers and many would still be wondering!! Well i am the latter one...cuz i am still wondering...The question in the Prologue is: Is it possible, I wonder, for a Man to truly change? Or do Character and Habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?
I have never been an avid reader though i always wanted 2 develop my reading habits and if i found something that tugs my interests...then i make sure i read it...and this book of Nicholas Sparks, Even given the fact for the kind of a fan that i have been of Nicholas Sparks books, never could draw my attention. I bought the book a couple of years back in India and started reading it but to be honest, always found it the "Boring" types! I read thru it half way and still couldnt really understand the depth of the story or find any interest in the characters...but now when i am married and am exposed to the intricacies of a married life...the same book now seemed interesting enough that i had to write a blog about it even before i could finish reading it! I dont know how exactly the book would turn out to be...but right now i can relate to the subjects more closely...being married came with some deeper understandings of the Life issues i must say.. :) And may be thats why i am atleast interested enough to give another shot to reading the book!! The first line of the book's prologue stirred something within me and no matter how or what the story would turn out to be...i know this books already important for me!!
I might go on contemplating my thoughts about what it stirred inside of me...and read thru the book to know how it turns out to be...lets wait and keep reading till then.. :)
17th February '2010...Lent starts today and for me Lent is something that has always carried more value in my spiritual life than Christmas or any other Christian festival. I have observed lent since i was a child i guess, may be when i did not even know the real meaning of Lent. I would thank my parents for having infused so much importance for such religious beliefs. Since last 6 years, I have observed lent as a more serious aspect for enhancing my spirituality, my closeness to the Almighty.
This year is my first lent in US and i am not very excited about it. I am in the US and that means i would be breaking the lent without family. That is something that doesnt really make me very excited as i believe partaking with family makes it more spiritual and complete. But i guess experiencing difficult situations is also a route to being close to GOD. Being in a country like US, i was not expecting to see much religiousness around me. But i was surprised to see people talking about Ash Wednesday, about going to church, about Lent. When i first landed in US, i did get a culture shock! But since my brother has been staying here for about 7 years now and i keep hearing stories about different things here, i was still doing ok after the culture shock. I had been to a couple of American churches here and after seeing the spiritual life here, i could clearly say how different it is from India. After meeting so many people who by birth are christians but by practice are atheist, I was not expecting people to be giving any kind of importance to observing Lent or anything related to Lent. But by the end of the day i did happen to see a few people having ash on their foreheads, and a few people talking about going to church for the evening service, meeting up for the ash wednesday mass etc etc. Its sad to see that after how much this country has been blessed by GOD in terms of so many wonderful things, people have become so comfortably unbothered of their creator. But at the start of the holy lenting days, i am happy to see that there still are a few of them who do respect HIM.
I am just hoping that this lent moulds me to become more of a person that GOD wants me to be and i get closer to fulfill HIS purpose for me, cuz without HIM i am nothing but Ash.
Wishing everyone a very happy Valentine's Day...ya i know am a day late in wishing...but i jus hope all had a good one...a really memorable one.. :)
No i am not really gonna share my Valentine's Day secrets with you...cuz being away from my sweet hubby doesnt really make any celebration worthwhile for me...but that doesnt mean i am gonna let go of this greatest celebration of Love pass by without even writing or talking about it... :)
I am so sure so many of us would have mused about the existence of a whole day to celebrate Love... and many of us would have actually delved into google and wiki to know the history of Valentines...where and how did anyone ever start to celebrate such a thing. Even i did my research aboout it and while i read thru different links on google and wiki...all i could end up with is...its just a Day for celebrating LOVE!! The greatest emotion of all... :)
I guess there are more tales about the origin of Valentines or Valentines day that there are arrows in cupid's quiver.. :) One Legend talks about a Saint named Valentine who used to perform secret marriages when the Roman Emperor Claudius II had established a rule that soldiers should remain single during their service tenure...Many more legends talk about some Saint or Priest who was executed or martyred on Feb 14th...some talk about Feb 14th as a starting date when birds come to find their mates...while others state that Valentine was a Christian who was imprisoned for his faith and while he was in sentence he fell in love with the jailors daughter...was execuuted on Feb 14th 269 A.D...and before he was executed had sent a letter to the jailor's daughter stating "From your Valentine"
The first Valentine Card is believed to have been sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his Wife in 1415, when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. Its still on display at the British museum...By 1450 Valentine was the name of one's Sweetheart...By 1530 it was a folded piece of paper...In 1610 "Valentines" were gifts given to sweethearts...In the 1800's it again meant messages exchanged by couples...With so many definitions and legends for "Valentines", the next time someone asks you to be their Valentine...you might want to be sure they dont want you to be their martyr.. :)
But for sentimentals in love...even becoming a martyr for their love...just means an expression of Love...no wonder so many people were slayed/executed/burried/martyred for their Love...be it the love for their faith or for their sweetheart...We are blessed to have been born in an era where we do not have to often give up our lives to express our love...there are far more impoverished and interesting ways of doing it.. :)
When you read about Valentines day celebrations throughout the world...you can very well qoute different ways in which people around the world commemorate this great celebration of love...in some countries the lovers gift each other flowers...while in some countries they send out cakes made out of chocolate...while some countries they send out heart and cupid shaped gifts and confectionaries...while in some countries like korea...the guy gifts chocolates to their sweethearts while the girl in return gifts non chocolate candies to the man...the whole world has different ways of celebrating this great commemoration of love...but the bottomline still remains the same...celebrate LOVE...
Sadly when we read about Valentine's day celebrations in the past few years in countries like India, Pakistan etc...we can only qoute of different religious groups opposing this celebration by giving hollow reasons like its a way of contamintaing their divine culture...or spreading Christianity in a non christian dominant nation...or even things like its an unnecessary attempt of westerners to impose their culture on us etc etc...when the whole world is uniting in one simple celebration of Love...some protectors of religion/culture cant protect/support celebration of the greatest emotion in all religions...LOVE...thats irony!!!
Just hoping that this Valentine's no one has to take the martyr way to prove/express their love...cuz atleast in my view...dying to express how much u love a person is just not the done thing...one can just express their stupidity by doing so...cuz if u really love a person u will want 2 LIVE for them...to show them how beautiful their life can be with all the love u give them... :)
