Kashmir - becoming a neverland for Indians


Kashmir is known as a god's state of India. Some parts of Kashmir is disputed, claimed by India and Pakistan and some by china. Kashmir forms the head of India, if you see the map of India. But I am surprised to see the recent maps of India sold outside india. I couldn't find Kashmir as a part of India on the globe !!

It was a strange incident this year that some BJP activists were not allowed to hoist the Indian flag in Srinagar's Lal chowk. The state has been trying to get back to normalcy since few decades. But it seems that Kashmiri residents have to undergo lot of things yet. Our national flag depicts what our revolutionary leaders have done for our country. It is a symbol of their scarifies and self less life. Srinagar which is still part of India had to face this unseen situation. The reasons that were given for not letting the BJP activists to hoist the flag were ridiculous. Home minister P. Chidambram requested the activists not to escalate tension in the city. While chief minister Omar Abdullah feels that the state is trying to get back to normalcy since long time and this incident could add more tension and violence. While Lal chowk was the place where our first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had promised kashmiri citizens that they would have the right to vote and form the government. This incident has certainly created vibes in India. Not to be biased but any issue created by BJP or RSS becomes a questionable event.

When our government is stopping we Indians to hoist our flag on our land, then how can they allow a pakistani flag to be hoisted in Lal chowk. It is very disturbing to know that chief minister Omar Abdullah was giving contradictory statements. He mentions that Kashmir wants to return back to normalcy and thinks that if India's flag is hoisted there than it creates tension. But how can he allow activists to organize a meeting and also to hoist pakistani flags around Lal chowk ?? Double standards !! Also, was it an encouraging gesture from Chidambaram to give a nod to chief minister's decision? These questions will arise in anyone's mind.

A meeting was hosted by Kashmiri separatist leader and chairman of Hurriyat conference Syed Ali Geelani, called 'Azadi - Freedom the only way'. In this meeting inflammatory anti Indian speeches were being given, what was our honorable home minister doing on that day? Probably gone out of India for vacation, ehh !! He didn't take any measures to prevent this meeting to happen. BJP slammed the central govt for allowing the conference in New Delhi.

These are the double standards of our government officials and the chief minister of Kashmir. This incident has left all the Indians stunned. This political drama unearths their real faces. What about the national security and integrity which should be the main concern for the government?? You keep sensitive issues pending for years and let the outsiders to crash in !!

Apart from political issue, this incident is also subject to the matter of self respect for the nation. I have never seen any country preventing their people to hoist its own national flag. This incident is a real sham for the government and we all condemn on it.


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Love by chance !

Rima was a successful interior decorator. She was smart and intelligent. Her clients were always happy with her work. She had a great passion for this career and she always saw herself in this profession since her childhood. But in this rat race where she managed to keep the market demand high she forgot that she was getting old. Her 28th birthday was approaching and she forgot about it until her friends planned a surprise birthday for her.

She blew the candles and turned to her friends. Her friend asked her what was her wish. Rima replied "Well, if you girls won't judge me then i can tell my wish. I want to celebrate this valentine's day with my would be husband." Her friends were shocked. There was just one month left for the V'day to arrive and they were worried as they didn't wanted Rima to end up with a wrong guy. Suddenly, Rima looked very desperate to them.

She made attempts to find a guy by looking up in the dating sites. But she didn't find her Mr. Perfect in the online sites. She went for dinner in the evening with her close friend who was married now.

Rima - "Sheela, I want you to understand how much important it is for me to get married now. I turned 28 last week and look at me even though i have a successful career I have no one in my life."

Sheela - "Yes dear, but don't worry. Don't take hasty decisions. Look at me, I married a person of my parent's choice. I am very happy. right dear?" She asked her husband Amit.

Amit - "Yeah Rima. Look at you, you are so beautiful and stunning. I am sure a girl like you shouldn't worry much. Nowadays, no body cares when you get married. Moreover, 28yrs onwards would be the right time to get serious and marry someone."

Sheela was bit surprised by Amit's reaction but she just maintained a constant smile towards Rima.

Amit - "Infact I have a good news for you. I know a guy in my office who seriously wants to date a girl for marriage. If you are interested then you both can meet and see if it clicks."
Sheela - " Who is he? Is he Harsh?"
Amit replied "Yes, Harsh. Remember Sheela he got the best employee award and he is in fact the only son in his family. His family is well respected too. If you guys are okay then the families can meet and decide further."

Rima was elated to hear this.
Rima - "Yes, yes why not. I am open to meet Harsh. His name sounds exciting. Harsh means happy or happiness. I hope he fills my life with happiness" she was blushing so much. Sheela and Amit saw her excitement and told her that they will call Harsh talk to him and let her know when he could meet her.

Two days passed and Rima didn't get any call from the couple. She tried to reach Sheela and her husband and left voice message on their phone. She called Amit at his workplace and left a message with his secretary. Rima was getting paranoid as the days were passing by. She opened an account in Shaadi.com and started looking for suitable grooms. She tried to talk to couple of them online and found that they had just created the ids for fun and were not really into marriage. She was so furious, she took her phone and called shaadi.com helpline and reported about those fake ids. She was at Barista coffee shop with her single friends and they were just discussing about her progress regarding the "Groom search" when she got a call from Amit.

Amit - "Hey Rima, Amit here."
Rima - " Amit... huhh. you guys respond back to someone after 3 days ! In this way you guys will make me wait forever to meet Harsh. You guys should understand the gravity of my situation." She kept on ranting some or other things to him on the phone and suddenly she realized it was just too much!

Amit - "Hey dear, I know we really should have called you back. I am sorry we had to suddenly go to my mother's place. She was sick and there were some family issues which I had to take care of. My phone was switched off but I got the message from my secretary."

Rima - "Oh i am so sorry to hear that. I apologize for leaving wierd voice messages."
Amit - "No problem. I will arrange tomorrow's dinner for you at clubzone near the market place. Is that okay?"
Rima - "Yes ofcourse, I am eager to meet Harsh."

"I need to go to a beauty parlor immediately. I need to get a new haircut and get my facial done" She told to her friends. Later next day evening she wore a nice red dress and was excited and nervous. She prepared a speech of what she would talk to Harsh. She didn't wanted him to give an impression that she is desperate.

She entered clubzone and waiter asked her to have a seat. She selected a nice place that had a garden view. She saw Amit coming towards her.
Rima - "Hey Amit, is everything all right? Where is Harsh?" she had a spark in her eyes.
Amit - "Wow.. this is what I love about you. You are so beautiful. You eyes are the best in this world."
Rima - "Amit, what are you talking about? You are my best friend's husband."
Amit - "Well.. things are not working out between me and Sheela. You are the kind of person I want to be with" He tried to pull Rima's hand.
Rima - "Amit shut up... I can't date a married man! please understand I am very serious about getting married. I don't want to ride on a used car ........." She started running away from Clubzone and suddenly she ran on the road and there was a taxi passing by which had to apply harsh brakes. She feel down on the road and suddenly the driver came out and the passenger looked worried.

Taxi driver - "What mam.. why were you running out of a club like this.. are you participating in a marathon.. you could have been killed by a taxi.." He was annoyed. The passenger calmed him down and went towards Rima.
Passenger - "Hey are you okay miss. I am a doctor please get into the cab. My clinic is near by. I will apply some ointments to your arm"

Later after few days on Valentine's day...
Rima - "Hiii doc, do you know that today is the day when i will be stealing your heart."
Doctor smiled when he saw Rima with flowers and balloons and she dramatically was on her knees and she said
"I Rima... with all faith and consciousness is asking you Dr. Vikram.. will you marry me?"

Was it love by accident?? Or Love by chance?? What ever it is Rima kept her promise and she was in love by the V'day ! Just in time...

Just a call away !

Some incidents happen in our life which we cannot forget. Some memorable moments where we feel like we are reborn but do not have a valid explanation. What can we say about such moments? Are they illusion of our mind or has it really happened? I have to take you over to my childhood days when this incident actually happened.

It was summer vacation in my school and as usual I was persistently requesting my parents to take me to a new place. They were kind enough to fulfill my request and they booked our tickets to Puri, Orissa. We were going to spend one week of time in Orissa to visit various places and the beach ! I was 8yrs old but I still remember that day. We had visited the famous Lord Jagganath temple in Puri. This place is famous for its annual rath yatra in which the three main temple deities are hauled on decorated chariots. After visiting the temple and praying to lord jagannatha we decided to go to the beach for sometime and spend the evening.

It was a very wonderful day with lots of sunshine, birds were chirping and the cool breeze near the ocean was very pleasant. The whole atmosphere near the Puri beach was alluring. This is one of the best beach destination in the eastern coastline of India. I decided to make a palace with the mud near the shores and I got busy with that activity. My father decided to take a holy dip in the ocean and then swim amidst the ocean waves.

By the end of the evening, it started getting dark and the ocean waves were raging. We could absolutely hear the roaring sound of the waves even if you are near the shores. By this time me and My mom were tired with building my mud palace. We started looking for my Dad but we couldn't see him anywhere. My mom started panicking and she started screaming for my dad. I was a child and when I saw my mom in this situation I started crying very badly. It was difficult for my mom to manage me and handle the situation. At a distance inside the ocean we saw him waving his hands to us. He didn't realize much but he went bit deep inside the ocean where the waves had actually start forming. Those waves were full of rage and my father was getting pushed back by the waves. He made his best attempts of swimming but he couldn't succeed in front of these waves. Meanwhile me and my mom were screaming at the top of our lungs. My mom requested nearby people to go and help him to come out. But those people didn't know swimming either. Moreover, it was getting dark so people were going back to their hotels.

After around twenty minutes of trying my father almost lost his hope of coming back and he was actually getting drowned slowly in the ocean water. At this moment me and my mom didn't know what to do and we started praying to Lord Jagannatha. We left all our hopes to him and started chanting the divine songs and shlokas. My mom started requesting to the lord "Hey Lord, we came here with lot of hopes and getting blessed from you. Please save my husband. We don't know whom to approach at this peek time. Please dear Lord, if at all our prayers are reaching you, then save my husband !". Even my father who was struggling to come out of the ocean started to pray to the Lord and for a min he didn't do much efforts to come out of the ocean as he thought that he won't be able to reach the shore now. Of course his prayers were different than ours. He prayed for our well being after his departure. We both closed our eyes and were praying to the sun and to the Lord. But my father who was still the water experienced a sudden jerk to his body. It was kind of like a little push that encouraged him to fight back with the waves. He was suddenly pulled towards the shores by wind or by his own efforts, it was not clear. But in few moments the waves themselves starting pushing my father towards the shores and the whole story was different now.

Was it by chance? Was it fate? Or was it the dear Lord himself? All we could say is that finding God is never so easier. But we realized that when we actually experience the presence of God, our lives become perfect. We all hugged each other and I couldn't stop crying. When we opened our eyes we didn't find God, but we knew that he was there standing with us near the ocean - Smiling and saying "Whenever you need me, I am just a call away !"


Image courtesy - Makemytrip

Shot # 3 - Fabulous Las Vegas

View from Bellagio water fountain



Eiffel tower in Vegas

Shot # 2 - Zion moutains and water fall


Beautiful mountains of Zion national park, Utah (united states)

Keys to a successful relationship

I am not a professional or an experienced person on this. But after completing one year of my marriage I can surely share some of the tips to you all on balancing a relationship. Successful relationships tend to be like a see-saw they go up and down and it takes efforts from both of them to keep it balanced.

Here are some simple things to know to make your relationship work.

1. Spend quality time together else the relationship won't survive. It is often seen that in a marriage, couple tends to spend more time together initially. Later on, they get occupied with the housework, kids, managing finances etc. This might lead to a disaster. Carve out at least half an hour where you spend time exclusively together.

2. Learn to compromise. It is very obvious that when two individuals start staying together then there would be some differences. It could be on a small things or big things. One should learn to compromise on few things that are extremely important for the other. But here is a thing, no one should feel that he/she is the only person compromising.

3. Keeping dependency and in-dependency. This point is true specially for females. They either tend to be very dependent on their partners or very independent. Either way is not good. Try to show your partner how much you need him, but don't cling to him and make him feel that you don't have self confidence.

4. Understand that punishing your partner doesn't work. It might help you in feeling better or superior but it will make them dig their heels more and they will wait for an opportunity to pounce back on you. Best thing is to ignore things which you don't like.

5. Divide your domestic work. If you don't then it causes friction between the two partners. Make a list of the domestic tasks and mobilize your family.

6. Observe keenly. It takes a long time and efforts from both the side to keep the relationship smooth. If you see your partner tired or argumentative then think about what he or she might be undergoing.

7. Hidden sentiments and feelings poison a relationship. Express your problem to your partner and make sure he is attentive towards it. If you hide your feelings and expect him to behave in a particular way then it becomes difficult.

8. Learn to put your words in front of him. It is generally observed in Indian women that they don't speak up instantly in front of their partner. They take their words in their heart and which might create a bigger impact to the relationship.

Hope these are useful to you !

Invisible


Everyone wants to be in the center of attraction usually among their friends, family or colleagues. Mostly because they are happy about something or they want to share something. I sometimes wonder at times i used to hide myself from the people. I never wanted people to notice me or think about my existence. This feeling of being 'invisible' dominates people when they get hurt in a relationship. Broken hearts and the pain they feel might be invisible to others but if you undergo that pain you will realize how much painful it is.
After being together for 2 years romance seemed to be ceasing out of Julie's life. She was very happy with Rajesh but things didn't work out as she thought. After trusting him far long, he ditched her saying that his parents are unhappy with this relationship. The truth was he wanted a change. Rajesh was a kind of a guy who wanted to fall in love just to experience the feeling of love and he was coward enough to take the hard rocky paths and fulfill the desire of his partner.

Meanwhile, Julie had a hard time convincing herself and Rajesh that this relationship would work. She needed a chance to talk to Rajesh's parents and set this problem. But poor Julie was unaware of Rajesh's evil intentions and she thought he was backing off to give respect to his parent's feelings. One night she called him and had a conversation about their relationship.

Julie: Rajesh, where do you think this relationship is going?
Rajesh: Julie, I have told you to move on and I can't do much as my parents are sentimental about it.
Julie: But i will prove to them that I can be a best daughter in law.
Rajesh: I am sure Julie you are the best. But believe me they are not in a mood to listen to your name.

Julie: Can I talk to them ? Just once. I promise i will try not to beg or cry in front of them and respect their opinion about you.
Rajesh: Why do you want to give them more pain? They are from a small village and they can't survive if people are talking bad about me, marrying some girl from a different caste.
Julie: Rajesh, you could have not proposed to me if you already knew they were not going to approve it. Don't u want to fulfill your promise of living together... whatever happens you were going to make it right.
Rajesh: I tried my best Julie.. who would want to loose a girl like you.. but i have some responsibilities towards my parents and I am their only son. I am sure you will find a guy who can take care of you much better than me..

Julie started crying again and she couldn't sleep the rest of the night.. successively for 2 days and nights her mood was low and she was being suicidal. Rakesh had adviced her to forget about him and not talk to him for some days if that would heal anything. Julie couldn't control her emotions and she decided to write an email to him and later commit suicide.

I am not supposed to love you,
I am not supposed to care,
I am not supposed to live my life
wishing you were there.....

I need to hide 'me' from myself,
So that you find someone for yourself,
In short you want me to be the invisible girl,
Who once filled your life with lot of love...

I am finding a place to rest in peace,
And to hide from everyone in this world,
I was not supposed to contact you again,
All i wanted to say is I love you so much !!!

Rajesh was in a deep shock after he read this.. He couldn't believe that she was so much involved with him. By the time he wanted to call her, his father came to his room and read Julie's email. He felt very bad due to Rajesh's behavior. He demanded an explanation. He said he was really sorry for what happened but he expected Julie to move on. His father asked him to go immediately and get Julie to his place.

Rajesh hurriedly went to Julie's place and found her unconsciously lying on the floor. She had taken sleeping medicines just 10mins before he arrived. He called the ambulance and hurriedly took her to the hospital. She was rescued by the surgeons somehow but this whole incident had opened his eyes. First thing after she woke up he apologized deeply and told her he would never do anything to hurt her again! Rajesh's parents came to the hospital and met Julie. They really liked her alot !

Prompt - "invisible" by sunday scribblings
Note:- This story is fictional

Time - 6th element

Eight out of ten people always complain "Oh, I didn't get time" or "I am short of time" and they run in the 11th hour to finish their task. This is so common among everyone. We feel even 24hrs are not enough in a day to finish all the tasks we want to. Ever wondered why does that happen to us! Why do we pray to god or wish secretly that we had the control over time and we could have stopped the clock or fast forwarded our life.

Lets see some funny situations. During school days as a kid I always used to play after coming home and then after having food I used to go to bed. Next day morning I used to remember about my homework and then I used to tell my mom "Mom, I didn't get enough time to complete my work. Could you pls do it for me?". These things repeated and after that my mom gave me a lecture for how to utilize my time to do both homework and other activities. Sadly, after that I was not allowed to use this excuse to not to do homework.

After getting admission in engineering college, first thing I was concerned about is time management. It is very much required in order to cope up with every day tasks and in the competitive environment. It is essentially the 6th element in our life after water, air, fire, earth & spirit.

These are some steps with which we can achieve time management skills:

Prioritize your work - When you have lot of assignments and tasks to do, then prioritize your work and allocate time accordingly. Start with something which is very difficult since you are fresh and you can dedicate more attention in that task.

Postpone unnecessary activities - Postpone unnecessary activities until you are done with your tasks. These activities might divert you from your work sometimes. This can be challenging as it might be one of your favorite pastime like watching TV serial. These activities will be more fun when we dont' have any tension in our mind due to exam, assignment etc.

Identify your resources - No one is perfect in this world and we might need help of a friend or a guide once in a while in problem solving. Just figure out the right resources and approach them in time.

Use your free time - Most of the time we are free and we don't do anything constructive in that free time. This is evil. We should plan ahead if something is going to come up and work on that instead of running at the last moment. This is applicable in academic side as well as in our personal life. Most of the time we kill our free time by sleeping unnecessarily or by watching movies. Use internet only when you need it. If you are just doing timepass than it can be evil. We can do some weird stuff like talking to strangers on the internet or surfing wrong websites. So, stay away from the stuff like this.

Developing time management skills is a journey and it requires lot of patience and commitment to work.

Image courtesy
This post is written for Thursday Tales

Plight of temple priests in India

We all know that India is land of gods and we are blessed to have many amazing temples around the country. Temples in south like Tirupati, Annavaram temple, Rameshwaram; in west like dwarika temple, somnath temple; in north Varanasi, Ram temple etc; Kolkata Kali temple, Sun Temple, Jagannath puri temple in Orissa are some which are always flocked by tourists and worshippers. These are just famous ones which are in my mind. There are innumerable temples in each metro city and at least 5 in each towns and villages.

After getting a clear picture now lets talk about the temple priests and their situation. Some temples like Akshardham temple don't depend on any funds from the government to pay monthly salary to the temple priests but many temples are controlled by state or central government who pay minimum wages to the priests. Inflation is rising so much in India and things are becoming expensive yet they think its okay to pay only Rs-3,000 to the priest. It is world known fact that India is dealing with the problem of corruption in its system. If you follow Indian politics and news, you will always hear about some sort of scam which involves crores of rupees. The government says that it needs funds for military, sports, communication etc and hence there is very less portion of the fund left for the temples. They have in their records that they have spent some crores of rupees in temple repairs and renovations but it is applicable to just few temples

When the government has resorted to getting corrupted in other fields then why not the temple authorities. You will find nowadays that if you want to visit whole temple or you want to see the lord properly in the tirupati temple you might have to pay for doing this. Nothing comes so easy now! There are many people who have faced this situation where you won't get prasadam or teerth if you don't pay money to the priest. I have seen the worst in Lingaraj temple, bhubaneshwar where we ended up giving Rs100 to 4 different priests for various reasons. This was the case in 2002 btw. I can't imagine what would be happening now in those places.

It is said that priests shouldn't expect anything in return. They should offer their prayer to god and worship for the well being for everyone. But they are human beings too. They too deserve to get paid. Government has been ignoring this issue and has kept its eyes shut. As a result, common devotee who goes to visit god ends up paying huge amounts sometime. Dakshina is not mandatory for everyone.

But what do you think guys, is this behavior from the temple authorities and priests acceptable ?


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