Children

What do children mean? For me children mean:

C- Cute

H - Honest

I – Intelligent & Innocent

L - Loveable

D - Dearly

R - Rational

E – Enthusiastic & Full of energy

N - Naughty

Children are the ones who teach us how to enjoy every bit of life. If you have ever taken a look at kids, you might have seen them playing with pieces of paper and many things which are of no use to adults but they are so happy about it. We adults are so greedy that we are not satisfied with what we have instead we are always thinking how to get more and more, and while doing this, we forget that we have enough to be happy about.

Children are the ones who over and over again teach us to be honest. Whenever they do something wrong they are the ones to come and tell us about it though they are also afraid about the consequences. But we adults are more worried about the consequences and never want to tell the truth or be honest and rather we end up lying and face worse.

Children are so full of energy from the start of the day till the end and very enthusiastic about everything that is going to come their way, we adults have lost the enthusiasm in our life which in turn has made us a routine nine to five person and thus resulting in no interest for any kind of innovation in everyday life.

Children are so rational about their thoughts what I mean to say is not about their structure of thoughts but it is how balanced they are in their mind as what they want and how to go about it. But we are the ones who though knowing what we want cannot figure out right path towards them. We are always waiting for a bulb to glow over our head without any hard work towards it and be enlightened about the right path leading to our wants.

Children are so cute and dearly – that is not about their physical appearance but their innocence and intelligence that drive people to love them more and they become dearly to everyone who come across them. But for us adults now- a- days it is just become the physical appearance that matters. We have forgotten how to appreciate people based on their thoughts, creativity etc rather we start criticizing others just by their physical appearance and attire.

Children are full of life and they teach us the true meaning of life which is to be happy with what we have and try to appreciate what we have got on our own than being happy about things that we might have got stamping others happiness somewhere or the other. For us happiness has taken a new meaning which is Pleasure – pleasure for materialistic things, things that will not sustain forever, and things which have no life and give happiness only to certain period of time. Though knowing this truth we tend to forget about all of it and are back in the race which never ends and we do not know that are we ever going to win and will it be worth all that we sacrifice for it?

Many of us are still child at heart but our mind has grown big (adult) and we tend to kill the child in us just to think that we are making others happy which actually is not true. We instead are hurting many others and ourselves also in doing so.

So please be what you are which will actually give you happiness and satisfaction rather than being someone/something the world wants you to be and lose all that sweet little opportunities and time that is coming your way which will give you true happiness.

I got inspired by my son to write this article which I thought would inspire others also to see and find happiness in anything and everything possible which are near and around us.

Luv Sadhana

I am my own Grand pa

Look at this lyrics. I know many of you would have read this many times. but it makes me laugh whenever I read it. So here it goes...

I'm My Own Grandpa

( Lonzo & Oscar )

It sounds funny, I know,

But it really is so,

Oh, I'm my own grandpa.

I'm my own grandpa.

I'm my own grandpa.

It sounds funny, I know,

But it really is so,

Oh, I'm my own grandpa.

Now many, many years ago, when I was twenty-three,

I was married to a widow who was pretty as could be.

This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red.

My father fell in love with her, and soon they, too, were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life,

My daughter was my mother, cause she was my father's wife.

To complicate the matter, even though it brought me joy,

I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad,

And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad.

For if he was my uncle, then that also made him brother

Of the widow's grown-up daughter, who, of course, was my stepmother.

Father's wife then had a son who kept him on the run,

And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son.

My wife is now my mother's mother, and it makes me blue,

Because, although she is my wife, she's my grandmother, too.

Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I'm her grandchild,

And everytime I think of it, it nearly drives me wild,

For now I have become the strangest case you ever saw

As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa!

I'm my own grandpa.

I'm my own grandpa.

It sounds funny, I know, but it really is so,

Oh, I'm my own grandpa.

Luv Sadhana.

Smoking

Smoking is something I was always fascinated about from school days and would always wonder how it feels when one smokes and would get more excited to know about it whenever I would see people smoking in different styles. And then came the day when I was finally in engineering college which was very far off from the main city and no fear of being watched by parents or for that matter anyone who knows you and your parents.

This was during first year when we had passed the phase from being and bullied by seniors and now, we were confident enough of choosing what is right or wrong for us. I had very good friends who were mostly on the ‘non padhaku’ sort and went to a nearby dhaba a few 100mts from college and everybody was in their full spirit and enjoying to the core. Everybody smoking and drinking and there boom gets me back to my wildest fantasy to smoke and one of my friend lends me a cigarette after many requests to just try it out once.

I didn’t know how to smoke but even then took the first drag and started coughing loud and my eyes turned red and making me pukish. Apart from all of this, I go for another drag and same thing happens. All of them are looking at me and start scolding the guy who offered me the cigarette but me, the stubborn queen was bent on learning it and I had to request all of them to teach me the right way to smoke then one by one every one teaches me the different ways of hodling it and taking a drag. Initially slowly, feel the smoke in my mouth and then blow it out slowly and I being a good student of theirs followed the orders and did it and that was one moment where I realized and could justify my crave to smoke. This was the day which I vaguely remember was somewhere a day before my first birthday in Engineering college because this is the birthday gift I had asked for to teach me how to smoke and I would not want anything else.

This is the day when I became a true collegiate as my friend say because you would try anything you like just to get a feel and hang of freedom. But I never misused the freedom given by my parents for wrong causes and get away with it. What I believe in is when there is a crave in you to try out something new go for it rather than just have the crave for it and do nothing to satisfy it which results in a kind of mental depression in some way or the other. So from this day onwards I picked up smoking and would smoke only if I felt like and not because anyone else asked me to or so. It was solely my choice. I was a smoker until the last year where I was caught up in making projects for eighth semester and had to run to HAL for the project. The last day when I smoked during Engg was the last exam of sixth semester and then somehow quit after that.

After all of this I passed Engg with a distinction, started working for a company called Standard chartered Finance Limited as a sales executive and then got married in the month of may 2005 which kind of ended the relationship between me and smoking until I joined an eLearning company called Edutech after three years of marriage is when I met my "true friend" again – the cigarette. I started smoking in March 2008 and have been smoking then on. There are many times when brilliant ideas click your head when you are grabbing a smoke. Smoking acts as a very good stress buster for me and relieves me from unwanted tension and allows me to focus on things I should really concentrate on.

So, my message is KEEP SMOKING and feel the fun and excitement with each drag.

Hotel California lyrics

I heard this song yesterday and loved the lyrics. I know most of you would know this byheart but then..still here is the lyrics of the song Hotel California (On a dark desert highway)

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
�this could be heaven or this could be hell�
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here

Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain,
�please bring me my wine�
He said, �we haven�t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine�
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin� it up at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said �we are all just prisoners here, of our own device�
And in the master�s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can�t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
�relax,� said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

Note: this lyrics was taken from the link : http://www.lyrics007.com/Eagles%20Lyrics/Hotel%20California%20Lyrics.html

Luv Sadhana.

Truth of Life

We all want to know what the truth of life means. When I think of this I think of a Lata Mangeshkar’s song ‘Tujhse naraz nahi zindagi….’ which essentially means - Life I am not upset from you but confused because of the various innocent questions that you put across. Truth of life is a very big and kind of a vague question that we are trying to find the answer for.

As the advaithan principle says the truth of life is to find essential identity between Brahman and atman where Brahman means the source of everything and atman means the self and the quest of life would be find a relationship between both. This reminds me a story where an emperor sent his scholars the most knowledgeable people to find the answer to the truth of life. The scholars went in all different direction and came back after centuries and told him that the answer is. For today even I wonder what does that mean. It means the answer to the truth of life is 42 but we have to realize for ourselves what 42 means which will truly give us the answer for this question.

All this means it is for us to realize what “the truth of life” is for us. People may come and tell you, you might now but realization is what will give you satisfactory meaning to it. For me the real truth is to find happiness within me and spread it if possible worldwide. Happiness which comes from within, which gives you the ultimate satisfaction, and, realization of your importance as a being.

My friend always says the truth of life is to do what you are doing because that is what you are here for which is Karma and while doing that if you have questions as in why you are doing that in your mind then it is Maya. So the truth is that you are just stuck between Karma and Maya so just do whatever is that you are doing as a part of your karma and don’t worry about the consequences or result. This is what Krishna said in the Bhagvad gita “karm karte jao phal ki chinta mat karo”. So just follow the karmic principle and be happy and feel happy with what you are doing and this is what the truth of life is. Doing this you will see that everything you are doing has a cause and effect and some person doing something somewhere will have an effect on you.

For example the terrorist attack that we had recently in Mumbai which cost many lives and have left a certain amount of fear in the rest who live. But if we were to sit and think about what and why things went the way it did all it would give us is pain – a negative energy and we would be spreading more and more if we continue to think about it. So let go of it and accept it as Karma and then you will see that all this is not affecting you in a negative way but brings in a positive vibe of being able to do what you are suppose to do and this would help you in spreading more and more positive energy in and around you and this is the truth of your life.

So feel good and spread more and more positive energy around you. Be happy and spread happiness around.

Sankranthi for me

Sankranthi is a festival that signifies the beginning of the harvest season for the farmers of Indian Sub-Continent. This is a harvest festival celebrated not only all over India but other South East Asian Countries as well (technical definition).

Sankranthi is called Makara Sankranthi in North India where Samkramana means to ‘commence movement’. Sankranthi is the Sanskrit word for transition. It is about the transition of sun into Capricorn on its celestial path. Sankranthi is celebrated in Mid January where the harvest seasons starts. Since most of the people in North India are farmers it is very important for them. Because this is the time of the year when harvesting starts.

On this occasion sugarcane, rice, sesame seeds and jaggery play an important role. Sugarcane is one of the most important and auspicious fruit that is offered to the gods. The days start with praying god to keep the season uniform throughout which would help in good harvest. On this day the brothers gives their married sisters gifts as the way to represent their love towards them.

Many varieties of sweets are prepared and distributed to everyone. Especially sesame seeds mixed with small chunks of sugar is distributed to everyone that come to your house and you know of, which would not be received by anyone otherwise because the people in North are very superstitious about it.

This day food is offered to the higher caste of Brahmans as a token to get their blessing. Mostly everybody is dressed in yellow which is considered to be an auspicious color and represents happiness. This day a big bunch of sugarcane tress are tied together to look like a tent and worshipped. This day mostly grains are a big part of alms that you offer to the poor. Many places in north India Khichdi is considered to be a very important dish along with many other dishes around. Khichdi is prepared by steaming rice and urad dal mixed with turmeric, salt, asafetida and water on a slow flame especially on the chulha (a clay representation of gas on which food is cooked by burning wood, hay etc).

On this day Goddess Saraswathi – the goddess of knowledge is also prayed to because she is the one who took part in absorbing the teaching of Gita in mind and was able to teach everybody and reached a highest level of purity and thus she represents knowledge, peace and purity. Mostly all the festivals in India are related to each other someway or the other and all the festivals includes preparation and distribution of sweets. This represents that since we are happy and feeling sweetness in life we want everybody around us to experience the same and the best way to do so is by distributing sweets. By eating the taste buds in the mouth feel good and somewhere even our brain starts relating to it and starts feeling the sweetness and happiness around.

Makara Sankranthi also represents two cycles of representing life one which is the first half representing the Rama Rajya, the heaven paradise and the other half representing Ravan Rajya the hell paradise. The First half of our life representing the Rama Rajya are the days of childhood and the other half is the adult hood full of struggle, misery, pain and everybody in vain. This is the significance of Makara Sankranthi in my life.

My favorite game

J – Jumbled up

I – Inverted

G – Great

S – Scattered

A – Awesome

W – Wonderful puzzles

Jigsaw puzzle is a game where a whole picture of anything are broken into small pieces and scattered around. All you need to do to complete is fix the right piece in the right place and right order. Jigsaw puzzles in different shape, sizes and colors and they are very interesting to play. The time taken to complete them ranges from few minutes to few days depending on the pieces.

Jigsaw puzzles in one of my favorite games that I like to play when I am free. The fun in finding the right piece that fits in and fixing them all up to give a definite shape is fun. Making my own jigsaw puzzle is something I do to teach my son different shapes. It is fun way of teaching kids different shapes sizes colors. It is something I found out once when I was solving a jigsaw puzzle at home my son actually picked a piece and fit it in the right corner and then on I have used this thing too teach him things.

What interests me in playing jigsaw puzzles is that all the pieces have to be fit correctly and also be in right order for it to complete the picture. If you can teach your kids to do the right thing in right manner then imagine their future and the life they would be able to live.

The politicians in this age are also jigsaw in nature, as in they have different shapes and sizes as a character in them but certainly the pieces of never fit for a single cause instead it forms a new different whole picture every time according to their needs. They always are inverted, never awesome and certainly not at all wonderful or maybe they are when it comes to finding ways to satisfy their whims and fancies.

So is life, life is also a jigsaw puzzles, where in our needs, relationships, commitments, goals are the pieces which are inverted, jumbled up and spread here and there, and they need to be fixed correctly in correct order to achieve success and complete a whole picture of an awesome and wonderful life.

Beat it and think of other games that you like and think how you can implement the tricks and ideas you use to complete them to solve the problems in your life. Jigsaw is one of them every time you like at a piece you will find different ways to fix them so that they fit and your picture is complete.