Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast

We are surrounded by contrasts. If there is day, there is night, the peaks and valleys, deserts and seas,  summers and winters, rains and droughts, strength and weakness, happiness and sadness, pain and joy, love and hate, truth and lies……….

And we can cherish all the brightness because we have braved the dark some time, we can revel in peace because we have been in some strife, we feel the love because we have faced the hatred some time. And this is what life is….

“Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.”

This Cactus being so thorny doesn’t allow itself to be touched but once a year blooms with the most delicate flower. The cactus needs the harsh sun all the time but its flower blooms in night and withers away in the sun. A perfect example of contrasting features….

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Distorted

Britishers came to India posing as innocent traders and slowly spread like cancer throughout the country silently taking control over so many small kingdoms and looting the property and killing innocent people. They thought the natives were uncouth, uneducated and uncivilized. Thus they took upon themselves to improve the natives disregarding the faith and emotions of people. They introduced the English language besides Christianity, railways, British architecture and systematic armed forces. In fact the English language also  has a lot many words with their origin in India. Jungle, jute, cummerbund, dacoit, curry, nirvana, guru, karma etc are few such words.

The people of India have always adopted and adapted to all sorts of influences and personalized it to great extent. Even words of English language have  taken an Indian twist.

However sometimes those who do not have the privilege of attending schools interpret English in their own way. This gives rise to some very weird, funny and distorted English…

Can you guess what this placard says??? I bet you will be surprised to know that it says:

“Chilled Fresh Juice”

The sign was displayed in a wayside kiosk. The owner with his limited knowledge of the language and phonetics put up the sign to attract foreign tourists…. he got the spelling of “juice” right though!!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Indulge

Once upon a time there was a little princess. She was the most obedient child her parents could ask for. Her teachers, neighbors, friends all adored her. Then one day she came up with a wish to visit an amusement park. Her doting parents made arrangements for the trip to “Essel World” in Mumbai. She was eagerly waiting for the weekend.

At last, the glorious Sun heralded the beginning of Saturday. The princess’s parents were usually careful about their daughter’s safety and food but they decided to keep their worries aside and really indulge her that day… And what a day it was!

First was the toy train. Sitting there on a slow-moving train with other kids, she was elated and kept waving every time she crossed the spot where parents were waiting to collect their kids. It was a small circular track and the train went around thrice on it. As a grown up it was difficult to imagine the fun, but the faces of children mirrored their joy…

Another similar ride which had small cars and jeeps mounted on a track was the next in order and again she went round and round on the track thrice, thoroughly enjoying the ride!

All kids’ ride happen to have only circular motion and kids tend to ride all similar ones one after another! Now this one had space ships attached to the giant arm which  lifted up in air. Round and round and round again….

A traditional Merry-go-round…

The sun blazed but she was all for more rides and fun. She tried her hand at the ” Go-Kart” and found it a bit difficult to maneuver but yet enjoyable…And little respite from the continuous circular motion. Just watching her go round and round made me….the mother of princess go dizzy!

Another car ride….the electric cars. She banged away happily, getting stuck in corner at times and driving well sometimes. She felt all grown up driving a car…

And the day ended with a big bear hug to the hatted guy who displayed a come again sign!

Indulge her, that we did and in the process learned a few things too!

  • It’s absolutely satisfying to see the kids smile and laugh….that is what parents aim for any ways.
  • Their joy is infectious and you just forget all your worries of the day!
  • The child within each adult gets to be free and relish childhood again.
  • Money spent doesn’t seem like a wastage!!

So go ahead and indulge yourself through your child. It’s worth it….

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Down

Mumbai or Bombay is the capital of state of Maharashtra. It is a city which has attracted almost everybody. Mumbai is called a city of dreams because everybody flocks to this city dreaming to make it big in life and most of the dreams do come true.

Mumbai has many things to offer from street food to expensive international cuisine, cheap imitation to brand items and what not. Among many attractions is Marine Drive. Evenings find people from all walks of life strolling hand in hand in the company of swaying palm trees, drinking the coconut water and  enjoying the fresh air and view of the setting sun.

Marine Drive or Queen’s Necklace is a 3-kilometre-long boulevard in Southern Mumbai. It is over reclaimed land facing west-south-west along the natural bay of the Arabian Sea. Marine Drive is a ‘C’ shaped concrete road along the coast. At night looking down from some elevated place the street lights look like shining pearls of a necklace and hence the name Queen’s Necklace. Post British era the official name was changed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Road which however is rarely used.

The city has always fascinated me with the never-say-die attitude of its populace. Looking down from an aircraft window its size overwhelms me……

And the night view( this Photo courtesy Google images):

Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret

I regret….
The tear that fell from her eye…
The reason of which was only I !!

Most of the times a picture is clicked of the things which give joy and pleasure to us. We do not take pictures of things which cause pain and become reminders of regret later. However while clicking many shots of my daughter in this attire, three years back we accidentally clicked this photograph too.

It so happened that after dressing her up in  a traditional attire we wanted to keep her innocent looks through photographs. She however had other plans and was not ready to pose and bent upon taking out the dress. I got little annoyed and scolded her for not listening to us. Poor little one stood there then and we started taking her pics but this first photograph made us stop in tracks……We wanted her laughing and smiling and not like this. I regret spoiling the moment for her.

However after some time we both cheered her up and did all the fooling around which she wanted us to do and finally the day ended with some really nice photographs of her.

                    

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A day for LOVE…

Me:      What are you giving me this Valentines?
Him:    Did I last year?
Me:      No!
Him :   And before that?
Me:     No!
Him:    It is not an Indian custom !!
Me:      I know it’s not our custom but you used to make every Valentine day special before we got married, so why not now?
Him:   Aw! come on we have been married for last 12 yrs now! You know I love you!
 

That was our conversation two days back.  And since last few years the conversation has almost been same, the only difference being the number of years in the last dialogue!

“You know I love you”…..I kept thinking about this and realized that over the last few years both of us have not said the three most important words very often! Both of us just know that love hasn’t vanished……it is there!

Many relationship gurus have emphasized on professing one’s love for the partner for a stronger bond. I do not completely agree with that though. I believe that actions speak louder than words. May be both of us do not actually say the three magic words aloud but the little things we do for each other are proof enough.

The other night I got stung by a scorpion and my right hand was burning with pain. After dropping our sleepy daughter at a friend’s place, he sat there all night by my side in clinic rubbing my itching palm. He had his work the next day but he kept awake chatting and stroking my head. By the time my pain and itching subsided it was well past midnight. Is this love or what?

He is fond of various cakes, pizzas and pastas that I bake. He even boasts of my skills among his friends (now that’s a different story altogether when couple of his friends decide to turn up unannounced to taste my baked stuff and I have to slog in the kitchen). But its him who swells up in pride when his friends compliment me on my cooking. That too is love…

He knows I love flowers but he always forgets to buy flowers for the vase in bedroom but lands up at my workplace with a red rose. He at times cooks food so that I could rest…He feels bad if I cry…. Isn’t this love?

He doesn’t read my blog posts but he brags to his friends about my writing abilities….He even tried his hand at this montage for the blog post. Of course this is love!! (Another previous post; a poem that I wrote is  my take on our love https://shomabhagwat.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/love-is/)

So do we need one day for saying ” I love you” ? I guess not, because everyday is a day to love……Its only one life that God has given us, why waste it in ego tantrums, scathing words or silly squabbles? Why say “I love you” on Valentine’s Day …Why not make each day mean it?

Oh! Yeah! Maybe its good way to make him buy some really nice gift for me…. So cheers to St. Valentine and a Happy Valentine’s Day to all….May there be love and peace in whole world!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Ready

 A world without any problems…….relaxed and carefree,

 Forget your worries …..come play with me!!

If only humans were as emotionally secure as animals then they would also have been always as ready to enjoy as him. Our dog is always ready to play irrespective of hunger, cold weather, torrential rains …..anything, ‘coz he wants only love and love and love.

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Versatile Blogger Award

Another award!!??!! Is it true? This time Arindam Mohapatra (http://arindammohapatra.wordpress.com/) has been generous enough to pass this Versatile blogger Award to me for Astonishing India. This means a lot because it shows that slowly I am making a place for my blog in the whole big world of blogo-sphere and my writing is being appreciated and I am ever so thankful to Arindam who has written a very interesting post about the blog awards.

I too am imagining myself on a blog award ceremony blowing away kisses and wiping the tears of joy just like the beauty pageantry girls “oohing and aahing” and thanking away the whole world!

                                                       

As other blog awards have some rules so does this one. The rules of this award are:

  • If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.
  •  Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
  •  Include a link to their blog.
  • Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly and nominate them.
  • Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

So now it is my turn to tell 7 things about me. Umm…. I guess now I can take this opportunity to list those things about me which are generally not entertained if mentioned in a resume’!! Here goes:

  1. I tend to trust anybody and everybody….
  2. And because I do that….I get hurt emotionally too often.
  3. I am bad at sugar-coating my words!
  4. Yep! I am too honest (I don’t regret that) but it sometimes turns people against me..
  5. I am a dreamer and I dream of a pure and ideal world with malice towards none.
  6. I am hopelessly in love with my husband who is the only guy I ever dated !
  7. I secretly wish to be a famous published author some day.

There I have let out all my weaknesses and there is no turning back now….. And now I have to pass on this award to all those blogs that I recently come across and the ones I have been a regular visitor to. There are many others but they have already been awarded this award. Here are some of my favorites:

http://eof737.wordpress.com/

http://rutheh.wordpress.com/

http://yobynos.wordpress.com/

anidealistthinker.wordpress.com

sonalidalal.wordpress.com

http://ceceliafutch.wordpress.com

http://directionallyimpaired.wordpress.com/

http://nilaewhite.wordpress.com/

http://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/

http://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/

http://northernnarratives.wordpress.com

http://radicalamazement.wordpress.com

http://passion2read.wordpress.com/

http://bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com/

http://aditimitra.wordpress.com

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Hope

Parents always strive to ensure the happiness of child, be it providing food, shelter or anything that the child may need because they always hope for bright future of the child and do not want anything falling short. Here are two set of parents who are full of hope for their off-springs:

Hopeful of finding enough food to take back home and feed the hungry mouths..

She carries a tired child tied on her back hoping to give some rest to the little feet and waits hopefully for a ride home…..

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Hope Unites Globally: HUG Award

Numerous predictions and speculations have been made about the fate of world. Some say the world will end in 2012….. Will it? I HOPE not because there is so much left to achieve….

Each one of us has so many dreams for ourselves and for our kids…..Its hope which gives us strength to face the numerous challenges that life throws at us. World today is divided over religion, color, beliefs, territory, caste, financial status and what not. The only thing that is common in people world over is Hope. Hope to have love, success, fame, happiness and peace. Yes, Hope does unite all of us globally!!

I have hopes to provide a secure and happy future for my daughter, to grow old and walk hand in hand with my beloved husband, to look after the needs of my aging parents and of course to be read and appreciated!!

                                    

Thanks to Connie Wayne ( http://ahopefortoday.com) and the Island Traveler( http://thismansjourney.net ) who generously gifted this award to me and made my hopes of being read and appreciated a reality. Such appreciation inspires people to spread love and hope to others too….

So, what exactly is this HUG award?

                                                

This award is for all those who desire to spread Hopes for Love, Freedom, Peace, Equality, Unity, Joy, Happiness, Compassion, Mercy, Faith, Wholeness,Wellness, Prosperity and Oneness through their words or actions.

And the rules that go with the nominations:

1.  If you receive a HUG Award©, you may nominate others who also meet the guidelines for the award.

2.  Nominees may only receive the HUG Award© one time.

3.  You may nominate as many people, websites, or blogs as you want to nominate to receive the award.

4. Upon receipt of the award, you nominate at least one other person.  The award is also not time limited, so you can nominate new people or sites you encounter in the future.

5. You contact your nominees and tell them that you have nominated them for the  HUG Award©.  AND…

6.  Please link this page:  When you contact your nominees for the award, please include a link to this page,http://ahopefortoday.com/2012/01/14/hope-unites-globally-hug-award-guidelines/, so they will have the same information you received about the award.  Then, they also can perpetuate the award by nominating others.  AND…

7.  Please post a comment on this page athttp://ahopefortoday.com/2012/01/14/hope-unites-globally-hug-award-guidelines/ 

8.  You may print a copy of the HUG Award© Guidelines for people you nominate, who do not have a website, blog, or social media account to which they can paste award and Guidelines.  If they have email, you may email them a copy of the original HUG Award© and original Hug Award©Guidelines.

Please visit http://ahopefortoday.com/2012/01/14/hope-unites-globally-hug-award-guidelines/ for more details.

And for those who receive this award; keep up the good word! Thanks for making this world a better place and keeping HOPE afloat! My hugs go to:

http://maggiephotgraphy.wordpress.com/

http://insidethemindofisadora.wordpress.com

http://rutheh.wordpress.com

http://lifebydmagdalene.wordpress.com/

http://melonpops.wordpress.com/

and many more but the Island Traveler( http://thismansjourney.net/)has given almost the same list!I would like to agree with him there and give a hug back. Thanks!!

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