I believe in fairytales ...

in frogs, princes, knight in shinning armours and talking donkeys :). I believe in the kingdom of my life i am the princess, not because of my bank balance or inheritance, but because of my nature, character, intelligence and strength of being. Frankly speaking it is my kingdom, right :)

Majority of girls in my life are strong, independent, smart princesses themselves. Princesses like to associate with like, we are a niche club:). Everything in our lives is dandy, we are strong warriors, nurturing spirits, bewitchingly refreshing warm souls. Transforming our kingdoms in a positive way. Everything is picture perfect.

Well, almost picture perfect because there is a slight problem, we are waiting and dreaming of our knight in shining armour. Waiting for him to be the pillar of strength at the end of the day, hoping he would hold us tight and say 'honey. itx all right, I am so proud of you, I slayed 1000 dragons today, how was your day?' the funny thing is ..he had us at the hug and honey..the rest of the words just faded away in the warm embrace :).

The difficult aspect of being a princess, that too a strong one is, that you have to maintain a calm/strong face all the time, even when you are quaking inside. Courage we believe is not the absence of fear but the resistance to it. Anyways back to the fairytale... so one day you see a knight in armour and offcourse you take his presence in your kingdom as the answers to your prayers. Voila you have the knight of your dreams... hmmm however under the armour is a frog... you think that frogs are princes in disguise. You kiss him plenty, sometimes you do see a blur of the knight..but mostly it is you babysitting a frog on your royal pillow.

Days turn into years and still no knight to hold you say 'honey I am here', you are in a limbo. You feel cheated, you resent the frog-ribbit on your pillow, you start ignoring your soul and your kingdom takes a backseat.

One bright sunny day, you are walking lost in your thoughts and you see reflection of a knight in an shinning armour. You take a closer look and you realize it is actually you. You look fantastic in the armour and with a lance. The realization dawns on you, that you possess and are gifted with so much strength, power and potential no man/frog/prince could ever posses. The need for a pillar of support dissolves away, you feel light like a feather, suddenly so much weight has been lifted from your heart, the air is clear. You head back to your palace with a heart warming smile. For the first time you see the frog just as the ribbiting-frog, the only thing he has ever been, the only thing he is capable of being. Then you let him go back into the pond, his kingdom and live happily ever after.

the end :)

que sera sera..

whatever will be will be. Life is a continuous chain of random events. Scattered events, each with its own meaning and lesson that it is difficult to keep check with reality and feet firm on the ground. One of my students expired yesterday, an accident no one could have predicted. Out of the 5 involved, only he was hurt, that too fatally. A boy of 18 yrs, sent far from home by his parents to study, a young chap who was playing football yesterday evening now is no more. His parents have 18 yrs of memories, his friends have 6 months of shared adventures and I have 2 days of events and lessons learnt to remember.

A very wise friend told me 'to let go' to make peace, forgive and forget. That is all I can do, the sun will come up tomorrow, a new day, We will try to move on,as
Que sera, sera.
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera.
What will be, will be.

Aall is well...

Believe it or not saying this aloud or even thinking it works :) these days this is my mantra... aall is well :) things couldnot have been better or have occurred in any other sequence. Thank you Aamir Khan for your movie '3 idiots' and this takeaway.

Another thought that has caught my attention this week, is 'Looking and seeing something are two different things, you maybe looking at something but would not be seeing it.' I wonder if the above also implies how little we observe and absorb of the 1000 things/people we meet in our daily life.

So basically the social experiment this week would be based on the above two thoughts. I will keep you guys posted on the outcome and/or interesting incidents :). If any of you guys try things keep me posted ..I would love to know.

Well, Sur and Eshan are over and we are having an abs fantastic time. Today we drove down to Salasar Balaji temple (http://www.salasarbalaji.org). The temple is about 3 hrs by road. The darshan took less than 30 min thanks to Eshan and overall the trip was nice . Offcourse with Ramkaran ji driving the car aka jumbo jet, I had a few winks of sleep between numerous jolts :D Through out the journey the fields, valley i.e the landscape reminded me of Australia, of the landscape in Melbourne on the Yarra Valley wine tasting tour. The same yellow, light green stretches of fields...scattered with hillocks and trees. A sense of deja vu.

Anyways, with Sur around ..shopping and more shopping has been on the agenda. Oh before i forget .. I am a 'dhabha wali' now :D I am running a canteen in the college campus.. its been about 7-8 days and I am having a fantab time. It is a small thing I am doing on the side, for fun. So next time you visit Jaipur ... coffee, samosas and snacks at Sisters cafe :)

To the end of a weird day...

Today started fairly normal, well as normal it can get when the sword of an probable inspection is on us :). Anyway the road to work was littered with vehicle accidents (atleast 3 ) and animal carcasses (atleast 10). Then I got the terrible news that a dear friend has lost her father.
I can not comprehend death. The very site/sound is morbid Even when I believe death in this universe is mere shedding of the physical being. So is it the physical remains that I find grotesque? Or Have I truly understood death as a transformation into another phase?
I do not deny the vacuum and heartache created by the departed. Every prayer for the deceased is to free the soul and let it find peace. So why do the remains cause agony and grief?
Standing on a cliff as I picture my departure ... my words would be.
On Death ..
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there
I do not sleep
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint on snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the autumn rain.
When you awake in the midnight hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush, of birds circling in flight
I am the stars that shine at night
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there
I do not sleep.

will my soul look at my body and find it grotesque?

Mind Block...

I envy all those who can post on their blogs daily. Not that there is nothing in my life to talk about, on the contrary there are so many things. I wouldnt know where to start and where to end ...hmmm maybe that is my problem :).

This week started with a fantastic book, 'Eat, Love, Pray' by Elizabeth Gilbert. I went travelling through 3 cultural and spiritual realms with the author. Next was the upgrade from a 4 kg laptop to a sleek and slight Sony Vaio mini, in choclate. Check it out at..

http://www.sony.co.in/product/vpcw216ag/sku/vpcw216ag_t+e1

Moving on to Thursday I discovered, Jaipur to be quite a cultural event hub. The Rumi Foundation organized Jashn-e-Khusrau, a sufi music night. It was pure bliss, sitting on the blankets in the beautifully lit Central park, enjoying the cool breeze and starry night while listening to enthralling compositions.

Today we went to see 'My Name is Khan', nice movie, I abs adore Kajol and shed quite a few tears.

Oh Holi on the first of march was fun too ... we celebrated with 600 other people ... had a langar read 'free food service' :) not to mention that my mom knew where to get bhang from in Jaipur. That she had mixed in the 'thandi aai' the holi drink and I did not drink it ..tsk tsk shame on me.