Little Things That Matter

Learn From The Past, Live The Present and Have An Open Mind to Face Tomorrow

Inspirational

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I find this song from Wake Up Sid inspirational. It’s a song about following one’s dreams, new avenues, new oaths, to dare to change, & to leave something beyond your life time.

Lyrics

Aaj kal zindagi
Mujhse hai keh rahi
Tu jo meri maane toh chal deewane
Sapnon ki rahoon mein tu
Saari khusboon ko
Saari roshni ko le le in bahoon mein tu
Ab hai tu jahaan
Din raat saare naye hai
Arzoo jawaan
Jazbaat saare naye hai
Naye rastein hai tere vaaste
Toh rahe kyun panahoon mein tu
Ohhoo tere liye
Nayi hai zameen naya aasmaan
Likh de hawaaon mein koi nayi dastaan..
Tere liye
Nayi hai zameen naya aasmaan
Likh de hawaaon mein koi nayi dastaan..
Zindagi ne (zindagi ne)
Dastak di toh (dastak di toh)
Dil ki sab khidkiyaan… khul gayi
Haan khul gayi
Hotoon pe jo (hotoon pe jo)
Jami thi woh (jami thi woh)
Saari khamoshiyaan ghul gayi
Haan ghul gayi
Kitne lamhoon ne
Mujhko ho jaise hairaan kiya
Kitni batoon ne
Dil ko aake hai chuu liya
Chahatein kayi
Hai dil mein ab jagmagaye
Rahatein kayi
Hai mujhse kehne ko aayi
Pehchaan saari muskaane
Saari bhar le nigaahon mein tu
Ohhoo tere liye
Nayi hai zameen naya aasmaan
Likh de hawaaon mein koi nayi dastaan..
Tere liye
Nayi hai zameen naya aasmaan
Likh de hawaaon mein koi nayi dastaan..

Forgive !

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* “We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate — thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.”– Maya Angelou

We have often heard and probably told ourselves many a time that Forgiving is all about letting go – of the anger, resentment, sorrow and the victim feeling.

This You Tube is an extract from the Hindi movie Paa (Father).

Apologies I could not get hold of a You Tube with English subtitles. However, I would request you to watch this & continue on till a little girl appears on the scene. Towards the end of her conversation, she makes a profound statement which keeps ringing in my ear, ever since I have watched the movie. It moved me to tears & I wept …

Background- This girl comes to visit Auro in the hospital. She says she is sorry to have hurt him by screaming & running away, when she bumped into Auro the first time. She says she is really sorry for her behavior & that she tried several times to say sorry, but Auro kept avoiding her. I am sorry Auro. Auro understand….Jo galti karta hai, woh galti karney wale se jyaada hurt hota hai”

The translation of the above quote is “Somebody who has done a wrong thing hurts more than the person who has been a victim of this mistake.”

Many a time in life between friends, sister, brother, parents & between a husband & wife, one party commits a mistake and she or he makes a lot of effort to say sorry. Give them a chance- we live once, no matter how hard it may be to forgive the mistakes, do so especially if the person is genuinely sorry.

I think this girl said it all !

Forgive, let go, because I have learnt that no matter how agonizing it may be to be hurt, it is worse to carry that over in your mind and suffer.

Earth Hour.. What does it Mean, What Can each of us do?

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“There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.” Mother Theresa

I have had some interesting discussions in office as well on Twitter re: Earth Hour, after the Earth Hour , Power Shutdown voluntarily, on Mar 27. Most of these discussions were with people who thought Earth Hour was a waste of time, it achieved nothing & the whole thing was a farce. Bottom-line message from most of these discussions was that 1 hour of Earth Hour is not going to achieve anything nor save this planet. Some others in India had a grouse that there is a daily power cut for several hours and they have an automatic & forced Earth Hour… so what is the big deal of this 1 hour “show” annually??

To all these discussions my response was a simple message. ” Rome was not built in a day” and ” Every drop in the Ocean counts”.  Here are some simple things which we all can do. This list is by no means exhaustive and most of these are based on what  I try to do on a daily basis. I am still trying to add to this list as each day progresses….

1. Close the tap when you are brushing your teeth. There is no necessity to keep the tap open and let the water run till one finishes brushing their teeth. The same applies to whilst one is having a shower or washing dishes or  food.

2. Put off the light or fan or air-conditioner or TV and music system if you step out of the room, even if you intend to return within couple of minutes.

3. Do not order food more than you need and if you happen to make that mistake or sometimes unable to judge each one’s eating capacity amongst colleagues or friends, doggy bag the left over and make use of it.  This applies to cooking food at home as well.

4. Don’t  leave the engine of your car on, whilst waiting for somebody.

5. Wherever and whenever possible make it a point to walk or take the public transport rather than use one’s car.

It is not possible to feed every mouth, or donate to every charity or cause that seeks to bring food to the hungry, clean water to every village in India or to every affected part in Haiti.  But what we can seek to do is to conserve resources while using the same. Unfortunately nature’s resources is not a bottomless pit.

In my view all that Earth Hour tries to do every year, for the past 3 years or so is to create awareness re: nature’s resources, and how every person’s effort counts. Imagine if each of us conserved resources in our own small ways, and saved 1 hour’s worth of water, energy and food on a daily basis…. millions of people could be saved from the lack of these basic necessities.

Think!! and Please Act. Every effort, no matter how small counts and we can save our Earth and our Planet.

Is Mother Nature revolting… there have been one too many natural calamities this year ??? High time I, you and us started doing something…

Elephants, A lot to learn from

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Elephant is an animal I have so adored as a child and I have been lucky to have touched them , fondled  and fed them. I have also taken a ride on an elephant, whilst I was in Thailand,which I did not enjoy, because I felt bad for the elephant, and decided to get off the elephant after a span of 2 minutes.

I have admired elephants for they are so gentle inspite of their power. They are so wise, loving & caring. Their eyes are full of compassion and love. They protect their herd so well that men can learn many a thing about life from these darling animals. They are so cute inspite of being so large.

This article in THE HINDU which talks about how elephant calves are treated as children touched my heart. One every so often hears about animals being harmed and poached. It is heart warming to hear and read about people who take care of these elephants, as if it were their own children. God Bless them.

Some Facts About Elephants

The elephant is the largest animal that lives on land. Some male elephants can grow to be thirteen feet tall. That’s more than twice as tall as many human adults.Elephants can weigh as much as a school bus—between ten and fourteen thousand pounds! Elephants smell, drink, eat, and wash themselves with their long trunks. They have tusks—long teeth made of ivory—that help them get food and carry heavy objects. The most obvious characteristic of elephants, besides their massive size, is their trunk.  The trunk is nothing more than an elongation of their nose and upper lip.   Besides being used for breathing and smelling it is also used as an appendage, much like an arm or hand.  Elephants are capable of pulling up to 11.5 liters (3 gallons) of water into the trunk to be sprayed into the mouth for drinking or onto the back for bathing. For more information go to Elephants & Elephants1

Some of my Up, Close & Personal Moments with Elephants in Thailand.

Never Underestimate the Memory of an Elephant

A. This Article from BBC News is worth a read re: Why Elephants don’t forget.

B. Watch this clip from BBC Wildlife documentary re: Elephants never forgets.

What a song

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This is one of my favorite songs for various reasons, Some of them being it is sung by Bruce Springstein, absolute fantastic voice & a prodigy, deep meaning in the song…. Lyrics. Mind blowing. And all in the memory of 9/11. Amen!

………..

There’s a blood red circle
on the cold dark ground
and the rain is falling down
The church doors blown open
I can hear the organ’s song
But the congregation’s gone

My city of ruins
My city of ruins

Now the sweet veils of mercy
drift through the evening trees
Young men on the corner
like scattered leaves
The boarded up windows
The hustlers and thieves
While my brother’s down on his knees

My city of ruins
My city of ruins

Come on rise up!
Come on rise up!

Now there’s tears on the pillow
darling where we slept
and you took my heart when you left
without your sweet kiss
my soul is lost, my friend
Now tell me how do I begin again?

My city’s in ruins
My city’s in ruins

Now with these hands
I pray Lord
with these hands
for the strength Lord
with these hands
for the faith Lord
with these hands
I pray Lord
with these hands
for the strength Lord
with these hands
for the faith Lord
with these hands

Come on rise up!
Come on rise up!
Rise up

What’s in a Name

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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” W. Shakespeare.

Surely Shakespeare did not realize the confusion & hassle a name change would create among human beings! Why does a Woman have to change her surname after marriage when a marriage involves a man & a woman?
In some communities in India, the woman is required to change her first name as well after her marriage. Shocking!!

I find it strange that many women have no issues with a name change & the most common reason I have heard is that they don’t want to confuse the identity of their child/ren.

Is the surname the sole form of identity. Why can we not have birth certificate with the mother’s & father’s name. A child should be known by her or his name & not by the surname.

A School, which is a learning center, still follows this antiquated method of insisting on a surname. We are in the 21st century & why can we not think outside the box & do away with the unnecessary?

Does the surname really show a form of respect. Surely a woman can be addressed as Ms or Madam, in front of her first name, if one wants to address her with respect.

The following article from the Hindu eloquently brings out some issues with changes on surname, & use of middle name. Definitely worth a read.

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article387414.ece

Why Twitter

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Tweet

Tweet

Why Do I use Twitter

I am still a novice to Twitter, having joined in Aug 2009. Twitter was first mentioned to me by a friend of mine about 3 years back and though I created an id at that time, it just did not appeal to me and the end result was deleting my account. At that time I thought it was a waste of time and I surely was not interested in knowing each person’s activities during the day or what time a person woke up or whether he had tied his shoe laces or which restaurant he was having food. After the demise of my twitter id, I did set up a Facebook id as well (which still exists) but I rarely use Facebook, since I don’t find it appealing & engaging

I decided to join Twitter again in Aug 2009 after having read so much about it in various blogs, and press. Now comes the most important question. Why have I decided to stick on with it and why am I so addicted to it?

I. Source of Information – Knowledge is Power and twitter is surely one source for that. All one needs to do is to follow the various media sources (MSNBC, Times of India, NYT, CNN etc.). Also depending on your area of interest, one can follow people who tweet about topics of your interest.  Many a time information on iPhone, news on earthquakes, financial news is available much quicker on Twitter than through other forms of media. Once can learn about Personality Development, Health & Fitness, Recipes, political arena in a country, blogging, twitter, new applications and pros and cons of these new applications …

Some of the sources of such informative tweets are from @Flipbooks, @2morrowknight @imadnaffa @v_shakthi @adamconsulting .. These are only some of them, There are many other sources of information that  I follow.  I am still learning and it never stops.

II. Sharing  A) Information -By Sharing information we enrich ourselves. No better way than Twitter by way of the RT (Retweet Function). The RT function is also a way to acknowledge & give credit to the person who originally tweeted this information.

B) Gratitude -RT function is also my way of acknowledging and thanking the person who originally put that information on Twitter. It also resonates my feelings or thoughts that is contained in the message.

III. Charity – One can contribute to charities, organize charities and raise funds through Twitter ( one of the most recent Global Charity events being Twestival) .

Charity Lists is another way to get in touch with a charity or support a charity.

IV. Support a Cause – For me it has been to fight against Violence on Women, and Child Abuse, as well as Support Human Rights. Twitter gives me a platform to get in touch with people who work to support these causes and organizations which work towards these causes.

V. Meeting of Minds/Ideas/people  – Many a relationship can be formed on Twitter – one of a friend ( I have met some wonderful friends through twitter), a business relationship and also one of source of inspiration from the tweets that a person may post.

VI. Break the Ice – Many a time a tweet on a person’s timeline may be the best form to start a conversation. I have done this many a time and it is in fact one of the best ways to get followers. Twitter also allows you to judge a person just like in daily life when you meet somebody face to face. You can judge from the tweets that a person posts, from the profile picture.  I find that many a time you can have an engaging conversation with some people on Twitter.

VII. Inspirational – I love reading quotes because it motivates me, puts a lot of perspective to my thoughts at the time . I follow a lot of people who quote through their tweets. I RT a quote which I believe in or reflects my thoughts at the time I RT. Many of these quotes are also gentle reminders to myself.. e.g of a smile, of kindness, of action speaks louder than words etc…, in the day-to-day chores of life.

Finally, I joined Twitter first and there after started blogging. As you can see my blog was started a week back. Simple reason I have a full-time job and social media as much as it is useful is not a form that is allowed on my job for valid reasons.  I Found the use of Twitter to be easier and quicker and yet the ability to reach out to many people.

To me Twitter was an easier way to start a blog and it is through Twitter and the various blogs, links of which are available through the profile page, that encouraged me to start a blog. Twitter is addicitive and I sure have found it useful.

Gendercide.. I am a Girl -Will You Let me Live?

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I am a Girl..Will you Let me Live?
Female Foeticide or Gendercide is a topic that has been discussed often but real changes can happen only when attitudes change especially in countries like India and China where Gendercide is rampant.  Attitudes can only change when awareness is created and an infrastructure is created that facilitates & encourages gender equality. Even in this day and age this crime happens and my heart bleeds every time I read it.
Interesting articles on this topic worth a read
a. Saving India’s Women from Mint– which talks about the Analyses of social factors, which determine the impact of central programmes, can shape policies to save women’s lives.
b. The worldwide war on baby girls from The Economist _mainly focuses on Gender Imbalance in China & India and the atrocities committed on a girl.
c. Gendercide – from The Economist which talks about  100mn odd girls who have disappeared since they are killed, aborted & neglected.

Practice What You Preach??

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We often hear people say “Practice What You Preach” and many a time I have said this in my day-to-day life, to many people.  I have said this because I believe that it is important to practice what one advises or preaches or better still it is better not to preach.  Today after reading this article on “Helping patients face death, she fought to live ” from MSNBC , I was wondering can we actually practice what we preach, in all aspects of life???  This article also added a new meaning to the following quote by Mark Twain

“Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.”  Mark Twain

Dr. Desiree Pardi, a leading practitioner in palliative care , which involves counselling terminally ill patients on their choices, came to question the advice she had been giving. She many a time questioned about her profession and her own will to live in life. 

This  article shows the immense will power of a woman who did not get depressed and showed the world that despite the odds and hurdles in her life, was determined to fight it out and chose to live her life the way she wanted. I don’t think it is denial. Many a time a determined mind plays a great role in enduring what one goes through as illustrated by this woman.

I guess there is a time for everything, A time to break down, a  time to listen, a time to fight for survival, a time to be determined., a time to rebuild!!! When the time comes it is important to face up to it.

I admire this woman’s courage and her courage has added a different perspective to my life.

“Pain is the fuel of Passion.  Many a time the pains in life provides the wake up call and provides fuel to our walk of life”

Women & Empowerment-Role of Media

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I don’t watch much TV but on the one odd occasions that I happen to flick through channels, there is one song of an Indian serial that keeps catching my attention over & over.  The Serial appears on one of the leading channels of India, StarPlus and name of the serial is Bidaai and title song is “Betiyan toh hoti hai paraai…. Bidaai”  which means Daughters are strangers!! I fume every time I hear this.

In India where the masses watch Televsion and channels such as Zee , StarPlus, are among the top favorites, I find these kind of title songs &  messages derogatory. This kind of content is in no way forward looking nor does it  seek to empower women, which is the latest Hot Topic in India.

Many of these TV channels, Bollywood, serials depict and glorify domestic violence, stereotype women and in no way are ready to change their content. Viewers who care do not raise their voice  but shut off their TV set or switch channels. And for those who don’t care, it becomes a family highlight evening after evening.

How will our society ever progress? Is our country really ready to Empower Women? Can We ??

I found this article in the Hindu very interesting. It raises some valid questions.