55 Fiction : Odd one out

Rachel was staring at her monitor; she didn’t know how to end the mail she had drafted. She had given up; she found herself unfit to live in this world that she believed was self-centered; centered around ego. She picked the tiny bottle that would seal her journey – an end that was easier to compose.

Love

What is Love? A question that comes next to "What is Life?" I sometimes feel the purpose to my existence is to just realize the meaning and essence of these words. An emotion has profound as Love can never be explained; it was man's greatest sin to coin a word to express an emotion that has an infinite ambit.

Love is the foundation of companionship. A perfect companionship is the right blend of insanity and rationality! As we grow up, we tend to understand love is beyond the initial attraction, it requires maturity, understanding, tolerance, openness, acceptance, concern, respect, passion among others. Two people come together cause they believe there is a commonality on which their life could tread, but with time doesn't the intensity of love fade away? Individuals grow, interests change and hence to keep the love alive, it is just not enough to bank on the initial common grounds. It is at this juncture the other facets such as openness, tolerance and the ability to see your partner through and the maturity to set them free are essential to keep the relationship young and wild.

I have always believed understanding and intellectual cohesion is vital to keep the relationship going beyond the honeymoon period. It is indeed true, but one aspect of love never outweighs another. If the aspects of love had to be placed on a scale beginning with physical attraction to intellectual coherence, each aspect takes equal importance. Exploration is the key in love, it enables us to discover not just our partner but ourself, helping us grow together.  The new aspects spice up the love! To be in love is to be the chirpy bird - buoyant & carefree!

Love never fades, it is the people who fail to grow in love. To love is to be naughty and curious as a 16 year old with the maturity, wisdom and cognizance of a 60 year old.

Be naughty, Be understanding - Be in Love!

P.S I logged into blogger after a long while and realized i was only one shot of 100 ;-) Consciously decided to write on 'Love' - Doesn't it keep us alive? To all of you who have been asking for my posts, I hope to get regular here on. Thanks for checking :-)

Story time..!

Friends,

Here is a link to my story in "Tell a Tale Club"

http://telltaleclub.com/2012/07/17/extra-ordinariness/

If you love reading stories, Tell a Tale Club has a great repository of stories from various genres. You like to write stories? You will not be disappointed, you can also contribute to their collection!

It is a club for Story tellers. Enjoy!!

Every end has a new beginning...

I have always believed one life has to take several dimensions and kept my interests varied. It is this strong inner-conviction that has driven me to experiment with different things in life! Shifting gears in life isn't easy in a society that seeks stability and permanence. We have been groomed to always operate out of our comfort zones and hence the society doesn't quite approve of juggernauts. The previous year has been 'one hell of time' - I had decided to be by myself and i have realized in being by yourself, you learn much more about life than by engaging yourself in external activities. In that sense, the year has been a crucial phase in my life.

From the 3rd August 2012, i am treading on a new path - i am now an employee of Dream India, a Educational and Charitable Trust catering to the needs of under-privileged children.

Dream India is run by a group of working professionals in India, trying to make a change in the country through education of the poor and the upliftment of underprivileged communities. Come, let us join hands, and reinstate the once lost greatness of our nation!

We are part of the Vision2020 groups, one that is guided directly by our great visionary Dr. APJ Kalam.

Dream India Logo

I am extremely fortunate to be working with a group of highly enthusiastic and committed individuals. I have been associated with Dream India as a volunteer since August'2005. 

I have a humble request to make, if you are a fellow blogger reading this post i request you to blog about Dream India (www.dreamindia2020.org) and our activities on your blog. It would help us reach a wider audience, Dream India needs more volunteers and more people to simply know of our activities. I believe there are a lot of people out there who want to help the society and they do not know whom to approach - just knowing would help them find the right channel. The gap between 'people who need' and 'people who have & willing to give' is wider in our country - your blog post can bridge that gap!

I am sure you can hear me saying - "Thank you" from the bottom of my heart for your involvement in the movement :-)

If you are personally interested in teaching under-privileged children or interested in doing 'something' for your village school, please get in touch with me. Dream India will evaluate the needs and provide necessary guidance to initiate and execute the project.

I am very excited about this new journey and with your support, am sure Dream India would be scaling new heights in serving children.

Need Vs Desire

I am writing a post after a long while! Post recovery, i have been up to nothing ;)

So, here is a post from a person who is idle :) It is said that the 'Observer' and the 'Observed' cannot be differentiated, but all that have been up to over the last couple of months is 'Observation'! I believe at some point the observing dissolves and only the observer stays - a state of nothingness! I am nowhere close to it, hence watch for the observer effect..

Well, need is a necessity, while desire is not!

The society as i see it today is filled with 'Desire' rather than 'Need'. Does this world have enough to fulfill the growing desire of each one of us?

"Define your needs, it drives your action"!

It is a man's basic need to 'Eat', but today we have turned the 'Need' to 'Desire'. With so much options in life, our desires have only grown. The lesser number of choices, the simpler life is, but we have complicated our life's by augmenting the choices.

If only we stayed satisfied eating apples(food of the region), today we wouldn't have to worry over deciding which restaurant to go! With choices and the desire growing, we work harder to earn the extra buck to fulfill our desire. Today, we aren't satisfied eating international cuisine, we want to make more money to afford food at the lavish star restaurants.

It is the same with every other need in our life. Man begins with  a need - a cloth to cover, then probably a attire that is in-trend, then branded clothes, then designer clothing - desire is endless.

Nature has enough to fulfill our needs, but i doubt if it can fulfill our voracious greed!

The beauty of life lies in its simplicity :)

One may ask what is wrong in yearning for more in life - desire is endless - endless desire leads to endless troubles!

I have observed that people who are simple being more peaceful and more content. The mad rush for everything in this modern society has made us live in denial and a superficial world! Life is truly a 'Maya' in current scenario more than ever.

The observer is steadily losing interest in the hushed-up living of modern days! It is indeed difficult to stay simple when you have the potential to compete in the rat-race and fulfill your desires. A sense of being left behind is also not easy to come to terms with, until and unless you decipher the 'Maya' of desire.

Fabulous Four

Today marks four years of marital journey!

I feel blessed to be sharing my life with you! It still feels like we just crossed each others' path and the freshness still lingers...and the exploration continues...

We have grown in strength and my admiration for you has only increased over the years. we have evaded the weariness that most relationships endure over time and am proud of us!

You continue to me be my source of life! Love you..

Dated:18-May-2012

Ready to bounce back...

I am back home after entering & exiting hospital twice in the last month, in fact thrice( Including my South African experience). Even now, i can only say "hopefully" and not with certainty that am recovering and ready for a bounce back :)

I don't have a specific diagnosis for the symptoms & discomforts i have been experiencing over the last month, which makes it very difficult to say how the future would be. All we know at the moment is, i had some kind of an infection or allergy in my kidney that caused hematuria for a month. Docs do not know what caused it yet, which makes the treatment difficult.

With the blessings of the almighty, the hematuria has stopped and the severe pain that i was experiencing post one of the diagnostic testing procedure called uretheroscopy has come down. The result from various scans and the invasive scopy shows no threatening condition inside the kidney, but we dont know what it is. So, for the moment the docs have suggested regular check-ups to ensure we do not miss any new developments inside and they believe "whatever-it-is" has been healing and would disappear on its own .

I sincerely wish, it leaves me soon so that i can get back to my normal life! Thanks for all your support and prayers, the journey through this phase wouldn't have been possible without the love of dear ones.

I did learn a few lessons from this physical illness and i believe they will help me lead a quality life!

Hoping to get back to regular blogging soon :)

Back Home

Blogging from India :-) Yipeee..

I am so glad i made it here despite the illness. I wasn't comfortable being in a foreign land with an ailment! Now, i am more at peace though the diagnosis is still on.  The medication so far hasn't helped me recover completely. I am just hoping the docs find the cause soon and heal me quick!

Somewhere, deep within, i believe there is so much more to my life and this is a phase that will teach a lesson or two ;)  I am already thinking ahead...There is a larger purpose to my existence! I am patiently waiting to get through this phase and get back to myself!

Yeah, at times it's scary to think of the many possible diagnosis but again the inner voice says, "Divinity doesn't punish, He only tests!"

Wishing myself Good Health  :-)

Be the Change...!!

I was someone, who grew up hearing the phrase, "I hate changes". My brother was totally not liking the changes he had to endure in his adolescence, while i was still young to appreciate what my brother was experiencing. He is elder to me by 5 years and he often used to utter the phrase, "I hate changes", when he came home every week from his residential college! My brother pursued something close to his heart - Marine Engineering, but wasn't wee bit aware of how arduous his life is going to be !

My brother's statement echoed within me as, "Stay away from changes. Try to stay in your comfort zone. Changes aren't nice to experience." I grew up to be a 'girl-who-stayed-satisfied-with-anything'. I never used to dream big, i dream of things within my reach, attain it and stay content! I was never the great aspirant nor was i the dormant, sluggish girl - i called myself smart :-)

Time is not only a healer, it is also a true teacher! With time, one gets to learn and mature and so did I! It took me a while, but i did realize that, "Change is inevitable" and "Change should be embraced and not shied away".

The more you resist change, the more it persists.

Life's experience taught me that 'One who accepts change can bring in new solutions to life'. I realized that though my brother detested change, he accepted his new environment and the changes that came along, to be a successful Marine Engineer he is today!

When i graduated out of college in 2005, i had no big experience of a 'changed' environment but by then i knew to realize your dream, you need to be the change yourself, and not wait for the change to occur.

A change triggered from outside creates ripples within and leaves you disturbed, like how my brother experienced!! On the other hand, when you bring about the change from within, in your life, you can leave indelible marks in the life's of others.

I would like to thank IndiBlogger and Stayfree for providing this opportunity to share my experience!! It's a true experience of a young girl, fresh out of college, who believed she could change the state of the Indian Society - a story of my rendezvous with erasing illiteracy from its roots!

Courtesy:Google

Yes, i believed it is 'Time to Change' the pathetic state of our Indian Society! I am true patriot, who loves my country dearly. I spent countless hours after graduating, wondering how i could change the state of affairs in our country! There was a long list of social evils that i had listed out - Corruption, Poverty, Illiteracy, Poor Sanitation, Poor Civic Sense, Lack of Infrastructure, Malnutrition, Illness and many others. I spent considerable time understanding each of the problems that is plaguing our country and wanted to make some contribution in one of those areas that would lead to betterment.

I finally concluded all problems were interlinked and most problems stem out of one key issue - Illiteracy!

I decided to 'Be the change' ! I hunted down for Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) that work towards upliftment of less-privileged children, unfortunately i found many NGOs but wasn't satisfied with their level of commitment.

My intense search ended with a phone call to a founder of a NGO called 'Dream India' in Mumbai. I was happy with their intention and knew there only purpose was 'To Serve' unlike others.  Dream India was a small NGO, with hardly 20 members - a group of working professionals working tirelessly to provide education to every child. You can read about Dream India here. I joined them and opened the Chennai chapter of Dream India.

I have been associated with Dream India for 7 years now, the joy that i get out of teaching under-privileged children cannot be equated to anything on earth!

To be the change is not easy!! There were many NGOs that were providing education to orphans and homeless children. We wanted to focus on school dropouts in urban slums. It wasn't an easy task to approach children in our slum dwellings and start teaching them, but we did it. We had many obstacles on our way. In August 2005, i conducted my first class for a group of 25 children in a temple. The maid, who worked at our home helped me established the link! My experience with these children has taught me that, the only difference between our children and them is - Exposure! If only they had someone to guide them a little and some financial help, they would all be studying well!

My students :)

I am proud to tell you that one of my students is now a first year engineering student :-)

I have loads of experience to share pertaining to my association with Dream India, but through this post for the contest and Stayfree for kindling my thoughts on 'Voice to Change', i would like to say that 'Change is possible'. We can all bring about a change in things around us. It is time - to stop complaining and start acting! In fact, i hate littering and it used to bother me a lot when someone drops something. One fine day i decided to be the Change myself, i observed even i do litter a bit and completely stopped littering. I was in class 8 then and i made it a point my friends took notice of it. I was instrumental in making many of my friends follow my footsteps.

If something irritates you so much....Change it! -- It only needs a beginning!

Courtesy:Stayfree

Visit Stayfree Facebook page here! - http://facebook.com/sftimetochange

I am sure one day, i will be able to see the 'India' that i had envisioned - free of most social evils and for that, the ONE CHANGE that has to occur is 'RIGHT TO GOOD EDUCATION'

Education can remove the weeds from our society. An educated citizen will not only be able to take care of his own family but also the society by voting responsibly! All other social issues can be combated successfully with educated citizens!

Our work won't stop today or tomorrow. I, as a part of Dream India have seen so many challenges that has bogged us down at times, but every time we see a child smile, a child read, a child dream - we know, we have made a change!

The journey is long, but the experience is countless! In our journey, we have given education to so many children and changed the fortune of their family and we strongly believe that one day we will change the fortune of the country!

You can 'Be the change', you want to be - Take the first step!

Dream India's tagline says - "Together we can!! Together we should!!"  - It sums it up well :-)

Interested to be a part of Dream India's activities - Our Facebook Page
Would you like to Volunteer? - Our Facebook Group