New Year Wishes

New Years are always fascinating, they give us a chance to start everything afresh or with a new outlook, like a reboot of a human system.

As a kid, I used to watch the new year programs, however crappy they were, till midnight and wish a couple of close friends whoever I could contact with traffic on the phone lines being at its peak. At that age, growing was exciting, maybe because all the dreams were associated with "When I grow up, I'll be able to do....." . When I was in primary and middle school, years seemed to be long and never ending. My brother joined college when I was in middle school and I used to envy him for the freedom he acquired. There were rules which I needed to follow, that were optional for him. What I did not realise was that he had gained responsibility which I had no clue about at that time.

In college, I still retained the excitement but gave up watching the crappy new year programs. I was still looking forward in taking up life and discovering it. I had painted a picture of life with colors of success and happiness and was more than willing to be the buyer of such a beautiful painting.

Now I don't realise that a year has started and it comes to an end already. When I commented this to a coworker today morning, he said "You know what is that phenomenon called, right?" . I wasn't sure so I asked him and he said smilingly "Getting older gracefully".

With 2008 around the corner

Here is a wish to all my fellow blogger

Have a fun filled fulfilling year

And may you smile each day ear to ear

I am so happy to have found you here

You definitely make me cheer

With heart full of hope and mind full of dreams

May success and happiness fill us till the brim.

A force called life

A force so powerful
and knowledge so intense

I am scared and
overwhelmed with the content

Situations would change
and things might be clearer

All I can do now is learn to cope
and have a heart full of hope

For Life is a great teacher
and Time is a big healer.

The time starts now...

Thinking Aloud tagged me for my plans of next ten years. This has been a real good exercise on racking my brains for making some personal goals.

- I am happy I have made a start in writing but I would like to take it to the next level and make something concrete out of it.

- I would like to go on a vacation with my family every year. I would also like to camp/trek/ hike/bike every summer with them. I am sure these bonding and understanding would be very much needed when the kids grow older and require (demands) their space.

- I would like to organise my life in many aspects - my routine, home, work and relationships.

- I would like to be in a stronger position professionally.

- It has been a childhood dream for me to own a small library at home which would hold a good collection of timeless classics and modern bestsellers. With all the technology advancement and Kindle being here, I still love to feel and flip the pages of a book.

- Playing sports has always worked as a synergy for me. I would like to play Tennis and Volleyball more often and if possible, make Tennis as a weekend must-do-chore. I would also like to watch live tennis matches in all the 4 Grand Slam courts and be a regular for the US Open.

- As a kid I learnt the Indian classical Violin.I was able to renew my wish and am learning the western classical now. Playing Violin gives me some peace and pleasure. Hopefully, I would continue this and inspire my kids into some sort of music.

- I would like to watch more of the theater plays and musicals.

- I would like to spend more time in cultivating a home garden. Till now, I have not been able to save any of my plants from the severe winter chill but I want this to change.

- Life teaches us lesson at various stages. But I would like to have a better grasp of what is reality and what is dream. Many times, the line has blurred for me causing confusion.

- Family and friends have always supported and inspired me. I would like cherish the strong bonds and like to strengthen few ones.

- I would like to read mythological stories and philosophy from different parts of the world.

- I would like to give back to humanity in some way. I am not able to decide how but hopefully, it would be clear in couple of years.

- Last but not the least, finish the embroidery that I started 5 years back !

I would like to tag Arch, Madhu, Sumana, Archana, Dame's Diary, Ziah and VivekRam

Anyone else interested are most welcome to take it up.

For your ears only

This is the Violin recital at Rutgers Community Music Program on Dec 15 2007.

Game, Set,....

As humans, it is our nature to dream. We dream about what we want, what we could have changed or our plain future, which may not even attain reality. What we dream changes with each stage of life. The surroundings and the people we interact also affect our dreams.

Dreams, as humans are at purest form when we dream them young. I think that shows the pure fantasy, affection for something we crave for. As a kid, I was always interested in sports. There were quite a few which I would follow and some which I enjoyed playing. One of the sports was Tennis. I used to watch all the Grand Slams and follow all the popular tennis players. I could not have chance to play it when I was young but now I do posses a tennis racket.

One of my silliest dreams when I was in pre-teens was to be a ball girl in Wimbledon! I could watch Steffi Graph, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras , Martina live in action. At that time part time jobs as a teenager was more popular in western world than India. I used to imagine that I would be working in Wimbledon part time while studying in school for a promising career in Medicine.

All these fantasies purely because of love for Tennis. As so many other girls, I used to asses a tennis player not just by her/his skills of playing the game but also how they were as a person. I used to adore Steffi, Matts Wilander, Stefan Edberg. I never used to like Agassi much in his younger days, all because of his ever changing girl friends. Now I agree that Agassi and Steffi make a very good pair. Hopefully, their kids would inherit some of their genes. In fact, whatever they inherit, I am sure they would be good in Tennis.

As I grew up, reality sunk in and dreams bit the dust. I am not in medical field, in fact I dread going to docs and I have never been to Wimbledon. But I am glad that I do have a tennis racket and hopefully pursue my dream of learning Tennis some day. Also when my kids are much older, I hope I become a regular visitor for the "Super Saturday" at Flushing Meadows for US Open.

Edited to add: I changed the Title as I already had another post by "Dream On"

Blacked out, blanked out

As a kid, when I grew up in India, power cuts were part and parcel of daily life. In spite of occasional irritation, it was taken in stride as there was nothing much that can be done about it. We know the country has less resources and more people. Just make the best of what we have and go ahead with life.

I have studied for my exams in candle lights. That's when understanding of Physics became more intense. I think 1 candle light is 1 watt. At home, ideally we used to have bulbs/tube lights of 75 or 100 watts. But of course I had lit much lesser candles to read. We knew a home is not complete without torches and candles.

As a much younger kid, small power cuts were more fun. I could give excuse of no light for not doing my homework or studying for exam. I remember many incidents when I frightened my cousins in dark. If there was a cool breeze blowing , we would all sit outside. It was a nice family time as there was nothing else to do. My parents would often narrate tit bits from their lives. My mom would invariably always fan us with a newspaper or a thin magazine and never be bothered about the resulting arm ache.

If these power cuts ran into hours, then it became a huge problem. Everyone would start losing patience because of the uneasiness caused by the heat, sweat and mosquito bites.

Coming to US where power cuts were practically unknown, I soon forgot how to deal with these minor causalities. The first power cut that I experienced here was in Aug 2003 when the whole New York and parts of New Jersey was plunged into darkness because of outage in power grid. It was sort of a minor disaster as we realised how much we are dependent on electricity. No microwave, no gas stove which means no cup of tea or fresh food, just thrive on leftovers. Garage door cannot be opened to take out car. Trains not running. Credit card and ATMs cannot work. These are the times when we long for a simple life where we can still sit outside, enjoy the breeze having a cup of tea in hand.

Since that day, I always have torch, candle and some no microwaveable food handy. We had a couple small power outages but none in that magnitude. Today winter storm is taking over northern US. Some parts are badly affected and some people are experiencing power outages. In a chilly weather where one can freeze in couple of minutes of winter exposure, I cannot imagine power outages.

Virtually Happy - Second Life

After a previous post on "Virtually Happy", I could not resist sharing with you this link

http://secondlife.blogs.cnn.com/

In the virtual world, people are trying to get real by going to music concerts, attending seminars and even experiencing Tsunami!

I don't want to go on rambling but the whole idea is still confusing to me.

If I could only ...

"Whatever happens, happens for good."

These are powerful words, often not realised on time. But is it completely true? Isn't the fact that whatever has to happen, just happens. Good or bad is too meek a word for a powerful executioner like life. Becoming nostalgic either brings us back sweet memories or some pain. But it definitely proves that we were strong to go through the phase.

As a kid I used to read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew detective novels. Usually, in any given plot, these teen detectives would look for clues. Most of the times, only one clue looked promising. Even if there were multiple, it would not take long enough to figure out which one was worth pursuing. Later, they came up with a series, in which the reader was given a choice which clue to pursue. If one thinks A is correct, go to page x else go to page y. It would be the same story, with multiple plots and multiple endings. It was possible that more than one plots would result in the same ending.

I heard this idea was trying to be implemented in movie halls. One can watch a movie and follow the plots which one think should be happening. In a sense, the audience is directing the movie their own way. I am not sure if it ever got implemented.

The idea is difficult and challenging. The reader/audience can easily get confused as to which path to follow and what decisions to make. I think it would only result in more chaos.

Maybe that is why the wise Creator did not give us an option of directing our own lives completely. But He did give us a mind to dream.

If I could only live a simple life and not complicate it too much with my thoughts.
If I could only live the present in flesh and mind.
If I could only turn back time and save for what I still had.