No answers!!!!
Before coming to Singapore, I always wondering why is there so much fuss about a country which is not much larger than Hyderabad in India? There is nothing but a small Island which does not have a proper beach!!!! Why people leave India and come here for sightseeing as if they have finished watching India and are now in search of mysteries... To tell you frankly, When I first saw America I was spell bound, majorly because of snow and some because of the organised cities there. Here of course there is no snow but there is lot of greenery..... Man made greenery... There are 12 storied or more (I dont know as I have seen the city very less)apartment and huge multi storied office buildings. All the blocks look alike and one will be lost if left alone to come back home.
Lots and lots of population, chinese, Indian, Malay, Philippino etc. Here near to my cousin's house (where I will be staying till end of this month) there is a huge park. Totally man made but looks like rain forest. Inside some parts make you feel spooky and like walking in a forest but as soon as you come out, city welcomes you. This country has no natural water resource, they import water from Malaysia...but they recycle used water and restore rain water and they are able to meet the requirements.
Here it rains heavily and the rain water is not left to go waste...the rain water is harvested and collected and used for various purposes. What you see in this photo is not an open drainage but is a rain water harvesting pit.
Recently I visited the Merlion, the famous statue of the lion of Singapore...It gives out water from its mouth.....the sea water is pumped in and out of the lion...We can see the sea water silent and crushed between the huge bridges and numerous skyscrapers... there is nothing but backwaters....
You must be wondering what am I drawing at? Praising or making fun of Singapore?? I am doing neither. Here every nook and corner is maintained by the government. The buses, trains and the houses and the parks and the roads....everything is constructed and maintained by the government... What I am drawing at is we at India have more resources and more space than this country, we have more natural bounty, we have more natural water and we have more people, then why cant we put our brains together and make India more attractive space to live in? Why is Tourism in India is so dull and fake? why do we get drinking water once two or four days? why do we not have reasonable area to build parks and if they are there, why do we have to pay to use them?
All over the world agrees that Indians are the most intelligent guys...but why is that India could never dream of hosting Olympic games even after 10 years?? How come people have crores of rupees to spend to buy cricketers for their team but nothing to develop the drinking water system of the country? why??
I have only questions but no answers.... I know none of us have answers.......probably because we all know what the answer is but don't want to say it aloud.....
May be the only thing we can do is wait and watch, may be our next generation will be able to answer!!!!!!
Me in Singapura!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Life is what happens to us, while we are busy planning something else". I dont know what made me select this quote for my google talk probably a year ago. Definitely my life is not what I planned for. I never thought there would be so many turns and twists. And as my destiny takes it, I am in Singapore, I dont know for how long...
I started off with a pretty heavy baggage all by myself, reached well. Before I started in India, I was pretty sure that I am not going to like Singapore. In some ways it is similar to India and in some ways it is quite different. The things which match are that they are ardent lovers of God. They pray to gods with incense sticks and Idols just like we do in India. They go around making noises to buy old news papers and grand parents take thier grand kids to the park for walking.
As soon as I reached here, greenery welcomed me. There are lot of trees, gardens, parks all around. Here it rains every minute it feels like and drenches one and all totally, be it tall trees or tiny men. There are huge blocks of 12 floors each all around. The lifts stop only on 6 and 11 floors. People walk up or down for the rest of floors......can U believe it???
One more thing that is unbelievable....people do exercises here and every nook and corner of each block has exercising machines free of cost for the residents to use. Right now we are staying in our cousins house and from the corridor we can see a huge park which has resemblance of rain forest once you go near it. Huge trees, small creepers and lots of birds, the view is good. There were several poles standing with numbers on them and hooked on one edge, we wondered what they can be. We thought they were antennas. But today I got to know that people hanged bird cages to them and the place is called Bird singing area, as we can hear the birds cooing together.
These are some thingsI liked about Singapore. There are many things I dont like, for instance thier english is hopeless and the food they eat.....cant really bear the smell.
This is just the starting, I guess there will be many sequels to this post......
Did I change???
As days pass by, I only think of how life changes... the most possible thing yesterday seems to be impossible today and things that were impossible, today seem possible. Today, many look at me weirdly as if to question my sanity, as to what made me give resignation to my job and what on earth am I doing at home??? and the questions, of course
don't stop there. Weird as it is, but change is the only thing that is permanent in life. when I met my old friends last week, I realized the way our lives changed, the way we live now, the topics we talk about and the amount of time we spend with each other with out interference of kith and kin. At one point of time we used to spend long hours together without remembering anyone, and now we make it to lunch at 2.30pm. It is amazing to see how things have changed and how some
don't seem to change..... Imagine what would u do if your friend behaves the same and U cant tolerate that behaviour as u are already having one behaving the same way....your child!!!!!! gosh U would say, grow up and change with your age....so that means you have to change, you like it or not.....
The things I never wished to know intrigue me today, I
don't talk to my mother for days together and it does not bother me, I
don't see my brother months together and I
don't care. All I care is me and my family with all the
complications possible. Why should I think of anything else? Some people who were very close to my heart probably
don't even remember me, and I too
don't remember them,
don't even think about them.
After all, I guess this is how it should be!!!!!!! Change is the most inevitable thing in life. One has to change. One has to learn to live better, to make it happier to oneself and others around them. Learn to be helpful, learn to be happy, learn to understand the younger ones, learn to tolerate the older ones, learn to adjust.....adjust to the meagerness of life, adjust to the greatness of life. If you think you have not changed a tiny bit from your childhood, count your blessings but just think is this true??? Did you not change at all??? No. I would say it is not possible as CHANGE is the only thing that is constant in life, so if friends say that 'you have changed a lot' lets be proud of the fact!!!!!!!!
Please comment!!!
All of us have felt a jolt after witnessing the twin bomb blasts in two of the most faviourite places of Hyderabad. If you share my compassion for the dead and hate the way the officials responded please comment on this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let us unite at least at this moment before another bomb blasts........unlike our politicians!!!!!!!!!!
Only 60 years????
Another month left us behind wondering what is happening here?? Last month, we celebrated our independence day, bringing it a great deal for the fact that India is 60 years old!!!! 60 years?? Do you really think India is 60 years old? If you say so, then I would think it is stupidity personified. nothing more than that. Did India not exist before independence? before fighting out the B
ritishers? I think that India regained, mind you, REGAINED her consciousness 60 years back once more, that is it.
As everyone here knows that Indus civilization is one of the oldest civilization in the world and
Hinduism has produced one of the greatest gems even before Christ was born. The spiritual awakening that Indians had was enormous, there may be many having such experiences even today but they
don't prefer to show off. I think India had a great civilisation and now we are degrading, dropping from the zenith, that is why we are inventing newer and stronger ways to kill more people at one shot. Our ancestors never dreamt of harming others unless and until they tried to harm us, they never ate without offering to others, they never tried to earn money by chopping others hands, our kings never tired to ignore death of hundreds of innocents. But now we try to cash on others weaknesses, our leaders sign cheques on the name of the dead and ignore the alive. Today , the more barbaric you are, the more fashionable it is. The recent bomb blasts in
Mumbai and Hyderabad being a living example.
Two days back, I saw a programme in Discovery, there was an Indian with an accent from London, presenting India with a
British view. He visited
Kolkatta and he was showing the pathetic conditions of the roads and the amount of population in
Kolkatta but did not take pains to mention the names of great people the city has produced and the shine they gave not only just to India but also the
whole world. If you read the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, whom the city has proudly produced, you will be baffled that all our heads put together we cannot have even 10 % of the intelligence he had, not even 5% of the courage he had. Today, we know how to mimic the west, as obviously the guy on TV was doing. Long before Swami Vivekananda, there was a saint called Veda
Vyasa, who wrote the greatest epic of the world, Mahabharata. Many would fail to understand that he was the most wise in imagining of Test tube babies (
Kunti has babies through different Gods by praying to them, without having to touch her husband) and Organ culture (When
Gandhari has an abortion and her stomach bursts into hundred pieces, the sages preserve them and culture 100 sons for her) and many more which we cannot imagine even today. India has been haven for intelligence and reverence proved many a times.
Today in the name of civilisation, development, we are forgetting our identity and trying to run behind the luxuries of west. If we are real patriots then let us not try to show it off by Flag hoisting and singing songs, let us try to build the Nation in the way the great leaders of our nation had showed us, by leaders I am not talking about
Rajeev Gandhi,
NTR etc, I am talking about
Vyasa, Krishna,
Krishnadevaraya, Swami Vivekananda, and all others whom I still have to explore.
Please guys, there is more to India than pathetic roads, leaking
drainages, corrupt officials. There is certainly more to India than Indira Gandhi
nagars,
Rajeev Gandhi
nagars and
NTR margs. India is great confluence of thoughts, practices and beliefs. Just living in USA or UK and becoming
esteemed NRI does not make one entitled to criticise the population here. Let us hear to our leaders of the past and make ourselves disciplined, then see how India changes......
Though my last post did not gain me any acknowledgements online, I had some offline that really made me feel proud. My brother told me that I worte well, coming that from him gave me lot of inspiration, one cute friend of mine suggested that I write a novel and my husband said it is really good. After reading all the comments in my previous posts really made me feel that some do read my posts. But it really sometimes makes me feel how selfish I am, I feel so good when praised. I want to listen that I am good. I ask people whether the dish I made is good. I insist them on answering every stupid question of mine in positive. I really want my friends to know that I am great, not only that but make them tell me that I am.
But when I think clearly, I know that I am nothing. This world is so big that what I am is lesser than an electron or even less than that. When earth is so big, what am I compared to this universe??? where earth is a small dot???? How foolish of me....
In this small dot called Earth, in this smaller dot called India, I fight for my pride, my stature, my identity.......what am I compared to those huge balls of fire roaming frenzy in the space ever changing, forming complexes......getting ready to start a new life, and kill life??
All of us do so many good deeds, but meet only our selfish ends in the end. Today I am not writing this post for the praise of the ones I love, but to tell myself that it is not good to expect from what I have done.
This is the promise to myself that I will not expect anything from any small things I do. Let us all remember great people like Lord Krishna and Swami Vivekananda who told us To do what we are destined to do, but never expect anything in return.
Let us live this life the best way possible...who knows what we are going to be the next time.....
To use or not to use??
These are the days of Speed, we really have no time for talking to each other, caring for others, or even shopping for vegetables. Even today I remember my father used to go to market every sunday, with a cloth bag which was filled with veggies for Rs100. Today neither do we have the time tospend, nor do we have the patience for shopping in a huge market. We just go to a Super market or a Veggie outlet, pick up some vegetables, put them in the plastic bag and move on. Even if you go a street veggie vendor we get them packed in a plastic bag (of worst quality possible). Recently we bought a house, to fill my kitchen I was skeptical about the type of containers to use. But as in any super market, the most attractive part is the plastic department. So I saw all the colours and beauty and as a result my kitchen is full of plastic, as they have many advantages over steel ones. Now coming to another common issue, use and throw plastic plates and tumblers...Today in any house or office, at any big function or small get together, we use plastic plates and plastic tumblers, which are cheap to buy and easy to dispose. Otherwise, there will be always a question of cleaning to dishes, which may not be clean. As US returned, we learn many things including cleanliness, per say, using only mineral water, incresing the usage of plastic, being clean, using clean plates, again increasing use of plastic...we today have everything in plastic. From the small toy for our 2 month old to the Ear machine for our elders. Think of llife without plastic....I can imagine but it seems not very convenient though!! Now my question is Whether this chronic usage of plastic is good? Recently I read an article saying plastic bags lead to cancer....Is that so? Then is it possible for us to limit our plastic usage?
Alright we will not use plastic containers, we will use cloth bag to carry anything from the market. We will buy only recyclable paper cups and leaf plates. But we will still be using plastic in our life. How do you think the paper tumbler is able to hold the tea without sogging down??? Yes of course!! it has a plastic coating on it. How do you think books are having beautiful, shiny look....yes plastic coat again. What do you think the rattles babies play with are made of? what do you think the ball point pens made of? what do you think majority of the wall clocks made of? Every manufacturing unit, be it TV production or tongue cleaner, uses plastic these days. Then how can one think banning plastic bags will save the nature and make us proud of ourselves??
Leave plastic, how much steel can mother nature eat up and make it coal?? how much cement can she consume and in how much time? can anyone tell me? I guess this is a never ending argument....We, the most intelligent beings on this planet do not realise the fact that: For every start there is an end.... We are quite intelligently are preparing for our end, with quite technologically advanced material.....
After being a die hard fan of Nature and being worried about pollution and other issues all these years, today I can say that 'We should not be worried, because we can do literally nothing about the fact except wait and watch'.
This is for my only reader !!!!!!
Honestly, I don't know what I am going to write.....I really am amused by the kind of friends I have. The way situations get people together and get them away...I had not one but many great friendships with different, great in one way or other. I have a friend who is calm and quiet, incidentally it is her B'day today, with her I am the talkative....she takes everything silently...everybody tends to caress her and think she is delicate and needs protection including me but she being from a conservative Muslim family did her post graduation in spite of her father being against it. I might not have rebelled against my father to that level....
Then I have a friend who is a true American, she is above 50 but I look conservative in front of her. She loves my cooking and loves to make me laugh. I made her my mother but in fact she thinks like my daughter....I hailing from core of India and she from core of America were in a situation where we hit the rocks and enjoyed doing it together....
another one who shows off like hell, always likes to eat out.I just hated her tantrums...there was a point of time where we used to bunk office to eat out....can u imagine....yes I did some foolish things with her...enjoyed outdoors as well as indoors...I got tired keeping records of her boyfriends....she never did....
There are some other friends who were just as easy as butter for me to blend...at every stage of my education I met a few who just hit it off with me...I love them for no one can replace the comfort ever...the joy...the moments I shared with them....it was probably coz they was like me....I have 3 most important ones who meant a lot to me... who definitely mean a lot to me....
then there are some boys....one who looks like a hero just landed from Mars...one who looks like tapora but has heart of gold....another who just touches your heart friendly but shies away to talk....
so many years, so many friends.....not that I don't have relations that are near to heart....there are far too many to tell u here... but the most I miss in this grown up land is the tenderness that my friends gave me.....
This post is for all my friends whom I miss like hell....guys I love U all so much....
3 cheers to all of U!!!!!
