A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaleed Hosseini, a known writer for his book “The Kite Runner” which eventually turned into a successful movie, has given another book “A Thousand Splendid Suns”. The book is very well written keeping the common man in mind. The flow of each individual’s life and incidences in their lives does not make you realize that you are reading a story. There is no logorrhea anywhere in the book. You are so much into the book to let yourself stop reading. It was hard for me at times to close it and get back to my other important work.

There were events in the book, so descriptive and so narrative that they made me close my eyes and imagine the scene and feel it as if I am standing right when it is happening. I can see the characters but they cannot see me, as if my invisible mode is ON.

The story has revolved around many characters who are somehow related to each other, if not directly then indirectly. The young girl longing to meet her father and sitting on his doorsteps who does not know what is coming her way. What comes to her becomes an integral part of her. The story flows sinuously to keep the interest of the reader. You do feel the feeling of every character as it progresses in the story.

The eldritch behavior of a husband, the alacrity of group of young girls, the bucolic existing surprisingly in the city of Kabul still not a part of it; the confabulations (plausible but imagined memory) of a wife longing for her husband’s approval of everything, of a girl waiting for her beloved to come back, of a man and woman to do something in spite of the ongoing war in Afghanistan, the assiduous love of two young souls; all of it but one thing that left me thinking, in one story. What happened to the characters that were left at the end? What did they do with the box that was left and the money in it?

It left me scripting my own story about what could possibly happen to them, how they ameliorate their lives in future, how the writer imagines the war to come to an end. All these thoughts and imaginations, I wanted the writer to write more. I wish he comes up with another book that continues this story and gives it an unquestionable ending.

The Laughter of Old Age

Laughter is the only thing that sets the mind free for some time. As we age, we stop laughing and as we age more, we stop smiling. But, as we age even more, the only way to keep ourselves going is the “laugh” with the people. I came across a group of old ladies, in their 50s, who would laugh at each and every thing, be it anything. They had this alacrity to laugh and make people laugh by cracking up stupid jokes about every situation. While their body galumphed and got inured to the pain of the growing age, their mind was convivial. It was out of my imagination, being at this age and trying to keep oneself upbeat with the world, trying to be a part of organizing committee and titivating themselves.

THIS CONVERSATION IS STRICTLY TO BE READ BY FEMALES ONLY. RESEMBLANCE OF ANY CHARACTER TO ANY LIVING BEING (MOSTLY FEMALE) DEAD OR LIVING IS PURELY INCIDENTAL :-)

Lady 1 to me: Can I find an Indian man to marry?

Lady 1 is divorced.

Me: Yes, just don set your hair on fire (she always used to say that out of frustration)

Lady 1: What else does an Indian man want?

Me: A big question mark on my face???? I literally could not answer that. (Sorry guys)

Lady 1: Tell the man, I have my own house, three dogs, a convertible and I am RICH.

Me: Well, ok!!! Hahaha (No offenses, I thought to myself “lady if you have all this, you can point at any man and he will be yours)

Lady 2: Can I get one too???

Lady 2 is married.

Me: Are you that rich and why do want another man in your life, again?

Lady 3 to Lady 2: Are you going for “cash for clunkers”????

Lady 3 is almost their age and in getting married soon.

The whole room burst into laughter as soon as this came out. I had no idea of what to say at this point and neither was I in a condition to speak. I was astonished how prompt and apt it was. Can you imagine this coming out of bunch of old people?

It was amazing to see the spirits of those ladies who made fun of each person and each situation, even I wasn’t spared. But I laughed as they laughed on me. I think I am falling for the people of old age. They simply surprise you at times. They behave more like a 7 year than their own age. The question I had and still have, why not we???

BURST UP AND MAKE FUN OF LIFE

Krodha, Mana, Maya, Lobha

There are different aspects of a human behavior. They can be characterized in many ways and often it is the perception that divides the behavior as good and bad. Jainism describes the human behaviors in a way we, the humans do not perceive it and those are:

Krodha (anger)

Mana (ego)

Maya (deceit)

Lobha (greed)

Krodha or anger is an issue with everybody unless you are a cognoscente of a religion or attained the highest level of discipline in your life. People like them do conquer over their anger with all the preaching and practice. On the other hand, for a common man like us, it becomes hard to control this with the advent of all the luxury and the need to lead a luxurious life. This need can be referred as the ‘lobha’ or the greed to get all the enhancements of human existence. And this leads to different passions called ‘mana’ or deceit and ‘maya’ or greed. Yes, we all are very familiar with this and while you read it you can think of many situations where you have demonstrated either of those.

The human ‘animal’ is designed in a way that always wants to go 2 steps ahead of the animals around. In doing so he gets inured to the distress. The distress is nothing but a non required, useless and illogical result of combination of the above mentioned behaviors.

You can lose a lot if you have those ‘qualities’ but there is no harm in losing these ‘qualities’ in order to gain a lot. It needs a lot of effort and dedication to find out where you stand in terms of anger, how often and to what extent you get angry; ego, what are the situations in life and materialistic things that enhances your ego or adds to it; deceit, what and/or who will make you deceit others and last but not the least greed, to what extent can you go to satisfy your greed.

We need to ask these questions to ourselves from time to time in order to keep a check. A check that can save us anywhere from a minor loss to a huge loss, the loss of a value, money, people or life. Few things that one can do to get over these negativities would be:

a) Say to yourself when you are angry: “My anger will not let me resolve this issue or will not let the other person get on track”. Everybody makes mistake and if someone had made mistake there is no need for you to get angry, patience is the KEY. You could do the same mistake at some point.

b) Say to yourself when you have an ego problem: “Putting someone down will just put me down in front of others”. You can and you will need people around you some or the other day. Why not be nice to all. Just think how you would feel if someone mistreated you.

c) Say to yourself when you want others to believe what is false: “Am I doing it right by giving the wrong information? What and how much will I gain by giving this false information?” Truth will come out someday then why not now. It’s always better to speak the truth now then later and bear the consequences than breaking someone’s trust.

d) Say to yourself when you have greed for something: “All the things that I can get by my greed with not make it with me to heaven/hell. They will remain in this world and will be possessed by someone else”. Whatever you greed for means that does not belong to you. If something is supposed to or belongs to you, you will get it someday.

Let’s just summarize the intent behind writing this article in one word, BELIVE IN HIM. He has given the powers for you to NOT misuse them. Make the right use of your existence. As a self exercise, find out how and in how many ways you can make use of what you are and improve yourself so society can benefit from it.

White Mountains – Franconia Notch State Park

The Flume Gorge and Ride in Cannon’s Aerial Tramway

Fall has finally come again this year with beautiful red, gold, yellow and orange colors hanging on the trees all around. The White Mountains in New Hampshire is one place where you want to be over a weekend just to see these beautiful colors and feel the crisp autumn air and watch the blue skies. As the fresh air penetrates your body, it takes away with it all the dirt and fills the empty spaces with purity. This place is has been a destination for visitors from all over the world and many generations have passed to capture the scenic beauty of the mountains, the trees, the leaves and the drive.

The drive to this place in itself gives a feeling of immense proximity to the nature and the way it has titivated itself. The experience of the long 4 hours drive from Boston to White Mountains in itself was pleasing to the whole group. Although the body was breaking of the pain which instilled in us by sitting in the same position throughout the drive, the excitement was slowly gushing through the veins and taking the pace. The temperature was something that none of us and the hundreds of people in the queue and walking around were looking forward to. The heartwarming views around filled us with unbeatable joy and enthusiasm to further explore the nature.

The walk in the mountain trail started with a slow fervor until we all started taking pictures near different rocks, water fall and the trees. Hanging on the trees re-surfaced the child inside us and the memories of the days when we used to hang on the trees or climb to steal a fruit, was floating in the water like the dry colorful leaves in the waterfall around us. The uphill climb reminded me of the times when a person has to deal with all the difficult situations and keep climbing till he finds an even surface till he find another uphill climb. This sequence kept going on throughout the 4 mile trail till we came back to where we started.

The walk through the woods showed all the colors of fall and life. The life which is full of deep and shallow waters, precipitous and gentle curves, clamber and descend. The trail was a good way to get close to the friends and at the time to your own soul. I remembered “miles to go before I sleep” which instead was “miles to go before I reach”, reach the place from where we started. The trail was enough of a workout for 4 days but this was not over here. Yet to come was the Cannon’s Aerial Tramway.

The Cannon’s Aerial Tramway took almost 100 passengers to 4080 foot hilltop of Cannon Mountain. The experience in the cable car was incredible and it took approximately only 5-10 minutes to reach the summit. During the drive up to the top, one could see the mountains of 4 states and Canada. The staff member in the car mentioned about the surrounding area and the Canadian border. I could hardly listen to what he said since the cold air gushed through the ears making me deaf and my body numb. But I must say that what I saw was out of the world still a part of this world. There were mountains all around with the bright blue skies and the fall colors shimmering in the sunlight that fell on the mountains in patches. One part of mountain looked composed while the other part did all the mischief with the sunlight and the colors that it held.

The beautiful walk to the top of the 360 degree observation through the narrow path was scary. There are points where you could take pictures which will cover the 4080 foot height but at the same time one slip and your existence is a mere memory. The wind was cold or rather freezing and there was a point where we could not feel the cold anymore.

But the overall experience was breath taking and I can see the colors floating around me and the freshness still instills.

Thanks to all the people who made this a memorable trip.

Banta Goes to America

So this is a joke about Santa and Banta as everyone reading this can make out with the name “Banta”. I recently heard this joke from a colleague while taking dinner last night and believe me, all the while I was listening to this joke, I could not figure out where is it going to and when it is going to end.

So Banta comes to India after being in America for 5 years. When Banta comes to India to visit his family and friends (his only friend, since the time we are listening to Santa Banta jokes, is Santa), he drives home in a Limousine with security cars surrounding him. Santa is amazed to see Banta’s lavish lifestyle and obviously he is happy to see Banta.

Santa: How come you have earned so much money after being in US for 5 years?Well anyone can make money with business of some sort in US and convert the currency to Indian rupees and can drive such cars here.

Banta: This is nothing, everybody knows me all over the world.

Santa: I don’t believe you. (No one would believe if Banta said that)

Banta: If you don’t believe me, come to US.

Santa: It will be hard for me to get the visa.

Banta: Don’t worry I will get you the visa within no time.

So they go to US embassy where there is a long queue of people waiting to get in and our Banta walks straight into the door. To Santa’s surprise the guards salute Banta and the officials request him that if he wants they can process Santa’s Green Card right there. So he says “No, just give Santa 10 year visa”.

Santa is very happy to get US visa. They both fly to US and as soon as they reach the port of entry, everyone is all gaga about Banta’s arrival. Obviously Santa is shocked to see the treatment by US authorities. It’s like a once in a lifetime achievement.

Santa: I have seen how people treat you here but I want to visit Hollywood.

Banta: Sure let’s go there.

As soon as they reach there, the film stars treat both of them royally and are obliged to see Banta and his friend. Santa is wondering now what is happening. What did actually Banta do? But still he is not convinced of the fact that everybody in this world knows Banta. So Santa expresses his wish to go to White House. The plot is of the time when Bill Clinton was in house.

Bill comes running in his night pants to pick up the luggage that Banta and his friend were carrying and Monica, the then intern, comes behind him. She is so nice that she even does the guest laundry.

I know no one can imagine this happening with Banta. Yes, of all the people BANTA!!!

Santa is out of his mind and his last way to confirm is this.

Santa: I have seen how people treat you in US but I am still not convinced.

Banta: What more do you want to know? Who is bigger than US who can make you believe what I say?

Santa: Only one person is bigger than the president of US, The Pope.

Banta is caught by surprise.

Banta: You want me to take you there? Alright, we will go to Vatican.

They both fly to Vatican.

Banta: You stop here while I go and talk to Pope and see if he is ready to meet you.

Santa: Ok

Banta is in with Pope and they both finally come out in the gallery to wave hand to the crowd. So that proves that Pope is also influenced by Banta.

Banta comes down and finds out that Santa is lying on the ground unconscious.

Banta: What happened to you?

Santa: Everything was ok till now until the guy standing next to me asked “Who is the person standing next to Banta?”

I could not stop laughing at this point. The laughter was coz of the end and the fact that it took so long for the joke to come to an end. The common understanding of a ‘joke’ is to give a quick humor. Nevertheless, it was a good story wrapped inside a joke. Please don’t ask me to explain this joke “A joke explained is a joke WASTED”.

The Past and the Future: Life Hanging in there

It is when you start realizing the facts of the life, you start noticing the change in yourself. There are a lot of things that you didn’t know about yourself and about others that you find now. There are a lot of hidden secrets about the close ones that were never revealed to you. There are reasons behind every second of the time in your life and millions of other lives. Every time you do something, you turn it into a memory of some kind, either good or bad.

If you see through the open doors and windows of your mind, everything will start making sense after appearing meaningless for some extended period of time. This period can be short for some people or some situations or can be invariably long for others. All that matters is how well you can deal with them or adapt to the new truths of life. For a long time now my life has revolved around one incidence that changed me and the meaning of life. It brought with it some good things and some bad ones. The good ones included my improved reading and writing skills, my concentration towards myself, my life and my health, my closeness to spiritualism and psychology of life and human mind, study of human behavior; my work and more importantly a good bond between my close and dear ones. The bad one includes just few things: my inability to stop thinking about it and my question that why things like this happen.

It is not just me. Everybody goes through something in their life. You feel you are the only one and you get frustrated then you find peace in doing something and all of a sudden you are fine. These problems resurface from time to time and every time it appears you find it difficult to deal with them. In this process you find out several ways in which you can find peace and positivity, even though it is just for time being. You end up trying all sorts of things and you will eventually make opinions about what you like and what you don’t. On such occasions, the likes and dislikes become stronger. You begin to find the path that you want to follow but then you end up questioning yourself why are you even doing this. You are scared of the results. You want to stop where you are because you don’t know where it will lead to and the consequences can be anything.

The frustration looms you and the darkness of negativity surrounds you and clouds your eyes. The wait flows down through your cheeks like the water through the fresh petals of a flower. After this flow the flower spreads its freshness all around itself and the smell to far distance. Yes, you do the same thing. Once you come out of that cloud of tears, you are more positive and fresh and full of ideas, the ideas that you want to share with others, that can give them an insight into their lives.

The constant battle between the past and the future often makes your present like a carom. Your past keeps rebounding and distracts your decision making in present and hence the future gets affected, to what extent, no one knows. You find out only when you go to that future as a present situation. At times you feel you are stuck with some situation and there is absolutely no way out. You will talk to friends and try to figure a way out but even that doesn’t help only if you end up talking to some stranger and telling your story to a stranger will help you get the insight of what you cannot see and what that stranger can see, you will also get over the fear that you will be judged. You end up listening to what you could not have thought had happened.

Isn’t this the beauty of life what it makes you go through and makes you turn and spin in the roller coasters every now and then? Isn’t this the harshness of life that it makes you learn the lessons the hard way? This is life. DEAL WITH IT or let’s say EITHER PUT UP OR SHUT UP. And we all do either or both.

A Generous Act in NOT SO Generous Place

This world is not a generous place to live and the reason for this is ‘us’. We, as the responsible citizens of this planet are given immense powers to make or break our lives but we choose to shatter it with all the self-centered dreams, desires and developments. In the process of ruining the present and future, few people have managed to keep the respect for the elders ‘intact’. A very small but thoughtful incidence happened at the Boston International Airport in the afternoon of Sunday, the August 30, 2009. For sure this went unnoticed by the insolent crowd surrounding an old couple, in their 70s, on their respective wheelchairs.

The husband and wife were waiting to board on their flight to Atlanta. That day, due to inclement weather conditions in Atlanta, all the flights coming in and going out of the Atlanta airport were cancelled. The passengers including the couple on the wheelchair were eager to reach their destinations but the long wait due to the delay in the flights added to the misery of the passengers. Nobody could do anything but wait. Somehow, but with a lot of struggle the husband managed to get up to go to the restroom, while the wife waited for him like the sunflower waiting for the sun to rise and looking around to see him coming. Their wheelchairs were parked diagonally to my seat however still far enough from my attention as I was busy in my thoughts which were eating my mind like the termite eating a log of wood. Hence the difficult attempt of the husband to come back and sit on his wheelchair missed my attention. The husband’s two unsuccessful tries to hold the wheelchair and wife’s efforts to hold it still for her husband crossed my eyes but not my senses to get up and help them.

Suddenly a man seated next to the old lady who occupied the adjacent seat beside me, stood up and helped the old man get on the seat and not only that, the generous man also bent down to straighten the leg rest for him so he doesn’t have to do it. Later on I noticed that the old lady sitting next to this gentleman was his mother who herself was on a wheelchair. Who could better understand the pain of the old couple basking their old age with the only support of each other. No one in the crowd standing in the line in front of them had the generosity to help them settle down. This included me, since I was sitting right behind, looking at them and still did not notice. As soon as the generous man got up to help them, it caught my eyes and my mind and I realized, even I was ignorant and selfish to not do anything. The croissant with butter melted in my mouth and so did my heart to see how dependent they were on others for their own existence.

History will repeat itself and we all do and will go through these situations, the point is how far you go to make an everlasting impression on a stranger like this generous man did.

I would like to conclude by thanking the man who opened my senses and helped me open other's senses (if at all they read it and liked it). Next time if a needy person needs help, I would get up and be the first person to offer. And I really mean it.

Aparigraha - A philosophical Viewpoint

Which of your possessions matter to you the most? Is it the gift you received from someone special or the one bought from your first salary?

I want you to think of that while reading further. Jainism or known traditionally as Jain Dharma, Shraman Dharma or the religion of Nirgantha by ancient texts, dates back to Later Vedic period (1000 BC-600 BC). After attaining Enlightenment, Mahavira (540 BC-467 BC) laid down the foundation of very religion, Jainism. The teachings of Mahavira revolve around the basic five principles that became the core of Jainism:

1 . Ahimsa: Non-violence

2. Asteya: Non-stealing

3. Brahmacharya: Celibacy

4. Anekantvada: Multiplicity of view points

5. Aparigraha: Non-possessiveness

Aparigraha or the idea of non-possessiveness is one the five principles of Jainism and holds immense meaning in itself. How many of us actually understand the idea behind the Aparigraha? Sub-consciously we do think about “not possessing” things that we have but still we do. Aparigraha means giving up your worldly possessions like wealth and property without attaching thoughts of what you have given up. The thoughts can comprise of sadness or happiness. By giving up I mean, one should not attach himself to the very thought of owning something. This does not only apply to materialistic things but also to the baggage that we carry within ourselves from the past. One should learn to detach himself/herself from the possessions of property, people and feelings. The point is, what we have today can be someone else’s tomorrow be it a house, money, family or someone you love the most.

We have to give up the attributes of life that do not help us become what we are or what we should be, still we keep them within our soul, mind, heart and body and stop ourselves from attaining moksha (is the liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth and all of the suffering and limitation of worldly existence). According to our Tirthankars (a human being that attains enlightenment), moksha is attained when we attain Samyak Darshan, or true perception. It’s then we remain in the nature of soul without raag (attachment) and dwesh (repulsion) and have finally reached a state of knowledge, bliss and enlightenment. We confuse ourselves with ourselves and with what people want to see us as. There was a reason behind every principle formulated by jain Tirthankars, to help us liberate our soul from the negative effects of unenlightened thoughts, speech and action. Attachment leads us to different karmas and we keep moving between birth, suffering and death. There are two sides of a coin; pleasure and suffering, happiness and sadness, love and hate, wealth and poverty. This is just a perception and one does not exist without the other. Once we have trained ourselves to think beyond these perceptions, we have attained what is called moksha. We have freed our soul from the dirt of this world.

With time, we tend to mold the principles according to our needs and we all know we have done that to an extent that our self consciousness also justifies the change. But isn’t change the only constant thing in this world? Then why not change ourselves by changing our habits and our thinking and spreading the word of Jainism across the world in its purest form. We do not need to give up everything in order to do this. As it is we have molded the principles to our requirements. The adapting of non-possessiveness comes only with a simple understanding that nothing in life is consistent or immortal. Everything today is going to change tomorrow, may it be things, status, money, relations or situations- good or bad. It is just waste of time and energy to get possessed with worldly things and people and then get grief-stricken on losing them. But this state of mind is much easier told than experienced. It takes a lot of thinking and understanding to achieve a state of Non-possessiveness towards something. Life should be taken as a Journey and Not a Destination. There will be indefinite stations in the way and each station/ phase has something new and different to show. Your best bet would be Get the Best out of every phase and dump the rest.

Where is the TIME???

I was driving on the roads of Florida on a morning of summer '09. My favorite music was playing in the car with my iPod in my one hand and holding the steering from other hand. Driving in the right lane is for the people who drive slow, not to mention that the people DO NOT drive way below speed limit. All of a sudden a thought struck my mind "Why are people running?". I do not understand why there is a hurry and hurry for what? Hurry to reach work or hurry to reach work soon and get out of there soon? Hurry to finish the pending work or hurry to gear up for the rest of the day? What is it? Do we know what are we running behind and why are we running?

We do not set our priorities in life and end up hurrying for every ticking minute in the clock. We do not get enough time to think about ourselves and our loved one in the hush hush of LIFE. Do we really know what life is and how to live it? NO WE DO NOT.

I kept driving at my own slow speed in the right lane and kept wondering about the people rushing in their cars and passing me by. The red mini truck which was 2 cars behind my car was changing lanes with the blink of an eye. Driving at a speed above the speed limit the red monster was still not able to make it's way through the traffic. So he passes a car and comes to the right lane and as soon as he is in the right lane, he passes over to the left lane and vrrrommmmmm there he passes me. Thinking in my subconscious mind I say "I do not need to rush, I have all the time to reach my work but why does people become impatient when they are driving, why not enjoy every bit of the drive even when it is to work?" The precious amenity called "Time" is no more just amenity it stands next to God because we end up worshiping it. I cannot make out which one is more important because they are just like tweedledum and tweedledee.

I cannot criticize people giving importance to time. It holds the weightage of being where it is. We are the culprits to give it the prominence to steal the march of every race that a human can possibly think. Time is managing us when instead we should be doing that.

The Village Most Visited...

The waiting for summer vacation to come…

When one could spend all the time in JUST fun…

Those years when school was scarier than life…

Only going to that small village could make it bright…

Walking on the road, I plan…

Let’s do this or that when it began…

The traveling by those iron rot trains and buses…

One could barely fit their tusshies…

Walking on the uneven roads…sun rising high above the horizons…

Towards the station with the excitement to see our owns…

Those aunties wearing pink and green and yellow sarees…

Their husbands in their own household worries…

Kids about to climb the stairs…

With all the summery shirt and legs half bare…

Those dry days and summer scorching everybody’s mind…

Dry trees and dry plants…

Those cows and buffaloes moving in their clans…

Earth breaking into small pieces…

Waiting for a drop of rain…

Sight of people dark and brown…closing their eyes in their own mourn…

Waiting at the station to eat those snacks…

Samosas and chips and pop corns with those sweets…

The holy river that flows close to that haunted house…

A 25 paise coin drowned and joining hands with a spiritual bow…

I wonder if kids did that now…

It’s something I wished had never changed…

My childhood remains all but a faint name…

20 years down the line…

Never thought it will be all a pen and a line…

Like someone moving the reels behind the wall…

Memories cross my path and crawl…

I still remember those less traveled paths…

In the jungles of the village most visited….

I am the...

I am the loneliness of the crowd…

I am the silence of the talk…

I am the dryness of the rain…

I am the oneness of the many…

I am the softness of the hard…

I am the wetness of the dry…

I am the happiness of the sad…

I am the oneness of the many…

I am the solitude of the open…

I am the darkness of the light…

I am the shallowness of the depth…

I am the oneness of many…

Coz’ I have been the one among many and many within…the one

Co Creator: Rahul Aran

The Kite Runner: The book and the movie

I will ask for a good book to someone who reads and by that I mean not read a newspaper or an article once in a while but someone who has intellectual taste about books, the real books. It is still fresh in my mind since the time I started and finished reading this book, the book that has not only touched many hearts but has drawn attention of renowned news papers, writers and directors that they were bound to read and speak about it. The best way one could speak about a book is by making a movie out of it, which director Marc Forster had done in the movie “The Kite Runner”. I heard a lot about this book and movie, not from one or two people but a lot of them. It seemed like everyone knew about this book and the movie except me.

The story is revolving around two friends, a father and a son, a husband and a wife. The story depicts how these relations make up a person’s life and the mistakes he has done and how it made a difference in everyone’s life around him. It is about Afghani guy named Amir Jan, as they call him with love and his childhood friend Hassan, a servant's son. It has portrayed the relation between them who do not belong to the same sect so beautifully that you can feel as it happens. They both are deprived of their mother’s love. Amir’s mother, who his father loved more than anything and Hassan's mother, a beauty known in Kabul, ran with other man after giving birth to him since she could not connect herself with Hassan's father, Ali. She played an important role in the story without even being present for most of the time.

How much does a child can think and go through in the age when he is supposed to play and read. Without even knowing a child goes through a lot which an adult at times misses to notice. The life went on well for everybody until one day an incident turning out as a mistake for someone else ruins it all. One of them thinks he is suffering but actually every character of this story was paying in some or the other way. This has been felt throughout the book and I bet no one will deny this.

Situations like a girl’s courage to leave her family at the time when this was happening gives me goose bumps. It makes me want to think about what really I want to do. It’s not just about eloping it’s about doing what your heart says is right. But we often get caught up with what our mind says it right. Both, according to me are not wrong. We need to weigh the pros and cons of thinking, acting and the consequences of either ways.

Most of us mainly live because we cherish our friendship with our friends. Living in their friendship rings a bell in my mind that I have also done what Amir and Hassan did as a naughty prankster. We have had friends with whom we used to play, go cycling, fall and cry and stand up and start playing again. How many of we still remember those days, how many of we are still in touch with them? If I talk about myself, I am not in touch with all of them but yes, I have few childhood friends who are still a part of my life. It doesn’t take much to make relations but it takes more than we can imagine maintaining them. In this story this is what happened with poor soul Amir. He was lost in what his fears were and what his feelings were. He was scared to find out that he is not what he thinks, a coward but a brave kid. We learn from our mistakes and so did he. He demonstrated his bravery once and for all at the end.

How much we fear or fears of fighting for what we want to choose as our career can be seen in Amar’s life. A constant struggle and suppression of a desire to become a writer can be easily related by every human life on this planet. We have to do a lot of hard work to find out our real self and what the goal of our life is. We often tend to be someone by pretending to do things or behave in ways that do not define ourselves. THINK ABOUT IT!!!

There is a mix of emotions and various emotionally shaking incidents in this book. As this story goes on, we start relating ourselves with the different characters and different situation in some or the other way. The movie could not do complete justice to the book, just like any other movie inspired by a book. You read the book and see the movie, you will find out the difference between how much a writer puts into writing and the degree of hard work needed by the director to put all the feelings from the words into the reel. Indeed, the director did a very good job. If you watch this movie before reading the book, you will definitely love the concept. You will feel what every character has felt, when it was written. The actors portrayed the feelings so well that it come across to the audience as their own story.

I would suggest everybody to read the book and watch this movie. It’s a real food for thought for all of us.

I Want to Say Something...

I have thought about this so many times and yet I do not have an answer. Should we speak what our heart says without thinking about whether it will affect the person listening to it or should we speak what the person listening to us wants to hear? In the second case we are taking into consideration other person's feelings, may it be good or bad.

We could just say whatever we think we want to say and it's most likely we made someone feel miserable, we just made someone feel pathetic about him/her or God knows about us. On the other hand, we could avoid all this by saying what he/she wants to hear. In doing so, we are eliminating the possibility of all that is mentioned above BUT we are not being truthful to ourselves and to the others too.

There is an on-going battle between ourselves and our thoughts and we choose to do what we do. The reason can be anything; it can be because of our feelings and emotions when our mind is over-ridden by our heart or our state of mind when our heart is over-ridden by our mind. It is very hard to strike a balance between your thoughts and emotions and it takes what is called as ‘experience’.

We end up taking decisions which we may or may not regret later or right after taking a decision, in some cases. We are our best judges to decide when we regret because we cannot lie to ourselves even when we think we have lied to our own selfish creature dangling inside this materialist body.

I want you all to give me your inputs on this topic...let's see what majority of us think!!!

Yet Another Incidence to be Grateful

How many times do you think you thank someone for what they have done for you? I think it is really important for us to let that someone know how much we appreciate it. I mentioned in one of my post about a Hispanic cab driver in New York City. It was my way to thank him for what he did; of course I did it face-to-face too. And here is another chance for me to appreciate their gestures. Yes, I am again talking about Hispanic people.

I never thought I would be able to have fun in the place like Silver City in New Mexico which is very close to US-Mexico border. This is a place where the only good place to shop is Wal-Mart and few stores behind the Walgreens by Route 180. The city "city" close to this town would be El Paso, Texas (2.5-3 hrs drive towards South East) and Tucson, AZ (3-4 hrs drive towards West). The downtown here is barely a street but to my surprise there were some good restaurants like Diane's and Isaac's; a coffee shop, the interior of which reminded me of the old civilization and a bakery called Diane's Bakery, which would give you the best cakes (of course in the town).

I don't need to tell you that this place is full of Hispanic people because of its proximity to Mexico. It was an altogether different experience to be here. It's amazing to see and analyze the difference in different cultures. It was hard for me to accept the fact that his is how the Hispanic culture is and people are.

The Culture:

Although I could not get as close to understanding the culture as I would like to but I still tried to get hold of it barely. I was working mostly with Hispanic people and I was in a room with three other ladies of the same culture. I am someone who would like to make the best use of time especially by learning new things and this time it was “culture”. They have a different perspective about life and how they want to live it. The common thing was the bond between the family members. But they had a different perspective about marriage and having kids. They get married twice in Mexico, in a civil way where they get married in front of the judge and in Church, in front of the Minister. If you do not get married in Church the marriage is not considered valid. The children go their own way even though the parents are strict and most of the females are ending up being single mothers. And it was a shock to me that they were so cool about the fact.

The People:

They all like to eat and eat well and a lot. They make some amazing guacamole and salsa and I did get some recipes from them. The people are care free too. They believe in enjoying every bit of the life and they are satisfied with whatever they have and where ever they are. They live close knit with their families. I have seen people staying with their families even after getting married unless they have to move out because of work.

My Experience:

I got a chance to hang out with the people here and I made some really good friends. They made sure that I could get to see in and around the area. I got a chance to go with the ladies I was working with and their family to Catwalk, a walking trail on a mountain 1.5 hour away from the city. Yes, it was me who badly wanted to do something over the weekend and I pulled the ladies into my plan and they made it a wonderful day by having their better halves with them and doing a barbeque in Catwalk. The walk through the mountain was tiring and full of fun, adventure and water. They made sure that I am enjoying to the fullest and did not make me feel even a bit, out of place.

Who would do so much for you just so you can have fun and enjoy. I like horses and would as much enjoy horseback riding as driving. So considering my interest in horseback riding, my new Hispanic friend asked one of her friends if we could do horseback riding on their horse. The owners were really nice people and came in their SUV with all the gadgets to deck up the horse back to make us able to sit and ride. Honestly, I could not understand the name of any of them. It was like a tongue twister for me so I asked them to give me easier version of their name.

I was standing there watching them put all the stuff on the horse, looked around and realized what a simple life they are living, away from the rush of the big city and close to the nature. So close to the nature and reality of life and existence of this very way of living, that I could not stop feeling nostalgic. I could see a part of “My Country” here, the part that carries a lot of significance yet unnoticed and unappreciated by most of the Indians, a part which is made up by the people who almost do every possible thing to grow in their farms, living away from big cities, living away from the life that is just the reflection of our imagination and our selfish behavior, the part that we call village but that’s where we learn the real meaning of the life that started thousands and thousands of years ago.

I would like to thank these people who made me realize that judging someone by their caste, color and culture is least we could do to human kind. We should not misjudge someone, if we cannot judge them right.

An Alien Country Vs Non Immigrant Residents

This is about my visit to the state of New Mexico, a state next to Texas and sharing the border with Mexico. I had to visit this place called Silver City which is close to Texas and very close to Mexico border. The closest airport that I had to take was the El Paso International Airport in Texas 3 hours away from Silver City. The journey from Boston started as early as 4am on a sunday and ended at 5:30 pm local time in Silver City with connections in Chicago and Denver and the the drive from El Paso to final destination. It was heck of a travel. I traveled in three different time zones in one day. I was not able to keep track of the time since my watch, which I ad adjusted to CST was showing a different time than my cell phone. In Denver I almost thought I lost my connecting this flight because of this confusion, I thought I had only 10 minutes left for my connecting flight to depart.

The Chicago aiport and the Denver airport looked like an international one but not the El Paso. El Paso is right at the US and Mexico border (this fact will come into picture later here). I could see more of spanish speaking people instead of english speaking, which was expected because of it's proximity to New Mexico and Mexico. The one thing I was looking forward to in this trip was the Mexican food. I like mexican food with all the rice, different kinds of beans, vegetables and sour cream and guacamole with chips and salsa. They make their dishes taste better with a side dish of guacamole and salsa at times. Being a vegetarian, I can think of satisfying my hunger only with these things and i find them yummyyy...

The drive from El Paso to Silver City was full of adventure and trust me on that, it was. The traffic was not that bad and I had to drive for a stretch of 96 miles on US 180 West. The higway seemed very dry with close to no stop areas in between and the sign boards saying "USE CAUTION, DUST STORMS IN NEXT FEW MILES POSSIBLE" and the others saying "ZERO VISIBIITY POSSBILE". I kept thinking about how dust storms were in India and how well we were used to those. But here, it was not a very common thing. This area looked deserted with only mountains as far as you could see. The sun was on top of my head and it was strong enough to tan me even with windows of my car closed and A/C on to the maximum.

The drivers were not that bad and I could not see a single cop car around so people were driving 10-15 miles above the speed limit and the speed limit there was not less than 70 miles on the higway. I felt like I am going to a place where I would not even find anything to eat, a place where the life would be riding on horse back and going to work, a place where the most fun thing you could do would be climbing a mountain on a weekend or get yourself tanned in your backyard. No signs of life better than this occured to me during the 3 hour drive.

The drive was pretty smooth though, my car was in cruise for most of the time while I listened to my favorite songs until I was stopped at a check post by US border police. That's what I think they were. So here one person comes and stops me, while letting others go. I guess the reason was I am BROWN but I will not hold on to this reason as there can be many security related reasons for this. He asked if I was US citizen or a permenant resident and I am none of those. So he asked me what status I was on here in US. Unfortunately, I was not carrying my passport with my VISA details on it and my company ID.

I never needed those documents earlier when I was traveling to different places but this was just a different world altogther. I was asked to pull over so they can let the other traffic behind me go. So I was asked to present all kinds of documents, right from my passport, company ID and the SSN card. "God, why would I need to carry all these documents if I am in US on a valid status with a valid DL", I thought to myself. I was scared to spit it out on the guard. The look on their faces when I mentioned that I am not carrying any of those documents was as if they are about to say, "You are not carrying your documents, sorry we will have to shoot you dead".

The funny thing that happened here was the fact that the guard could not find my name on my DL. I thought being a US CITIZEN one would know where the name of a person is written on a DL. Anyways, they did some check using my DL and came to me just to tell me that I could be deported back to India or charged a fine if I don't carry all these documents. Can someone go over the immigration rules with me here please???

That was the moment all my charm to be in a different country other than my own, faded. It was the moment that actually showed me the meaning of what "Your Country" means. I don't know how many would realize this and when, if at all they realize it but it makes you think what you are doing in an ALIEN land where you do not have an identity and you could be taken down for not carrying every minute details about your existense. I was really nervous a little for being pulled over and thought of being deported back just because of these reasons made me more worried. It felt like I am traveling within the US borders, illegally. But I do not blame them, while they were just doing their duty, I saw other vehicles passing by me without any issues. I learned my lesson.

The only intent behind writing this was to make myself and the readers realize that whatever they do to be in any part of the world as a legal citizen except their own country, they will be considered alien residents. Think about it!!!

Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time...

The Kite Runner: The book and the movie

I will ask for a good book to someone who reads and by that I mean not read a newspaper or a article once in a while. Someone, who has an intellectual taste about books, the real books. It is still fresh in my mind since the time I started and finished reading this book, the book that has not only touched many hearts but has drawn attention of renowned news papers and writers that they were bound to read and speak about it. I heard a lot about this book and not from one or two people but many other sources. It seemed everyone knew about this book and the movie then except me.

The book is about a Afghani guy named Amir Jan, as they call him with love. He lost his mother and so did Hassan, their servant's son. Hassan's mother, a beauty known in Kabul, ran with other man after giving birth to him since she could not connect herself with Hassan's father, Ali. Amir and Hassan played togther, stayed together besides being nursed by the same female. Hassan's loyalty towards his Agha, a word used as a title of respect, could not be questioned. Hassan could do anything for Amir and he did end up paying for his loyalty and generosity towards Amir one evening. Amir could really not do anything because of the way he was. His father used to say "A man who can not stand for himself, can not stand for anything in his life".

Amir avoided situations where he had to confront anyone. Even then when he had to express his desire to become a writer to his father in his childhood. Hassan on the other hand, was a brave lad. He even made enemies with Assef, a notorious tall and fair boy with dark eyes. A boy who lived a lavish life with all his father's money and enjoyed scaring and bullying kids around. "I will target your eye with my slingshot and you will be called Blind Assef", Hassan said to Assef once. Ofcourse, Hassan had to pay for what he said and how he shooed away Assef and his accomplices one fine evening of the day when they were returning from the place up the hill. The place where they both Amir and Hassan sat everyday. A place where Hassan used to listen to Amir's stories and carve their name on the pomegranate tree "Amir and Hassan, the kings of Kabul".

Life was going smooth until one day, the day that changed the course of lives of both friends. The day which was imprinted in Amir's memories like an engraving on the stone. The day that departed the two friends, the then friends. Life never stops for anyone, the rule is to keep moving and so did they. During the Taliban invasion in Afghanistan, Amir went to America with his father few years after Hassan left for his village with Ali, never to come back. Amir, just like any other immigrant to US got used to the life and culture of America. Not to mention, his father had no other option. But he still had the dust that he had collected before going to Pakistan, illegally.

Life was going on, Amir and his father were making a living somehow until one day he found Soraya Jan. The love that finally came to him unknowingly. His father went for khastegari, to my understanding this is a ritual that elders perform to ask for a girl's hand. "What do you see?", she asked, not allowed to look into the mirror kept in front of them on the day of their marriage. "I see rest of my life" he answered.

Phone rings, "Hello"

"Amir Jan"

"Rahim Khan"

"You need to come here Amir Jan"

Sometimes you have to do things even if you DO NOT want to. This happens to every individual on the face of this earth. He did the same. Seeing Rahim Khan, his father's friend rather say he was Amir's best friend after Hassan, who listened to even what Amir never said in his childhood, who gave Amir the love and attention that he longed for from his father, someone who read his stories and said "Bravo". The word meant more than his expensive toys to him. "Bravo" encouraged him to write more stories. To respect his relation with Rahim Khan, Amir flew to pay him a visit only to find out Hassan and his wife are both dead, leaving a son behind. The son who was taken by the goons who called themselves religious leaders. This group wanted power and hence tortured every human soul in their vicinity. Hassan's son was one of them. He was a victim of child molestation.

It was now when Amir decided to bring Hassan's son back with him to United States. The later part of the story reveals not only to readers but to Amir himself, how strong he was, that how he could have made a change had he stood up for Hassan. It's never too late, hence Amir took a stand and fought for Hassan's son with the group. Amir's quest to do justice to his friendship with Hassan changed him into someone his father always hoped to see in him.

Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time. It was long awaited spring for Amir and it did eventually come changing the lives of people around him. Only if his father was still alive to see the change. The story really touched my heart and to this date it is one of the best books I ever read.

I highly recommend people to read this book. A small blog about it will not do any justice to how well it is written and narrated.

Enjoy Reading!!! And do leave your feedback.

A Day spent doing Kayaking

It was a long weekend in US, the July 4th weekend which is most awaited by approximately 300,000,000 people was starting. I had come back from Indiana on the night before the long weekend. On my flight back to Boston I was thinking about how to spend my long weekend. The plans to go to Washington DC were already cancelled. All the reservations needed to be cancelled and the friends who were supposed to meet me were disappointed with the last minute change of plan. There was nothing much I could do to at this point. "I will just stay at home and read The Kite Runner".

First things first, I finished making some important phone calls. I could hear my roommate talking to someone about some plan for the day. It is still Friday so we had enough time to think about the weekend. Impromptu plans are more successful than the events planned ahead of time and they are more fun because you don't know what you are going to do and with every moment you see something new, something that was not planned and not thought about. We planned to do canoeing @ Hopkinton State Park (http://www.outdoorrec.com/hopkinton-state-park.html), 15-20 minutes drive from Shrewsbury.

The weather was just perfect, we could not have asked for more this weekend. Two cars started from Shrewsbury, my roomie and I in one car with two other friends in the second one. Hopkinton State Park was like a small island isolated from the rest of the city and the busy traffic. Life seemed to come to a halt as soon as we entered the park. It was still a few mitnutes drive to the lake. The roads were small, covered with the tress, plants and rocks on both the sides as if God had designed it purposely for the people around the area to relax and cut themselves off from the rest of the world and unwind their true self.

This was my first time canoeing and I had absolutely no clue of how it is done but whatever I had heard from people, I was up for it at the same time I kept my excitement to the minimum low. I don't know how to swim and we were going in center of the lake, deep enough and fed by continuous spring of water. You could canoe, kayak, rent a boat and go the any of the two beaches to "swim", I was not thinking about doing it anyways, and do all the fun stuff that you can think of doing at the beach.

Dressed in shorts and tanks, the girl gang after applying the sunblock was walking towards the kayak rental office. Yes, I thought we were going to do canoeing but after reaching there one of the girls mentioned Kayaking is more fun. "Heck ya, I really don't care as long as it's fun and adventure". Handed my license to the female dressed in the dress code for the staff members: red t-shirt and pants, behind the desk. The yellow card with my last name on top in big capital letters written in black marker "MOONAT" let us rent two kayaks for four of us.

The experienced person sits at the back and the novice like me, sits in the front. The guy in red t-shirt instructed me what to do and how to use the double bladed paddle. Although it is not a rocket since but I don't understand things unless I do them. My roomie sitting behind me was instructing me how to paddle. Laughing at my stupid moves we were trying hard to go straight. After few paddles, I got it. I got the idea of how to move the kayak to left, to right and when to do it. We stopped at some point and let the kayak float on water, the water not warm and cool enough to soothe us from the scorching heat. Others behind us, we were yelling at them to stop where we had taken a hault. The funny part was, we were trying to hit our friends on the paddle boat and running away from them. After an hour of fun and splashing water at each other, we finally decided to return the kayaks and go to the beach.

The beach was not something you'd expect to be in Florida or near the coastal sides. It was a small beach with few people swimming, some getting a tan and a group playing volley ball while others playing the role of a spectator. There was a small hiking range, I don't know if I should call it hiking or not be we had to climb our way to top to see the spring of water. There were 9 of us who were walking up the hill, kinda, teasing and taking pictures. The day did not end yet, the only thing that ended was the fun time with all of them. There was more to come for some us from that group for the rest of the day.

All of you out there, this is a must try if you like to do adventurous things.

Next, I want to do sky diving and bungie jumping.

My Love for Chocolate Croissants

This is a weird topic to write on but I will still try to write why I love chocolate croissants. I am not a huge fan of chocolates, though I like some of them like Cadbury's Fruit n Nut, Ferrero Rocher, Five Star (I ate those in India. I don't see them in Amercia) and Kit Kat. I like the dark flavor of chocolates too but only in cakes.

It is interesting how I was introduced to chocolate croissant. When I came to US, I didn't know that something like this existed along with other 10,000 things that I was not aware of and I still am not. Being born and brought up in a small city of India, you don't get to learn a lot unless you are street smart or book smart. Then I was neither of those. Most of you, after reading this (ofcourse who know me) would think, "Are you either of those now?"

I visited a friend in Boston in October of 2005. Traveling from Philadelphia to Boston by bus was not an exciting affair especially considering the cold weather creeping in each day. Having a thing for travel and going to different places kept my excitement alive since this was my first time to Boston after coming to US.

So I reach there and I and my friend plan a visit to Harvard Square, one of the most happening and must see places near Boston. The weather was not something that I enjoyed a lot but the drive across the Charles River and a walk in the moonlight by one of the bridges was amazing. Finally, we reach Harvard Square and decide to sit in a coffee shop, Au Bon Pain, the coffee shop which I will never forget to go to if I see one around. My friend asked me if I would like to eat Chocolate Croissant and I didn't know what it was so I thought I should try it. Not to mention, the friend mentioned that the one that we get here is eggless. Coming from India and a religion that does not believe in killing an ant forget about eating meat, this was very important.

I shared half of it since I was not sure how much I'd like it. But to my surprise I wanted to eat more of it. But I didn't respond to my craving to eat more because of the # of calories it'd put in my body. This incident is something that I will always remember, although it has nothing great about it if you look at it as a third person. I have a personal reason to it. Adding more to my liking was the great taste and how perfectly the melted chocolate is filled inside baked bun which smells of all the fatty butter. There is no dessert like it, atleast for me.

So from then on, I never forgot to eat one chocolate croissant whenever possible. When my other friend, who I met in New Jersey found out how much I liked it, he always used to get it for me but from Starbucks since there were no Au Bon Pain close by. Guess what??? even he got addicted to eating it. Poor him, he was also watching his calory intake but I will take the blame of spoiling his eating habit here.

Chocolate Croissant not only has a taste but it has memories added to it in my book of life which will never fade. All the moments of eating it were full of emotions; the one where I was happy as if you have given his favorite food to a kid; the one where you are having fun while eating it with friends; the emotion of teasing someone for adding not so needed calories...and the one for someone who introduced it to me.

If that person happen to read this ever, Thanks for this and I will eat one to toast.

Some Useful Tips for your health!!!

With the increasing pressure of work and the race to get ahead of time and people, we often forget to think about ourselves. Our mind occupied with 10,000 things except that one thing that says, RELAX and take care of yourself, which does not only include your body, but your mind and heart.

I am trying to give few tips here and a quick access to links that can help you serve the purpose of your existence. Keep in mind, your existence is for a reason. A reason which cannot be accomplished without keeping yourself healthy...

1. Exercise: One should exercise 3-4 times every week. This not only helps build muscles but reduces weight and increases stamina. Walking is the ebst exercise. Other forms of exercise can be swimming and playing recreational sports.

2. Sleep: Sleep for atleast 6-8 hours a day. This lets you work at a consistent and full speed everyday. Sleep deprived people tend to get tired very easily and they get dark circles under the eyes. Taking care of your looks is also a very important part of your day to day life.

3. Wake up early every morning and drink lots of water to keep your system clean and skin glowing.

4. Try and take a heavy breakfast. Do not step out of the house without eating anything. I don't know how many of you know that sleeping burns more calories than watching TV. When you wake up, you feel hungry and it is important to provide some nutrition to the body to start your day with.

5. Take your meals at proper time. DO NOT OVEREAT in one meal. Eating at intervals in small portions is always better than eating it all at once.

6. Dinner should be done early evening. Avoid eating dinner at late nights. The food does not get digested properly and water intake reduces too.

7. Walk for someone time everday, especially after dinner. It helps you digest your food.

6. Take the vitamins and supplements as needed.

Helpful link(s):

http://living.health.com/2008/02/21/stand-up-to-back-pain/

Keeping Your Skin healthy

1. Drink lot of water.

2. Clean your face with a gentle face wash. Finding the face wash based on your skin type is very important. Useful link(s):

http://www.ehow.com/how_5028_determine-skin-type.html

3. Wash your face with water every few hours. This will keep your skin gentle and smooth.

4. Use minimum make up on your face and use the one which had less chemicals and more moisture. Useful link(s):

http://www.ehow.com/how_14457_choose-concealer.html

http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/how-to-choose-makeup-and-use-it-beautifully/article16133.html

5. Use a good and gentle cleanser to remove your make up.

6. Use a good moisturizer for day and night (again depending on your skin type).

7. Using a toner before going to bed removes the residual dirt and keeps the PH of the balanced. Useful link(s):

http://www.ehow.com/how_2213463_use-toner-skin-care.html