"Forgive and forget " heard that a zillion times, but can we really ?. Try as we may, pray as we must, but can we ?
My own personal experiences with the above quote is a tough one, I have tried to forgive and have always forgiven even the most hurtful one that has come my way, but forget is still something that i would love to talk about now.
How can one forget ? enlighten me on that
.Over time it has surely been forgotten, but only to realise it does hurt but no so often, and not so painfully.
Time heals all wounds  is the best way to look at a hurt and dont rush to forget, if it makes you feel good, to cry over it so be it, if it makes you feel good to sulk over so be it and if it feels good to write about it(Yours truly !) so be it, BUT just a Red alert flag, dont get obsessed about it, move on in life, nothing can take away that happiness and surely no  one can.
Many a time I have taken my time to forget and having done so, have realised that it is off my chest for good, but I have not put on a mask neither have I tried to rush into it, In my time, is the magic mantra, But let it go,,dont stick to it once again no one and nothing is worth your happiness.
Like a very famous hymn goes"There is a time for sowing,  and reaping, time for losing,  time for gain, time for sorrow,  time for pain...."

As I am writing this article, its pouring outside, rain oh! the beautiful rain.
The thunder,  the lightning and me all tucked up in my sheets I can hear the rain hitting on the roof in the next building.
Rain the giver of life, the reason for so many of our bollywood romantic songs,just the clap of thunder and there she goes dancing in the rain, soaked to the skin.
Without the seasonal  rains in India and in mumbai, is like Happy without birthday,
The rains particularly in the countryside has a magical effect on its surroundings, few days ago patches of dry arid land now turn into huge rivers, and tiny waterfalls dot the hills ... a sight to behold, the green fields and the paddy saplings joyously swaying in the breeze.Oh the wonderful rain.
The birds have their own way of enjoying themselves the pigeons sit on the rooftops with their wings spread as if to welcome the showers....Oh the wonderful rain.
The smell of the wet mud, and the beautiful sky just waiting to descend ..Oh the wonderful rain.


Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.

She stood all alone on the crowded platform, and despite the milling crowds around her she seemed lonely, she was sobbing into her kerchief, silently her whole body quivering with every sob.
My mind raced to the time, when I too felt that way, the only difference was I was walking in the rain, the hot tears rushing and the cool cool rain drops on my cheek is a memory that is diffcult to erase.
I was so frustrated over an issue that did not seem to see any light, and the worst part was I had to handle it with kid gloves, thats not me ! I am the tell it as it is, call a spade a spade type, so this was the fake me, and that got to me the only way out, sob silently and it felt much better after that hot and cold experience. Of course the issue got sorted out, and then it was happy days for me.
Back to the girl on the platform, the train came in and she disappeared into it, and I will never,  never know what made her cry, maybe the train was taking her far from her misery or maybe taking her to it. Bless her where ever she maybe. 

Have you ever realised how much a clothesline can speak to you? During my college/working(Office days) my journey from home to the city would take me around an hour to forty five minutes, and it was during this journey that I would notice this particular house and every morning the clotheslines would be full up with clothes just freshly washed and flapping merrily in the wind. It was a lovely terraced house.
 During my college days the same house and its clotheslines would be full of jeans and jeans and loads of towels and football t-shirts and everything that a teenager would love to wear, I realised that this particular house was full of youngsters and the washload was a huge one. Over the years, the clothes lines changed its shades from teenagers outfits to working adults clothes, proper long sleeved shirts it had all the trappings of working people living within. For sometime it was just a ladys' saree and a mans pygama kurta, which told me that the youngsters had flown the nest.
 All this time automatically i was drawn to the right side of the bus window and rapt in attention to watch "The Clothesline speak to me", I gave up my working life and decided to be a stay home mom, i did remember the clothesline very often but the kids and housework kept me very busy besides it ws really out of the way to take a trip down that side.
 One day on my way to market out of sheer curiosity I decide to take time out to find out more and what a surprise there was a huge load of babies clothes drying bibs, nappys, dresses and little towels. What a journey that was ? A couple of years later noticed that this house was locked up and empty. My mind went thru so many moments of flashbacks the happiness the house was a mute witness to. Have you ever tried this ? every little stone and tree tells a story, We have to just listen and watch.


            “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss

Its awfully hard to answer the question "Whats wrong?", when nothings right.Have you been in that space ? For me its a yes, and out of sheer force of habit the answer just goes"Nothing, I'm fine". Time and again I have told myself to try and answer right, so what if you think the other is not ready for the answer, so be it. Many a time we try and play the role of a martyr, in the hope of attaining sainthood. Many a time I have let a lot of hurt just there trying to go inside the mind of the other person"Oh come, maybe a little stressed out, things will fall in place soon" trying to console myself little releasing that I will explode one day when the pressure has built up..something akin to pressure cooker. Its up to us to allow the other person to hurt us

"No one can hurt you without your permission"Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Sometimes our own state of mind can decide how badly we can be hurt, we maybe emotionally vulnerable our personalities maybe be the sensitive type or we maybe placed on the other side of the spectrum. Which ever way we are lets Forget the people who hurt us and spend time with people who make us happy.

It was one of the few pleasant funerals that I have been to, I say pleasant as the dead person was an elderly gentleman, who lived a life of discipline and order. At the time of the farewell, it was a bit teary that was okay considering that the whole evening they held back their tears and were composed. Death comes so swiftly and are we ready ? Death knows no time and we have to resign ourselves to it .“Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.” ― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

Memories light the corner of my mind, misty water colored memories of the way we were.....

The words of the song sung by the beautiful talented, Barbara Streisand, takes me back to all my young days, carefree, leaving all my worries and hassles to my Mum and Dad, with not a care in the world. Beautiful school days .. a phase of my life, Happy,Innocent, Secrets that only your best friend and you shared(So, you thought) little realising that the whole class too was part of it...touching. College was another phase of my life, where life was beautiful, friends, movies, lunches, shopping, street food..and of course the fabulous group of girls that made it soooo special, loved every moment of my life in college..loved to dress, and had fun in class, as we all know there is always a "funny guy" who makes those sleepy lectures less sleepy..The lecturer whom everyone dreaded and hoped he could not make it for the lecture...hopes broken, and there he was with his huge file, and test papers. 9 to 5... that was the working phase of my life and the kind person that I am ,,, enjoyed it..had a huge, huge circle of friends, only these friends were at different places, my train travel had a group the nine o clock friends, my evening travel had a group the six O'Clock ladies special, and of course the office staff, which were a beautiful group of people, some married like me, some younger and having their fun, some grandparents, each contributing to making it a mature and happy extended family, the picnics, the lunches, the opening of our lunch dabba was a moment we all used to look forward to, surprises and disappointment too! "Oh goodness, mum promised me chops, but its not," was the cry of the young lady, and then we would all contribute in making her happy.. Finally the Homemakers' phase..this is an experience that one must go thru to have that real happiness in their lives, where one gives up a little(Just for a short while) to gain a lot, as in the growth of your children, emotional, physical, spiritual and every which way in just being a beautiful person inside out.To see the smiles on the faces of the family, means the world to me and yes, they too realise that life is an echo it all comes back to you...life is beautiful and I am lovin it.

Wherever comes man comes tragedy and comedy also. AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT, The Monsoon seems to have come but not in earnest, thankfully the heat has subsided to some degree and it is with amazement we watch the cycle of the seasons come and go. We are amazed at the wonder of a sunrise and sunset how precisely the sun sets and rises, how the birds are up there, the frogs, the crows, the tiniest ant..everything has a reason for being on the planet Earth. The biggest wonder of course is like the line above says, "Wherever comes man....." Man is the reason for the unnatural happenings in here, the floods, he global warming, the nuclear meltdown, the famines, the droughts...just name Mans fingerprint will be found there. Why do we not know to live simples lives ? why do we clutter our lives with material goods much more than we need ? why do we hoard ? why cant we live one with nature like our forefathers did... thankfully we have much more comforts than they did ? shouldnt we be happy with that ? Yes, so many questions, but no answers, I too have many a time felt I have much more than I need and yes, it is difficult to not be that way. But surely I will make a huge effort to go and try my best to give Mother Earth what she rightly deserves. Lets count our blessings and leave a beautiful, place for our generations that will inherit it...Go..Go...Go.

“I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.” What does it take for a person to stand up for the truth ? can you say its one conscience, or guts ? Many a time whenever I have stood up for the truth, I have always been isolated, looked down upon and its odd that we adults talk so much about doing right walk in Gandhijis footsteps, and standup for the truth, but when it comes to taking up a cause and going all the way... a complete turnaround. But my grouse is leave me alone.. I am in it purely on account of my deep rooted conscience. Havent we heard that "Conscience is the softest pillow"I truly believe it is and have often failed to let my head rest whenever I have not been true to it... which is a rare case, To be able to stand up all alone for the truth and still hold your head high is something that I will never forget. It happened to us, my husband and me, at a meeting the only one who stood up for the truth and the rest just buckled under pressure tactics, it was tough and mentally exhausting for us but We had Divine Intervention we had the Hand of God with us right from the start that what you get for always standing up for the Truth. Never ever succumb to anyones tactics, bribes, pressures or any such tries that may deter you from your Truth Goal. I have been there and the experience and reward has definately me wanting for more.

Its that time of the year when THE KING of all fruits makes an annual comeback.The trees are laden with fruit and every other fruit just fades away.The trees are laden with raw mangoes and it seems the King is late... The crows are building their nests, and the warm sunny afternoons are the perfect temperature for a chick or two to be hatched. Watching the crows from my window engaged in frantic activity it seems they too have their share of rivalry and 'prime land' disputes, its not only we humans..nice. Watching a crow building the nest with plastic cords(thats soft for the chick!)a few mins later another of the rival gang crows comes and strips the nest of all its plastic and in a blink a cacaphony of crows cawing out so loudly. Just watching them peck at each other so violently made me realise that there were two "gangs" and it was very, very interesting just trying to figure who was in which gang. Yours truly lost it, and couldnt figure out who were the goodies and who were the baddies.A while later all was quiet and there the crows were starting from scratch. Its a wonderful world.

There are no good-byes, where ever we are, you’ll always be in my heart.

What a wonderful ten days' vacation that was, days filled with uncertainity, we decided right from the start that we would have nothing planned for the day. Go on as the day advanced, and wake up when we wanted, eat if we wanted to, and sleep when we felt like it. Must say it was fabulous, to have done it the way we wanted and no relatives to go avisiting. Just the lazy beautiful days stretched before,mornings were spent at the beach a jog, a walk, an absolute soak in the sea with miles and miles of openness, and the sun just about peeping at us, heavenly !the power of nature could be felt in the huge waves that just flung us around the beach like rag dolls, ... just like that . What a feeling.
The rest of the days passed by in the proverbial "blink of an eye", we did manage to spend time at the quite country side watching the beauty we all miss here and soaking in the fresh air, the food was heavenly, and cant blame my knees for groaning now and then...
I was dreading the moment when we had to say goodbye to no one in particular but to our beautiful house, which has now become a home, my heart broken into a thousand pieces to watch it go out of sight as we drove off ..headed for our back to work destination.

My balcony overlooks a SSC examination centre, I was watching the reactions of many of the students gathered before the exam.
Most of them were accompanied by a parent/s and a few were walking in alone, some of them were huddled up in deep concentration and some preferred to stand and revise all by themselves.
there was this particular child who I was watching all along and he seemed to me to be(My own assessment)the class "Smartie' his friends gathered around him and most of them were trying to ask him a lot of questions and showing his books and reams of paper which he seemed to be answering patiently..what a lovely child. In the near distant stood his mother and a grandma(looked like to me) who were watching their boy all the while, doting and the boy was busy helping the others out.
The bell went off, and there was panic amongst students and parents hugging kissing last minute revisions and rushing towards the door. This boy, went to his mother and grandmother and said his byes and hugged them both, his grandmother traced her hand all over his face and drew it towards her own, that was such a sweet gesture, and they stood there watching the boy till he could be seen no more.
The after reactions are wonderful to watch, you can immediately come to know if the paper was easy or tough and how ? just watch the students faces, some are smiling and even do a little jig whilst some are trying and hoping for a miracle turning the pages to see the right answer was theirs.
The parents more anxious than the students havent I been there too ? and the anxiety is killing ... ... a prayer on my lips for the students and hope the next paper is better than the previous one.....God Bless them.

. "However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?"




Many a time we have seen a lot of people who are silently helping the under priviledged, and the uncared, one of the names that comes to our minds in a flash is Mother Theresa, yes, its so true she did not care for publicity she did not care to give TV interviews.Everything she did was for the poor, and to quote her,"I see God in everything I do, "
How many of us can even be a fraction of Mother Theresa ?
There are people who speak about helping the society, the uncared, and the downtrodden, many of them really, really do, but along the way some chose to forget.
Our social responsibility towards our society does not end with making verbal promises, but action oriented promises, "Hands that help are holier than lips that pray." Charity begins at home, help around the home, your society, your people and try and make life just a wee bit easier for the other.
Its surely gives me an inner satisfaction besides, a smile on their face is something money cannot buy.

How do you heal a broken heart ? kind words, motivation, spiritual advice, or your own experiences there.
Believe me its not easy to be the one with a broken heart, maybe a friendship gone wrong, maybe a back jab or maybe one of your own letting you down in whatever way, everyone has been thru this or at least one of this.
For me the best way I deal with any of this type of a situation I withdraw for a while (depends how deep the hurt is) deeper then longer waiting time, and begin an introspection where I try and sort out matters in my head and find the reason WHY ?
There definately has to be a part that I too play or played in this happening, and so in short try and find my own faults.
Going thru is also not easy my immediate defence mechanism is-" Its not my fault," but with my feet firmly planted on the ground handle it,
In the event of me being at fault try and get myself to say sorry, else have a one to one talk with the subject in question.
This has nearly always worked with me and realize that the after effects glue on to make the relationship much stronger
Whatever maybe the case, never let the sun set on your anger.

Christmas holidays had just begun, and the little boys( my house overlooks a home for orphans)were really having fun what with all the christmas parties, presents, and games ? life was wonderful, happiness all over their beautiful, innocent faces. Reminded me of a friends child I know, give her the world and yet nothing can bring a smile on her face, happiness is something her parents must know cannot be bought.
Getting back to the little angels, the next day their parent/guardian came to pick them up for their christmas vacation, excitedly packing their little totes jumping around their friends was something I cannot forget.
There was this little child who drew my attention, formalities completed by the parent/authorities, he came skipping, out right onto his sister(I presume) and the boy excitedly showing off his many presents his bag could carry, the two were oblivious that the parent had walked ahead, this little boy was probably telling his sister all his fun he had and the little girl was a picture of concentration.
This little scene touched me deeply, and made me realise how fortunate we are to have our family around us, something we sometimes tend to take for granted.
The family is the backbone of us all. May 2012 be a special year for the fortunate and no so fortunate that somewhere they may find the peace and happiness that only a family can.

After the party is over, after the guests have left...
What a wonderful year that was that went by, the ups, the downs, the not so good and of course the good, the regrets soooo few, too few to mention.
What can I say.
The year has flown by and everyone has already set into their routine, the husband back to work, the boy too! the girl at college and me ...settling the house that has the look of the family taking off in a hurry. After a season of festivities the suits go in the cupboards so too the accessories.
The Christmas tree is up and beautiful, even more when fully lit up. Will try and put up a pic of this. Soon it will be time for the tree to be put away up in the attic till another year comes by.God willing.
New Years Resolution made to be more regular with our walks, broken on the second day of 2012and blame it on the weather,just couldnt get myself out of the warmth of my blanket,
I hope the rest of the resolutions are kept.
On of them being to write more regularly on my blog, love to But...
Can only thank the almighty how much he continues to bless us, in all his generosity.