The very inspiring blogger award!

Thank you so very much, Athira Rajkamal for nominating me for the very inspiring blogger award. You made my day. Your blog is one place i always check for a book suggestion, when i'm in search of a new book to read :)

This award is given to those bloggers who inspire you. If you are nominated, you have to follow a few rules.

1. Thank and link the amazing person who nominated you2. List the rules and display the Award on your blog3. Say 7 facts about yourself4. Nominate other 15 amazing bloggers for the award, link them and inform them about the nominations

Seven facts about myself.. hmm.. 

1. My high school friends and childhood friends even now remember me for my art work. Yes, I discovered this talent in me from an age of 6 years when I started with abstract art my big brother's precious collection of comics books  and I still continue it. Except I have now learnt some other types of paintings/drawings too. ;)

2. As kids, My brother and I had very unique games we would play together. I would call them  real time scientific experiment instead. We would trap mice, pick them up by our bare hands , place them on blocks of ice, then in  luke warm water, and sometimes even in a freezer of a discarded fridge which was still in working condition. Test on their survival capabilities under different temperatures. We would record the time the rat could stay undisturbed in every condition. :P

3. I was a dog lover until I developed a phobia after having a bad experience two years back, in the streets of Bangalore, where a street dog from no where came charging at me and almost bit my leg. :(

4. I am so fond of chocolate cakes and chocolate ice creams that, one week of not having anything sweet made me crave for them at the middle of the night. One day I even woke my husband for getting me an ice cream. Instead ended up taking a big lecture from him :-/

5. Sometimes my untimely sleep makes me have the most adventurous dreams, based on which I had even written a poem. ^_^

6. Most people I have met till date, live by certain religious rules or customs which I'm sure doesn't make an sense to themselves but still follow to be accepted in the society the live in. :-|


7. I sternly believe one can achieve their goal in life,  if they show constant effort and undoubted trust on oneself. Failures being are part of the learning process. -_-

That was some facts about me. Now its time for me to nominate some talented bloggers who have inspired me...

Shared thoughts and Experiences

When the Heart speaks

It's Raining Words

Tangled Vibes

My own little world

A gal in city

Journeying through Life alone

Evincere

Thanking My Mind

Random Thoughts

Chronicwriter

Humming words

My land of dreams

Chandrika shubham - a reserved chit-chatter!

New Horizon

Congratulation to all the bloggers. Hope you keep inspiring many others with your writings! happy Blogging! :)

my first 5k run

I had to get up early @ 7am on a lazy Cloudy Sunday, having only sleep for 6 hhours
Though I am trying hard to lose my extra pounds, I haven't built much stamina to run continuously, nevertheless I reached the finish line before a few ladies who were trying to keep up with the group.

But it definitely was motivating and hoping to get better in my next run.

painting and reading a book are my anti depressants!

Since this blog is the only place where I ramble with all my emotional being, with just a hand full of people whom i have never met before, reading it, i rather admit it here itself that my mild depression is slowly aggravating inspite of trying to keep myself busy. I so want to talk about it to someone, but I don't want anyone to get stressed because of me; I don't trust anybody who can take what ever I tell them and still expect them to keep it to themselves.
I am definitely missing my life with my parents around me. And may be i am lonely because i haven't made a single friend here, since I am not a very outgoing person(of course it makes me miss all those good old days with my friends and family who were always there for me when i was in India). Or May be I am still a kid who yearns to be in a closed shell and not experience the harsh world.
I think of all possible ideas to keep myself happy. My husband even asked me if i need a dog which i really feel the need for, but i am a person who is still learning to take care of myself amidst my depression. I sometimes even long to have a baby though we have postponed for three more years. Perhaps, these sudden impulses and longings are also symptoms of depression.

Though books  and painting always are my best antidepressants, I dint quite get adjusted to a non socializing life, inspite of being a victim of some people's  rudeness (may be they din't really mean to be rude, or that is a well accepted behavior in the society, but since it was the same persons behaving like that again and again, it has disturbed me very much)
Nevertheless, I feel it is better to talk  to a stranger,not revealing ones identity, than to be embarrassed and being hurt among a group of people whom I meet in person and who loves playing Chinese whispers.

I don't mind even being blamed for my paranoia, as no one can really understand what I'm really undergoing through. I am definitely working on correcting my mind to be at peace, and also stay invisible to people who don't value my presence, after all not everyone I have met or going to meet is going to like me.

May be for sometime I should just stay away from my social networks as much as possible to get over all the negative aura in me and I hope I come out of this trauma soon atleast for my parents, spouse and siblings who are the only well-wishers I can ever have.

For the people who take time to visit my blog, thanks a ton! Your comments make me immensely happy. Happy blogging!

Today I remembered their talks.

There are some of my elderly relatives, supposedly my distant grandmas, in India, whom I would meet once in a while, on some occasions. They would make me sit by their side and talk about something, which eventually would take them through their memory lane and continue telling me their flashback. The first time I would listen to every bit of it with utmost interest, but my next meets with them would make me listen to the same stories again and again, as though the flashback was that of  my own. Yet, I would sit and listen to them, like my favorite song replayed umpteen times. It gave me a weird satisfaction as though I achieved something.
 To my disappointment, two among these people hardly recognized me on my last visit. They are dementia patients.
I somehow feel good for having listened to them, then.  I am guilt free that I dint avoid them or make them feel like they were boring.

one minute friends

On a crosswalk I met this Indian girl..

Indian girl: are you from India?

Me: yes! (With a smile) which place are you from?

Indian girl: Hyderabad.

Me: me too (smiles)

30 sec passed...

Indian girl: how long has it been since you are here?

Me: a year and a half. What do you do?

Indian girl: I finished bachelors in dentistry in India, i came here with my uncle three months back and now I am doing an internship here.

30 sec passed..

We crossed the road and posted or ways.

Few days later coincidentally we meet the same way.. On the crosswalk, I was late for my bus and she was late to her clinic. 45 sec we knew each others fav. Restaurant in Folsom,  my career goals, her career goals. It's was funny that we spoke so much in one m minute, and yet don't know each others names

year long craving, not yet satisfied! :(

Since my first experience of the Sacramento's scorching heat, I have always longed for anything cool.. Like my hubby, the cool guy around me ;) taking showers for an hour or more (it's only on peak summer days i stop being a water conservationist) Smoothies, cold coffee, ice tea and of course sharbats like roohafza or the rose syrup coolers. And yet I haven't quenched my thirst which is beyond just the taste  because I have lately been craving for one such sharbat  that I tasted almost 10-15 years back and which still remains one of my favorite (Ok may be that's an exaggeration that a person might consider something favorite by just experiencing it once in life) but right now my craving being at its high, has made me go to all the Indian and middle Eastern stores around in search of it. But all in vain :(
Of course I did try the online store where their shipping charges is five times the price of the product. Looking at which I tell myself "No! Do be a despo. Control your cravings, you don't have to waste your buck on one bottle rather than buying the shock enough for a lifetime to enjoy"

And I'm here still craving for this long forgotten taste of the green sharbat made from vetiver roots -khus syrup

Guys, if you know where I can get this amazingly good product to quench my year long thirst, I would be grateful and would also share its refreshing recipes with you. Please, please help me!!!

What do you do for your country?

I am quite impressed by India's new PM's agenda through his independence day speech. May be we can look forward to a positive 'corruption-free' development for the next few years under the new govt. here are the highlight of Mr. Narendra modi's speech.
What caught my attention most was his talk about the issues of rape, development of villages for the over-all country's development,integrating the poorest of the poor with bank accounts and also giving an insurance through debit cards for upto 1 lakh rupees.

"I want to ask every mother and father, you ask your daughters 'where are you going, who are you going with'. But do you ever ask your sons these questions? After all, those who rape are also someone's son."

True, when we talk about rape our heads do hang in shame. I totally agree with what Mr. PM said. But In this case I would even blame the girls  who are also responsible for such a situation to arise. Not just that, one should be educated about sex - the good and bad about it from the age the individual reaches his/her puberty, or may be even younger. But one thing i notice in most Indian families is, there is always an embarrassment among the family members to even a mere utterance of the S word, which i feel would also lead a young adult to this situation of confusion on what is right and what is wrong. It might also be a struggle between his/her animal instincts and morality. Moreover, as far as my knowledge goes, only from the colonial era, many of these sexual liberalism (so many of the ancient sculptures show only nudity) in India got stigmatized later to a better establishment or rather colonization of the Indian minds with European values
Making the long story short, i would say, parents/guardians or any elders in the family should also take responsibility in talking about issues like child abuse, sexual abuse and rape seriously to their children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDAuevGq98

"If we want to develop India, we need to develop villages."

Having a goal of developing at least five villages by every Member of Parliament, by the end of five years is a big deal. It would be amazing if they do succeed. It all sounds good to the ears of every citizen, but are we all doing our bit of  work to improve our society?  Every individual's mentality is such that when there is a change in the govt., they will wait for a year and see if there are any good changes made by the govt. if they aren't the blame the govt., and even if there is a  slightest change, they wouldn't be satisfied. People should realize one thing 'Rome was never built in one day'. In this case may be we can substitute it with "the Taj Mahal' ;) 

Every individual should take responsibility in doing atleast one or two of the following thing a day to the society, it would not just give a personal satisfaction but also, others  will see and learn from us.

• Not littering; throwing any waste fallen around, into the dustbin. http://www.theuglyindian.com/
• obeying the traffic rules, not jumping signals, make way for emergency vehicles. It makes a BIG difference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ1hCZtZyes
• Learn to live life selfless and trustworthy. I'm not say, you should donate all your earnings or property to some random person, but when you see some one in need, please help, may be not money, at least by uttering few kind words. You never know, someday a mere stranger you'd helped long time back,may return your favour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N47HULidOY0
• report any kind of violence seen or experienced. ignorance will only aggravate the problem.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWouX49lGiw ,  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=541868952609495&set=vb.426895610773497&type=2&theater ,  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=540462819416775&set=vb.426895610773497&type=2&theater

Easier said than done, but we should at least not do bad, if we cannot do any good to the society or people.

Hoping for a better India. Jai hind!