Queen in me...

It’s not much latest movie by now but it’s been the most talked movie for last 2-3 months. Queen is a mild and sweet film about 'Growing Up'. A story of an overprotected middle-class girl, who is stood up by her fiancee just two days before her wedding.  Instead of getting inside a cell of self-pity, she decides to go on her honeymoon alone and invents herself. The journey to Paris and Amsterdam turns into a journey of her self-realization. 

When I came out of the theater, I had a smile on my face and I could see the smiles on all other faces as well. It kept my mind hacked for next few days reminding me of my ‘Queen’ moments.

The moment when I started leaving away from home all by myself, when I did things such as trekking, river rafting, waterfall rappelling etc. for the first time, my first onsite at France, when I started meeting ‘wanna be grooms’ by myself, when I switched my first company, when I traveled to US alone changing 4 different flights and stayed there alone for 2 months, when I toured the unknown cities of US on my own without any company, when I had a drink with unknown Russian and African people! So many countless moments which didn’t actually changed my life. But they provided me a confidence that I can do whatever I want.

It’s not about the gender equality or women empowerment. But I feel, being able to take your own decisions or realizing that you can do a particular thing or even the confidence that you can do something all by yourself is what makes you happy. This kind of queen or king is present inside all of us. We may realize many things about ourselves at any point of time. It’s an ongoing process which gives us the ‘king’ or ‘queen’ moments.

A Different View

This is a summary of quite an old story, probably written during India-Pakistan partition time.

A woman named Malika goes to the hospital for treatment. While filling out the initial form, nurse asks her: "Who's your 'Malik'?" 

Malika gets angry and says, "I am not a cycle or clock to have a Malik!"

Annoyed Nurse asks: "What is the name of your husband?"

Malika answers: 'I don't have a job.'

This time surprised nurse asks for explanation and Malika says: "Every person has some job assigned to him/her. Like you are doing a job of nurse. This doctor has his profession in medical science. In the same way, when we get married, husband gets a job of being a husband and wife gets a job of being a wife! I don't have a job means I am not yet married."

Now the nurse gets confused. So Malika continues, "every job in the world has appraisals, promotions and increments. A Field Marshal becomes General someday, a General becomes Lieutenant General someday. But this does not happen in Marriages."

Again annoyed, nurse asks, "So what are you expecting? What's there in the marriage which would count for this appraisal or promotion? How are you going to justify this?"

Malika smiles and says: "Yes, there is a system. It's very simple and straight but very difficult to find out. Even I haven’t seen any such case. Promotion would refer for a husband from being a husband initially, growing into a lover. Being a lover and finally growing to a god for his wife!"

Pretty different thought, isn’t it? Linking a very complex relationship with such a simplified bond!

This is the magic of Amrita Pritam!

Travel Diaries 3 - Life @ Louisville

Staying alone in states is offering me to do and feel various things that I had never imagined! Staying at France was a soothing experience as I had an awesome team with me. But believe me, first few lonely days in US were really bad! In initial days, I was like 'what exactly on the earth I am doing' but now, its kind of a routine and I have started enjoying it. Following are some of the major impacts. Now these are my personal experiences and does not relate anywhere near to India-America comparison! 

1. This is what I see when I come out on road here and when I come out of road in Pune. See, no people, only geese!

 


2. This is what I eat here and in Pune. Of course I can prepare the food I want to eat over here but as they say, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' I am following 'When in America, eat as the Americans eat' (by food, I dont mean any fast food here!)

   

      

3. These are the tv shows I watch here (as there are no more channels on tv which I can watch) and in Pune

    

So, life is good and its nice to know, staying alone in foreign country is not so difficult. But staying away from loved ones can make you sick sometimes! Right now, looking forward to go back now, stay there till I get bored of the routine life at Pune and wish to come US again :)

Boost Life!

From some unknown source on internet

Nostelgia!

I was surfing on youtube today and hit this beautiful song. It sent me back in my school days when this song was just released and was getting famous day by day. Those were the magical days when me and my friends used to dream about the "Mr. Perfect". Those were the days when every moment was a "search for love" moment. Those were the days when we liked every romantic song that we came across, however bad it may be. Those were the days when we had fantasies about every step of coming life. Those were the days when every love story seemed to be magical and we envied all our friends who had boyfriends!
 
Now this is making me nostalgic and am gonna enjoy this nostalgia :)

Travel Diaries 2 - Downtown Louisville

It was a long tiring journey, I found myself revolving around the world and shutting myself about 14 time zones backward!

After changing from Mumbai-Paris flight to Paris-Minneapolis, the 9.5 + 8.5 hours which passed without any real incidents, horribly jet lagged and going through terrifying immigration check at Minneapolis airport, I stepped in the U.S of A. I was simply not in a mood to pick up my 21kg luggage (sorry, around 47 pounds of luggage as that’s the way they measure it here) but had to go to carousel! I spotted my bag, bent down to get it and it gave a terrible pain in my back muscle. With a same feeling of pain, I started off for my next flight, observing western faces, perfect English, familiar fast food chains with outrageous prices, I headed to a tiny plane to Louisville and after around 2 hours, I touched the town.

Well, Louisville downtown seems glamorous but the part of the city I stay is a bit away from glamor and fast-pace I had expected. It’s cold (for now), it’s peaceful and yes it’s beautiful. About the bad thing, very low public transportation so you either have to have a car or have to rent one or use a taxi (which I feel is a bit costly option!). There are lots of places to visit but I have to find myself some means of transport!

Now, I am trying to get used to, to have temperature in Fahrenheit instead Celsius, distance in Miles instead of Kilometers and most importantly Dollars instead of Rupees! (it hurts when every time you pay the bills and convert it to Rupees in your mind...) That's the beginning of adventure in America...

The Immortals of Meluha and Devo ke dev Mahadev

It's been going simultaneously since long. 

People in my family are crazy for this serial on Life Ok called Devo Ke Dev Mahadev. 
No doubt in a religious country like India, TV shows like Ramayan, Mahabharata create a hype and Mahadev is the lateset version. As the name suggests, this spiritual drama revolves around the life of lord Shiva who is considered as a Supreme god and he is creator, preserver, destroyer, concealer and revealer of the world. Shiva is not only worshiped in India but also in Nepal and ShriLanka. People in India sense fortunate to complete the journey of 12 Jyotirlingas. 
With any god, there are many mysterious and miraculous stories related and Lord Shiva is not an exception. He is Neelkantha who drank halahal poison evolved through Samudra Manthan, Gangadhar who has held river Ganga in hair, Traymbakam who has a third eye, Chandrashekhar bearing on his head the moon indicating this lord is beyond time, Nagendra Hara denoting wisdom and the list goes on. 
The TV show describes it all and people keep on waiting to see each and every part of the show. 
I do believe in god but believing him as a normal human being doing miracles is quite difficult for me to digest.

During the same time, I read this book called Immortals of Meluha which has got a huge commercial success and was a bestseller for quite some time. This book aims to humanize the Mahadev and portray him as a hero-cum-rockstar instead. It is the war between Suryawanshi and Chandrawanshi communities during 1900 BC. Shiva is a curious, honorable and respectful "person" who searches for his destiny and tries to do what seems to be right. This whole story takes place in the land of Meluha (place near Himalayas and Kashmir) and drives Shiva to Ayadhya, the place of "King" Rama. 
The finest part of the book is that it makes almost all the God legends into potential human beings who achieved prominence and contributed so much to culture that story tellers made them Gods. So after reading this book, henceforth whenever I hear of Shiva, I will imagin him a strong, wise character with feelings and faults and with a logical mind. Get this book, it's a perfect cocktail of reality and myth, you will definitely like it (at-least it's a great escape from now a days rubbish and filmy Chetan Bhagat books!)


So as I said these things were going simultaneously in my head, I came to a conclusion that we don't have to believe in miracles in order to trust god!

Just a thought, we all know, Shivaji Maharaj is a human being but people do warship him, respect him. Who knows, few centuries down the line, he might emerge as a Lord Shivaji and get attached to as many miracles as people can think of!