Mugdho the great! :-)

This is a video captured by my cousins when they did not believe what my dear sister was capable of doing! She claimed to have trained our pet dog to open the door all by himself. Check out his adorable expressions and unbelievable skills of opening the door! ;-) :-D

p.s: Muggi, you are simply great! :-)

Powerful Generation Powerless

Generations bring along changes in the lifestyles, beliefs, values and anything that goes with society. In spite of this constant change, it is surprising to see some traditions remaining unchanged. I accept that traditions are an integral part of a society, or to be precise, they are the concepts by the people at a point in time to bring peace and order in their community. Which by the way, are most of the times devoid of any laws and scientific logics.

To talk of just one aspect, in this post, I would limit the views to Marriages only. And to avoid the disparity between the social orbits, I would further limit it to the educated class only. My questions begin right from the way marriages take place these days. Against the elaborations, I shall raise my questions to the generation I belong to...

The financial responsibility and dowry over the Bride's family. Yes, it is surprising but it still persists in today's marriages. This tradition has its roots from the time when gender discrimination was strongly prevalent and women were married off at the tender age of 10-12 years. Dowry was a security given by the father to his daughter for her future. Is any of these situations even relevant today? Women are highly educated and well placed with their careers before they take the plunge. Why provide her with the future security when she does not need it? Also, women have all the say to choose their life partners. Marriage transforms life of both, the man and the woman, then why only the Bride's family be responsible? Isn't it an unfair thing to do?

All the rituals and ceremonies last for 2-3 days, and it is simply blamed upon the "Traditions". Ever wondered why this tradition was introduced? It was because, in those times, the Bride and the Groom used to meet during the marriage days only. In the times of child marriages, the families used to help them get comfortable with each other. Today, in case of love marriages, couples know too much of each other to even demand this time to "get comfortable with one another". And in case of Arranged Marriages, there are enough courting opportunities to "get comfortable" with each other! Besides, how many of our generation follow the rituals in our daily routines? Then why begin your new life with something you never follow or most of the times never believe in?

Our generation is extremely challenging in almost all the aspects of life! Then what holds us from asking questions when it comes to natural justice with respect to equality? Why cant the expenses be equally shared? Why should the parents take the financial responsibility when most of the times, they are not even making the choice of their children's spouses? Why can't men who are favored in the rituals take a lead to make a change in the way the preceding generation views all these traditions close to their heart? Why can't women put their foot down when they are being portrayed as the weaker sex and dependent on men for existence? It is highly disappointing to see this "Powerful Generation" I belong to, not questioning these baseless traditions even once before being a part of the entire farce!

To Sir, With love...

I promised my Sir to gift him a painting on the completion of his life's half century! :-) Here it is!! :-)

Fortunate!

"If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the entire world. If you have money in your wallet, a little change and can go anywhere you want, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people who won't survive this week and die. If you can actually read this message and understand it, you are more fortunate than the 3 billion people in the world who cant see, dont know english or suffer being mentally retarded! Life is not about the list of pains... Its about a 1000 other reasons to be happy!"

p.s: Hats off to the mind who thought of these facts!

Sweet Tweet!

Researches claim that the sudden disappearance of sparrows is due to the extensive use of pesticides and the large no. of mobile towers that emit waves proving fatal for their survival! This is a video I could capture very closely from where the sparrow was!

Are the technological developments benefiting us in real sense of the term? Or are we slow poisoning our own mother earth?

My sincere thanks to her for posing for my camera! :-) There was a time when we used to wake up to real twitters!!

Time for a reality check!

Here is a post by my Guide dedicated to a departed wonderful soul! When I heard about his accident, it was impossible to believe that, as it was just the previous week that we had met! Besides someone belonging to the same generation meeting with an untimely death, immediately made me realize that we just have one chance to live every single day! A day gone can never be lived again, and one's last day is beyond uncertain! Reading these lines shook my sense for a minute because there are too many things I have kept for the future to forget about living today!

"People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.

Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.

The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine."

Minding One's Business!

No matter how strong or positive you are, sometimes what people say or think about you really leaves a mark... Such situations either land up making you too conscious of how you are perceived as, and in that interest you forget to be yourself. Or take after developing a barrier between those who spoil your day, and end up being lonely!

I wont say that whatever is said about you shouldn't bother you, because it is but natural! And really very few are super carefree to attain that sainthood! But you don't necessarily have to resort to such self destructive methods for tackling these situations!

Recently I came across someone who happed to share his secret of being that super carefree person! He began with saying "Nobody and nothing can bring my high spirits down! Because whenever I come to know about some one's opinion about me, I just say to myself - What other's think of me is none of my business!"

Isn't it excellent? To be yourself, still be happy around people who talk about you and at the same time completely ignore what is being said about you; just say it from the top - "What other's think of me is none of my business"! Sounds like a recipe for high spirits to me! :-)