Onset of Spring May Turn Into a Death Knot for the Birdies

What would life be without the Trees, The Rivers, the Blue skies and the chirping birds? Birds exists in over 10,000 species worldwide who live along with us and share the same ecosystem that we do. Can you ever imagine life without these colourful, tiny creatures fluttering over and above you; twittering and being your natural alarm?

Birds have a predominantly positive connotation. Birds symbolize the power that helps people to speak reflectively and leads them to be focused on their goal with the help of calculative thought.  Just as birds are lifted up into the air by their feathers and can remain wherever they wish, the soul in the body is elevated by thought and spreads its wings everywhere. They represent the human desire to escape gravity, to reach the level of the angel. The bird is often the disembodied human soul, free of its physical constraints.

Most of us neglect their existence and consider their living as insignificant. They forget that they were persuaded through this petite birds humming on the window panel or their balcony in the infantile age to feed morsels of food by their parents. The ones who haven’t gained inspiration by the flying birds while growing up have missed a major lesson of life I would say.

We cannot fail to recall the worth of birds in the ancient times to transmit messages. Before letters and emails, Birds like Ravens, pigeons and eagles were used as message carriers. To the practical thinkers, the blue bird that is popping up always on your Mobile/desktop screen is also inspired by a bird. The Social networking site Twitter’s logo is a bird in flight. It is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility. Major Brands of use to humans like Tiny Owl, Dove, Nestle, Kingfisher, Swarovski are all inspired by the specific features of the endearing birdies, in their creation and logo design.

Furthermore, on a broader perspective the technology and structure of the aeroplane is inspired by the physical elements of a bird. When these birds gave us so much to learn why do we gruesomely kill them?

Today on the occasion of Makar Sankaranti when the sun begins its northward journey, people all over the country celebrate this festival as a harvest festival. On the day of Makar Sankaranti it is an important ritual to fly kites. Kite is taken as a symbol of having high aspirations and elevated vision.  The festival spirit is showcased by flying the kites as high as possible. The real excitement lies in cutting the kites of others. The more you cut the kites the more is the gain for you in the coming year.  But what about the Birds that get strangled in the kite strings and lose their lives? Isn’t the onset of spring a duration of happiness in their lives as well?

 The string used to fly kites are gummed and coated with powdered glass, this strings are made dangerously sharp to slash the thread of an opponent’s kite mid-air during kite fights.

Birds fly into these strings or are entangled in them, causing deep cuts to their wings, nerve injuries, fractures, dislocations and, in many cases, death. These fragile creatures who come out in search of food for their young ones or for themselves are fed painful death.

During this holy festival we learn to feel our oneness with all creation; we learn to be unselfish and to tread the path of love, purity and forgiveness. We learn that our real wealth is the goodwill and friendship of those around us and the land on which our food grows. So let us eliminate the use of Glass coated strings to fly kites or moreover lets us celebrate Makar Sankranti by engaging in singing and dancing, meeting old and new friends and welcoming the spring season cheerfully.

Take an initiative to save our birds, because the sky appears much beautiful with the gracefully flying birds than the paper crafted kites.

P.S:  Fly kites in open grounds, carefully dispose strings entangled in trees in your neighbourhood and use uncoated cotton threads.

Novelty of the Year with a Fresh Appearance

Life does not get better by Chance it gets better by Change and Change is inevitable. With the commencement of the refreshing New Year when people are trying to change themselves in every possible way they can, new resolutions being made and struggled to be on it, I feel it is very important to revamp every single thing that is associated with oneself. The way you think, your attitude and nature changes with the upgradation you try to make to yourself. When you talk about change why to be attached to the look of your blog. Therefore, I decided to change the appearance of my blog with a vibrant and energetic design.

So, here is my blog with its new look. An elegant combination of ivy vines and saffron abstracts. It’s an Awesome Inc. template image by molotovcoketail  Powered by Blogger. Ivy Leaf design is inspired by the local natural flora. 
The Ivy Leaf signifies a strong and lasting relationship. This association is derived from its ability to stay attached to a rocky surface in even the most inhospitable conditions. The design is symbolic to the relation of my readers and friends that exude strength and endurance like the green ivy leaf.

The pink vine design on the right hand side of the blog represents compassion, nurturing and love. It relates to unconditional love and understanding, and the giving and receiving of knowledge that I and my readers engage in through my humble blog. Pink is a sign of hope. It is a positive color inspiring, warm and comforting feelings, and a sense that everything will be positive and indulgent.

An amalgamation of red and white creating an aura, pink contains the need for action of red, helping it to achieve the potential for success and insight offered by white. It is the passion and power of red softened with the purity, openness and completeness of white. The tinge of pink gets deeper exhibiting its passion and energy.

Pink is feminine and romantic, affectionate and intimate, thoughtful and caring; these are all the subjects lined up for my next blog post to keep you engaged in optimistic thoughts.

The bright green dots on the left hand side of the blog represents the blooming thoughts like the leaves of ivy. It is the color of life, renewal, nature, and energy, is associated with meanings of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, fertility, and environment. The color green is a sanctuary away from the stresses of modern living, restoring us back to a sense of well-being. It relaxes the entire approach of the design.

The tip of the vines is colored yellow, which produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy.

White color vines right behind the blog post gives you purity of thought and a positive connotation. White represents a successful beginning.

The color that have kept the design attached and attracted is saffron, the colour of illumination the highest state of perfection. It is optimistic and uplifting, rejuvenating our spirit. The color saffron holds all the colors in such a way that it captivates ones minds, brings spontaneity and a positive outlook on life.

Hoping that the new look of my blog brings in a vibrant blog post to keep you timely upgraded and connect with me in the long run. Looking forward to build a strong bond with you. New and stimulating article coming your way.

Wishing all my readers and well-wishers a very bright, thought-provoking and cheerful New Year.

Depths of Despair

Flesh, no bone scattered,

Lifeless no grief mattered.

Emotions soaked up, tears spread,

Out of the guilt the skies pumped red.

Wind blow across her face,

Tied up agitated throbbing with pace.

A sprout of the seed chopped sly,

With broken wings the soul fly.

The bright lights turn a glimpse of her smile,

Within Seconds she turn into a pile.

Dreams of the seed brutally torn,

What remains is a regretful moan.

It’s The Little Moments That Make Life Big

He:  Babey… Get all your work done before I leave for work.

Me: Ok!! Something important to discuss about?

He: No. It’s just that I get frustrated if I don’t speak to you before starting my day at work.

   (That just sparked a firework of happiness in my heart and made me grasp, “smallest things acquire the largest space in our hearts”)

The social networking fling has spoilt the charm of small things. Being able to easily express the feeling of happiness or sadness or frustration through status updates have brutally killed the lighter moments. It have only made us over exaggerate minor happenings into breaking news flair. We have by time forgotten that smaller means of happiness tend to linger in our mind which we need in our stressed lives than the extreme happiness that gushes in our nerves and is flown out with the same speed.

A passionate kiss or a bed breaking sexual stand would give happiness but only for that period of time. The effect of it withers after its repeated grace. What dawdle through your mind is his staring at you in the mirror image while you dress up beautifully, during an important score against FCB that he didn't wanted to miss. Showing you off as a trophy wife/girlfriend in a high-end party doesn't hold on to our emotion so firm but his angst for you while he makes you cross the crowded junction by gripping your hand tightly does.

Violence or abuse during a fight cannot be ever forgiven but accidently meeting of eyes after the fight and his agony of remorse makes you hold on to him. Considering you as his angel and placing a gentle kiss on your forehead after a long tiring day is an instant relaxant.

Your hormones may take you on an emotional roller coaster ride but his attempt at making you laugh with his quirky jokes during your mood swings make you sprawl with relief.

Life may toss bad, worse and worst instants at you and you may try to cope up with the rainy days but a comforting hand placed on your shoulder during tough times to make sure he is there for you increase your determination.

In middle of the movie scene his looking at you and smiling maybe to resemble you to the character cannot stop you blush and reminisce. Saving you a bigger piece of your favourite cheese pizza is much relishing.

His concern for you evidently drips of his face when he waits to wave goodbye until you get disappeared to a tiny self in the crowd. Waiting restlessly to get your attention over the road until you finish speaking to a lost friend you met incidentally reflects your importance in his life.

Nothing can be more romantic than him fiddling with your hair strand that flew on to his face during a light moment at the beach. Noticing your smudge kohl during a dinner date and wiping it out for you makes you feel more elegant while your heart swells with pride to have him by your side. Magic of the adorable moments of calling you out with weird names that you haven’t even heard of to sound cute will never be a passé.  Tirelessly nodding in agreement for the 10^th yellow kurta you tried on at a fashion outlet for the sake of your happiness and your love for the colour can only be understood by him. The quite conversations in a candlelit room, caressing your palms inattentively sitting at the beach are the velvety moments that nurture your relationship stronger at each step of life. 

Planning a surprise for you in his own special ways to see the astonishment on your face remains fresh in your treasure-trove of memories forever.

His waking up in middle of the sleep and calling you up after he had a bad dream shows how much your presence mean to him. A compliment pierced for you to smile in middle of a serious conversation though how minute but changes your mood promptly.

Holding you as close as possible to protect you in a crowded train; its love, compassion, care and passion in these small moments that counts.

The social network can only do so much. It may display the glossiest image of him holding you in his arms along with a flashy love quote from the bestselling novel as a caption but the fear in his eyes and the emotional preparation he had to go through before the proposal was well worn out through the finest editing app. You really need to know the priceless emotion behind his striking smile and the value of the tear that dripped off silently from the corner of his eye while he was consoling to have hurt you. Ongoing small gestures can mean so much more than one grand display of love. These smaller gestures that went unnoticed while you were expecting the bigger surprises from life are worth a million dollar; cherish them for life because once the time flies these small gestures can never be regained.

Learning from the Struggles Make Us Shine

One never gets too old to learn. Every day provides us with an opportunity to learn new lessons of life knowingly or unknowingly. All we need is to look at it in a positive manner.

The purpose of each one of our lives is to develop/create ourselves into a better person than yesterday. Life comes in with assorted difficulties, but we need to remind ourselves that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure; no man’s life is a cake walk. Learning from the experiences that our life throws at us and inspiring ourselves from the lessons learnt through that struggle will make us shine.

Every day is a struggle. Life is tossing out difficulties and unexpected troubles at me. Contemplating about the pipeline of issues, I came across an inspiring story which stimulated me. It gave me the strength to snarl back at the troop of difficulties. I have decided to not writhe in pain, but face the affliction with vigor. As the trouble will fall weak because it not only gives me the power to be determined, but gives me an opportunity to learn. So, I muster up all my strength for another opportunity to learn, to improve myself. This gives me a chance to make myself prepared for the future and learn from my mistakes. It rejuvenates me.  Leonardo da Vinci rightly said, “Learning never exhausts the mind.”

Here, I share with you the story so you look at your difficulties as an opportunity to rise and shine in the future. Hope you shape yourselves into a beautiful butterfly and spread the colours of your knowledge and happiness to the needy and deprived.

Many of us know that a beautiful and colourful butterfly comes from an unappealing worm! Here is the story of a caterpillar that was never able to live a life like a butterfly!

A little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.

The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.  

One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.

At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn't break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!

The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, got it and then came back. He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!

As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly's wings would expand.

But neither happened!

The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It never could fly…

What the boy in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

In fact, it is the struggle that causes you to develop your ability to fly.

If we don’t want to undergo any struggle, we won’t be able to fly! 

I'm most proud of the blessings that God has bestowed upon me in my life. He's given me the vision to truly see that you can fall down, but you can still get back up. Rising up and learning from the fall gives twice the strength to fight back. Hopefully, I'll learn from my mistakes and have the opportunity to strengthen and improve in the next thing I do. One can lead a life with contentment by continuous learning as life never stops teaching.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT; THOUGHT FOR FOOD

It is said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. It gets even more difficult when the man is a culinary artist himself and you are a blank canvas when it comes to cooking! With being the youngest member of the family, the advantages grows manifold, so do the disadvantages. A quick stroll to the kitchen area is taken only to pick up a bottle of chilled water to quench my thirst or on extremely special occasions to “cook maggi” (it made me feel like an efficient chef). The ban on our favourite maggi rose a burning rage in me to cook so that I do not have to be a clay pigeon at each family function for my irritating aunts to say, “you know last time we went to Anju’s house for a get-together, her 12 year old daughter Ishika cooked amazing Sheera for us.” It always made me so resentful.

South Indian Style Vermicelli Upma

Cooking, I believe is not an easy task. It needs guidance, judgement and knowledge of the wide range of veggies, meats and spices. But, what is much more important is the inspiration to cook. No written recipe can be 100 % accurate, no matter how carefully it is written. The only secret to turn out a recipe perfect is to cook with your heart and soul.

There is no other thing in the world which smells as good as food. No living man can deny his love for the fragrance of the freshly cooked roti. Recently, I got engrossed into cooking. Main course will follow in due course; I am enthusiastically taking baby steps by cooking evening snacks.

Coming home from a strenuous job and engaging in other activities seemed difficult to me. But, rather than doing nothing, I chose to engage in cooking which I wanted to learn but had no eagerness to do it. First two days were difficult, as I had to start from a scratch with no guidance from my mom. Cutting, chopping, segregating, stirring, steaming, roasting, baking, step by step I am learning it all.

Cooking food is an activity that makes you use all your five senses. Cooking well shows that you have the creativity and intuition to please every sense. And if your recipe turns out to be incredibly awesome and your family cannot stop praising you for it, you sense the pride of mastering the art.

The sizzling in a pan, crisp of the coriander, colour of the freshly chopped vegetables, moist sense of soaked lentils, the scent of spices wafting into the air, the textures changing before your eyes, the fragrance of my fingers indulged in cooking, there can be no superior drug for my addiction of cooking.

There’s no better way to warm your body or your soul than cooking.

Radiant Streak Of Happiness

The colourful festivals have been illuminating our lives with moments of happiness. It has showered each one of us with unforgettable happenings and memories to last forever. Some moments good some bad, some unforgettable, creating a deep mark in our hearts. Every passing day not only make us old but also makes us more mature to comprehend life and situations the way they wade on us. Experience makes us headstrong to face each situation in our life.

When everything in our life goes smooth and as predicted everything looks easy but if unfortunately things go wrong, off the track everything looks difficult. It’s like the serenity of the still water but even a single withering leaf can interrupt the stillness and create disturbing ripples. These ripples do not stay for long but it is really important to inculcate patience and strength for it to be still again is in life. These festivals forge to rejuvenate our strength and capability which make us forget the bad phrase and lighten our lives with moments of happiness by inviting our near and dear ones to be a part of our joy.

The moments of joy are what keep the flame of love glowing in our heart. Contemplating the various instants of the blissful days we spend with our adored ones without fearing of the anonymous tomorrow is what gleam to indicate that the rays of the glistening sunshine after the twilight awaits for you, to strike through your heart and blossom the spores of happiness once again.

Life is all about appreciating the memories, learning as you grow and finding happiness.