SoulMATE!

I am okay, with the idea of sharing. In fact, I share a lot many things of mine with others. This class of *others* is a distinct group and it includes both immediate family and close friends. Some I share willingly and some just happens. I have been lucky enough to get to know more about Sharing, rather involuntarily.

I am the sort person who strongly believes in the Divine Intervention and looks for the same in ALL sorts of places. I try to look for the DEEPER meaning on almost everything that happens in my life, though most of the times there isn’t any… lol… I get drawn to People by a multitude of things, their looks, intelligence, friendless, charm, personality, likes, dislikes or their DANCING skills.

My soul mate drew me towards her by her Birthday! Yes, Birthday, we share our birthday. 3rd of October 1986!

She is everything that I am NOT and I am everything that she is NOT… We are similarly different in all things that we do; the way we think and the way we behave the way we perceive and the way we reciprocate. This entry of mine is for her, Famita Abdul Latheef! My Fem, M soulmate! These are 24 different bitter sweet memories that I have joted down for you… so that you spent some time thinking about me…. Missing me… :)

1. Fem, remember when we first met? It was in the Manipal Bus, while returning home… I was chatting away to glory with all the folks in the bus, fighting with the driver and all of sudden, you ask, “Are you a member of the Lions Club? Have you performed there”… lol…

2. Remember how you used to call me before my stop and ask me to get something for you to eat, during RAMADAN?

3. Remember the time when I told you Aunty will be waiting outside for you today, when you were going home in the car INSIDE of the Bus?

4. Remember how we freaked out n fooled Anish! LOL

5. Remember us getting dressed for My Farewell Party like crazy possessed people?

6. Remember how we used to randomly have ice cream cravings and rush to Baskins Robbins?

7. Remember the long long phone calls in the middle of the night and you faking like you were sleeping to fool Granny?

8. Remember our *Washing away the Evil Eye* Sequence?

9. Remember our Weekly Saturday Breakfast sessions and Beach meeting?

10. Remember how we used to go over pictures of random people and criticize the poor souls for no apparent reason or fault of theirs?

11. Remember you standing me up for some JERK and going for the Spring Fest without telling me?

12. Remember the number of times have I given you my silent treatment? :S

13. Remember us trying to complete all your advertising assignments with least amount of plagiarism? Lol… An Epic Fail!

14. Remember our Pasta n movie nights?

15. Remember us going through all the matrimony sites over and over again for some sort of cheap thrill?

16. Remember all our Thursday night walking sessions? Walking down from your house to mine talking, yelling, laughing and gossiping.

17. Remember the Two of us going Rinky’s house after her apparent suicide attempt?? Thinking she was uhmm… No more… lol Though our lives were in a mess we felt it was our moral obligation to sort out her issues.

18. Remember our group crying session over our silly immature heartbreaks?

19. Remember our Random *CHAAT* sessions?

20. Remember how went searching for your perfect engagement dress?

21. Remember our completely disastrous and accidental New Year’s Eve?? Lol the crying, dressing up, running over to Wafi, being refused Food, the drive to Jumeriah, being followed back home, the Hardees dinner cum breakfast at 2.00 in the morning…

22. Remember the day when you were leaving for your wedding and I was weeping uncontrollably? :)

23. Remember our last Birthday and the blunders there? LOL

24. Remember ME and how much I love you?

I can go on and on for long, with the kind of memories we SHARE, but that not what is require… not at the moment. Gal, meeting you was my providence, Us becoming friends was a conscious and definite choice, but falling in love with you, babes… Well I had absolutely no control over that. I miss you so bloody much!

And Ye, Happy Birthday BABES!

A Colorless Journey.

KERALA – Land of Enthralling visuals... captivating locales... land of culture, religion, drama and beauty, a Land perfect for the ultimate vacation of the mind and the body.

Thanks to my colleague, Neethu, I had a chance to watch a Promotion Video on Kerala, issued by the Kerala Tourism Industry called Your Moment is waiting. This movie by Kerala Tourism is basically to attract the International audience to Kerala and in turn exponentially increase the growth in Tourism sector.

Well, I saw the video… Uhmmm… In a word, it’s Different!

Firstly, as an expat Keralite, I cannot identify myself with the Video. The Video should have ideally triggered a tug to my heart strings, instilled feeling of shame and guilt at having seen so less of my homeland. But NO… the only thing it succeeds in doing was getting me scared, confused and disappointed.

It’s a particularly preposterous take on Kerala, much like the recent blunder, Raavan. If they wanted to 'capture the soul of Kerala'; I think that’s it what was the initial intention was, it definitely didn’t work out. Not for me at least. In my perception, it was a twisted, violated, beaten and traumatized version of the otherwise calm and composed Kerala’s scenic beauty.

As we have seen in the movies, Our film makers make it a point to spoon feed us… they are just to terrified to let go, making films scrupulously, with plots, subplots, twists and packing it with mindless nonsense. The concept of leaving many things unsaid is completely absent.

Most importantly the images are not powerful enough; the Colorist of the Video totally ruined the natural colors, giving everything a largely Grey overtone. The only captivating scene is none other than the last shot where in the Girl interacts with the Elephant. That I believe was an interesting and arresting shot. It was a highly abstract and inconcrete interpretation of Kerala. It didn’t touch upon the exotic aesthetic beauty or the Supernatural spiritualism that seems to be the maker’s prime motive.

The blatant Concentration on the Model, took away most of the charm of the video in itself. Having an asymmetrical face, she lacks both the European Energy and the Asian allure. She almost was like alien being amid the wild African Forests.

The poor Kathakali artist, Kalamandalam Gopi has been reduced to a mere caricature, and forget tourist, even residents who see someone like this in the early fifties making such expressions would doubt the man’s mental stability. How inappropriate!

The music used for the video is too tribal and raw to have any correlation to the Subject of the Video. The Most important and crucial part of Kerala, its dance forms, its temples, its people, its tranquility, its resourcefulness, were all pushed to the back, with the Model trust forward as a Focus of Attraction.

Quite Honestly... It was a beautiful video but is disappointing in terms of Promotional, inspirational video... Not really an encouraging promotion to showcase Kerala to the world! And Oh… It also forgot to include the most important statutory warning to alert the prospective visitors about the famous Kerala Bandhs!

The TASK!

Sitting idle is completely against my principles, and therefore today… this evening waiting for the traffic to clear off on the Beach road, Jumeriah… I thought up an idea to keep me occupied through the 31 traffic signal, starting from the signal in front of Wild Wadi to the Signal to the Sana Signal leading to my home. The idea? Well… 31 signals and 31 things to do… I decided I should think of 20 likes, 1 love and 10 hates… For each signal ONE! Trust me, its therapeutic.

Let me start off…

Signal 1 - I like the feeling of anxiety.

Signal 2 - I like staring at my face in the mirror for hours.

Signal 3 - I like Haji ali’s Water Melon Juice

Signal 4 - I like my hair, when I wake up in morning after having slept with Wet hair.

Signal 5 - I like it when the car stereo's bass is soooo strong that it vibrates my whole body.

Signal 6 - I like boys with husky voices and girls with pretty faces.

Signal 7 - I like blogging.

Signal 8 - I like Romantic movies.

Signal 9 - I like Prithivi Raj.

Signal 10 - I like Sarees.

Signal 11 - I like the Beach.

Signal 12 - I like Basin Robbins - Burj Al Emlak Ice cream.

Signal 13 - I like cooking.

Signal 14 - I like dancing.

Signal 15 - I like singing at the top of my voice.

Signal 16 - I like being alone.

Signal 17 - I like Babies.

Signal 18 - I like Teaching.

Signal 19 - I like Beauty.

Signal 20 - I like shoes.

Signal 21 - I love MYSELF!

Signal 22 - I hate Feeling fat!

Signal 23 - I hate Noise.

Signal 24 - I hate Alzheimer's and schizophrenia a lot.

Signal 25 - I hate always being the responsible one.

Signal 26 - I hate Rats and Snakes.

Signal 27 - I hate double standards.

Signal 28 - I hate hypocrites.

Signal 29 - I hate being late.

Signal 30 - I hate DS.

Signal 31 - I hate crying.

And so this way I reached home… :D Now what do I do 2mm? :)

Respect!

I believe in One God! Supreme, Ultimate, Illimitable, Omnipresent and Omnipotent!

Yes, this is MY definition of GOD! In fact it is the same in all the Religions of the World as well, or least that is what I comprehend from my very modest understanding and knowledge of Theology. Everyone seems to be aware of this actuality, but very few of us actually understand the Greatness of this.

Hinduism: Hindus believe in one supreme God who created the universe.

Islam: God is One and Only.

Christianity: All things are made and came into existence through One and Only God.

This is what is preached in the three major religions of the world. If we look closer all of the other religions, they will also convey the same message indisputably. Yet there are indifferences, major differences in the way people from these Religions behave, reciprocate and LIVE!

Let me explain… If I were to ask every Muslim or Christian, a simple question of Have you read the Quran? Or have you read the Bible? Respectively, I will most certainly get a positive answer. I can say this with absolutely no Doubt. In fact turn to your right ask your colleague or pick up the phone and ask your friends. I am pretty sure you will get the same answer … YES!

Now another question, How Many of us Hindus have read the Gita?

With personal experience I can guarantee that in about 100 people, we would be lucky to find at least one person who has. It’s unfortunate, that many Hindus around the world do not practice the religion. Practicing a religion isn’t unfashionable or boring; in fact it is an enriching and a life altering activity. The Bhagvad Gita is the Song of God; it’s one way to connect to God and all Godly elements. It is a self sustained and practical Guide to life. By reading the Gita, we just arming ourselves with methods to lead a Righteous and Complete life. Through

Devotional Service, Action, Practice and Meditation ultimately our knowledge is what is increasing.

In reality, I have noticed that we Hindus do not have ENOUGH respect towards our religion. I have seen the respect, commitment, devotion and loyalty in the eyes of Christians and Muslims, which I so long to see in the eyes of Hindus. Maybe I am wrong, but I think not. It is wonderful that Muslims and Christians read their holy books and take it very seriously. The degree to which our Muslim and Christian brothers worship is far far ahead of our level. You may ask, who decides this level, true, no one can actually measure the right level of worship and surrender. But let’s face it; all of us deep in our hearts are completely aware of the wariness of the situation.

The most offending thing is that, most Hindus decide to display their comic timing and sense of humor at the expense of their religion. Making fun of the Hindu God’s and Goddess seem to be very fashionable thing to do. Take any Film or comedy show, for instance, we can quite easily see how Lord Krishna is made fun of for this numerous wives or Lord Ganpathi for his eating habits. Many a times have I heard people crack jokes on Draupadi, Shri Ram and even on the Ramayana and The Mahabharata. Why? To laugh? It’s a pity that one has to resort to such cheap thrills in life. I have never once seen any Muslims or Christians mock or target God, be it Allah or Jesus. It is definitely something we should imbibe from them, Respect. It is with Great Respect that they take God’s name, never once in vain!

I believe we need to have sincerely, loyally, faithfully give more respect to this Great Religion, the oldest living Religion of the World. Let’s NOT ridicule it! Because if we do, the joke is on US!

S Square!

I really can’t explain certain things about me, sometimes when I venture to do so; I only end up making myself sound weird, obnoxious and arrogant. But does that stop me from talking, absolutely NOT… lol!

For Instance, You know when I like someone or something I never want to tell their/its names. It feels like I am surrendering a huge part of them when i do so. Of Late, I am really growing to love SECRECY. The drama, the ambiguity and the vagueness. It’s all just terrific! Secrecy seems to be one of those things that can make mundane life of ours mysterious and marvelous. Even the simplest and commonest thing is utterly delightful if one tends to HIDE it!

Even when I have to leave the country from now on, I will make it a point not tell people where I am going or when I will be back. If I do, I would lose all my contentment. In fact I have been putting the above said into practice quite a few times recently. The pleasure of keeping a secret is indeed exotic. Yes, it is definitely a childish habit, but somehow, I have realized that keeping secrets, adds a huge deal of Romance into one’s life. Well you have just got to Trust me on that.

It's similar to my yet another favorite course of action, SILENCE! Yes, SILENCE… when I don't like something/ someone, I find it best not to say anything on the topic or to the person. Well, I do love confrontations n stuff like that… but I Love my silence more. Many a times, people have offended me, but I chose not to say anything to them, instead I keep quite. I ignore the whole topic (Read: the one that offended me) and sometimes the person entirely. My bestie, Fem, calls it my SILENT TREATMENT… lol and she speaks from experience so there is no arguing with that. I mean I hate telling people who obliviously don’t care about me in the first place about what they have done; it's almost like showing them how much they mean to me, whereas I mean nothing to them. Isn’t it? I definitely feel so. Why express oneself and bare one's soul so that someone can be judgmental about you? Why not adopt silence… I don’t know about others, but I definitely think it works for me. It definitely puts me to peace instantlty.

Sooo… Basically I have sworn myself to the two S's in life… Silence and Secrecy!

Why?

I have been thinking, in fact for quite some time about relationships. Yes Relationships between friends, colleagues, acquaintances etc. Thinking about what effects these relationships, what is to be done to retain these relationships, and What should be done in order to avoid any conflicts or misunderstandings at all. I am the sort of person who has a lot issues only and only because of the very fact that I THINK a Lot. At any given time and place, I am constantly creating a Burj Khalifa of thoughts. Sometimes because of my overactive thought process and imagination, the thin line between the reality and fiction gets so blurred! But a few recent incidents have made me realize that no, it’s not in my head alone and that some things are completely beyond our control and no matter what we do, things that need to go wrong will go wrong.

We spend the whole of our life chasing things that we don’t have and when we finally get them, something else has been added to our forever expanding *Things to Achieve*. In our mad rush to amass all these material aspects of life, we also get a few unwanted and unnecessary side effects like Jealousy, insecurity, timidity, uncertainty, etc. And these side effects are the very things that completely ruin relationships.

I for one am the sort of person who is easily affected by people behaving strangely. Initially I was of the opinion that Women are the ones who can literally be blinded by jealousy, but I have come to realize that even Men can’t seem to escape this horrible emotion as well. Jealousy can really distract people so much that they fail to spot things in front of their eyes, therefore exposing relationships with other individuals to extreme danger.

Many friendships of my mine have purely ended because of the sense of competition that creeps into the heads of my friends. They cease to be happy at my happiness and begin to plot different ways to beat me… But why? I never once left the need to compete with my friends. I know of people who have gone and cut their hair after seeing me cut my hair or get a boyfriend to show how superior they are to me. I wonder many times whether they even pause of a minute to think, how I would feel, when they do these kinds of things.

A few of my *so called* Friends also have this thing of not telling me things when something good tends to happen in their lives whereas I am almost always the Numero Uno person to know about their sorrows. And now why the hell is that? Why not tell me, your achievements as well? Don’t I deserve to be happy for you or are you scared I will take it all away? And why is it expected that I should tell everything to all my friends?

I am expected not to have any competition or any feeling of longing, where as everyone else in this world entitled to do so. Right?

Ah well… I guess it just me, and my stupid thoughts, I don’t think I am making any sense at the moment… Maybe it’s all in my head... Or is it? :S