HAPPY HALLOWEEN.....

A holiday celebrated on Oct 31st , on the eve of "All saints day" (previously know as "All Hallows day") , which is celebrated on Nov 1st .The origination is linked to remnant and extension of a pagan festival "Samhain" , celebrated in Ireland which latter got introduced to the rest of the parts of America and Europe.

It is assumed that on this day , spirits try to get in touch with the material world , hence to ward off , impersonate and pacify the phantoms of the parallel world, people conceal themselves within layers of costume and masks.It is a celebration of many traditional merriment activities like costume parties , trick-or -treating , playing special halloween games and visiting haunted houses.

One of the event that fascinates and excites everyone , are the Costume Parties , which strikes the atmosphere with vivid energy and exuberance.

The best part about custome parties is that , it gives everyone the opportunity to:
*Be freaky.
*Unleash your wicked side.
*Break the monotony of life and be incognito for a day.
*Impersonate our fascinations ,aspirations and adorations.
*Discover a different facet of your and comrade's existence.
*Stimulate Fun and Frolic with friends
*Jump with joy
*Get surprised and excited
*P articipate in the nation wide Fancy dress competition.
*Display your assets.
*Finally , to maintain the sanctity of this tradition , in few cases , Ward off SPIRITS!!..

Kudos to such traditions!!

An Evening with Kiran Bedi

Some people have a power to make a difference and she definitely is one of them.

I had heard about her in media and from people but meeting her in person, made me more certain , that she is an amazing personality with a positive aura and immense capacity to inspire people. It was a Sunday , on 3rd Oct 2004 , at Wilde Auditorium in Hartford-Connecticut , where kiran bedi was welcomed on behalf of a women’s group SNEHA, to make a difference in people’s life. I went with an excitement of meeting and knowing her more. Many people gathered outside the auditorium to meet her.She entered the room with grace and a beautiful smile, wearing a black full sleeve shirt and a grey half sleeve coat over it, with grey pants and black shoes. She is ready all the time, be her career or such occasions.Everyone around, got a chance, to interact and click pictures with her.I did the same ,purchased a book authored by her “I DARE” and requested her to sign it up for me.She was available to everyone with a welcoming smile and warmth.
She received many compliments from guests gathered in the conference. One of the guest ,an American delegate , inquired the meaning of the word "KIRAN" , Kiran replied "SUN SHINE ", she noted it down and then latter commented in her welcoming speech for Kiran , that she knows why it is shinning today because "KIRAN" is here. Indeed ,some people have the capability of turning around the environment and atmosphere into warmth and compassion.

The Guest speakers spoke about kiran’s achievements and accolades. Every speech made me more impatient to listen to her speech. She was welcomed by Dr.Vohra,a reputed person in the field of POLITICAL SCIENCE , subject mastered by Kiran Bedi and an appropriate person to welcome her.She walked on the podium with vigour, took the mike and moved away from the dias. She wanted to be completely transparent and started the speech by thanking people who invited her for this occasion. She spoke about her family, birth, sisters, schooling, subjects, career and challenges she faced in her life.
She ventured into a male dominated profession , without doubting her conviction and brought changes in the society and police department . She changed the entire picture of policing by culturing and training people under her. The sales liquor went down under her supervision , and the scene of TIHAR JAIL changed completely. She spoke about her life , without pride, but more of modesty and humility and fire of striking the unjust. She faced a lot of challenges and politicians made several attempts to transfer her but nothing could deter her conviction , their efforts were futile. Every sentence delivered by her , represented a clear picture of her high standards in morals, education, conviction and conscience. Her speech had depth, gravity and attraction.

She presented a succinct and poignant documentary , out of one of her many social programs ,in TIHAR JAIL . Women prisoners ,while serving their sentence in tihar jail , could legitimately,take the custody of the child, resulting in the child being a captive with his mother .She considered this situation as a primal case , and benevolently started a program to provide the children with proper food, education, clothes, sanitation and counselling. The children are admitted , later on, to the mainstream schools, where they are provided with good facilities like an appropriate hostel for accomodation and good education. They are given counselling, encouraging them to become a productive citizen of the society.This disclosed the subtle side of Kiran bedi, a thoughtful , benign and a role model for the society.

After her speech , there was a Question and Answer round. Everyone got a chance to ask her questions and thus learn from her. The round was fabulous and she had answers for all. She was questioned about politics, terrisom, education, society and physcology and she answered all of it so well. Her knowledge and vocabulary is profound and diversified and her answers were terse and to the point. She gave many good suggestions and right on the spot.

One of the student, congratulated and requested her to give advice to the present youth.Kiran replied spontaneously, " MAKE YOUR CAREER A CAUSE". This line is concise but complete and self explanatory.

I admire and revere her fearless resolute and a complete belief in herself . She loves challenges and her fearless attitude , got her acknowledged , as the recipient of the MAGASAYSAY award and ambassador of UN.She is currently deployed in a project at Haiti where she is providing solutions in the policing department for the UN.

We all should be a learner in life and learn from people like KIRAN BEDI that life is way beyond family,career,money and self. It is more of giving than taking. If we educate our children from their formative years ,that giving is everything , then we can develop into a compassionate society.Current generation , has role models as public entertainers and their negligence in morality , is a great loss of principles. The essence of life is forgotten when we choose them as our inspiration. We drift away from the right track, if we don’t have an ideal role model, a person who inspires us to do a lot for others.

Lets us learn and be of service to people around us and people in distress.
Let us Dare like KIRAN BEDI to pass hurdles of life and emerge as a winner.

----Reply from Kiran Bedi:
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 Kiran Bedi wrote :
thanku Bhumika....i have really liked the article...and am grateful to you for thinking this way....i am honoured..... who have you written this for?....and tell me more about u...are u a regular writer...?..with love kiran .

UnderEstimated Love !

A plain tete-a- tete with a collegue at work developed into an argy bargy on a cliche motif -Politics at work.

The discussion was on two managers at work fighting with each other for a single post,consequently maligning each other's reputation among all the levels of ramification -seniors , co-workers and subordinates.

My collegue adamantly pressed the point that Human Nature tends to stub one's reputation to reach higher levels of hierarchy which is inevitable and largely visualized in organizations everywhere .I contradicted that such nature may bring some accolade and promotion to person in charge but will sure detriment his reputation and more importantly that the essence of human Nature does not comprise of hatred.


After the discussion in draw , I drifted for a while within myself and few questions kept reverberating in my consciousness. Does human Nature tend to get derogatory in such a trivial competition ? Aren't we suppose to be higher forms than all the creatures on this planet? If hatred is a part of our human nature then why does unconditional love exist when people FALL in LOVE? Why is there a undeniable presence of unconditional love between child and a mother or father?

It may survive in few moments but it does exists.So why do we not feel the same about all people around us? What is lacking ?

I tried to seek answers within myself and credited it to lack of belongingness in us .We all live in complete ignorance and tend to underestimate our essence , existence comprising of pure love. We extend and offer ourselves completely to people we feel live in our territory of meaningful co existence and remaining set of people exits outside the circle, in zone of negligence.

In other words we under estimate and limit the amount of unconditional love that exist within us.

A brief personal anecdote to highlight this point -- I had joined a beautiful ART OF LIVING course named "DSN -Divya Samaj Ka Nirman " last year which made me realise that we indeed constitute love .All the entrants had to engage in a drill , which entailed walking to each and every participant posing hands in Namaskar and looking into the eyes and conveying gratitude , it had to be done without speaking and through actions .Initially I smirked on this exercise and took it with less intensity but as I got involved , it cracked open a ravine of emotions in my heart.

A mystical music in the background encompassed the space within the room with
light sprightliness and as participants encountered each other, looked into each others eyes with affection and implying the presence of godliness in all of us , thanking each other for everything with namaskar and bowing down to each others soul and higher form of conciousness .It felt not like an interaction at physical level , it was soul bowing down to the other soul in recognition of existence of our form as an energy.The ambience metamorphised completely, there was melting of ego , ignorance, robust attitude and immergence of love. Every single person felt the wave of belongingness in the room and was overflowing with emotions and everyone cried.In a moment the atmosphere changed and we all realised the amount of love and gratitude that exists wiithin us which was so underestimated , our territory of belongingness had proliferated widely.

I had to run out of the room as I could not hold myself with this newly discovered reality and wept buckets .I remember that I forgot myself for a second and let the tears drain relentlessly. Everyone felt the wave of love ,belongingness and everyone cried and like me and mused about this alteration in emotions and ambience.

The whole point to bring this issue was that we are basically comprised of love and belongingness only we need to realise it. We need to meet every one with reverence and seek godliness in everyone around us . This may seem impractical and we may divert many times to ignorance but if we have a knowledge and realisation of it then we may drift back on the right track.

So even if you are competing with someone for the same post , do it with same reverence , belongingness and love. Let the person best entittled for the post win.Do your best , keep a healthy competition and you will see yourself exceeding beyond your limitation and emerging as a new discovery to your ownself. 

The Essence of hinduism

This is a common question, I have encountered, by many curious onlooker of Hindusim,that
Why are Hindus polytheistic?

This is my retort , No, they are not!

And why ?

*According to Sanatana Dharma:

1.There is only one unseen force , formless, absolute energy, called “Brahman” , everything within our perception is its extension.We cannot define god , as we have not seen it , hence we create epithets to define its existence in various forms of God and Goddesses (like ganesh, laxmi, saraswati etc) ,same supreme one with various names.It is different representation of the absolute supreme power as a bestower of gifts , like, for bestower of wealth we represent the same absolute energy as Goddess Laxmi , for bestower of wisdom we represent the same absolute energy as Goddess Saraswati , for bestower of success we represent the same absolute energy as God Ganesha, etc.Again , we pray to the existence of absolute energy in these forms and not the idols itself and they represent different ways to fulfill one's spiritual quest.There is no mention of myraid gods and goddesses in the holy scriptures.

In Vasistha's Yoga , the concept is explained in simple terms, from a single element gold(creator) we create many ornaments like rings, chain, bracelet, ear rings(created) etc of different shapes and names, one precious metal gold alone has assumed these distinct forms to accomplish different functions or serve different purposes of the buyer(worshipper).

To simplify it even further : We too , have different names and personality, at school we have a formal name/persona, at home we have a nick name/persona , with friends we have a jovial name/persona , but we are the same person.

2.Also , as human mind is an unstable form of energy, we require a point of concentration (in this case an idol) , to accumulate all energies in a single point, in order to amplify our stability.Again, it is not compulsory to pray with an idol in front of us and it is fine if one can do without it.

3. We also venerate the creation of god , since its essence pervades in all its creation like trees, birds , plants ,rivers etc.

Explained in Vasistha's Yoga , The created (like a Gold bracelet)is the same substance as that of the creator(Gold).

Hence , no harm is inflicted on us if we bow down in reverence to its creation , animate or inanimate existence or further more , create an idol with devotion and love , indicating the presence of supreme energy pervading in all its creation .If God created plants, then there is no harm in bowing down to a Basil plant , or its idol , as a part of the ritual .Doesn't it denote humbleness and respect for the existence of essence of god in it ? Or are plants , just an entity on our dinner platter , to satify our intermittent appetite.

People who define god's existence, are
either humans or exalted humans (prophets) .Isn't it? .No one has seen God , only seen its creation, in abundance and our veneration towards any of it's manifestations are practices to accomplish and fortify our faith , equanimity and spiritual quests.

As Lord Krishna says in Geeta: "Whatever deity or form, a devotee worships, I make his faith steady".

~With Aum

A Guess Game...

Clean, mean, sheen act of deception.
Mortals envisage me, initially ,with a mistaken perception.

Exploiting human weakness and virtues with nimble maneuvers,
Fleecing them off and bequeathing them with tomfoolery as souvenirs.

Playing my cards skillfully,I break trust and abandon my fans dolefully,
Ensuing, an act of disappearance, into oblivion, nonchalantly.

Laundering money of innocent and greedy with flimflam.
Winning is my attribute by masking my identity with a sham.

You must have guessed me by now.
I know , you must have , and don’t ask me how?

I’m a Con Artist, swindling is my essence and I thrive on others paraphernalia,
I’m a victim of confused identity, emotions ,indifference and unpredictable schizophrenia.

~ With Om

Excerpt from my story Ecstasy...........

She ends her telephonic conversation , places the phone on the table and fragilely runs her fingers through her hair, entagling her black silky threads at the brink with fingers drawing circle in the air.An outburst of overwhelming emotions fuels her yearning and her imagination slowly transcends into reality evolving a mirage of desire at a point in space where her eyes lay fixed in trance . As her mind vehemently explores the territory of unexperienced feelings,she relaxes her facial muscles and releases an involuntary smile .Her lips extending with an honest effort to meet her eyes. Eyes, narrating a story of her enamored soul and soften with moist zing in recognition of the newly discovered ecstasy.Her heart starts beating faster than the normal rhythm, giving birth to coyness and gripping her cheeks in form of blush .The pink hue spreads gradually all over her face, like a liquid strain slowly spreading on a blotting paper and she bubbles with freshness of a child .She softly bites her lips lopsidedly ,as fanciful images trapped in her mind ,flashes authentically in front of her eyes.Her eyelids twinkling at regular interval, influenced by her emotional intensity .

A gust of cool breeze, finding route through the window , trespasses over her mesmerized contours.Her hair succumbing to the force of the nature gets helplessly scattered in all the direction. She swirls her body with arms wide open pointing towards the sky, runs erratically towards her bed , jumps on it as if playing a trampoline and enjoying every bit of this whimsical state.

Suddenly, a voice breaks the silence of her solitude.

"Kashish , Kashish , join us for dinner Beta , food is getting cold".....

She halts her insane activity after hearing an earnest plea from her mother, much to her dismay .She tries to gain composure and sits back on the love seat , inhales deeply and exhales slowly with a smile on her face.....

Replies back ," Yes , Mother .Will be downstairs in 5 mins."

Rushes towards the restroom , opens the tap and splashes water all over her face .Stares into the mirror , smiles intoxicatingly and says ," Yes , This is love , am in love." .................................

Quotes that make me go Aha!

I would like to share few quotes,that I have come across , either by reading a book or an article that has transcend my curiosity into wonderment with eyes glued to the lines , heart desiring to read it again , mind numb of any questions and an expression of delight "AHA" randomly emitting out of my oral cavity.This list will undergo certain increments after encountering new quotes and after organizing my strewn literary collections.
1.It was a little like INTO THE SAND , with claude barron , which she'd seen a couple of weeks ago.In that picture Claude Baroon enlists in the foreign legion because rita carrol marries another guy. The other guy turn out to be a cheater and drinker , and so rita carrol leaves him and travels out into the desert where Claude Baroon is fighting the arabs.By the time Rita Carrol gets there he's in the hospital , wounded , or not a hospital really but just a tent , and she tells him she loves him and claude barroon says ," I went into the desert to forget about you.But the sand was the color of your hair.The desert sky was the color of your eyes.There was nowwhere I could go that wouldn't be you." And then he dies..
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenies.

2.
*Koran Says ,'Blessed is he in whose hand is the kingdom, and he who has power over all things.Who created death and life that he may try you.'Koran speaks the thruth my girl.Behind every trial and every sorrow that he makes us shoulder.God has a reason."

*Mariam lay on the couch, hands tucked between her knees, watched the whirlpool of snow twisting and spinning outside the window.She remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world.That all the sighs drifted up the sky,gathered into clouds,then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below.As a reminder of how woman like us suffer ,she’d said .How quietly we endure all that falls upon us.

*Boys,Laila came to see , treated friendship the way they treated sun :its existence undisputed;its radiance best enjoyed , not to beheld directly.
-A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

3.Remember, Chiyo, geisha are not courtesans. And we are not wives. We sell our skills, not our bodies. We create another secret world, a place only of beauty. The very word "geisha" means artist and to be a geisha is to be judged as a moving work of art
-Memoirs of geisha by Aurther Golden.

4. *Madness is the inability to communicate your ideas. It is as if you were in a foreign country, able to see and understand everything that is going on around you, but incapable of explaining what you need to know or of being helped, because you don't understand the language they speak there.

*People only go mad when they try to escape from routine.

*We're allowed to make a lot of mistakes in our lives, except the mistake that destroys us.
-Veronica Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

5.
* True experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world (love) without owning it.

* Some Brazilian superstitions: When you visit someone for the first time, you must not be the first to open the door when you leave, because if you do, you will never return to that house.
- Eleven MINUTES by paulo coelho
6.*When you love, things make even more sense.

*When every day seems the same, it is because we have stopped noticing the good things that appear in our lives.

*And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

*When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

*I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living now.

* Peope are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them.

*When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you
-Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

7. “Life is Sacred. Celebrate Life. Care for others and share whatever you have with those less fortunate then you broaden your vision, for the whole world belongs to you”
-Sri Sri Ravishankar

8. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character
- Martin Luther King Jr
~With Aum