Homewards :)

Missing my dear and near ones...

Guess I would get over the feeling today as I am going home after a couple of weeks...

I don't understand why at times, some sort of strange and peculiar feelings pop up in me when I don't visit home for a long time. I don't really think it could be termed as "Homesickness" as I am used to staying away from home for many years. But the feeling never goes off. I feel like drinking the water at home, breathe the fresh air, laze around in my home and garden, watch the birds cackling and cooing on a sunny afternoon, the mango trees bearing the first blossoms, the jack fruits ripe and big and many more sights just awaiting my arrival. I feel like watching all this and be a part of all that is happening around that little world of mine where I can be my true self, devoid of chains and worries and rules. It is so nice to be at one's own home and do specifically nothing but just be yourself and relax. That is a feeling inexplicable as far as I am concerned.

So off to home, though I could have started early in the afternoon but was impeded by some unnecessary formalities and stuff.

I am gonna embark on my journey homewards :) Though it is only a matter of five or six hours, it means quite a lot to me.

Friends are born not made!!!

I am dedicating this post to some very special people in my life.. Let me take this narrative through those few folks in my life who mean a lot to me.. who have been my pillars of support at the most needed occasions... They have influenced me in different ways in different phases of my life.. Yes, I am talking about the best of my buddies! My friends who have stayed by me through thick and thin. Those friends who touched my heart in a way that their friendship would be fondly remembered even if they cease being my friend. I have cent percent faith in most of them. I never doubted their intentions. So here goes the list:

1. Sweety - I must say a really cute and lovable person. We seldom meet each other. Sweety was one of the first best friends I made in school. Yes, our friendship since then had remained intact. It just grows as years pass by. More of a soul mate, even if we don't talk often, we could just continue from where we left. She is blessed with a baby boy and am really really happy for her. Our friendship has successfully celebrated 14 years and am damn sure it will continue to flourish no matter what or where our geographical locations are.

2.M - I can't tell you how grateful I am to you. You had taught me a lot. I admire you a lot. The kind of determination and strength that you displayed in spite of the setbacks and hardships you faced is amazing. It is rare to find people like you. You are very independent, devout and a little sensitive. (Your sensitive side is less known to the world). You pass off for an 'Iron Lady'. I can't thank you enough for being there as a pillar of support at a time when I needed you the most. You are the classic example for "a friend in need is a friend indeed". This was one of the earliest proverbs I learned in my great school.

3. M2 - Amazing that I have some very good friends who've names starting with M. M2 is very humble. M2 is very sensible, mature and intelligent. But M2 can be a little childish very rarely.Words are not often required when we have to convey something to her. She senses the situations, learns quickly from the surroundings. It is the kind of same wavelength which makes me comfortable to be friends with you. And yes, you are very generous in your love towards friends.

4. K - Chirpy, bubbly, lively - these are the adjectives with which I would like to describe you. Again it is a kind of wavelength and warmth that helps the two of us in confiding with each other. It is really good to have friends like you. I had criticized you at times, but my dear I just intended your well being. You are child like and childish alternatively!! I like you the way you are..

5.G- OMG! You are just adorable. Whenever we were together you had been just like a sibling. I must say an elder sis! I really loved being scolded by you. You were one unique character that I have ever met. So short-tempered, yet very idealistic, determined and self-willed. You were amazing. I have learned a lot from you as well. I felt so secure when you were around. You took care of me, motivated me and what not. I wish we could spent some time together.

That's all for today and thank you dear friends for being in my life in different stages of my life.

In blues for you sis...

Depressed!!!
This is the catchword today. Students are depressed. Professionals are depressed. Housewives are depressed. Who isn't depressed? Various shades and degrees of depression.
I'm also slightly depressed owing to various reasons. I have read somewhere that realizing the reasons and the causes for your grief or depression and comprehending that they would not stay on helps you in getting out of it gradually. Can I then not list out a few of them here. That would be better.
1. A student's arrogance dogged me in the morning, first session after a break.

2. An update in fb spoiled the rest of my day.

3. And this is the worst of all. And here I need to explain a little in detail. A news in the newspaper which I didn't read on purpose for fear of this depression sinking in more. But my poor mom had to share it with me when I called her at night. A girl (Soumya) in her early twenties was brutally molested during her train journey. She was going from her workplace to home. The attack and further atrocities meted out on her led to her death.

As usual, after the incident - the media, public, government, NGOs, Women's associations all came to the forefront claiming and disclaiming, portraying and narrating the various aspects of the gruesome murder. I don't want to go through the details of the morbid crime. But it was the most heinous one I have heard in recent times.

Why is it that women in our country are being ill-treated like this? Do we have to question the very foundation of our society and culture? Indian culture is upheld and praised like anything by West and East alike. I can't understand the barbaric tendencies displayed by men. Why are they succumbing to the animal instincts in them? Are these brutes still an animal and less human? Can't they discern what is right and what is wrong? Whatever it is, the part which hurt me most was the plight of the girl's mother who had insisted her daughter to travel on the same night to her native as one guy was coming to see her the next day. This is yet another custom here when marriages are 'arranged' by the girl and the boy's family.

A mother can identify well with her daughter. The mother-daughter relationship, I would say is the most beautiful of all the relations created by God. The perfect calm, sense of security, love and warmth that we get from our mother is incomparable. I am very close to my mother and she is perhaps one of the first "Best Friends" that I have made.

Poor mom, she was so upset after reading the news and watching the girl's burial in TV channels (Yeah.. As I said the media was dying to celebrate cover the story live). Both of my mom's daughters are put up in two different places far away from her. One is working and another is studying. After the first few journeys accompanied by dad or friends, now mostly we travel by ourselves. How can she feel at ease when she reads and hears such gruesome episodes? I don't mean to say this is quite recurrent in our society. But it could happen to ANYONE. Our own land and country being unsafe for us. Where else can we feel safer??

I can't express what I feel towards you, Soumya. Your life was snatched away from you and the society has responded immensely. But all this hue and cry would stop soon and there would be hardly any measures taken to safeguard women when they are out in the world. May your soul rest in peace and let your mother get the strength to bear your loss.

Mindfulness....

Last few days were spent basically reading, reading and more reading. Well, it's not any literature books as you guess. It was the n number of blogs that I came across. I find it quite amusing. Understanding and observing human nature and behaviour have been one of my favourite past time activities ever since I remember. I feel the blogs do reveal a little about each person's character, likes and dislikes. I stumbled upon the blog of a schoolmate and dear friend of mine. I pinged her after many days and shared my discoveries with her. It was surprising to note a few similarities in character that we possessed which were hitherto unknown to both of us (Both of us being a little sensitive, naive and some of the quirkiness that we shared). It was nice talking to her and reading her posts. I must say her blog is a beautiful collage of her life till date - simple yet interesting!!
In fact the idea of blogging was inspired by one Ms.P, from whom I heard about blogging a few years back, guess it was in 2007. I had in fact declared her as my Tutor in blogging, though I seldom get to interact with her. I wasn't that tech-savvy during those days. I must confess, I was rather ignorant. Not that I am really good now. But I can manage on my own. My typing speed has increased tremendously, to the extent that a few people had even asked me if I have learnt type writing :D.

What I wish to achieve with my experiments in blogging would be as follows:

• Leave some of my thoughts for my dear and near ones to read after I am no more.
• As they say, any work of art (I really doubt if there is any art and creativity in mine) is eternal. I think words are eternal.
• I may wish to convey something to people around me. It could be something which I cannot tell them on face but express in my blog B-)
• I couldn't help it. I had to pen down some of my thoughts. Excuse me readers! You have to bear with my ramblings.
• Finally, as I believe there is a writer in me who wishes to liberate the woman in me (Here, I do sound like a 'feminist' - a word which has been truly misunderstood by the majority of humankind).