I am India

WE now have:
Big houses – Small families
Buy More – Enjoy Less
Taller Buildings – Narrow Minds
More Technology – Less Solutions
More Degrees – Less Sense
More Medicine – Less Health
More Farmville – Less of Real Gardening
Made Living – Not Life
Reached Moon – Not Hearts of family and friends

Result:
Restless lifestyle, overweight bodies, loud music, artificial environment, polluted air, busy schedule, frequent travels, less time and crazy race to catch success train.

But NOW, countdown has started for a new beginning yet again. With this new page, we can try to reduce some clumsiness in our daily routine and spend some time with our loved ones as they are not going to stay around us forever. This New Year, try to give time to love, to speak, to listen and to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

For me, this year was very good giving me opportunities to rediscover my love for my family and I could give them the affection and support they needed. I am happy with the lessons I have learned.

With this, I give a pleasant goodbye to 2009 and warm welcome to 2010.

You too have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Hyderabad, this is the place I am born and bought up. This city gave me good friends, many opportunities to become an achiever in life. I love this city. Not just for me, it has been same for people coming from other places as well.

This city of Nizams now developed into a complete cosmopolitan hub accommodating people from various cultures and diversities.

So what? Why this essay on Hyderabad? Hmm, it’s because today this has become center of discussion for everybody in the wake of dividing Andhra Pradesh.

After statement from center that process for new state formation is on, first heard from other regions was, “Oh, then what about Hyderabad?” There was restlessness but were expecting some more updates. Then one senior IAS officer stated that “Hyderabad” will be capital of newly formed state, agitations hit the sky even more and they started saying we want to be united and splitting is not a good idea. Now, if only A.P capital was not Hyderabad and if Vizag or Kurnool was, will these people ever be bothered of “telangana” formation? Now if they announce Hyderabad an UT, will they agitate in the same way? This is one side story.

Now the other side story, one person started fasting and within 11 days statement for formation of separate state came in. This same person was with one regional party and as long as he was with that party, leave alone talking about separate telangana, he never even strived to do anything for telangana people. The same person, who was M.P and had few MLAs from telangana region, never went to parliament nor interacted with government to get grants for “his” telangana people. So now, if he heads newly formed state, what can he do? Does he require a separate state to develop? If only Hyderabad is made an UT will he be still interested in separate state?

So, the cream of the cake is Hyderabad and nobody wants to lose it.

Personally, I am not in favor of any separate state formation because this is not going to solve problems in any manner. Giving a separate state is like giving license to greedy politicians to make big money. Instead of concentrating on splitting the state into pieces we should work hand in hand to develop it.

Frankly speaking, whether it is Telangana, Andhra or Rayalaseema, common man (farmer, daily labour, workers, and middle class) is in same condition of buying groceries with half of their earnings, many families not able to even afford proper meal a day, tons of graduates lining up for employment but not finding one, villagers till hoping for some good light after sun sets, drinking water etc etc. Instead of spending huge money on building a new capital and infrastructure, it is better to spend on such needs and develop the area.

Celebrate development of state not formation of state .

“Who wants tea?” one of the girls stood from the chair and asked the roomies. It was 12:30am, weekend.

“Me with one spoon of sugar, mine with calorie less sugar, and mine with a pinch of ginger”, rest of the three voices responded one by one.

Tea has arrived with some snacks and girls started enjoying their respective tea. Along with tea, there were various activities like gossip, discussions on topics included but not limited to diet, career, office, saas-bahu serials, movies and the list goes on.

These were all our fun loving activities over weekend and venue for this was 103, SMR Vinay Prangan, Madhapur. We have lot of memories with that place. There was an ear to hear and shoulder to lean when someone was in depression, there were happy celebrations when someone achieved something and hand to help when needed. Though I had my home, this was my second home where most of my weekends were spent.

For us weekend night outs is to watch full length telugu/tamil songs and make fun of all those uncle type heroes trying to tuck their tummies to woo the heroines. For us partying is to have multiple cups of ginger tea and imitating any “chosen” one for the day. We had colorful diwali here, small treats when someone had great news to share, cute surprises for each other’s birthdays, quick walk to nearby Baskin Robins to grab an ice-cream bite, occasional visit to Punjabi Dhaba in next lane to taste yummy paratas and awesome lassi etc etc.

Today all most all of them are moving away from that place to settle in their lives or for the chosen career path leaving me to become nostalgic whenever I pass that place. This will definitely leave the place empty but my mind will be full of jingles of all those moments.

Life is a bouquet of various flowers, every petal gives fragrance to life and one such special fragrance is the time spent with my sweet friends.

Those were the days when all of us had good fun and today when they are busy with their lives, I wish them a glorious future.

Hope we again gather together to celebrate and remember a lovely phase of our life.

Don't get lockup with your life.

Do "tring tring" sometimes to catch up some gossip :D

Cheerio,
Paddy :) (my roomies address me)

Gopi Aunty: She is our colony society treasurer and also money lender to small time traders in and around our locality. A very big movie buff and thanks to her habit as she manages to fetch tickets for us for almost all new releases :-). Being not very good at English, she watched Telugu version (Yugantham) of 2012. Though she mistook Chiwetel Ejiofor for Will Smith and John Cusack as Tom cruise, she was awestruck with the making of the movie. She liked the idea of building an ark and remaining as survivor. So completely believed in the concept and said, “I will collect all the money back from lenders as soon as possible and will use my influence to get boarding pass for the ark. It’s better to be safe than suffer.” She rated movie 51/2 out of 5.

Preethi: She is pretty and in her college pursuing B.E. We nick named her as Jalsa Rani as she enjoys her life queen size. Her main goal of life is to settle in USA. She usually tries to keep up cool attitude and preaches not to take life seriously blah blah. She liked the movie very much and she claims that this movie is her favorite movie after Titanic. No other movie impressed her so much it seems. Phew!!! So she concluded, “Oh no, I can’t wait till I complete my B.E. I love California and I want to see before it is submerged.” When asked if she also wants a boarding pass, she says, “No no, I will directly go to Cape of Good Hope and settle on Drakensberg Mountains. Why waste so much money to buy a ticket? He he he.” She rated movie 5 out of 5.

Critic Rao: He is one famous character here who can’t see perfection in anything. For him, this movie was nothing different from any other Hollywood movies released till date. He found many logical disconnects in the movie. He thought how come only hero’s car will be racing like a super man’s car while the earth is cracking up so badly, how a speeding car can dodge with gigantic volcano bursts. He thought, might be the director got inspired from Tollywood hero Balakrishna. He liked the idea that an Indian (Satnam) connects all the dots and gives clue to geologist of the coming disaster. He found it louder, crazy movie and ruled out the concept of world coming to an end saying that Mayan’s were just too tired of making such a long calendar. He rated it 3 out of 5 (Importance to Indian saved the ratings).

Tech Mahendra: No, he is not an employee of Tech Mahindra or a hi-tech software engineer. His name is Mahendra and he is our local electrician. He thinks that he is the techie guy who just lacked opportunities. He was furious with the movie makers/theater owners because he went to watch Yugantham (Telugu version) seeing Telugu posters and when he went in, they screened English version. Because he did not want to waste his hard earned money, he tolerated with it. He did not understand the story at all but the special effects made him understand the summary of the movie. He said, “If world was coming to an end and an ark is being built to save few humans, then I will no way get a pass to enter it. Btw, I heard sometime during 1979 that Skylab will happen and all of us are going to die, but we are here discussing about another end. I don’t think it will happen?” He kind of liked the movie but the wow effect was not felt. He rated it 2.5 out of 5 (language prob slashed the ratings).

For me, it is a well made movie and the special effects really had a good impact on the audience. Indeed a good visualization of our destruction. I rate is 3.5 out of 5.

With every country holding nuclear weapons, heavy industrialization leading to global warming, this world will surely come to an end one day if not 2012. This world will end not because any calendar ends/as somebody predicted, but because of our mistakes and exploitation of the beautiful environment gifted to us. If at all we survive that day, we should learn from our past and not repeat the same mistakes.

Earth is the only common thing we have and the only place where we get chocolates.

Don't blow it up :)

Cheers,
Padma

Location: St.Louis, USA
Time: 10pm approximately
Date: 30th April, 2008

YAHOO!!!! I am travelling back to India and my heart is all jingles playing in echo. I was feeling like a hostel girl going back home. In my one year stay few moments made me cry while lot of moments made me realise that life is beautiful. I made few good friends for life and leaving them was a bit hurting but again they are all Indians so I have hopes to meet them when they fly back to our country.

Now, last day of my stay we decided to party and our gang of five were ready in two cars. Kiran’s car was leading us while Amrutha, myself and Shashi in another one following it sincerely. We were having good time and I always enjoyed drives with these people. I also like another combination Amrutha driving, me in front passenger seat and rest of the guys behind us. As usual our jokes zone was going on with a zoom and suddenly I heard a BANG.

When I opened my eyes, I saw an airbag popped up on my face and another one on A.J’s face. I realised that we met with an accident. I could sense Shashi sitting behind was checking if we both were fine. We both answered and he seemed relaxed. Slowly we got down and I could see Kiran and Bugz are walking towards us in hurry. We all are fine. I immediately saw other car , they were also fine with mild injuries but cars were damanged badly. OMG, seeing the car’s condition I felt lucky that we are safe with just minor injuries.

Immediately police and ambulance arrived. The cop jeep lights were very bright and colorful. The way they flash lights looks like disco lights. Anyway, we finished all formalities and gathered to decide where to go as we were hungry. “IHOP” all of us decided.

At IHOP, I got chance to look at my face. My left eye got bruised badly as if somebody gave me a punch on the face. It looked funny.

Everyone was trying to get out of that incident when, “Padma”, Shashi called. I looked at him. “Now you understood na how airbag will come to use?” he asked and offered bite of pancake.

We all broke into laughter and thanked god for giving us another opportunity to smile again.

Cheerio,
Padma

The picture here is from one of illustrations I have collected. I like such serene, beautiful and peaceful villages/towns. I make it a point to have my vacation in such places once in a year. Walking down the paths enjoying the fresh air, eating local flavours at small joints, watching farming, all these will bring new energy to us.

Seeing illustration, we all know how important is Water (chemical term H2O) in our day to-day life. Can we imagine our life without water? Impossible. It is the only life saviour drink that is available on earth in small amounts (0.3% of 98%).

But today the same life saving water created havoc in many lives in the form of flood. The beautiful villages and towns which I always appreciated and visited turned into sea. It is water everywhere. Buildings, temples, people, cattle almost everything and everyone were submerged. The same places I visited were under 10 to 25-feet water. It was shocking to watch and I cannot even imagine the trauma those people are undergoing.

Now when they are in troubled waters, it is our duty to come forward and help them. The loss is huge. Few lost their loved ones, some lost their hard earnings and many are homeless.

So please contribute either in cash or kind as much as you can to the relief funds organized by various NGOs/State governments/any media channel etc. All our small contributions will make huge difference for them and will help them in rebuilding their lives.

After witnessing such havoc, I hope government will invest on building water reserves and channelzing them properly so that disaster is avoided.

P.S: Even if you don't find time to post a comment, do find time to donate.

Thanks,
Padma

I love pictures for the simple reason that they capture thousand words in one scene. So what’s it like when pictures explain about somebody? Well, just go through this article and you might know :D


I am passionate about:


















Photography

My new area of interest:

Workout :)

My love:

Shh..... u thought I will say ;)

My age:

Hmm..I refuse to grow :P

My favorite place:

Sweet Home

Bad habit I have:

Nail biting - Disgusting!!!

City I am currently staying:

Hyderabad, India






My best friend is:

Just a call away :)

My kind of art:

Abstract (I should understand it though)

My first job:

Biochemist (relax, was just a trainee!!!)

I Miss:

Childhood :)

My kind of guy:

Simple - cute simle is a must :)

First rejection I faced:

Grrrrr....Driver's licence in USA

My dream:

Climbing Mt.Everest

My idea of romance:

Giving sweet little surprises everyday till I die.

This is it :) :) :)

Cheerio,
Padma

• Had good time talking to my friend over phone while sipping hot elaichi chai.
• Became a bit nostalgic on seeing childhood album while cleaning my cupboard. Idea stuck to print a collage out of choosen ones.
• Watched "Anand: Manchi coffee lanti cinema" again.
• Enjoyed two hour nap in the afternoon with my fav songs playing in the background.
• Saw one old b/w movie where hero (NTR) a rickshaw puller manages to make his brother a doctor. How filmy??????????? : D
• Spotted a girl blushing holding a flower bouquet. It’s for or from someone spl I guess.
• Kissed 3 month old baby’s feet (my friend’s daughter).
• Had payasam (kheer) and gulab jamun twice on same day. Yummmmmy!!!
• Prepared a reddish-orange dyestuff from the dried and ground leaves of a plant. In lay woman’s language "Henna" :D
• Pondered if ever I can become a good blogger. Ended up writing this. Hope I am improving. Wat say????

I hope you too had a good weekend.

C Ya,
Padma