A very different tag

I was given this tag long back by Cess, but then I was on vacations,I didnt want to do anything in a hurry, sorry Cess for the delay, but never the less it is here....with love:)
This is very special tag and an effort in looking below the iceberg..... and mainly its for my blog readers...... go ahead and do it if you want or like:)----- write the answers in the comment and delight me or even annoy, but be truthful, no diplomacy here:)

Here are the questions:
1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. Something I have and YOU want?
4. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
5. Describe me in one word.
6. What was your first impression of me?
7. Do you still think that way about me now?
8. What reminds you of me?
9. If you could give me anything what would it be?
10. How well do you know me?
11. How do you see me in the future?
12. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't
13. Are you going to post this in your blog and see what I say about you?

Festivals week

http://www.thanksgiving-day.org/makar-sankranti.html
photopage.wordpress.com

--pongal picture

This is the week of festivities....LOHRI,PONGAL,SANKARANTI, SAKAT all together. basically all these festival celebrate the harvest.
LOHRI is celebrated on 13th. I know this much about it only.......First Lohri of any bride is very special, she is given lot of gifts,and its celebrated with lot of joy, with bonfire, rewri, peanuts etc.
Pongal....Yesterday i asked my neighbours what you do on this day, she told me that they take sugar cane, haldi and all that and worship Sun god and make few delicacies like sweet pongal etc.
My daughter makes Pachdi...mixture of five thing..sweet,sour,bitter..all the taste and it symbolises that one must face all the things in life with the equanimity.

From this day starts SHUKL Paksh and so the season of Haldi kumkum in Maharashtra,--I wrote the details here.SANKRANTI----I know a little about it, as its celebrated in our family.I remember my childhood, when on this day my mother used to ask us not to eat anything without मिन्सिंग ..its giving out something..on this day she will get fresh Gazak and put it in a plate one for each of us with some money and we shall give it. Then after the first year of marriage, on this day girl/s parents send all the clothes and sweets for inlaws.I still remember that my chacha's inlaws used to send so much of special sweets on this day..like varieties of laddoos, in those day sankaranti laddoos used to be very big ones ,like something of 250 gm each, and then in 5 laddoes one silver coin would be put inside in a small box..one in each. Now I know that most of the young girls reading it will question..why should a girl's parents only do something:).........I always told my daughter not to interfere in what i am giving and always take pride in whatever i do, and the same I am writing here...these are traditions..made to make the relationships better, may be in the earlier days they thought that their daughter lives with the other family, so they wanted to please the family..but now.a.days, I think that if we can afford..though this is also very subjective, because everybody does everything, only the scale or the range varies,we must follow the traditions, because if we start questioning everything, then we shall loose all the traditions and celebration will mean only either making food or eating outside and then only we will miss all this. These small traditions dont make any difference to even inlaws...as most of the time gifts are hardly used, they just make them happy that somebody gives them respect.yes , these things should be out of choice only, none should be compelled to do it, but at the same time one should not abolish all the systems... and today's generation is so kind hearted and generous in donations and other things, then why this old mindset of being against inlaws...when everything is changing...and they want everybody to change all the perspectives, I would say..first change yourself and remove this negative perception of inlaws...think of them as your own and once you start think REALLY that way, you would never have these questions...फ़िर सब अपने होंगे तो कहीं कुछ बुरा नही लगेगा,कौन दे रहा हा कौन ले रहा हा, सभी तो अपने हैं.when in all other relationships, nobody questions any give and take, why this negative feeling ward inlaws....see here everybody has the same relationships somewhere------I am a mother and MIL both,,, and personally i feel lot of happiness while doing everything, and feel bad when for some reason I can do anything. When I love my daughter so much , I care for her inlaws also who have given her respect and love in their family, for that i am eternally indebted to them.This is my take on life:)
SAKAT This is Ganesh Chaturthi and celebrated as sakat for us this month and this year it falls on sakranti day.We keep fast, prepare some sesame delicacies like TILKUT, Laddo,..receipe here take out Baayana..give it to our MIL, then worship the moon at night and then have the dinner.
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY LOHRI,PONGAL AND SANKRANTI !

MOVIES MASTI MAGIC

I saw the TV serial..first ladies on NDTV IMAGIN>.and can say one thing only...not everybody can be an anchor at TV, how i wud have loved ...Karan johar, Saif, Shahrukh or even shamita singha...as one instead of so boring, staid..Abu and Sandeep,......they may be good designers, but they are hopelessly boring as anchor..just like Shweta bacchan--a good show marred by them:(, it was sad to see such an insipid banter.
and then there is Karan doing it with designers...at an evening at Chivas...............Chk it to see the difference.
Last week i saw so many movies and since none was new, i am going to state only what I liked about them or not:) SUNDAY..is a real sunday..with a cast of so many actors...none of them is worth watching....except Irfan Khan..he must be thinking all the time..what it is that Ajay has that he is a hero and me a sidey:), Irfan has done a good job..Ajay is looking haggard, ugly and plus his character is also shown of a corrupt policeman, his assistant has done well, I am forgetting his name. Arshad is Ok Nothing is here worth writing about.

WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR; Now this is the movie after my heart. seems to me as if old days of Amol palekar have come back, not so good, but still very endearing.Its directed by Shyam benegal, and I happen to have sen all his movies:) from Ankur...his first...excellent director.Here i can write and write..everything is so appealing...

Mahadev(shreyas)..a letter writer in a small village...human, smart and of course a writer, but Ravi Kishen..he stole my heart--he is so lovable in the character of a compounder in love with a widow,even many big actors cant differentiate between a simple(seedha) and fool(buddhu), most of them will play a simple character as if he is a fool.Now i know why he is such a big hit in Bhojpuri films.

Ravi Jhankal for that act of a Hijra--superb

and Illa arun...I cudnt stop smiling as soon as she came on the screen..

Divya dutta..good, but she dint have much of a role,, Rajeshwari is not worth mentioning.

Yashpal sharma..as a supporter of corrupt politician and then

Amrita rao..as a simple village wife. and many small nuances..worth watching, missed the good songs here.

And the dialogues are biggest strength of this movie..i just loved them, dont who wrote it,will chk.

, MUMBAI MERI JAAN......another movie on terrorist attack....its quite Ok, specially

The track--where a fun is made of the way TV people ask everywhere...kaisa lag raha ha...even to the village women who have lost their husbands and are in mourning.

Madhavan's belief in using public transport.

KK..getting suspicious of evry muslim

The frustration and corruption in police.....Paresh rawal is very good, only his retirement speech is too long to enjoy.

Irfan..as a poor man who .. takes revenge of his humiliation by giving hoax calls, but what is the result of these calls is shown in a very good way.

Treatment of the story and character are quite real..so enjoyable.

I dont know why music has taken a back seat in the movies..i love melody.

Aamir...so well claimed, heard so much about it, but i found it very illogical...a doctor comes to India, somebody takes away his luggage and instead of calling police or taking any help ,he goes on a wild chase, taking the audience for a royal ride, it never touched my heart anywhere. I loved Rajiv on TV but here, he is just a good looking hero.

SATYAM-- is it?

yesterday was the worst day of my life. I cant believe it that I bought Satyam just one hour before the mayhem. But who could have thought or imagin even that even books are fake, accounts are fake, and one of the esteemed auditors have either bungled or co-operated at the cost of Junta. My bro didnt want me to buy, but then my H thought that they have so much of cash reserve and all that....... and lo...........everything fell like nine pins. I am a very minuscule investor, but think about the other hundresds of investors/ whats happening in India. With a set frequency we are loosing our hard earned money, First there was harshad mehta in 92-93, then after 5 yrs we had parekh............then again after 5 yrs we had the biggest fall in the market.....,and then there was this CRB..where even govt sanctioned tax rebate also on deposits,and many other finance companies gone bust........How long and how many mishaps will it take to make the govt. and SEBI work, may be its time investors thought of some guidelines or some safety mechanism,I wonder what is it which makes these businessmen cheat with elan and impunity of a rich man,I cant sleep for a night even, if somebody gets ruined by any of my actions and they are ruining the country without any remorse whatsoever, they are worse than the politicians even, something is wrong with the moral fabric of society, its time to take proper measures in all directions.
Most of the youth crib about everything Indian, but when it comes to enter the system, they shy away citing it as a mess...but we need some people to clear the mess also.
You cannot solve a problem until you acknowledge that you have one and accept responsibility for solving it.
Yesterday I dont know why, but I felt very sad, it was neither the first time I lost, nor the amount was too big, but may be it hurt me for multiple reasons and biggest one was that.......it was a real scam..everything fake, this way we cant trust anybody.....tomorrow suppose any other big house collapses like that then.....should we stop investing or stop doing business?----all the Tv channels were advising like big brother..invest carefully...take all the info etc...info my foot, where were they before/ none said anything about it? How does an investor know about any company..by the auditor's verdict....balance sheet...what else?
So its true...Life is all about correcting mistakes.....but how?

Few Interesting Facts about India

here are a few interesting facts about India...I know many people are going to scoff at this and say...we Indians always live in past and glorify ourselves, what are we doing now...but the present belongs to US, and we must do well, but the past always reminds us that what we were yeaterday and motivates us and guides us to a glorious future..that is if we desire so....

INDIA FACTS :
The official Sanskrit name for India is Bharat.
INDIA has been called Bharat even in Satya yuga ( Golden Age )
More INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT India
The name `India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu. The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name `Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.
The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.Sanskrit is considered as the mother of all higher languages. This is because it is the most precise, and therefore suitable language for computer software. ( a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987 )..Chess was invented in India.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies which originated in India.
The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.
The first six Mogul Emperor's of India ruled in an unbroken succession from father to son for two hundred years, from 1526 to 1707.The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The shikhara is made from a single ' 80-tonne ' piece of granite. Also, this magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja CholaIndia is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old).
The game of snakes & ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat.' The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. Later through time, the game underwent several modifications but the meaning is the same i.e good deeds take us to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.India has the most post offices in the world ! The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people !.
The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The father of medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
Although modern images & descriptions of India often show poverty, India was one of the richest countries till the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
The art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh 6000 over years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'. Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. His calculations was - Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: ( 5th century ) 365.258756484 days.
The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, which was long before the European mathematicians. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus also orignated from India. Quadratic equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 ( i.e 10 to the power of 53 ) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10*12( 10 to the power of 12 ).
Until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. ( Source . Gemological Institute of America )
The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
Sushruta is regarded as the father of surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones and also plastic surgery and brain surgeries. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.
"What makes a nation, is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past", says the noted historian Eric Hobsbawm.
Hence, when talking of a nation, it becomes very imperative that the past should also be talked about. And the past of India is as fascinating and interesting as it is momentous. (source-email) Proud to be Indian !
JAI HIND !

MUTTUKUDU AND CROCODILE PARK

Sitting benches on the bank of the river

Birds on the trees, The care taker there told us that after 6pm, all the trees here are worth a sight, as birds of all varied species are here and trees are full of them

This is the heaviest captive crocodile of the world----575 kg in weight.

Baby turtle in hand of Elu malai

Baby crocodile...2 year old in the hands of my H

crocodiles lying, they are given the food once a week only, as soon as the person comes to give them food, sudden activity starts..till now you see as if they are sleeping, but suddenly even from the water they start moving towards him, take their food and go back to water:), so systematic better than humans, where i have seen stampede everywhere whenever any distribution is taking place:)..7000 crocodiles eat seven tons of meat in a week.

Fisherman doing their job in the midst of Mutukudu lake...its a back water one

Yesterday we went to Muttukudu..its around 40-50 km from here on ECR, Its a boating place, quite scenic place and they have pedal, rowing and motor boats. We took motor boat....for 6 people...charged us 300/- for 3 km ride.It was very enjoyable..no less than a cruise on Ohio in Cincinnati or in Michigan in Chicago and when he took us from under the bridge , i thought we are going under Rialto in Venice:).

But the only problem is that in India, infrastructure is not maintained...there was no good and clean shop selling any eatables, whatever is there is so dirty we didnt feel like taking anything, and there under the nose of the govt....the shopkeeper was selling everything at hiked prices, few educated people were arguing but to no avail , after his question...tell me do you want it or not?

Then our driver asked us..sir have you seen crocodile park, if not, then its worth it and near here ...so we went a 7 km more, and it was worth it..It was started in 1970 by some foreigner and runs on a trust made by him. here they have snakes also and extract poison from them which is used for anti venom and other medicinal purposes. Very beautiful scenic place.

I forgot yesterday..but I had a request to everybody--on the way there are many trees on the sides of the road and beautiful places to picnic and i saw many families eating food and enjoying there...but the most disgusting part was that the whole place was littered with used plates cups and newspapers.....please.....look before you leave the place, enjoy the picnic but dont leave it in a mess for others....it was a literal sore to the eye and I felt very sad that today, when Youth is so verbal about their rights etc...why cant they honour the rights of nature..so please dont spoil the environment...do a picnic, enjoy , but collect all the used items in a paper bag and leave it in a trash only, If you dont find it, take the trouble to keep it with you . Thank you!

Few firsts.......

I read somewhere, someone. blog name..something we get too cheap...something like that and it reminded me that today there are so many things that we hardly notice even, but the first time we get it, the thrill is overwhelming, or till we dont get anything, we always think that may be once we get it, life will be a bliss,how wrong we are. Life is always bliss, its only we who see outside, never inside. Just see ...these are the few firsts in my life, and I always thought then that once I get them,but even you cant say..its a big thing:)

• In my childhood, there wasnt electricity everywhere, and first time when we got it....it was.....oh lala:), now just switch it on and u have light..no lanterns and candles.
• Then we used to have hand pumps, one had to work to get water even, and first time when we got this tap connection, I was so thrilled,.
• We used to go to Ganga Ghat by Bullock cart.....yeah believe me, I had many bullock cart rides, cemented roads and transport came much later......
• First time when i heard from my Mausi that they have TV and everyday sunday they watch movie at home......felt so envious...see how lucky they are(in those days TV reception was limited to big cities only) and i was a movie addict from my childhood. and then Asiad turned everything into colorful panorama.
• Now the desire turned to VCR..and I thought that once i have it we wont need to go out to halls and all, it will be real fun, and yes initially it was fun, but then everything becomes routine.
• I used to get 10 paisa per day to spend, (of course all the expenses were taken up by parents, it was only for munching something in School) and it was sufficient for us, Myself and my sister never demanded more, only once my Chacha(uncle) said...(ours was a joint family).....we must increase it to 12 paisa he called it..mehangai bhatta..hehe---Dearness allowance in corporate language:), compare to the pocket money today.......and we were the happy lot..no dissatisfaction at all:)

This is the way life goes on....first mobile then Ipod , now I phone......and the things will keep coming and we shall keep running after them, the point is that these are only accesories to a life, not the life itself. Things come and go,its only the people in our life who remain there, so----
Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.