Between you and me: May 2016

27 May 2016

First ever purely Gratitude post, thanks to Vidya Sury :)

The cup of my joy overflows as I ruminate

Sitting at the large glass window seeing green

The heavens pouring down last few days

Washing every little leaf and grass

Soothing the eyes and the heart.

Again I give thanks for the souls

Encountered recently. Second cousins that

Came and stayed with us from out of the blue

Who knew that here would be a happily surprising

Connect of true hearts and minds.

Thanks to the universe for the blessing in disguise

Of issues in the little one's last place of study, wherein

Lay the key to getting towards a Gurukul style Steiner

Way of learning keeping the entire Be-ing together.

Blessings abound and here I link this to one sweet blogger

I am happy to know, Vidya Sury it is and I am sure you know of her.

20 May 2016

Loving connections and The Liebster award :)

The wonderfully prolific Dahlia of https://mysilverstreaks.com made the phewww feeling after the A to Z challenge last month deepen into a feeling of gratitude for not only keeping me company all through the A to Z but awarding me the Liebster award in the week just after :) Thanks a ton for that and the questions you sent me.

The Q and A

1.How did you begin blogging?

I began in November 2006 when my little one was around six months old. I wrote very less and mainly about her and the joy she brought to our lives and hearts. I had been reading quite a few food blogs at the time and my dear friend's blog http://mysoorean.blogspot.com.au/ regularly. This inspired me to start a blog of my own.
2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years (as a blogger)?
I have no idea at all. Life is ever-changing and every breath we take is all we have.
3. When you are not blogging or thinking about it, what do you do?

I don't blog so often that it takes over my mind fully and it usually the A to Z blogging challenge month which completely submerges me into blogging. Rest of the months I blog when I want to. I cook, clean, read, write, sketch, do art, listen to music/sing, play with my pup and spend time with my daughter. I also teach Yoga in all its holistic glory.

4. Does anyone from your family read/comment on your blogposts?

Yes my mum does and its very satisfying that she does :) My daughter has just begun to read my posts too and says she wants to start up a blog of her own soon :)

5. Could you tell us something about your part of the world?

Australia is a nature lover's delight. There are a wide variety of people one gets to see from various corners of the earth. The true land owners however are seen on the fringe of society and this pinches the heart. The government has a number of policies in their benefit but the damage done is very deep and it will take a while for some real change to happen.
6. Any favorite quote/s that you would like to share?

I would like to share one I just read on a wonderful blog I began to follow from the last two months namely http://drishtikone.com/ and the quote is- Mark Twain once said of India "Anything that can ever be done either by man or God has been done in this land".

7. Could you recommend a book or a movie (feel free to add as many as you like) for my bucket list?

There are many but I will post just one of each that struck me on reading the question.

Movie- Black Book- Anna Karenina

8. What’s the craziest thing you have done?

Taken a lift home riding pillion behind a stranger. Not a complete stranger because this was the driver of my bus from Mysore to Bangalore when I was in my early twenties and a naive lass. When the bus reached the city terminus, there were no buses to take me home which was a good 18 kms away and since I was the last passenger to get off I spoke to the driver to ask if he knew of any buses that would take me home at that time- 10 pm. He said , there were none and offered to drop me home. I accepted and all the way chanted Hanuman Chaalisa since in those days that road was no well lit and had eucalyptus forests on either side, half the route. He dropped me home safe and sound, the Blessed man and left after drinking one glass of water. Now that I am a mum and have learned to mistrust people just a little, I can only laugh at my folly.

9. How do you de-stress?

Art, cooking, meditation, a walk, playing with puppy and daughter and writing.
10. Anything about yourself that you would like to change?

My tendency to speak from the heart, because this has got me in trouble a few times.
11. What do you feel most blessed about?

My offspring

Eleven random facts about me ;)

1. I have one child and I had her in my mid-thirties

2. Our pup Bibbel was bought on the insistence of my daughter and this also fulfilled my life-long longing for a dog of my own :)

3. I sing and love music and can give up an entire night's sleep only for music, even the best book I am reading will see me in bed at least at 2 am.

4. I am a practising Yoga teacher and insist on chanting shlokas and getting my students to Om at the end

5. I abhor allopathy and only an emergency takes me to it

6. My first point for pain-relief is Pranayama- nadi shuddhi

7. One of my first poems as a seven year old was on a street pup that I had named Sheroo

8. I have lived in Jharkhand, Bihar, U.P, Andhra, Karnataka, Duabi and Australia

9. I love public speaking

10. I can vibrate my eyeballs, bwahahahahaha, really and it freaks the daylight out of anyone that has had the privilege to see this

11. I am gypsy at heart and traversing every inch of India is a dream I will fulfil

This was fun :) and here is a cuppa for anyone reading through my post in a beautiful terracotta cup from Pondicherry before we proceed to the most exciting portion

I get to choose 11 blogs to pass on the award to and so here goes my list of eleven wonderful bloggers and people that connected and gave company through the A to Z and also otherwise. May our connection bloom and grow :)

If my nominees accept, and I am pretty sure they will, since each of them is a good sport, here are the rules that must be followed:

RULES OF THE LIEBSTER AWARD

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award and you choose to accept it, write a blog post about the Liebster Award in which you:

Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog in your post.
Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”.
Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers.
Create a new list of 11 questions for the nominees to answer.

List these rules in your post (copy and paste from here). Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster Award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

And here are the 11 specially crafted Questions for my nominees to answer in their own time
1. 1. What is your prime motivation for blogging?
2. Have you visited a place that gave you a sense of Deja Vu?
3. If you could visit another century briefly when and where would you go?
4. Who do you love the most and who loves you the most?
5. What do you find most inspiring about life?
6. What dish do you like to eat and what do you like to cook?
7. Where do you see yourself as a writer in ten years?
8. If you had to close down your blog and give up writing altogether, how would you feel?
9. What kind of music do you like?
10. Who could you picture yourself as, in the history of Bharatvarsh?
11. Where would you like to be born in your next life?

Hasta Manana till we meet again dear readers.

I wish you Happy LIVING,
HAPPY READING AND WRITING.

10 May 2016

Returning to the elements- a short reflection on death. A post in English and Devnagari Hindi.

Disappear element-body

The heat and anxieties returning to Agni

Imagination- speed to Vayu

Ashes to the Prithvi

Fluids to Jal

Prana to the Akasha

And you who resides within all of it

Back to wherever it is you came from.

This last week-ten days has been one of deaths and information of a death that occurred a few months back.
So this is what my being dwells on right now as I feel and contemplate sitting within the shell of my own body when I can during the day and night, while carrying on with the business of living life alongside.
Death- a doorway to returning to a formless existence, either to return in a new shell or stay formless, in synch with the formless energy which runs the Universe/Universes.

First it was an inspirational, loving, learned and much loved and respected blogger Usha Menon ji whose words are immortalised on http://eccentricgrandmum.blogspot.com.au/
There is a little bit about her on https://blogarhythmblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/link-up-opens-featured-member-usha-menon-2/

We bloggers were in the throes of the A to Z challenge when we got to know about this. Everyone reeled. May she be in a loving literary place.

Before this had sunk in I was told by two of my friends and ex-colleagues that one of the 'loveliest on all levels' ex-colleague, Sandhya Prasad, had passed on while on a pilgrimage last November. Vivacious, mature, wise, sincere are only a few words that describe her. Sandhya was a Sri Krishna devotee and involved with the Iskcon Bangalore deeply. May she rest in the beauty of Lord Krishna.

I was processing all this when I was informed just as I went to bed at night, the day before yesterday, that my aunt Rajani had at 62, suddenly breathed her last.
The night was spent oscillating between praying and trying to fall asleep.
She was my mama's wife and a large part of my life since I turned ten. A simple lady in every way, she interacted with every member of the family and outsider in an ego-less and sweet manner.
This was a blow delivered to stun.
Rajani attamma, you will always be thought of fondly and missed greatly. Whitefield will never be the same without your smiling presence. I am certain everyone that knew you has felt shock at your leaving us so suddenly. May the ache in our hearts subside.
May you have everlasting peace.

For me it is expressing through words and other art forms which helps clarify and heal amidst other benefits. So meditation and words it is that I seek succour from in that order.

एक ह्रदय कितना कुछ झेले
क्या क्या सहे और क्या कुछ छोड़े

सब जान कर भी अंजान है ये
सब बू झ कर भी अन्बुझ है ये

पञ्च तत्त्वों से बनी ये काया
पर उस काया में वास है जिसका

कितना भटकाती है उसे माया
मन का आदि अंत न पाया

श्वास के रथ पर बैठे हम कब

पल में हो जाएँ विलुप्त क्या पता

समय से पहले कहाँ कोई गया और

उस से पहले कोई न आया

व्यर्थ हि भागमभाग मचाते

किसको कुछ है लेकर जाना

हे ईश्वर रख हमें सतत सन्तुलित

जीवन बहे जैसे जलधारा।

A to Z challenge 2016- Time to Reflect

Done and dusted. Phewwww.

That is the first feeling and the one word that dominated me for many days, after posting my Z post and sharing it with the various groups.

My initial thought was to do this post in free verse too but my poetic muscle needs some rest so I let it be. Also I miss writing prose :)

This is the second time I have chosen to do the challenge and finished it, which I would, since my personality has a problem with letting go of anything at all midway, which can just become a non-positive at times.

The actual research, reminiscing and writing itself of my mytho-historic poetry was extremely enjoyable and I found myself submerged in joy while going about the creative process.

One decision I have made to make the whole of April even more enjoyable is that I shall never ever again go through the A to Z in the fashion I have done, which is of writing and posting daily. Not only does this take away from the pleasure of reading others blogs and commenting but also I felt I have gone through a sugar-cane press. This time was much harder than the first since I was in Australia and thus had much more daily work on my hands than in 2014, when I was in the motherland.

Also the little one just turned ten and being an only child, looks at me to double up as a sibling/playmate....you get the drift I am sure :) Here there is no one around our home to go out and play with too.

At times I felt I would lose my mind and for sure the hormones had something to do with that too ;)

So next year and for however long I do the A to Z I will ONLY do it if I have most of my posts written and ready.

Interacting with fellow bloggers who went through the challenge and some who didn't, connecting with them through the soul that comes through in each one's written word, reading comments and replying, commenting on other blogs, discovering new human beings and new blogs- this is quite a journey and I appreciate it and thank everyone from the bottom of my heart. I am not mentioning individual bloggers/friends much as I would like to, from scarcity of time but the ones that followed many of my posts and the ones whose many posts I followed hold a special place in my heart and you know who you are :)

Touched and inspired from my mum and my daughter reading all my posts.
Image result for free image of heart

Thanks to the creator of the A to Z challenge, Arlee Bird and here is the link to the A to Z challenge site, just in case http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

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