Baby Shower

Late Friday afternoon Rathnam forwarded an invitation for a baby shower (his colleague's). The function was on Sunday evening so we had two days time to hunt for a proper gift. Now this happened to be the first baby shower that we were to attend. Both of usa were clueless about what to buy.

A little apprehensive, we both made our way to the baby section for the first time. Wow we were overwhelmed by the number of items there. So many varieties of toys, strollers, baby kits, car seats, shades, tin clothes and shoes... Everything was so nice. If at first we were confused now we were totally lost. Everything appealed to us. After a long time of repeated rounds around the various aisles we made a choice and bought a cute set of toys.

Next on our itinerary was selecting a card. This didn't prove to be difficult. We found a wonderful card right away. Still wanting to have a few choices we went through a few other cards but none was as good as the first one. So we completed our first baby shower shopping successfully.

The baby shower was held on Sunday. They had done it so well. Not a single detail was missed. Their house was decorated beautifully and whatever is usually done in India was done here without a flaw. Kudos to the hosts for such careful planning. The best part of the evening was we got Tirupati laddoo. It was nice to receive the blessings of the Lord right here in Boston.

Spring

The much awaited spring has arrived. With it's arrival it has brought wonderful colours into our neighbourhood. Two days ago we went for a walk and I was enchanted by the variety of colours around us. Yesterday we returned to the same path - this time camera in hand.

Few of my favourites from yesterday.

Bogus Tamil New Year

I was happily celebrating the Tamil New Year on April 13th. Little did I know that as of 2008 the new year has been changed. It has been moved to the month of January to coincide with Pongal. This "wonderful" change has been made by the all knowing scholar, the crusader of all Tamilians the world over - Mr Karunanidhi.

Baisakhi is observed as the Hindu New Year in Haryana, Punjab, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, West Bengal, Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Myanmar, Kampuchea, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It marks the first day in the Hindu solar calendar dating back to Aryabhatta and the Surya Siddhanta (fourth century CE). Hindu seers calculated the earth's distance to the moon, sun and other planets at a time when most of the world was unaware of the value of the integer zero. But our so called CM knows more than them.

This change has been the worst thing that has happened to Tamilians ever in this century. It just proves that M.K has finally lost all his thinking capacity and this is a very good example of how power can be misused totally. Why is it that he is only meddling with Hindu festivals? If they claim they are not meddling with the Hindus then why was the reading of the panchangam prohibited in most temples? Why were orders sent that no special pujas were to be performed commemorating the Tamil New Year? It is a shame that such things happened in Tamil Nadu while Tamilians all over the world celebrated the New Year on April 13th. How was MK planning to stop the NRIs from doing so?? While he is changing the festival dates why doesn't he just change the new year to coincide with his birthday and why not celebrate his son Stalin's birthday as the new Diwali?

I believe all his talk about love for Tamil and Tamil scholars is all just a big lie. If he is bent on propagating Tamil and the great scholars of Tamil then why don't we have a special day for Bharathiar? He is one of the greatest poets in Tamil. He was a revolutionary and made many enemies due to this nature. But whatever he followed are the same ideologies MK claims to follow. Bharati was a great freedom fighter and motivated many people to join in the freedom movement. So being the case why does Tamil Nadu not allocate a special day for Bharathiyar?

The only fault of Bharathiyar is that he was born as a Brahmin. That obliterates all his valuable contributions and makes him just another Brahmin who was no good. That's the only reason for the absence of any recognition. MK is no advocate of Tamil. He and his party are just anti Hindu and anti Brahmins. They are not secular. Such prejudiced people should never be allowed to hold any post of power. The dangers of such a thing has been demonstrated time and again. Yet these people rule us. God help the Tamilians. It's scary to think of what he will do next. Let's pray we are able to come through it all.

Good News...

It's celebration time for all of us who love our dirty jeans and refuse to wash it even after numerous reminders from our parents to wash it. Environmentalists have found out that heavy materials like jeans take a lot of resources to get cleaned so we have been requested to wash our jeans less frequently. The icing of the cake being that they don't want us to iron them too. Isn't that amazing??

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/Jeans_wash_hurts_climate/articleshow/2952824.cms

Someone obviously didn't tell them that hard core jeans wearers don't need this advice at all. We love our unwashed jeans. They could have focused on something else. But then I'm not complaining. I plan to take a printout of this news item and save it. Whenever anyone reminds me about my jeans I can just show them this and show my support for the environment :)

Africa

After a hectic day we decided to watch a movie to relax a bit. The only twist being that the movie was not a humorous one but rather a thought provoking and serious movie - The Constant Gardner.

The story in short for those who have not seen it - A British high commission diplomat, posted in Africa, investigates his wife's murder and in the process unearths the illegal and non humanitarian process of human testing of drugs in Africa. The movie portrays painfully how life of Africans are discounted easily and are not held of any importance. Those who stand to protect them are killed by selfish corporates which want to make money.

I remembered another movie I saw sometime back - Blood Diamond. This also shows the poor state of Africans - how they kill each other for diamond and fight to establish power and how they are utilized by diamond merchants for their own profit.

These two movies clearly show how Africans are taken for granted and manipulated by the various developed countries for their personal progress. Africa is such a rich country in terms of natural resources and this is the main reason why it is manipulated so much. Due to all the manipulation it is a very poor continent where many people have a tough struggle for even a single meal. This is really sad. There's so much they can do to improve themselves and become a super power.

What stops them?? The high level of corruption and the money involved it is not easy to get peace in these troubled areas. Everyone wants to make a quick buck and hence they don't allow anyone to stay in power for long. There is some internal conflict or the other as one group after another tries to get total control over everything. All we can do is just observe how and when they resolve their disputes and focus on progress. Till then they will continue to be manipulated by the various super powers. They will remain the dumping ground for all the useless medicines and be the human guineas for the various tests till then.

Tamil New Year

Yesterday we Tamilians celebrated the beginning of a new year. We got up a little early (considering that it was a Sunday). I made a sweet for the auspicious occasion. After a quick breakfast of fruits we headed to the temple. I was able to wear a salwar outside after a long time. The weather was becoming warm at last.

As soon as we turned into the driveway of the temple I was overwhelmed by the number of cars parked there. Luckily we found a parking spot. All the sannithis were closed after abhisekam when we entered the temple. We waited for about 15 - 20 minutes for the sannithis to get opened. In that short span of time the temple got so crowded with people that I thought soon we will have a queue like in Tirupathi.

The Lakshmi temple in Ashland is the only Hindu temple for the whole of New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts. So all Tamilians and Sri Lankan Tamils (since it happened to be their new year as well) had converged in this single temple. It's nice to catch a glimpse of so many of our country people in this distant land.

After our darshan we headed to a restaurant nearby for lunch. And what a sight met us... One man had come wearing veshti and shirt. I had seen a few people wearing veshti to the temple but this was the first time I saw someone in a hotel like that. By the time we finished our lunch the restaurant was also brimming with Indians. That reminded me that we have a large presence here.

Wish u all a very happy and prosperous new year :)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I just finished reading the book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. He has portrayed how innocent people (especially women) suffer during wars. I have read a few fiction books about covert operations and war (mainly Alistair Maclean and Robert Ludlum). These books always portrayed the war through the eyes of soldiers and governments but never through the eyes of innocent civilians.

This book opened my eyes to the cruelty faced by people when war ravages through their homes and takes everything they love and cherish away from them - brothers, sisters, parents, friends, list goes on.... We see footages of homeless people and refugee camps in news. Somehow it won't affect many of us because we have never known these people personally and a 30 sec footage is not going to make a great impact.

Khaled on the othe hand is brought out the ill effects in such a painful way. The book actually moved me to tears. I say this because I am not the kind of person who cries easily. We feel really sorry for the main characters and are left wondering how many actually suffered like this and how many are still suffering.

It's not just Afghanistan which has these problems. Homes are destroyed in thousands of places everyday. Kashmir, an extension of heaven on earth, has become hell. The beauty of the place is lost in all the attacks and fear. Same can be said about Srilanka.

Time and again we have all seen the damages caused by war. Everyday new pacts are signed and new alliances are formed but still we do not have any solution. Just when one problem is solved the next one shows it's ugly head. History has shown time and again that we do not achieve anything except bloodshed by all the war but man never learns.

A world without war would be so nice. But it's just a daydream. Thousands are oppressed everyday and this leads to the birth of new factions. Where and when all this will stop - no one knows. If only we could forgive and forget and have a fresh start, we could make this place heaven again.