The year that was: 2012

This year was a year of realizations and growing up. It was mostly a tough year but it turned me into a new and better person. I started the year with this blog - Anubhuti meaning realizations,experiences and feelings. I had a lot of all three and hence this blog serves its purpose.

This year taught me a lot about life and I am trying to jot it down through my Realizations and Thoughts labelled posts.

There were moments of pain, sorrow, confusion, depression, frustration, anger and little moments of joy.  Little did I know then that it was all a process to refine me into a better and stronger person that I am today. Through these troubled times, God was the only company I had to whom I could speak my heart out. I totally owe it to God, my family and few good friends who made me tide through all this. I wholeheartedly thank all of them.

The last quarter of the year was better than the rest.

From within, I feel I have grown up and am a changed person. The child within me has gone into hiding and its for someone to get it back from exile.

With a happy and composed mind, having no regrets, I sign off 2012 hoping for a better 2013!

'Aliterate'

We have often heard the words literate and illiterate but I recently came across a word called 'aliterate' in an article titled 'Aliterates, wake up'. Merriam-Webster defines aliteracy as the quality or state of being able to read but uninterested in doing so. So most of us qualify to be aliterates - just reading only how much is required to get by in life.

The article goes on to explain why reading is invaluable for life. It says, 

While reading, we are forced to construct, to produce narrative, to imagine. Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral language — when you watch a film or listen to a tape — you don't press pause. Hence, the mind receives a far more vigorous workout whilst reading than consuming any other form of media. It is not surprising that avid readers tend to possess better memories and minds more equipped to resist the exigencies of ageing than those who do not read. Their capacity for learning also tends to be far more advanced. In addition, since reading requires more concentration than other media, an avid reader's mind tends to be more focused which allows him or her to make good decisions.

Furthermore, reading is inextricably linked to writing. It is impossible to write well without reading voraciously.Most white-collar jobs require good communication skills, both spoken and written. Corporate executives of every stripe have to write reports, memos, and proposals. So unless there is a new invention that wipes out the need for the written word in all these forms of communication, the only way to do them well is to read well. Reading develops the vocabulary and expands the imagination. It also educates with regard to grammar and sentence structure, and allows the writer to make his or her writing more readable by embellishing it with examples, parables, and metaphors.

This article enlightened me on the known but unrealized facts about reading. Hopefully atleast now I start reading more (and also writing more). :)

Summer is back......

After a break of 3 months, summer is back in Chennai. Its again those sweaty hot days and nights! It's pretty hot inside the house, and today my mind was also heated up. To relax, I went up to the terrace after dinner. It was awesome up there. Cool breeze blowing in now and then giving a new lease of life, the almost full moon smiling at me right from above saying its gonna be alright. The Indian Air Force pilots were up there practicing. It was fun watching the planes passing above beaming their headlights and making a drone noise. Like a kid, I sat on the floor of the terrace in the moonlight and was waving to the planes passing above me :)

 

The Rangoli Competition

The Rangoli competition in my vicinity which was to happen on the New year day finally happened today. Me and my mom participated. We were not great at drawing so we safely chose a pulli kolam (joining the dots kolam) in which you put the dots and then join them to get a design out of it. This is the traditional form of kolam. We knew everybody would be drawing up artistic rangolis so we just went to participate and do our best with no high expectations of winning. It was a first time for me in a rangoli competition so I was pretty excited. We had prepared well armed with colors and the paraphernalia required. Finally, with great satisfaction we completed the kolam. We were happy it turned out well :) You can see it below:

There were around 25 entries.Finally, it was time for the results. There was to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd prize and 5 consolation prizes and to our surprise we got a consolation prize. Yippeeeee!

I guess we got it for the color combination, the individuality (ours was the only traditional kolam) and the neatness displayed. I was really happy. We got 2 beautiful vases made of glass. Its very pretty and modern! See few of the other rangolis here

The Hindu's reply to TOI

When I saw the Times of India Chennai edition ad on tv for the first time, I was expecting The Hindu to slam a case against TOI as the ad showed the Hindu paper being held by a sleeping man in a scene conveying that it has news which make people sleep. Any regular reader of Hindu will easily identify the paper as the OP-ED page of The Hindu. 

But Hindu played tit-for-tat and has come up with an ad highlighting TOI as a Page 3 paper. It shows individuals unable to answer general knowledge questions but all answer the entertainment quarter news (Page 3) correctly. On asking the newspaper they read, all reply Times of India, the sound has been beeped but the mouth movements are distinct to catch the name.

Also a print ad in today's Hindu says that the Hindu also has Pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7.....

The new tagline - "Stay ahead of The Times with the Hindu" surely highlights what it wants to say.

Guess this is going to be another case of Rin vs Tide! Let's wait and watch....

Meanwhile, enjoy both the ads here:

Cute Romantic Advertisements

There are 2 advertisements which I like a lot in a sense that they are really cute and romantic.

The first one is the Bru Instant Ad in which a married couple are leisurely talking over coffee at home and the husband comments, "Great Coffee!" 

This ad shows the wife wondering why her mother-in-law said so. In a few seconds, her confusion turns to joy and happiness when she comes to know that her mother-in-law equated her with sugar overlooking her coffee making skills! It is indeed rare ;)

On a lighter vein, it also shows that it is not mandatory to have culinary skills to impress your future mother-in-law, you just need to be as sweet as sugar. : )

Another ad is the Dairy Milk ad of a young married couple at the dinner table at home with the wife asking demanding-ly to her husband,"When was the last time you said I Love You to me?"

Such a subtle and sweet way in which the husband professes his love to his wife each day! 

It shows that love doesn't always needs words to express itself. Sometimes small gestures convey a lot more than words can. It is up to the receiver to understand and interpret the true meaning behind it and understand that love is a lot more than just the 3 words.

Both the above ads show a young couple who are not famous models or actors  They look natural and real so we are able to relate to it very easily and hence makes it catchy. They look like one among us and hence does not give a too hard-to-believe situation.

The sugar acts as a metaphor to show the sweetness of the wife to her husband and mother-in-law and the chocolate acts as a metaphor for the sweetness of love.

Cheers to love and the wonderful relationships it creates!

Happy Pongal!

Pongal or Makar Sankranthi is the harvest festival in India. It is unique in the sense that it is a solar event unlike all the other Hindu festivals which are celebrated as per the lunar calendar. It marks the beginning of the northward movement of the Sun towards the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere. This movement is called as uttarAyaNa and it lasts for a 6 month period. Actually the northward movement is supposed to begin after the Winter Solstice (the day the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn) on December 21 (as we read in science in school) but due to the earth's revolution and tilt, the actual movement has been postponed over the ages and hence Makar Sankranthi is celebrated now in January.

In astrology, Sankranti means the movement of the sun from one rashi to another. So there are 12 sankrantis in a year but Makar Sankranti is celebrated during the movement of the sun from Dhanus rashi (Sagittarius) to Makara rashi (Capricorn). According to the Puranas, on this day, the sun visits the house of his son Shani who is the lord of the Makar rashi.

This festival is celebrated in all parts of India under different names and in myriad ways but all have the underlying common theme of harvest and worshipping of the sun.

The sun is the source of light for this universe and its northward movement indicates the movement from darkness to light for the Hindus.After this festival, winter starts reducing and it paves way for spring and summer indicating the path to happiness, joy and color after the cold, barren winter. 

Various significances from the scriptures (ref: wikipedia)

• It is believed that from Makar Sankaranti, the daytime starts for the Gods (Gods' 1 day = Our 1 year) so it marks the beginning of an auspicious phase for the Hindus.
• On this day, Maharaja Bhageerath performed the rituals(tarpan) with the Ganga water (which he brought to Earth through severe penance) to liberate his ancestors from a curse and after this, the River Ganga merged with the sea (Bay of Bengal). This place is called Ganga Sagar and is located near Kolkata.
• In the Mahabharatha, Bhishma left for heavenly abode on this day as he had the boon of death at will and he considered this day as death on this day liberates one from rebirth.

Pictures of the Rangoli made outside our flat with efforts put in by all the ladies in the flat (including me)

Flowers and a dedication

Flowers are something I adore be it real flowers or pictures of flowers. This is a post I had written some 3 years back when I intended to start a blog but then it didn't happen until now. So thought of posting it now. 

It was the rainy season in Chennai and there were torrential rains.The roads were flooded so there was no chance of going out. So wrote this that time.

These beautiful flowers on my desktop make my day. Just 2 days back, I thought I needed something fresh on my desktop, something which will refresh my tired eyes and exhausted mind.What else could be more rejuvenating than flowers? The thought struck me and I googled to find pictures of flowers. This one caught my eyes and it touched me a lot. I didn't even know the name of the flowers, just the color and the looks took me for a ride. The gentle and fresh looks! It was so simple, no frills. A green stem and at the end of it the beauties in red, pink and yellow. The background with light and thin stems looks excellent. The additional beauty of the flowers is due to the background. Without such a scenic background, the flowers would not have displayed such beauty. The mild background adds glow to the beauty of the flowers.

Similarly, at every point in life there is someone who adds beauty to our life (maybe even to the minutest extent for us to realize) but we hardly realize it and forget it in the long run let-alone acknowledge it.

Through this post, I would like to thank all those who added beauty to my life at all points of time in my life and also to those who gave me an opportunity to add beauty to their lives even to the smallest extent.