Jai Hind

Happy Sankranthi

Best wishes to near and dear on this auspicious day. One of the major hindu and telugu festivals symbolizing harvesting season and beginning of Sun's ascendancy into northern hemipshere - we have a lot of memories of Sankranthi from our childhood. To remember a few - Bhogi mantalu on a foggy winter morning, new clothes, exotic sweets (arisalu), Sankranthi holidays for school, gaali patalu (kite flying), bommala koluvu perantalu, blessings with bhogi pandlu - hope the tradition survives!

little rascal

Often wonder! Are we doing enough for our children to develop into responsible and mature individuals? Children today are under tremendous stress when compared with our childhood. No doubt they have all the comforts of modern life, but compare them with what we had - large families, no idiot box, grand parental care, lots of neighbourhood friends and most importantly "nothing in the life be taken for granted" approach towards life.

The stress brought in by the pace of the modern life in adults affects them in many ways - especially their emotional well being. Childhood is a critical phase of life and must be protected to be fully experienced. The question is, how can we do better to help them enjoy their childhood with respect as individuals?

Grandpa

It is sad and disheartening to see grandpa suffering from old age and Alzheimer's. We have fond memories of his ethics, good nature and love for grand children. Never shy of taking risks and always have a surprise up his sleeve, he taught us life's many great lessons and gave us good support to tide over many crisis situations typical to middle class families.

It is a pity, I have n't visited him in more than one and half years. He always wanted me to stay in Guntur with the family. My heart goes out to you Grandpa! I wish you good health and pray that you lead your remaining life with dignity.

Panic

Why do we panic? Many circumstances when we panic does not warrant us to be panicky at all. Lots of issues we encounter daily can be solved by being patient and let the problem solve itself. But there will many circumstances which require us to react. But lot of other circumstances can be avoided by being pro-active.

Thinking of being pro-active, how many of us really follow this great saying in Geeta - karmanye vadhikarasthe maa phaleshu kadachana

Remember the "good times/bad times" theory inherent in our culture, which our elders constantly remind us. By definition good times will not last forever and bad times will certainly end by definition.

Of course, medical emergencies are a cause for panic and there should only be a few situations that warrant panic. I know - saying is easy, but serving here myself a reminder not to panic for trivial things.

Resolutions - are n't they meant to be broken?

We keep making resolutions every new year day, only to break sooner or later. Even on Ugadi (Telugu New Year) day, Grand mother used to say, one's behaviour on the first day of the year would have an effect on the entire year.

Eventually, making resolutions turned into a reflection on past mistakes and a vow to do better in the future. It is always easy to start afresh, as it is easy to sweep past sins and mistakes under the carpet.

Do not want to disclose here but, again made a few new year resolutions - hoping to do better this time.

phone line grid lock ?!

Trying desperately since this morning to reach out to family members and friends in India to convey new year wishes, surprisingly not a single phone line got connected (always got the beep sound). Conveying our new year wishes again to all near and dear through this blog, though it is not publicized yet. At least hoping to convey our sincerity by recording my thoughts before the mid night.

HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2007

Singapore Zoo

Visited Singapore Zoo on 31st Dec (could not go anywhere else for the vacation). The zoo is pretty big and they have a large variety of animals. Kids enjoyed watching the animals in close proximity.

Could not contain the excitement of Vamsi as he started relating the animals to the characters in his stories, wherein each story has an animal family that contain 4 members.

Happy New Year 2007

We wish a very joyous and momentous new year to all our family members, friends, relatives and everyone out there.