My take on life

I never thought about life as much as I am thinking about it now. Everything seems more clear to me now that I am old enough to understand what life really is. Sometimes I wonder why things change so much, why can't it just be the same. But of course I know the answer very well. If life were to remain stagnant we would never have learned anything, valued life or valued ourselves. Ever have the feeling that nothing seemed to changed but suddenly everything changed? Well I feel that more often and sometimes I feel happy. I welcome change, because without changes my life would have been boring. 2010 has been the first of those years where changes were infinite and lessons learned were insightful.

               "Life is a camera, face it with a smile", life is an ice-cream, eat it before it melts", life is..blah blah...Life is so many things. For me life is simple. I live in the present. If I get hurt, I cry. If things are going well I smile. I don't want to be strong all the time. Then when everything gets back to normal I feel like life is amazing. My feelings and expressions are not constant. Life changes, I change with it. Every teardrop is necessary and every laughter meaningful. I don't believe that we have to smile and be happy no matter what happens. Its just like speaking out your feelings. Be sad when something bad happens and be happy when something good happens. Nobody's life is perfect, nor are we. We come close to perfection by understanding our life and learning to deal with it better every day. Thats what life is to me.

               

Sometimes its good to be random!

I love to go on Facebook and see everybody's photos because it helps me understand and get to know that person better. What makes them smile, where do they go, how do they dress up, what kind of friends do they hang out with etc. There is a reason why they say "a picture says a 1000 words!"

I love to dream about my future, what kind of house will I be living in , where will I be, what will I be doing, where will I be shopping, what kind of work will I be doing and other such stuff...its fun and completely pointless! I love dreaming because " dreams do come true if we wish hard enough!"

I love to be mysterious because it makes people curious and want to get to know me better. I am mysterious and I will continue to be.

I love to smile because it brings happiness to all including me. It gives me immense joy in seeing others smile. So I assume that if I smile and be happy, everyone else will also feel the same. "Smile is indeed contagious!"

I love to help people around me because it brings happiness to them making them smile in turn making me happy and making me want to smile and spread the happiness.

I love to write because it helps me reveal my thoughts and show the world what I believe in.  "Pen is definitely mightier than the sword! - a Computer is definitely mightier than the sword!"

I love taking pictures because I can go back and see the pictures. I can smile and cherish the moments all over again, it is as good as a time machine! "

I love to do many more things but sometimes its good to stop before it gets too boring! :)

Random Truths

I thought I would share some random truths about myself and life!

I realized that when my hair is all well settled and looks good, my confidence level is high and I feel generally happy and chirpy. Weird, right?

I am sure everyone will agree to this; when I am idle , with nothing to do I get the most horrible and depressing thoughts. "Idle mind is a devil's workshop" is absolutely true. I try to keep myself busy constantly to keep myself happy and cheerful. Experience speaking!

When someone is crazy about me, I don't value them. I get irritated and wonder why they are so sweet to me. When I am crazy about someone, they move farther away from me. I recently realized that!

Its always better to do my own work, rather than being dependent on someone because only I can put my best efforts. Others will do it just for the sake of doing it.

Be careful what you wish for, because wishes do come true not always at the right time!

A smile can definitely change my day and is contagious. Whenever someone smiles at me I feel so happy and I pass on the smile to others.

The weather sometimes defines my mood. Bright, hot sunny days make me lazy, bored and irritated while cloudy, breezy days make me happy, enthusiastic and chirpy!

Many more to come..will update them!! :)

Why Vegetarianism? Why not Vegetarianism?

I was 8 years old and I was walking past a store which sold ‘fresh’ meat. I was curious, so I went in and saw the most horrifying scene that a young child should never be allowed to see. The butcher was chopping away chicken, goats and pigs and the heads of these animals were strewn across the floor. It has been my personal goal ever since to make people around me to understand the importance of being a vegetarian.

Vegetarianism is one of the most common topics to be discussed and debated. Eating meat not only has health risks but also involves cruelty against animals and has environmental hazards. Many religions which promote vegetarianism like Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism emphasize that animals have a soul just like humans. Avoidance of killing of animals is one of the main reasons for vegetarian diets.Vegetarian foods are not only healthy but they are delicious. Vegetarianism is encouraged for a variety of reasons. But the most important reason is the health risks caused by eating meat. The American Diabetic Association confirms that vegetarian diets have various health benefits. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than non-vegetarians, and lower rates of death from heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.

Vegetarianism not only has heath benefits it can also eliminate world hunger. Meat production has a large negative impact on the underdeveloped countries. Debt–burdened countries are turning over agricultural land to raise cattle and grains for feeding the cattle. According to the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, each year in the US approximately ten billion land animals are raised and slaughtered for human consumption. Apart from the pain and torture to animals, meat eating poses environmental risks. If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.

Religion has a huge impact on diet. Hinduism among other religions encourages vegetarianism.Vegetarianism is a natural consequence of the principles of ahimsa (doing no harm). Hindus know that by injuring nature’s other creatures we become a source of pain and sorrow. Contrary to the belief that killing plants is like killing animals, the Hinduism Today, justifies that, plants lacking nervous systems, do not endure pain and terror that mortifies animals at slaughter. There is a famous Sanskrit saying which is translated in English: “I am now eating the flesh of an animal that will someday in the future be eating my flesh.” Humans are considered omnivorous since they eat plants as well as animals. But human body is designed to be a vegetarian. Humans with their long digestive tract take between twelve and eighteen hours to process and digest flesh. Because the environment of the digestive tract is warm and moist, the meat rots and creates free radicals – unstable, destructive oxygen atoms that can cause cancer, premature aging and other degenerative conditions. Being a vegetarian is simple and healthy. As George Bernard Shaw aptly says “I do not want to make my stomach a graveyard of dead animals”, the more animals we eat, the more inferior we are. How can we be superior if we copy the lifestyle of animals that are lower to us intellectually and physically? In short, vegetarianism keeps us healthy and guilt free because killing plants is just not the same as killing animals. No wonder we use slaughter to refer to killing animals and not plants.

So why eat animals and suffer when you can be happy and healthy. "Live and let live!"

My Beloved!

Trying my hand at poetry! My first poem and so its very special to me. It was inspired by a guy who keeps coming in my dream, his face is blurred but I can still hear his soft voice! So this poem is dedicated to my dream guy! :)

I looked up at the sky

And saw the sun smiling brightly

With his golden rays spread across the sky.

I felt blessed!

I looked up at the sky

And saw the stars sparkling

Like diamonds spread on black velvet.

I felt rich!

I looked up at the sky

And saw the dark clouds

Blessing me with their holy water.

I felt pure!

I looked up- to see the face of my beloved

And saw his eyes sparkling with love

Smiling brightly at me.

I felt sheer bliss!

I looked around me

And realized that love can do wonders.

I could see the beauty of life through the eyes of my beloved;

I was never a poet but became one for my beloved!

Poetry is written from the heart. Love inspires me. Like I said: I love to love and I love to smile be loved and I love to write!

My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.

"My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist". Each time Rizvan Khan (SRK) uttered this line I had goosebumps all over my hand. 'My name is Khan' touched me to my very soul and I can easily say that this is of those movies which has a strong message and truly deserves a standing ovation. One of the many lines which stood out in the movie was : "There are only two kinds of people in this world; good people who do good deeds and bad people who do bad deeds." This is absolutely true. Religion is just a part of our identity. We should not allow it to define us nor should we fight for or against it. The message of this movie is that all Muslims are not terrorists and that we should not judge people based on religion. Just because one apple is rotten does not mean that all apples are rotten. There is always a bad person amidst good people. As the saying goes," the sweet is never sweet without the sour." Certain parts of the movie were really silly but I do not want to discuss about the bad parts of a movie, I just want to talk about all the good things about this movie.

Seeing the racial attack after the 9/11 attack, I could imagine how it would have been in reality. 9/11 attack killed thousands of people, the aftermath killed a few more. Another line that stood out was, "If one innocent person dies, the entire humanity has to pay for it." This is extremely true. One bad person takes the lives of innocent people and the whole world is affected by this. Every part of the world was in chaos after this attack and has undoubtedly left a black mark in our hearts. But the attack on Muslims and Sikhs (just because they looked like Muslims) after the big attack is something that was uncalled for. One Muslim guy becomes a murderer and all Muslims are blamed. Why is that? We always choose the easy way out. It is much simpler to blame everyone instead of pointing out one bad guy who actually committed the crime. Isn't that unfair?

This is how I think about it; we (humans) created the concept of religion in order to be organized and to avoid creating chaos in the world. Now, when we should be learning about other religions and following the good things about every religion, we are fighting like cats and dogs in the name of religion which was started in the first place to avoid fighting. Oh, how we love irony!On a lighter note, please do watch the movie, you will cry your heart out and you will enjoy SRK's jokes! :)

Love ...and more!

Love - this 4 letter word has so much power that one cannot imagine unless they have experienced it! I am in love with love! Movies like Sleepless in Seattle, Serendipity, Shall we dance?, The wedding planner and books like A walk to remember, Pride and Prejudice, The notebook among many others just takes me to a whole other world. A world where there is only pure, unadulterated love. Every time I watch Sleepless in Seattle, I just want to go to the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day and wait for my destined 'the one'. When will he sweep me off my feet? (call me cheesy or lame, it doesn't matter!) This is one of my favorite quotes;"we come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly," which is very true. No one is perfect, when we are in love we just ignore all the bad qualities and focus on the good one's. That is true love in my opinion. I also believe in soul mates. I feel that there is someone out there for everyone who are made for each other and just complete each other. I genuinely believe that every single person out there meets their soul mates at least once in a lifetime and if lady luck strikes then they get to be together for a lifetime!

On a whole other note, I always ask myself, why do people have another emotion called hate? When loving is so simple, why do people even try so hard to hate someone? Yes, there are people who have done some bad things, but still why should we hate them? "Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people", so we don't have to bother about hating someone just because they deserve to be hated. Hating takes so much effort and hard work when loving on the other hand is so simple. All you have to do is smile and talk politely with everyone. Instead of treating one person differently because you hate that person, it is just so much easier to treat everyone in a similar manner. Doesn't that seem simple enough? So next time you decide someone deserves to be hated, just focus on his/her good qualities and show some love and you will see the person transform magically. Love is definitely more powerful than hate. Experience speaking! ;)