ONLY TIME

If you know Enya's songs....you will know these words...

Who can say where the road goes

Where the day flows, only time

And who can say if your love grows

As your heart chose, only time

Who can say why your heart sighs

As your love flies, only time

And who can say why your heart cries

When your love lies, only time

Who can say when the road meets

That love might be in your heart

And who can say when the day sleeps

If the night keeps all your heart

Who knows, Only Time

We make decisions based on what we have learnt right up to THAT moment we are making a decision, but what comes next we have  absolutely no idea...so we enjoy the moments and go with it till it suddenly, for no reason at all, rips you off  the path and puts you in a middle of a circle ...with no pointers...no roads...no signboards...no clue!! you are allowed to take a step in ANY direction and yet you stand there frozen as  you are too stunned to make a move...and which way now? Who knows....only time...

We think we are getting closer to the truth as we begin to feel the joy within...walking lighter, brighter and clearer in the head then ever before...so we get this feeling "Yay...i am on the right track and i am getting there" You forget the rest of the world...you have created a new world for yourself with everything and everyone you love in it...you are on top of the world, reaching out to the stars, and suddenly you slip and find your world missing altogether...you stand there blank wondering where everything and everyone went...or was it all just an illusion...you begin to wonder...but then..

Who knows, Only Time....

You have let go of all desires, cravings and longings...no grudges...no regrets coz the moment in hand is too joyful. So you have stopped searching, you have stopped wondering,  you have stopped reaching out coz its all right here! no where to go...you are dancing through the moments so joyously and again.... the music stops, and you are left in a deafening silence. You are too shocked to react, you wait to hear it again ...but there's nothing...and you wait...in silence...will the music be turned on again...?

Who knows, only time...

You stopped running and have settled down in your most favourite place, simply soaking in its beauty, feeling the breeze, the sun and the mist, all keeping you just right...not too cold...not too warm...not too dark and not too bright, you could see as far as light allows, so you stay there, loving it all...and suddenly the sun hides behind the clouds and it gets freezing cold, you want to move but you feel too numb, you cant feel your hands or feet or even your heart beating....so keeping your eyes closed, you look within, will the rays reach out to you again...?

Who knows, Only Time...

You have stopped looking for answers coz you have no idea what the question is, so you have learnt how to let go and receive whatever comes, you have thanked the universe over and over for everything that came your way, you have learnt that every moment is an answer, but still your heart will not stop asking, what exactly is the question?

Who knows, Only Time....

HoliBolly@Swara CAC

Its May 2017??

I have not sat to write the whole year! And that's not because there has been nothing to share but because there has been so much to write about..i didn't know where to start..

Anyway since it will be my first post for the year i will start with a colourful note!!

This year for the first time in my life i had an opportunity to be part of a Holi celebration. Ive seen pictures of friends all drenched and soaked in holi colours and always wished to experience it. Somehow i missed it every year. But thanks to Swara Community Arts Center, this year, our bharathanatyam teacher suggested we celebrate it in our center instead of joining the celebration elsewhere. So together we organized a simple event at the beautiful garden of the center in Petaling Jaya mostly with our students, committee members, family and friends. 

It turned out to be so joyful with music and dance splashed in TEN shades of colours...thanks to one of our students who provided those gorgeous colours!

Only after the event i realized what effect the celebration has on someone who was part of it..And that is what i wish to share here...with you all...

The shades of life....

We come into the world pure and white...uncolored, soul untouched by the elements of life on earth...and then gradually everyone leaves a mark on us, some brighter, some darker, some vibrant and some dull. Our lives are not necessarily touched only by people we know...sometimes its a complete stranger whom you might not even meet again...yet for that moment a connection happens...one shade is left on your white soul and it stays...sometimes it is someone you love, sometimes by little children ...or even by someone you dont really like maybe.. yet the beauty is, by the end of it you will not be able to say who made those marks but together they create a new you..all the colours come together and create a whole new picture of you. When you look at yourself at this point, you will be totally amazed at the creation that happened beyond your control, you did not plan it, you tried running away sometimes, you tried avoiding sometimes but it gets to you anyway! And the effect of the whole process is magical! You dont design such things...it happens of its own accord and the beauty is..it is different for every person!

While you think you look all messed up...you will be amazed to look at yourself in the end! Just like life...all that seemed random, finally fits like a jigsaw puzzle to make a whole...its magical...its beyond words...the shades of life within...reflected!

so here...thats exactly what happened during the holi celebration at Swara Community Arts Center...and i will let these pictures say the rest...

So...go with the game, take in the colours... trust the process and stay joyful to the end, you will come out AWESOME!! :) 

Go by chapters :)

Its not the first time people have asked me, "How do you have the patience to read books that are almost a thousand pages long!" My answer has always been this "I just go chapter by chapter".

When you keep count of the pages, you would feel like you have a long way to go but when you focus on the chapters you get to the end before you know it! Thats the trick! My aim is not to get to the end of the book as quickly as possible. I just get indulged in each chapter and take in whatever that happens in those pages. I am never eager to know what happens in the end. I am more interested to know how it gets to the end page by page...chapter by chapter. 

Its quite interesting how the mind works with the same total no of pages having different effect on us just by way we approach it! Life itself is just like that! All we need to do is to be in the present and enjoy and do our best day to day...moment to moment..and one day we will get to the end feeling joyful and surprised at how beautiful the journey was. Otherwise, if we are obsessed about what comes next and how it ends ...we are going to miss life happening right now.

This is why i have NEVER approached an astrologist or bothered to follow numerology or palmistry or whatsoever! First of all it spoils the fun by telling us how our life will be! Secondly, i dont trust the accuracy of any readers. I wouldnt want my life to be misread by someone who missed certain nos or calculations! No way! I always loved to see my life unfold day by day with all the little surprises and hidden agendas that keeps me grinning all day! 

Also when it pushes me downhill and gets me rolling helplessly till i hit the bottom, at least i wasnt already expecting it!! It just happens while i am dancing through life like nothing will EVER go wrong! Then i gather my strength to climb the hill again...this time i know where i tripped! So i stay alert but i still dance my way up!

A whole life story is made of short chapters and every chapter is made of a few pages and every page is made of a few sentences...and every sentence is made of a few words! Stay focused on every word....and you will get to the end without any stress! Otherwise you will be drained by the time you get to it. Why be torn between the end and now, when you can just be in the now! Let it be! Whatever it is! And LIVE every word! In the end the chapters will be complete and the book will be done! Surely! 

So dare read books of a thousand page! Go by the chapters and enjoy the pages! And when you get to the very LAST page you will feel such satisfaction for having been through every line with ease and joy! You will never forget the experience....just like life! Live it all! 

See you in the next chapter!! :) 

  

The Time Keeper

Ive heard about Mitch Albom and his books for so long but somehow didn't read any of it until last month. But after reading it...especially the part which says "It's never too late or too soon, it is when it is suppose to be"  i realised that now it was time for me to read it. I do believe nothing happens coincidentally. The whole universe is interconnected and is moving in a perfect coordination. So, no chance for accidents!

When i started writing this blog 6 years ago, my inspiration was TIME! Like how we measure everything by putting it in terms of pass, present and future but the only real TIME is always NOW! And what we choose to do right NOW determines what happens in the next moment. And then...all these little "NOWS" form what we call our PAST and eventually we call it LIFE. If you read my tag line for the blog...that's exactly what it says. I remember that was the first ever line i came up with to be written in my blog. But only after 6 years i happen to decide that i would read a book which speaks of TIME in the most interesting way!!

The story was SO interesting that i for the first time in life actually finished a whole book in one sitting! AND theres something else really weird and interesting which happened when i finished the book after 3 hours of reading non-stop. I decided to share about the book on my FB and after posting my message on it i realised that the time was 12.30am! which means i should have finished reading the book around 12.25am!! If you don't see why that's weird......have a look at the picture of the book above. The clock shows 12.26!! Seriously i was shocked! I mean what a coincident....or was it really a coincident?? Or was it a sign / message to prove that TIME is always perfect. Just like how it says in the book "It's never too late or too soon, it is when it is suppose to be" 

The thing is, if we understand that everything happens at the right time, we will not regret our actions in the past. Some mistakes were necessary simply to delay us, so we divert into another dimension of life, guided by all the obstacles we finally reach the place we want to be but we often see the past as mistakes which should have been avoided. But the truth is, without those mistakes we would never get where we got. And once we understand this, we would instantly feel lighter.

I always wondered, how might life be if we never had clocks! And interestingly enough this book is about life when there were no clocks and human beings were not living according to time until this character in the story discovers how the shadows fall on exactly the same spot everyday at certain point, and he started keeping record of it and thus created TIME. The rest of the story is about how he paid for his action for the next few hundred years. How life changed, how people became obsessed with time which eventually led them to stop living altogether. 

We ARE obsessed with time..aren't we?? We eat simply because its lunch time! hungry or not....and we refuse to sleep, if its too early, we have timed ourselves so precisely that actually we have become the clock itself. Our body automatically reacts according to the time we have set for ourselves! Like a robot..

Though its quite impossible to get out of the time frame...we can practice being a little relaxed about it. Ive seen parents stuffing food into the baby's mouth...while they are screaming and refusing to eat...because they believe its time to feed! Poor babies....why is it that we still cant believe that the human body is so natural and all babies would eat when they are hungry. Even a newborn...knows how to cry for milk! So lets not be obsessed with time. Lets just let go a little... and see how the body reacts. And its not only about food or sleeping. Its about everything we do...Feel like watching a movie...go watch...even its 2 am....feel like singing....just sing even if no one is listening. Feel like dancing right after a meal...go on and dance! Just go along with the body and soul and see how much lighter life gets! Lets stop timing ourselves....and others as well! Especially because we already have the most efficient clock working for billions of years....the SUN! Nothing we create can beat its timing...so lets got with it!  :)

And ohh....do read this book!!! its awesome! :D 

Setting 2014 with the Sun

The world is renewed with every rise of the sun. It is not about the year or month. Its about every moment refreshed second by second. So life is eternally new. Live every moment of it.

That's the message i got while i sat by the beach in Langkawi, watching and meditating upon the setting sun last weekend. While i get restless by 5 mins when i attempt to meditate at home....i unbelievably sat still for almost an hour and a half there simply watching the sun set at its own pace, absorbing the golden rays and purplish skies and there was no need for calming Zen music to keep my thoughts quiet...as my mind was totally merged with the soothing sound of waves splashing in rhythm with my breathing.

I was sitting there alone while hubby and the group of friends were resting on the folding beach chairs further up. After a little while, my friend comes up to where i was sitting and asks me to turn around facing my back to the sun for her to snap a shot of my silhouette. And the picture turned up so nice :)


We were lucky that despite the rainy season the weather was so good on that evening. And the sunset was simply breathtaking. While my friend's kids were running up and down the shore collecting sea shells, building sand castles and simply running to the waves i noticed their silhouette from where i was seated looked interesting....so i decided to take few shots of them. Here it is....








Once the sun went down...rising in another part of the world...i got up and walked to the waves just to wet my feet and saw that the kids were still not tired of running up and down, most likely because they were absorbing all the natural energy and feeling light and free from all the "don't touch this! Don't run! Don't scream! Don't talk! Don't Don't and Don't...." No, here they were running free....as much as they wanted...and you could see the joy in their eyes! No concrete buildings to break their runs...simply endless shores and light ...such freedom is priceless especially for children...is it not?

Then i walked back to where the rest of my friends were sitting and chatting. One of them sees me walking up and asks in amazement,
"Anuuuu....how could you sit for that long???"

And only then did i realise it myself...that i was actually sitting there for more then an hour.....so i smiled and said to her "actually it wasn't enough" :)

How can u be bored when the sun is setting...changing colours by the seconds ...dropping into the ocean inch by inch right before your gaze! The shape of the clouds changing and forming new patterns every minute...the waves getting closer to you with every splash....the reflection of the light on the sea forming a path as if it is paving a way for you to walk up to the sun...such a majestic live show going on....and how could anyone be bored looking at it! 

The world when you got there before the sun set was gone...and there was a whole new world of dark skies and colder breeze with twinkling stars in the making....it was a new world in the making right before your eyes. How often do we notice these changes....to us the world goes by clock....its 5pm.....its 6pm....its 7 pm....its 8 pm....but do we even notice whats happening during these hours on ordinary days...No, we define our day by hours ....lunch hour....tea break....after work....dinner time....tv time....bed time...and that's it....the same routine follows the following day.....timing ourselves as though we are a bomb ticking! But the sun is putting a show every morning through the day into setting again....but we don't care to notice! Not that we don't have time...coz even if we have time we rather be sulking that we are bored then to be indulged in nature.

We may not be able to watch the sunrise or sunset everyday....from where live. But we can sure catch it at least at one point of the day before we go to bed again. It makes a difference when we watch how the day is changing every second....how the clouds are moving...when the wind is blowing them away...we too are changing every second. Our life is renewed by seconds...we are growing and blooming into ourselves...unknowingly. So lets pay attention to the changes...lets watch ourselves rise and set with the sun. Lets notice the changes in our thoughts....Lets acknowledge the love we feel. Lets LIVE with every breath ....like the sun.. :)

So my resolution??? 

Is surely to watch as many sunrises/ sunsets from as many parts of the world possible this coming year! :)

So stay tuned for lots of light and colours in 2015!

I have a lot more to share about Langkawi....will do in the next posts...

Have a great year all! 


   

Stratford-upon-Avon

It was my first ever morning in England, having home cooked English breakfast. Its amazing how a simple toast with butter and scrambled eggs and coffee tastes over there! Was sitting at the table in our friend's cozy home at Dunstable, looking at the garden through the sliding glass door, feeling pretty fresh after a good sleep since we arrived there. I managed to call Nantha to inform him that we have all arrived safely. So, i was totally at ease.

That's when our friend asks "so, you should all rest today, but tomorrow we can go sightseeing.Where would you like to go first?" and she looks at me. I was staring blankly at her, coz firstly i am not those kind of tourist who would browse out for the entire list of "places to go" when you go travelling. I like surprises and also prefer to simply go with the flow. So apart from the basic ticket bookings and accommodations i did not really browse for places to see. 

Secondly i wasn't sure where exactly Dunstable was. I mean apart from the distance from the airport i wasn't sure how far it was from the other popular London's attractions. So i didn't want to suggest a place which was too far away or troublesome to get to. She must have sensed that i had absolutely no idea where i wanted to go. So she asked again..."how about Shakespeare's Village?" And my eyes widened!  Almost choking on my toast, i stared at her in disbelieve. 

...Shakespeare's village?? It exists? And we can go there?? how come NO one i know who have been to England EVER mentioned this place? All i hear about is...Oxford Street, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Windsor Castle and so on...but NEVER this? Of course i did not say all this aloud. It was just the thoughts going on in my mind while i managed to calmly answer "Really? Shakespeare's birthplace? wow! That will be so interesting!! lets go!"    

OK! we leave tomorrow morning after breakfast then, she says. I was delighted! Then i found out that the place is called Stradford-upon-Avon. Now please tell me honestly if you have heard a name of any other place which sounds more poetic or musical or romantic as that! Of course, it is where Shakespeare was born! It has to be romantic, i thought :)

So, the next day, off we went after breakfast. She drove us all the way there and i remember it took about slightly less than an hour to reach. 

And wow, i don't think i would be able to explain the place in just one post. It was simply out of the world. It was like you have just walked through a time machine and got out in the 1560s! With all its ancient buildings and farms and even the way people dressed was like they had just popped out from the past.

Life performers acting his plays 

Seriously, that was the day i truly wished i did English literature in school! Because i could imagine how anyone who knows Shakespeare's work might feel when they visit this place. It is simply magical. You can watch life performers acting out his plays as you walk around the cottage gardens. You can see everything and anything about Shakespeare.  

Aunt and friend outside Anne Hathaway's cottage

The cottages looked like paintings that had come alive.The farm animals and people working there and how they were maintaining the farm in the traditional way, exactly how it was done in the 16th century! 

Inside Anne Hathaway's cottage

Me dressed like a farm worker :)

Me with cousin and friend outside Shakespeare's house

Where little baby Shakespeare slept :)

The awesome fireplace !!

The cozy dining room

The Best kitchen in the world....erm i wish the duck was alive though :)

The sheep and pigs roaming happily. No cruel cages or cramped up factories to torture them. Life as it is...


...just beautiful.

And you know what the best ever part was, after roaming around the whole morning, at about 2pm we were all hungry and decided to have some English tea and scones at a tea house. And honestly, I love it! again, the view we had made every sip worth it.

At Mary Arden's House

What a lovely day it was and what an awesome beginning of my holiday. So you see? This is why i love surprises! A place i never knew existed ...and that turns out to be the best!

Me signing the guest book , i think i wrote something like
"Simply Magical" :)

My favourite picture, standing inside Shakespeare's house:)

Hmm, so when i get to go to England again...this place will be a sure visit. Because there were more places to see in the village which we had to miss during this first trip as we made a day trip and had to get home by evening. You might need two full days to see all the places. 

So, when you visit England, please keep this place in mind. You will so love it! For me, it sort of gave an experience of a real ENGLISH world, a traditional one. That was truly special. 

Plan for a miracle in 2014 !

A few days before new year, i was reading Osho's quotes, when i came across this one :

BE REALISTIC : 

PLAN FOR A MIRACLE 

And it became my inspiration for this new year celebration :) 

I thought, of course !! 

People argue that being realistic and planning for a miracle is impossible...but why ??

If being realistic means...

You can speak with someone who lives thousands of miles away just by touching a tiny palm sized device in your hands ...

Or if you can let the whole world see what you are doing at THIS very moment in an instant by uploading a video..

then, why not ?

Do we even think about it...? With more and more people owning mobile phones...can u imagine the millions of lines vibrating and being transmitted throughout the world every second of the day!! Imagine you could see these lines running. How chaotic it might seem...and how weird that they would be following every person as they carry the phones with them :) like a ghost ...is it not ?? Best part is ...no matter how many million lines intersecting ...it always finds you no matter how far away you travel ..how amazing is that ?...something which we have taken lightly as " science "

I remember the first ever time i typed out an sms and received a reply on my phone about 16 years ago. It was so strange to get a message instantly on a tiny device in my hand...and i was so excited about it . But now...its just as common as TV.

Even TV was a miracle at one time...Because people couldnt even imagine how it was possible to see people moving and talking inside of a box like that ! And even more miraculous is the live telecast ! How could image travel thousands of miles in seconds. We never think of all this as a miracle anymore. Because we call it science...yes...but what is science? Its just a knowledge of how to make use of the power that already exist in the universe. Science never created anything by itself. It only discovers what exists ! And whatever that exist is a MIRACLE !

Flying was a miracle at one time...but now we all can fly. We , like birds can have breakfast in one country, lunch in another and dinner in another and come back home for supper if we wish to !! Isnt that a miracle ?

If you do gardening , you will find every bloom on the plant you planted as tiny seeds or twigs a miracle. You will wander how it has grown in greens , reds, blue or yellow...all from the same simple brown dirt ! Isnt that a miracle?

Well i am not getting to the most obvious miracles that people have taken for granted over the centuries like, babies, sun, moon, stars , ocean, fire, rainforest, desert and the neverending list of things we fail to recognize anymore. 

My point is if all these things are real and possible, then, its of course true that miracles too are possible !! 

So, I am with Osho on this :) This year lets all plan for miracles , as many as we like , big or small it doesnt matter, just believe and live everyday joyously !! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL ! :)

Have more MIRACLES then ever this 

2014 !!

:D 

Happy new year !!!

Its 2013 ! And its also the 5th year since i started writing here..Wow ! thats quite unbelievable really. When i started writing...i thought i wouldnt last even a few months as i would run out of stuff to share. But i managed to go on somehow...

Sometimes i kind of treat my blog as a diary, just to record moments i wish to cherish. So i could come back to read it myself ( well,  i think i read my blog more than others do :)) hahaha..still its fun keeping a record of our thoughts and be surprised at ourselves !

Apart from being a diary, its been a good place to share about the books i read. I tend to pick books that would be interesting to discuss in my blog like biographies and true events. Its true that when i start writing a review about the books i read...i tend to think further than just the plain story line. It helps me to bring out the essence of the story , the hidden meanings and the lessons learnt from it. In other words, sharing about books enhances my knowledge and makes me think a step further. So its kind of motivates me to read more and more.

So, this year i am determined to write about more books than the previous years. Currently am reading an interesting book called Walking Wisdom. Its a true story about the famous Deepak Chopra , his son , grandson and dog ! Its pretty interesting and entertaining. I am halfway through it now. So stay tuned for the next post on it !! :) Cant wait to talk about this book really...so much to discuss ! 

Wishing you all a great year ! Stay happy ! and keep it simple !!

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

Thank You 2012 !!

2012 had been so good that i cant say anything but 

THANK YOU !!

It was a dream come true year for me in so many ways...

Having such a loving family and caring friends made 2012 extraordinary for me.

Honestly ....I cant thank enough !!

I am carrying all those joyful moments with me into 2013 and i have faith that it will be another beautiful and joyous year...

With so much love and joy in heart...i cant even think of what to write further .

So, I wish everyone lots of  love and joy in 2013 !!! see u all next year !!! 

Happy New Year !!!!

Lets begin..

So..we survived the 21st December 2012 ( are you surprised?? ). 

Isnt it strange that, we human beings could believe nature to be such a simple and fragile thing that it could be destroyed in a day ? I mean what makes us think that it is holding on for billions of years in a perfect alignment with the sun and other planets and stars...only to destroy itself in a DAY !

Last night as i was watching an interview on TV , this Indian director/actor, SJ Suria was asked " what do think about the Mayan prediction? He says , " There is no end to anything in this world...coz when something  ends it means something else begins ."  And i thought that was an interesting answer he gave....coz usually people would either explain why they believe it would end or why they dont. But he saw it differently.

If we all see it as a beginning to a new era, then thats what it will be. 

I am not sure if its just me or there are others who feel the same. I kind of feel that we human beings have passed the worst times . The world will gradually turn into a more peaceful place to live from now on. Wars will come to an end...people will learn to live in harmony. The truth of all religion will be realized to be nothing but plainly love for one another and for nature . 

I already notice this happening as more and more people are concerned about nature, to help the poor, to exercise and eat healthy food, to cook at home with traditional spices and ingredients, to plant their own vegetables. To live a simple life. More people are beginning to realise that every day and moment is precious and should be filled with as much fun as possible. More and more are talking about positive energy. Above all, more and more are beginning to understand the power of LOVE...

So...good luck all......its definitely a beginning.... :)

The Kashmir Shawl

We were at The Gardens, Mid Valley, standing in the queue to have dinner at Sushi Zanmai with another two friends. But the queue didnt seem to be moving at all. Thats when we noticed, the bookstore, BORDERS was just next to the restaurant. So my friend and i decided to let our hubbies stand at the queue while we went to the bookshop for a quick shopping :) And as i browsed through the racks and displays of books, The Kashmir Shawl caught my attention, for a few reasons...one, i LOVE shawls ! two, Kashmir reminded me of the snow capped mountains in Switzerland which i recently visited, three, of course because it was about India ! and above all , coz i was curious how a simple shawl could be made the central character of a novel. I mean how much of a story could be linked to a SINGLE shawl ??  So i grabbed this book to read the outline at the back. Just as i guessed, it sounded pretty interesting. So without thinking further i took it right up to the counter and paid for it....and off i went back to the queue.

The story begins with the exquisite antique shawl found by Mair ( the grand daughter of the person who owned this shawl long time ago ) . Mair becomes curious about how her grandmother could afford such an expensive shawl and decides to trace its history which stretches way back into 1850's  in war torn India. She embarks on a quest all the way to Kashmir from England to unravel the mystery behind this shawl....and thats how the story begins. I wouldnt get into details as you can always browse or read the book itself. 

I only wish to share my thoughts about how sometimes a simple thing like a shawl could hold so much. It explains the Pashmina weavers and traders in Kashmir and their lifestyle then. The traditional weaving method takes months to complete a single piece of shawl in painstaking process which requires absolute concentration, energy, patience and of course love !! 

I wish to share excerpts from the novel which explains how important shawls were to these people:

"The finest items were made in the hope that the completed shawl would find a wealthy buyer, perhaps to be worn for a wedding or laid in as part of a bride's dowry. In Kashmiri families shawls of all grades represented the women's security. They could be cut up , sold in pieces to buy food or pay debts, retrieved and pieced together again."

"Shawls were given as gifts, hoarded as treasure, passed on from mother to daughter. The finest examples, the Kani pieces like Mair's grandmother's, these were hardly made nowadays and the techniques were all but lost. They were too costly and the weavers couldn't any longer afford to spend months bent over a loom in the hope of their shawl fetching a good price when it was finally completed. "

" Laid out in a tidy row across the breadth of it were hundreds of kani bobbins, each one wound with a different shade of hair-fine weft yarn. For each row of the pattern, an intricate design of flowers on a black ground, Mair understood that every one of the bobbins would have to be taken up in order and passed between the warp threads. Each time the exact number of threads had to be counted before one colour gave  way to the next. The pattern-maker's instructions were written out on a rough grid pinned up in front of the weaver, a tumble of scribbled digits that looked like mathematical calculations of an early astronomer.

Mair let out a breath she had been holding.

It must take fifteen minutes of concentration, she calculated to weave just one single row of the shawl. Less than half a metre takes three months to be completed."

Now, how would you feel if you owned such a shawl !! how precious it would be. But then, such things dont seem to attract people nowadays...all we want is ... FAST FAST FAST....who on earth today , has the time to sit on a single piece of shawl for THREE months...!! But then, seriously, where are we all rushing to ? it makes me laugh when i think of it sometimes, the earth is swirling in the same speed for billions of years...and yet what gives us the idea that we need to rush into everything in order to live well ! yoga tells you to breath slowly...the slower the better, but do we even remember we are breathing while we are rushing like mad?? as my friend Kym always mentions " running like headless chickens" !!haha isnt that we are doing ?

Anyway this story about shawls also reminded me of my mom's wedding saree which is about 47 years old now but still looks as good as new. Such beautifully woven silk with gorgeous shades of orange, gold and earthy colours. The gold  thread still glows beautifully. Now i am tempted to follow the history of my moms saree :) Though i know the village from where it came from, just curious to know how it was made and by whom. Wouldnt it be great if i found out !?? hahaha...me crazy as always, having crazy ideas :) But it could be possible, because those days, the Kashmiri shawl weavers had the habit of weaving a sign like alphabets or symbols on the shawls to identify the weavers. So , who knows,my moms saree might have a history too :)  

Nature has thought us that anything that grows slowly , grows the strongest. Like the mighty oak ,or chinese bamboo ! So, lets take time to weave our lives, a single thread at a time, a different colour at a time, and let it finish elegantly to last forever ! :) 

Lets be a Kashmir Shawl .......

From Taiping to Titlis :)

If you noticed my profile picture for this blog, it is me jumping by the lake garden in Taiping Perak , Malaysia. That was my first experience doing those jumping poses. I never thought i could do it. But during that trip 2 years back with my beautiful friends from KL, one of them, Kym gave us the idea of how to do it. So she started jumping and i was snapping her pictures and was amazed at how lovely the pictures turned out. So we all got excited and started jumping together . Thats how i got that first jumping pose! Then, i kind off encouraged other friends to do it whenever we got the opportunity and a good backdrop. 


And this time , during my trip to Europe, i couldnt help doing the jumping poses again everywhere i go, you cant blame me, with the kind of backdrops you get over there you might even attempt a "floating in the air" pose !  

First it was at Dunstable, a beautiful town about an hour from London, and there are rolling hills and meadows here SO gorgeous you cant help jumping around...! And here i made our friend from Dunstable try it as well , and she enjoyed it so much and came up with interesting ideas like jumping off the cliff as in the pic above :) 

Then...we were in Switzerland, at Mt Titlis......gosh ! need i say more ! So here i go again .... at first we were wandering if it was a good idea to do it there as it was pretty slippery even to just walk on. We kept tripping over the snow for every 2 to 3 steps...but then decided we simply got to try it ...and when i see the pictures now ...I am SO glad we did ! Worth the risk and effort ! Well, thats the highest point ive jumped off so far and ohh....it definitely helped to keep ourselves warm :)

Looks like now ive got a new hobby...to jump around the world :) Thanks to my friend Kym who started this in Taiping! hehehe yeah, hope to see more breathtaking places so i could keep jumping ! 

So, next time you see a place worth jumping off ....dont think twice ! yeah of course you will get some spectators laughing at you ! but who cares ...its your life ! Your Jump ! Just do it and You will love it ! And  if you try it, you will know that it is impossible not to smile while you do these jumping poses...so every picture turns out with your best smile coz you just cant help it ! Its is a joyful experience. So....up for a jump ! ? :) 

Sparks of Love :)

People say Deepavali is about LIGHT ....or that it signifies the triumph of Good over Evil....and that Lord Krishna beheaded the demon narakasura..... and these stories go on and on.....but why complicate something so simple.... its all about love and peace at heart....

My Deepavali is....

that ONE simple breakfast at home...with family with the same old "thosai" , "Idly" gravy and chutneys... which tastes extra delicious on that day simply because everyone sitting around at the table...had taken time to reschedule all their work or business....and had been running around like mad to prepare the cookies .... or had saved money for a few months to get gifts for their loved ones.... or had travelled thousands of miles just to be there....or had driven all night after work as leave wasnt approved by their company....or had worked over time and weekends just to get the extra days off .... and this time one of my cousin had eye infection so bad that she looked like she had been punched in the eye in a boxing match !! and yet with a tissue in her hand and sunglass , she wears her new saree and comes over to enjoy the breakfast without any complain...all for a plain thosai and some gravy ?

Later we see our fathers and grown up brothers and sisters enjoying the firecrackers more than the kids themselves !!... we tire ourselves by going from one uncles house to another.... all in a day or the next....

So does it matter if it was the day Lord Krishna defeated Narakasura..... ?

Its all about love.... to have that ONE meal together no matter what.... !! Funny part is...every year we discuss to make the event different but end up doing EXACTLY the same thing.... and still ENJOY it to the maximum though it was the first time :) and thats the beauty of DEEPAVALI :):)

So for those of you who had been doing the same thing year after year ....KEEP GOING !

Hope you had a great celebration too :):)

My Tropical Balcony :)

We came to kl 10 years back...newly married....packing everything from scratch....clothes' hangers....pots and pans.....towels and blankets......rugs and table cloths......furniture and fittings......JUST everything...yeah we moved into an empty house.

Friends and family members gave us wedding gifts that would be useful such as a rice cooker.....sandwich toaster.....table lamps....microwave oven and so on which definitely helped us start a HOME...but amongst all the gifts we had.....what i loved the most were the lovely little plants given by my mom and also my father in law.....they were almost just little twigs when i got it from them. So they hardly filled my balcony then...

So, soon after Nantha and i were a little settled ...we wanted more plants...and one of Nantha's friend suggested we should go hunting for it around KL and PJ . So off they went to cut down some branches and pull out some plants by the roadside and from the bushes. And yes they came back with some interesting plants....so thats how i got the collection of plants at home...

And some of it like the Bamboo....grew so tall in 10 years...it is now touching the ceiling of my house....So....here's how they look ...after 10 years....at my tropical balcony:)

This one came as a tiny twig ...given by my mom from Ipoh.

This is the little bamboo that came from Batu gajah....

Dracaena plant :)

This one i pulled out by the drain in Bangsar as i went walking one eve....now it has grown big Elephant ears leaves :)

Jasmine flower plant from my father in law ...

Orange Lantana flowers :)

So for those of you who love gardening but have not much space....dont give up....choose the right plants according to the amount sunlight needed and identify the best spots in your house that would be ideal for the plants....and dont forget to nourish it with lots of love and attention...and you will be surprised at how well they grow :)