Humane Lions!!

I came across an old and very intriguing piece of news.


In south-west Ethiopia, a 12-year-old girl was snatched by four men, on her way home from school early in June. A week later, kidnappers were moving her with police in pursuit, when three lions encountered the group and chased the men off. The lions stayed with the girl without harming her, before departing as police searching for her came near.

Sergeant Wondmu Wedaj told the media “They stood guard until we found her and then just left her like a gift and went back into the forest."


Lion attacks on humans and farm animals were frequent in the region, it was surprising they protected the girl.

A government wildlife expert said the lions may have mistaken the whimpering and crying girl for a lion cub and taken her into their protection.

It sounds miraculous isn't it?

Links:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/06/21/lions-ethiopia050621.html

Brr !! Spooky !!!

I want to go to Bhangarh!!


Bhangarh is a town on way from Jaipur to Alwar city in Rajasthan state of India. It has the ruins of the town established by Madho Singh, younger brother of Raja Man Singh.

What is it about this town ??

No one dares to stay in the town after sunset, those who dare, do not return.
People hear sounds of dancing and music during nights, though the town is deserted.

Spooky!!!!! isn't it ??

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have opened their office one kilometer from the ruins and also have a sign board "Staying after sunset is strictly prohibited in this area." If anyone wants to venture out at night there has to get a permission from ASI.


Why is this place spooky and haunted ??? Well!! there are many fables. One story goes that beauty of the princess Ratnawati drew princes from far and wide. A tantrik / magician Singhia fell for her. He tried all the black magic he knew to woo her but failed as the princess herself was a mistress of black magic. Princess cursed a stone to kill Singhia. Stone rolled down on to the magicion and killed him. Before he died he cursed the city that, in one incident entire city would die and the souls of the people there would remain there for centuries, and if the town was ever rediscovered the township would not be found, but only temples would show up.

True to the story,a battle ensued between Bhangarh-Ajabgarh and none survived, and today temples dot the landscape and even far up on the mountains only shrines can be seen. And I guess it is those souls who keep dancing and singing in the night !!

brrrrr !!! scary !!!

Wedding Extravagance!!

My opinion on expenditure for a wedding is its just burning of one’s money. Many tens of thousands of money are spent on food (most of it wasted), jewelry, clothing (not re-worn), decoration and what not. We are deprived / we deprived ourselves of many desires in childhood and youth, lest we spend too much. It could be just a couple of hundreds. We blow out this money in weddings. Why this extravagance?

Remember the wedding extravagances of Laloo’s daughter or Jayalalitha’s son? Wasn’t it all India’s money?


Just read, Steel tycoon L N Mittal spent $60 million for his daughter’s wedding, Vanisha Mittal with Amit Bhatia in June 2004, the most expensive wedding in world history. 20-page invitations in silver boxes, 1,000 guests put up in a five-star Paris hotel for the five-day affair, a party at Versailles, another party at a wooden castle temporarily erected in Parc de Saint-Cloud, Pop signer Kylie Minogue’s performance, five thousand bottles of Mouton Rothschild, and goody bags of jewels.
I have no comments, I am speechless.

Voila!! Cough Vanished!!

Grape season is in. I ate up lot of those black grapes. The result was sore throat, cold and coughs. Cough was draining my energy. Tried the cough syrups Benadryl / Kaasni, but these gave a temporary relief. Finally, I was reminded of an age old remedy for cough.


After dinner, took a bulb of garlic, stuck it to the tip of a long knife. And barbecued it on the flame of the gas stove till it felt tender. I peeled the garlic and popped them into my mouth. When I woke up in the morning, Voila!! My throat was all clear, no more coughs.

Count your blessings

The picture is of President Bush jogging with Staff Sergeant Christian Bagge. Sergeant Christian Bagge lost both his legs in Iraq war. Watch it here!

Count your blessings, appreciate everything you have, for you may never experience it again.

We Shall Not Leave Till……

“Am I in the engagement of Cinderella and her Prince?” was what I kept thinking as I entered Neela’s engagement hall. Best of everything was around – decoration, jewelry, music, food.

Neela and I grew up together amidst the lush greenery and palm-fringed beaches of Mangalore. Most cherished dream of Neela’s parents was, to get Neela married off to a prince in a princely fashion. When I entered my Master Degree my family moved to Bangalore. Neela did her masters at Mangalore. Soon she joined Infosys, Mangalore and I joined IBM, Bangalore.

Neela called me on Sunday July 16th 2006, “Vinnnnnnnnnnn!!! I found my Prince. We are getting engaged on 25th July.” I was delighted “Wow!! Congrats!!! Neelauuuuu!!”
“Engagment is at Hotel Oberoi, In Bangalore. I am all so excited. We will start from Mangalore on 24th July, early morning. Vin, you better be there before the event starts”.
“Sure Dear!! I will be there before you even wake up.”


On the day of her engagement, my car broke down; I made it late to her engagement. I knew I would get blasted. I headed straight to the stage to wish her. Held her hand and hugged her, wished her for a happy marriage. She felt cold, as though she had just walked out of a freezer. Her eyes seemed to be staring out into space.

“Neela, are you feeling good. You are all cold.”
“No Vin, I am fine.” “Vin, I am so very glad you came in. I wanted to meet you before we left.”
“Wow!! Neela your prince is handsome and you are looking gorgeous.”
She blushed and whispered, "He is mine forever."

I sat in the hall, watching the engagement. There was serenity on the face of Neela, her fiancée and their families, they all seemed to be staring into the space; there was no joy or laughter in the air. Very few guests were there and no relatives had come. Strange!! Something was not right; I couldn’t put my finger on it.

As I drove back home, my thoughts oscillated between Neela’s perfect engagement and the strange atmosphere there. I switched on the TV and casually picked the day’s newspaper. “All dead as the bus plunges on Amai Bridge” was the headline of a news article. As I read through the report, my hairs stood up, Neela and her entire family, her fiancée and his entire family had died on July 24th.

I get an eerie feeling when I think of it. They couldn’t depart form the earth without fulfilling, at least a part, of their desire, “Their daughter’s Engagement”.

Flower? Creature?

Got this image as a forward, saying it was a flower in the sea. Well!! It does look like a flower. Just got a bit curious and dug into www. Found that these are not flowers but aquatic creatures. Tunicates spend their lives free-swimming in the oceanic waters. However, they are occasionally seen by divers near the reefs of the offshore caves. Sometimes, because they pulsate and are transparent, they are mistaken for small jellyfish.

You could read more here

The burning toaster

Read on net :

One of my daughter's wedding presents was a toaster oven. Soon after the honeymoon, she and her husband tried it out. Almost immediately, smoke billowed out of the toaster. "Get the owner's manual!" her husband shouted.

"I can't find it anywhere!" she cried, searching through the box.

"Oops!" came a voice from the kitchen. "Well, the toast is fine, but the owner's manual is burnt to a crisp."

I just read a War Diary !

As I read through the blog Beirut Update, I felt I was shrinking in size. The blog is a war diary of a woman in Beirut, Lebanon. She narrates her experience as a civilian caught in the war. As I read through her entries, I realize that, most important and significant thing of their life is that “They are Alive”.

Most of us who complain, are blessed, we have home, we have food, we have kicking careers, still we complain about petty things. Why are humans so?

You belong to Me!

Young Nirvan handsome, charming and lively was lying lifeless on the hospital bed. His pretty fiancée Neha was beyond consolation. No doctor could diagnose what had struck Nirvan. It started with a mild fever 3 weeks ago. Gradually his body had turned blue. Doctors gave up.

As the dead body was whisked away, Deepa cried incessantly over my shoulder. Deepa and I had grown to be thick pals within a year. I had liked her instantly the day I was introduced to her, by my manager.

“I am going to get him… I am going to get him…” Deepa had murmured as she stepped out of the office, when Nirvan announced his engagement with Neha. Nirvan and Deepa had sworn undying love for each other. Nirvan’s behavior had changed the day Neha had stepped into the office. Deepa was no match for Neha. Neha, slim and graceful, looked as if she had bathed in the light of early sunrise.

That day, Deepa met Nirvan over coffee. “Nirvan, How could you? How could you?” was all she could say before she burst out into tears. Nirvan, held her hand and in soothing tone said “I love you Deepa, you know that. I was not an easy decision for me, you know that. But, Neha is my dream girl. She is just what I wanted all my life. I am sorry. Love you dear!” The coffee shop guy told her they were closing. She realized, she had sobbed for 4 hours.


“Please can I meet you just for the last time”, Deepa pleaded Nirvan. He hadn’t responded to her mails or phone calls. “Pleaseeeee…. Just for few minutes, pleaseeee…” she pleaded, as tears welled up in her eyes.

“No!! Nothing can be done; it is all over, why don’t you understand? There is nothing you can do to get me back.” Nirvan got up to leave. Deepa ran desperately behind him, and tried to hold him. “Ouch!” Nirvan yelled; something from her purse pricked him, as she tried to hold him.

As Deepa stepped out of the hospital, she stepped close to me and murmured “I got him… I got him…”

What a brat!!

"Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy !! Get me the toy or I will jump from the first floor" , my 3.5 year old nephew stands on the first floor and threatens my sister. Not ethical... but, well!! It is 100% effective.....
My Sis grits her teeth, she dare not say, "Go ahead and jump!!”

hummm !!! Why didn't I get such Ideas...

My bro's wife is expecting. This naughty nephew has been praying for a baby girl, everyday.
Any guesses Y ??? "I need a girl to be behind me. I haven't had a girl behind me for so many years.", is his imprompt and innocent reply. :-D.

Hummmmmmmmmmm!! What a brat !

Relevance of Satyagraha !

We were discussing relevance of Satyagraha in current India.

What’s Satyagraha?

Satyagraha literally means insistence on truth.
Gandhi said “With Satya (truth) combined with ahimsa (non violence), you can bring the world to your feet.” Fasting, Civil Disobedience are (or rather were) potent weapons in the Satyagraha

Most recent Satyagraha, was the fight against reservation by students across India. There were peace marches across India. Many students fasted for days.
Striking resident doctors and medical students of five medical colleges, sweept roads in New Delhi on April 27 to protest against the proposed quota for Other Backward Classes in central universities and colleges

What happened at the end ?

Government decided to go ahead, and implemented the policy. It just didn't seem to have mattered to the government.

Satyagraha holds no relevance in current India.

To get justice or to fight for truth, I guess the best way would be, the not so "just" path; What if the students who were protesting the reservation policy kidnap some politician’s (Say Arjun Singh’s) kith and kin ? What would happen? Justice would be done immediatly :-D. What say?