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Happy New Year

New Year Reflections

January 1, 2017
End of previous year & beginning of a new year… this joy & celebration & enthusiasm to welcome the year. While I join the celebration and enjoy the fun, I also end up wondering why? Why this zeal to welcome a new date? Why this eagerness to greet this day? After all, isn’t it just another calendar date? Why to make new resolutions only on first of January? Would it make any difference if new resolutions were to be made on first of March? Why this keenness to start things today and not on any other day of the year? Is a calendar date really that important to start something afresh? A beginning can be anytime, anyday, any moment, why this strong urge for the beginning today?
While I sit back and reflect, I realize once again that it’s not the rational or logic that can give answers to every why of ours. Perhaps for certain things, it’s just good to rely on our belief and have that faith – faith on new beginnings, faith on magic of those beginnings. Somehow the magic of beginnings always remind me of these beautiful lines by Meister Eckhart:
“And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust in the magic of beginnings.”
So, cheers to yet another beautiful beginning, yet another new year and let’s hope this new year proves to be as magical for all of us as we are hoping it to be today.

Happy New Year to You & Yours from Me & Mine 🙂

नव वर्ष : Happy New Year!

December 31, 2010
नव वर्ष

नव वर्ष,
हर्ष नव,
जीवन उत्कर्ष नव;

नव उमंग,
नव तरंग,
जीवन का नव प्रसंग;

नवल चाह,
नवल राह,
जीवन का नव प्रवाह;

गीत नवल,
प्रीति नवल,
जीवन की रीति नवल,
जीवन की नीति नवल,
जीवन की जीत नवल.

–हरिवंश राय बच्चन

As I said in one of my previous posts, 2010 for me was just another passing year. Neither any positive incident to be really happy about, nor any negative accident to be really sad about. It came and just slipped by like a steady flowing river water. Nothing better than “Lo Din Beeta, Lo Raat Gayi” by Shri Bachchan to describe this year for me :). Hope 2011 brings more cheers and moments of happiness to cherish :).

With this last post of mine for 2010, I wish you all a very happy & prosperous new year! As the beautiful poem “Nav Varsh” by Shri Harviansh Rai Bachchan says:

“May the new year brings in new joys, hopes and promises; new yearnings, wishes and desires, new zest, new journeys, new chapters, new dreams and a new enthusiasm for your life!”

Have a great 2011!

Wish you a very happy new year!

December 30, 2009
Hmmm…last day of the year and last post for my blog in 2009…I remember writing a post on 31st Dec for this blog in 2008 as well. 2008 was bad, really bad as it was the year when Amitesh Bhaiya had left us forever but then the optimistic in me thought that next year will be fine. I had wished, prayed and hoped that 2009 would be better for us never to know that 2009 would actually turn out to be the worst year of our life till now as 2009 is the fateful year when fate snatched Kishu from us very brutally and callously! They say – all that happens is for good…well not really. I don’t think there can be any good in losing Kishu and Amitesh Bhaiya from our lives forever. Life will never be same after Kishu & Bhaiya. The days are passing on but certain losses are irrevocable and some pains can never be healed. You just somehow willingly or unwillingly learn to live with it. Some incidents do make you succumb to your fate and do break your belief towards so many aspects of life…now I don’t even know whether I should hope for a better 2010. Yes, the strong optimistic in me has slowly-slowly died with time; the staunch faith has faded away. Now I only know one thing – jo hona hai woh ho ke rahega.

Had read this beautiful poem by Shri Bachchan which describes my some of the thoughts so aptly now, we keep on hoping for something better, something new but then again hota wahi hai jo hona hota hai aur din beet hi jate hai jaise-taise…

लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई

लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई,
सूरज ढलकर पच्छिम पहुँचा,
डूबा, संध्या आई, छाई,
सौ संध्या-सी वह संध्या थी,
क्यों उठते-उठते सोचा था,
दिन में होगी कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई ।

धीमे-धीमे तारे निकले,
धीरे-धीरे नभ में फैले,
सौ रजनी-सी वह रजनी थी,
क्यों संध्या को यह सोचा था,
निशि में होगी कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई।

चिड़ियाँ चहकीं, कलियाँ महकी,
पूरब से फिर सूरज निकला,
जैसे होती थी सुबह हुई,
क्यों सोते-सोते सोचा था,
होगी प्रातः कुछ बात नई।
लो दिन बीता, लो रात गई,
– हरिवंश राय बच्चन

With these thoughts, I would end my post by wishing all my readers a very happy & prosperous new year. Hope the next year brings more sunshine to your lives, have a great year ahead! And please do pray for me and my family to have a peaceful 2010…

Hello, I’m there :-)

December 28, 2009
OMG, again I’ve not come back to my blog for soooo long and I only realized it when a reader emailed me that she is missing my posts. Looks like one of my resolutions for 2010 has to be about being regular on my blog. There are so many things which I wanted to blog about but blame it on twitter, farmville or busy schedule including weekends that I’ve not been able to do so. And December weekends are all the more pre-occupied, well with so many good movies releasing every Friday and some cool live concerts happening in Bangalore, how is one supposed to sit at home and spend time with laptop? The only thing which has made me spend time on my laptop over weekends is harvesting as it’s just not possible for me to let my crops die at my farm in Farmville. Such a hard working farmer I’m! Apart from my kheti-baari, every weekend I’ve ended up watching some nice movies and I think all four movies which I watched in December were amazing – be it Scent of a Woman on DVD, or Paa, Rocket Singh and the latest one Avatar in theaters.

Hmmm one mention of Avatar and lo I’m again spell-bound. I think it would be prudent to say that I’ve not seen anything so magnificent and terrific in my life ever. This movie is simply outstanding and soooo….uh I’m running short of adjectives now. Story wise it was just another fantasy movie with added flavor of love story in it but visually it’s a treat for your eyes. The 3D effects are mind blowing. There are scenes which have just made me jump out of my seat. It’s thrilling and must must must watch for everybody. Do watch it no later than today in case you have not till now. Only a director of James Cameron caliber could have done justice to this film. And speaking of caliber, I think I need to mention the acting potential of Mr. Bachchan. With his character as Auro in Paa he once again has proved it that there is only one Amitabh Bachchan in overall cinema industry. Man, what a film and what a performance! Paa is a beautiful story of mother-son relationship (yea, I think it was more mother-son than father-son story as advertised in promo campaigns). BigB’s portrayal as Auro just leaves you amazed, and the bigger surprise package is Vidya Balan as the mother of 13 year old Auro. Only an actor of Amitabh Bachchan’s caliber could have done justice to this film. Once again a must watch, if you have not watched it till now. Rocket Singh was nice too but it’s definitely not a mass movie; mostly people with corporate career can relate to this movie better. I personally liked it. Scent of a woman was awesome, I don’t think I need to write anything about it; in fact I’m wondering why I never watched it earlier. Next on my “watch-list” is 3 idiots which I’m going to watch sometime soon.

So, that’s all on movie front. Will be back with my year-end post in a day or two. In the meantime, here’s wishing all my readers a very happy new year. Hope you’re enjoying this holiday season to the fullest 🙂