Adieu 2016 ....Welcome 2017...Happy New year

The year 2016 went well. I experienced love, compassion and kindness. All days were not the same. Of course I experienced every range of emotions from grief to peace, but it was beautiful ending all the time with the whole hearted co-operation of all the beautiful souls around me. Life taught me to be more and more bold to the challenges. It was also successful after great effort published two books in 2016, one on life style and the other on cookery along with online publication of articles on spirituality. Thanks to the Almighty for the abundant blessings showered for under taking the dream projects on humanity. Without the great support of the love and compassion from my family and friends I would not be possible to fulfil my dreams. Thank you all for the love and camaraderie.
Let compassion, love and faith be our mission in 2017 for building up happiness, prosperity and peace in this beautiful world. Be positive and live positive.

Live in the present and enjoy life....

My intimate friend is very fond of reading women magazines. She don't want to miss a single issue. So what she do is, she read the current issue only after completing the previous one. Some other engagements made her fall back in reading the magazines. When we friends gather we discuss about the current topics in the leading women magazine and our friend is not able to comment because she is far behind. Some times two months back. We tried to bring her out and read the latest issue to join in our discussion. It was so hard for her and within three months she made it. Now we are having fun together and living in the present.
Let us live in the present because present is today's news paper.
If we live in the past, look past is a waste paper.
If we are very anxious about future, we are having a question paper with us all the time.
So what to do, let all of us come out from our past, have control in the present and secure our future.

Meditate to loose...

Do anyone like to loose what we have? The answer will be a big no from us. That is the general thought of an ordinary man. Even if a pen is lost we go for searching and searching and feel sad for the loss. That is the attachment to the things we possess. It is too hard to get detached from what we own. But detachment is so nice to lead a beautiful life.
Today while working on an assignment in meditation I read the great message by Sri Buddha on meditation.
One follower asked to Sri Buddha,
Follower.... 'Guru, what you earned from this long meditation?'
Sri Buddha.... I didn't earn anything.
 Follower....What?
Sri Buddha... I lost everything.
Follower....Then why meditation?
Sri Buddha...Yes I lost all my self ego, jealousy, greed, ignorance, anger and fear of old age and death. Now I am free.
                     
What a beautiful message. Let us meditate to enjoy oneness and experience eternal bliss.

 

Images on animal petting farm at the historic rivermill, Mt Nathan, Gold Coast

 The historic Rivermill was built in 1910 and has historical significance to Gold Coast. This place is abundant with native flora, fauna and wildlife with turtles and water dragons. The waterfront café and animal petting farm is the most attracted parts. Native programmes by locals is an added attraction of the visit.

Historic Rivermill, Gold Coast, Australia

 Historic Rivermill at Mt Nathan is a beautiful spot for the family and for get together. It is a great spot for kids to play around and watch the turtles in the Coomera river. Great relaxed atmosphere makes the family enjoy. Sitting by the river is so nice and cool. The breakfast we had was the best.

Eat what you want and Take what you eat....

It is a usual saying in middle class families and above that a lot of food are thrown to trash. From my young age I have heard this in several families and even now I am hearing this. Why to waste food? There are millions around the world who are not having food or not having enough food. Data shows a child dies every five seconds as a result of hunger. Let us be wise to prepare and choose food daily.
If we can buy food with thought, then no need to waste.
If we cook food with care, then no need to waste.
If we cook food which family loves, then no need to waste.
If we serve food just enough, then no chance to waste food.
If we take the required volume of food in our plate, then no need to waste.
If we can alert our family members about the fruits available, then no need to waste.
If we wisely transform the left overs to other dishes, then no chance to waste food.
The general trend observed in groups are to eat a little and waste more. When we take a portion more than what we need means the rest is going to trash. That is the most disrespect to food. It is not smart to say I don't eat more, I don't eat this, I don't eat that. Respect the food in front of you by eating what you want because life runs on food.
Let us educate our children not to waste food. Let us educate our society also not to waste food. Also let us be part of supplying food to the needy in our society. Food is a weapon to save lives, don't waste it!

Let us all 'Have a Heart of Gold'.....

Have you ever heard from someone that 'you have a heart of gold'. Do you ever commented to any of your friends that' you have a heart of gold'.
Yesterday an incident made me say to a lady at JC Penny, 'You have a heart of Gold'. There was a small isle with gifts under $10. Saw a nice Poinsettia Damask Tablecloth, thought of buying it for my daughter. The original price is $40. Reduced price is not shown. Being a visitor I am not at all familiar of checking the prices.

A lady was nearby in the same spot looking for some other things along with her family. I just asked her about the price and she replied let me check. I followed her and surprised to see she got in the line of three persons in front of her to check that for me. She is so generous to spend her valuable time for another customer at the store. The price was $9.97 and the lady standing back to her in the billing queue asked us where you find it, it is such a valuable stuff to own or to gift. I felt so thankful to the generous lady and the beautiful lesson I got.
To comment to others and to receive the comment we have to be so generous and kind at heart. Those who offer and don't expect anything in return are those with a heart of gold. They are always caring. They love to share. They are not rich with gold but they are rich with love and kindness with a heart like 22ct. gold. They can easily let others into their heart and make you be a part of their heart. They are always mindful about the wellbeing of others. They care others more then themselves. The person with a heart of gold should always act kind to all the living creatures. They are truly the real, not a plastic. Every time when we share our soul with every one we meet all around the world, that results in getting back the love from the 'universe' more than what we can imagine. That is the real wonder of having a golden heart. We enjoy from our own mom the warmth of a golden heart. From the generosity of mom we can learn the practical way of love to shower on others. Also we have the golden experience from the Almighty of caring and loving us in every moment. Let us take these guidelines and e kind to the world. Don't misunderstand and get in trap to others judgment. That is not our attitude or our actions to judge us negatively. So leave them on a side to live their life and go on with a heart of gold to all around us. Remember that our heart is making us alive and be kind to our heart to be happy to all and wish that everybody may have a heart of gold.

Images of Cactus....

Today is Powerful...The Power of 'Now'....

We all have a bunch or a lot of friends around the world. Today I got a message from my one of my nice friend. It was a beautiful message, 'Today is the world's "Close friend day". Send this to your friends. Even me if I am one of them. See how many you get in return! I hope you get a dozen!"

Immediately I started messaging that to a dozen of my friends including the sender. Then thought of searching in the internet more about ' Close Friend Day. This was an eye-opener. There are different days for close friend day, best friend day, ever best friend day like that. But non of them falls today.
But the importance of the message I got was everyday we can sent this message to our close friends because it is clearly stated  as 'today'. Today is live and today we are also alive by the grace of the Almighty. See how powerful is 'today'. Today is the most powerful day and blessed day in front of us. Because yesterday is gone and now it is part of the history. Tomorrow is there but what's tomorrow, now it is part of the mystery. But today is a gift for you, you are here to live your life, to act your life, to serve your community, to be with your friends, to be with your family and to pray to the Almighty for abundant blessings and peace for the 'Universe'. Look at the power of today and that is the power of 'Now'. Let us all live in the moment and experience our beautiful life.
Thank you my dear friend Maya for giving the idea for this post. Thank you all my friends who read my message in your inbox.
 

CARING IS ALWAYS GREAT....

I love to care and share. Some of my friends say that why should we disturb our friends. Let them be in a comfort zone. But the nice point is that we can very well understand those friends who do not like to be cared by others. Let them stay away from our the caring attitude. Don't disturb them by paying more attention. But there are a lot of friends in this world who loves to be cared. That is only humane. Nothing is wrong with that because we all are part of the community and we are social beings. Caring can be in the form of our time as physical help or moral support with a listening ear, in the form of gifts, loan or consoling. If we have a mind to serve the universe we will do it for the humankind.
On Christmas day we had to prepare our traditional chilli fish curry as part of the potluck dinner. Chilli fish curry is so tasty if it is prepared a day before. On 24th I went to our Indian store to find kokum (Garcinia indica) which is an essential ingredient for the curry. I got a few cloves of kokum which I soaked in water and went to the store to buy more. It was a dinner for about 50 persons. There was no kokum in the store that day. I saw one of our native girl who came to buy something. I asked her whether she knows whether it is some where there. She told it is not regularly found in the store. She offered kokum to me and together we went to her home 3 miles away from the store and got the special ingredient for our curry. That is a beautiful example of caring. Even though she was very busy on the day she cared for me/ for us. Only a good Samaritan can behave like that. That is caring. Thank you my dear and Good luck to you!

Images of Arabian Sea from Paravoor, Kerala....

Images captured from the rope-way to Mansadevi temple

 The mountains in Uttarakhand, a state of India. On the way to Mansa Devi temple in the cable car took these pictures of Sivalik Hills where the temple is located on the top of the Bilwa Mountain.
Siwalik hills are the southern most mountain chain of the Himalayas.

Gifts are inspirational to all ages....

This Christmas I got a few gifts from my daughter and her friends here in San Antonio. Gifts are always inspirational. there is no age bar for gifts. Babies to grandparents love to have gifts. Gifts can be given year round for any special occasion when someone does something special. Gifts are the symbolic representation of the warmth, love, kindness and the respect towards the person. By gifting we are recognizing, appreciating and accepting the person. No need to go for branded items or expensive items. Even a beautiful flower from your garden is more a worthy gift to your friend. A real gift is always given without any expectation of returns. A gift is always meant to be free. If the recipient feels that he should return a gift on the next occasion that shows a distance between e rather than an intimacy. Gifts should be ale to make someone happier. Gifts are a favour of kindness. Auspicious days in ones life, Christmas, New Year and other traditional festivals in ones culture are the best occasions to present gifts. Gifts are valuable when it brings joy to the person. Practical gifts which have daily use are more accepted than whimsical gifts. Any way gifts are the real way of acceptance and honour. So ever we get a chance to gift something to our family members, friends or neighbours, go for it!

Christmas morning with the grandkids....

At 6am on Christmas day we were called by our daughter from bed to a magical world with a beautiful background of soft Christmas music playing, twinkle lights on and candles lit to watch the excitement of our grandkids finding out what are the gifts they get from Santa Claus. The night before bed our four year old was so anxious and placed cookies and milk in his favourite plate and cup. In the morning by seeing the gift packets around the tree and saw the cookies and milk were finished he blushed and screamed 'mommy Santa is real, look guys Santa finished every bit of the cookies. Let me check whether the gifts have those I wished and told to Santa'.

Christmas morning it was really magical to see the beautiful packets of gifts well arranged. The little one, 17 months old, was simply following his big brother and excited in grabbing the packets and opening for his own. The happy feeling in the face and mind of the little ones were really great. The list of gifts the older one loved was taken earlier in November and the asked to short list on priority basis like games and books and finally the gifts were bought. For the little one bought some small gifts because he is too small to make any choices for his own. The mini i pad was the most precious gift for the four year old. After the excitement of the kids and happiness of having their gifts we had hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls as our breakfast. It was so nice to be together. Merry Christmas to all!!!