Horoscopes and Holy Matrimony

Recently when my college friends visited bangalore for the new year bash we were having a conversation about marriages and astrology.

Finally it bottled down to horoscopes and how the squares make sense in our life.
Sometimes if u have a certain star in a certain square and if the groom has another particular star in another square then your relationship would proceed in a particular manner.

Somehow in this world of science and reasoning i refuse to hand my future to the stars!!!Its a time tested method and it might work but lets say i dont want to risk it.
I dont know how many of u share the same philosophy and how many of have got married the other way round but am not ready yet!


A birth chart (also known as janma kundali, janam kundali, Vedic horoscope) captures the precise astronomical positions of stars and planets at the individual's birth moment. Using the vast amounts of information provided by your birth chart, Vedic Astrology could predict every important event and possible opportunity that can arise in your life.


I dont know if the stars can predict my compatiblity with another human being, i dont want to know the future yet, i want to go through it. I like the element of uncertainity in life. I'm ready to make mistakes and take the pain of failures but i want to be sure that i want this.

Some of us do it because it would make our parents happy some of us do it cos we haven't thought about it but its my life and i better be sure abt whom am goin to share the rest of my life with. If it doesnt work out atleast i wont blame the stars.. it wud be my mistake. And that is ok too.

We have spent a good 25yrs with our parents and now we have to think abt spending the rest of the 75yrs with another human being. I dont think i can let the planets decide what this person would be like and how many kids we would have.

I willing to ammend my opinion but i still haven't found a convincing reason to change my view. Is astrology really true or is it yet another money making gimmick. Is it wise to let the most important decision in ur life be taken based on the planetary positions?

Somtimes its scary.. have these beleifs gone so deep rooted in our society that we actually find it hard to beleive that its not true? This is the information era, the technology boom we are the generation X who beleive science is supreme. Are we also falling prey to this? Its not just astrology there are so many other such things that have become a part of our life, an imminent way of living that somehow stops our nation from progressing. Are these the ones that are truly challenging us?

I wish there was a fast forward button in my life!!Sadly there isn't any...so am stuck!

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My Resolution

How can u lead a life where u get up at the same time,do the same things, see the same people and continue to do it the next day and the next and so on..
Have any of you asked these questions to urself? will tommorrow be another day or would it be a better day?
I used to think of these things when i started working. Why am doin this? Why is there a droning noise in my life.Why doesn't something spectacular happen every day?But i dont think the same way now!


I guess its all in ur perception. You always see things the way u want to see them!!
Everyday is a different day, full of surprises.
Every second in your life is full of surprises.
All u have to do is Beleive!!! And i did!!

There was a movie in tamil called anbe sivam. It had an influence on me. I cudn't forget it for a long time.I dint cry or wail when i saw the movie but there was a silence in my mind, a calm thought, sometimes i think this movie opened something deep in my heart. The prodding was silent but the effect was deafening. I had begun to question a lot of things that i was doing, i had begun to appreciate a lot of things that i had otherwise taken for granted.
The movie is about a man who fights for what he beleives is right. He falls in love with a girl and they decide to elope since her father does not agree to the wedding. On the way to the wedding the bus meets with an accident and although he is alive he is badly injured.A quirk of fate.The movie takes off from here.

The girl's father comes to meet this half-dead man. He says i pray for two hours everyday and the god i have faith in will never betray me.This is the crux of the movie. We pray to god and then we commit all sins and still go on with life thinkin one will make up for the other.
There are times when the movie takes u thro such curves which strikes a raw chord.

Love is the universal god. A man who can love unconditionally, who can shed a few tears for someone he does not even know, a man who beleives god exists but does not rule us is a god in himself.

How many times in a day do we jus cross the road unmindful of whether they wud be a lorry racing down on us. We always play it safe but what if the man on the other side doesn't? There are a lot of people who dont have clean water to drink.. how many of us keep the tap open as long as we finish brushing our teeth? People in africa or even in india still die of hunger. How many of us dont finish our meal and throw the rest in the dustbin?How many times have u ordered a delicious meal in a restaurant, did not complete it but left the plate like that? What stops you from packing it and offering it to the needy on the way home? NOTHING!How many of us would rather drop a 1000Rs in the hundi of a temple rather than offer it to a orphanage.
There are a zillion things that come to my mind right now. But these are all small things. We all can change but we dont and most of us wont. We carry on like nothing would change.Most of us would shrug our shoulders and say that they are unfortunate and its not your fault.Its not your fault that your on this side of the balance. Its not your fault that you see this world in rose-brimmed glasses.Its not your fault that you were born in a more fortunate family. But its your fault if u dont care. You could have been there without water, food or land.All we have to do is stop and think about what we are doing!We are all so selfish and self-centered. We care only about us, our family and friends. We have such a narrow vision.

This is my resolution. This is not a new-year resolution 'cos that means i wud jus have to do this one year through. A resolution that in my small way i would try and make this world a beautiful place to live in. I would think of the things am grateful for and love everything god has given me! It might take a long time before i sit back and feel a sense of acheivement but i'm goin to try. And this my friends would make everyday of my life a better day to live. A day full of surprises, satisfaction of having lived a life and not merely existing in this world!

(P.S: This is the not philosophy)

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Friday night Fury!!

Thank god it was friday!!
I was releived that the rather hectic week was coming to a close.
I boarded the shuttle with a rather satisfied look and felt the air of satisfaction with my colleagues. Little did we know how uneventful this friday was goin to be!!
Although i hadn't booked any tickets for the evening and dint have any 'happening' plans to spend friday night..i was counting on stretching my legs and lazing ard.
While we had almost reached the outer ring road i told my apt-mate who was sitting beside me that radio city has just reported a jam in the ring road. We both hoped it would clear off by the time we hit the spot.
But nope, bangalore has its own traffic bottlenecks and this was the worst of all. We slowly rolled in to an already long lane of cars, trucks, buses, vehicles et al and finally the engine spat out and stopped.
People got out to stretch their legs and we got out to check the line and i was shocked.. for it was a maddening line of vehicles and extended till my line of vision and mostly definetly beyond it too. Yeh hai Bangalore meri jaan!!
So i started listening to radio city's traffic news and apparently the jam had started from around 5.00PM.It was almost 7.00 and there were no signs of any clearing up. So we told the driver to take a turn and hit another route but he preferred not to listen. So we waited. Another odd hour passed. Now all of us were restless.We were all stuck in traffic with nothing to do. My apt-mate and i tried to lighten the moment with some mallu learnings and games. But we were all pissed, darned irritated.
Finally the driver decided to take our advice and took the next u-turn and we were finally moving. It felt damned good to be moving again beleive me!! We rode through another hour and finally i was close to home. We got down somewhere close to my house and took a rick home. The girl who lives downstairs was just walking home when we closed the gate, so i stood to hear her side of the story. She was pissed and irritated and totally furious abt the traffic. I asked if they had taken the U and hit the alternate route.
It turns out that she had started only at 7.45PM from office and since they were already alerted about the traffic scene they had taken the alternate route and reached home. So some of them got lucky.
Yanyways the point is when something happens accidents, road mishaps the whole city grinds to a loud halt. I can only imagine if there were some emergency vehicles were struck in this god-foresaken jam. God bless.
But i have learnt to count my blessings so i shall wait for a day when there would be a direct flyover from my home to office or when my company would start offering sky-bourne pickups and drops!! Untill then long hours of wait on the roads are a part of my life.. What do they say.. 'If you can fight them, Join them'!!!

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Flower POWER

"Take time to smell the roses."
And i went one step further, CLICK!!!
Although these are not roses nature is so beautiful.
When u sit with ur feet lacing the sand and the tide moving in...
When u hear the waterfall while your driving towards it..
When u can see the strong mountains towering down on u while u take those hair-pin bends..
What can i say.. give me more time to stand and stare!!!

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Coimbatore meets California!!

I had been to a wedding recently where an indian boy married a american girl. This is no longer so rare, happens in every family. What was very satisfying was the groom's mom was totally at ease with her daughter-in-law. I was also taken by the bride's attitude. She wasn't out to impress people and she was just the way she was.
Infact we all use to eat together, she was not the "healthy" eating-only-fruits kinds. She would plunge into our briyani's and sambhars and lick her fingers in utter satisfaction. After havin a conversation with her for about an hour u would forget that she's from a different country. Infact if not for the complexion i would never remember that as well!!
From my family's experience with intercontinental marriages i used to think that its not so good since the parents get cheated out of this deal. They can't go forward with it neither can they step backward. But this marriage made me correct my decision. I guess no matter the culture, religion, language barriers its the personality that makes the difference. U can feel totally foreign with a person from your own caste and creed but totally at home with a person from a different culture.
This is not about arranged marriages or love marriages, this is about compatiblity.
Somehow i liked the attitude about this women they dont shun other cultures, they are open-minded. They want reason and they have respect for ur beleifs.
Once she had asked why do u always want to offer Rs.501/-, Rs.1001/- instead of jus 500 and 1000 and after all the not-so-satisfying replies she hushed if its just a beleif am not questioning it..i just wanted to know!!!
Am not saying that we are right and they are wrong or vice-versa, am just saying when you can compare and pick up what is best in both life is great!!
There are some things that are absolutely great about our culture, the way we respect elders, kids and animals but there's something bad about it too. Although americans fall in love and get married they seem to lack the conviction to stay committed. So we cant follow one thing or the other.
At this point of time, i would like to have an open-mind and willingly learn other cultures. Lets just say it could be total fun when you have an american sister-in-law or an english brother-in-law or a french husband!!!
Happy 2006!!!

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