Long Time Pending Snaps - Part 1

Here are the photos which were long time pending.... :)

A guitar performance in San-Antonio River Walk



A 300 year old tree :) wow! It does look green and young.. wonder what's it's secret!



The tower of San Antonio



That's the river walk at night! Isn't that beautiful?

More pictures on it's way... keep watching this space :)

Realisation - At Last!

I have realised that ...

1. The Lonelier you feel, lonelier the world makes you feel.
2. Words had hurt me more than the wounds I had suffered in life.
3. When you have nothing to lose, you show your true character.
4. No matter how many times I pray, I only get what I rightfully deserve.
5. When I am estatic about something, there are never enough people to share it with.
6. You can't have happiness, unless you are already happy.
7. If you make decisions with your heart, you are bound to regret them later in your life...
8. Kids are never at fault, they just mirror our faults.
9. Every relationship has an expiry date.
10. I am better when I am silent!
11. Tears convey more than what words can ever say.
12. ................................

Kargil Vijay Divas - JAI HIND

Today is VIJAY DIVAS: 26th JULY, 1999 we captured our last hill from Pakistan.

But... we lost some of our most valuable, great, brave, warrior BROTHERS.

I SALUTE to all those who have pledged their lives, for our PEACE - JAI HIND

This salute is for those who... :

• Lost their lives, trying to save the lives of millions of Indians
• Thought that Country comes first and their own family later.
• Bravely faught the war
• Gave everything that they had.. without expecting anything in return.
• Never slept nights together so that we could sleep peacefully.
• Left their wives and children... for the safety of the Nation
  

I see that Americans have this yellow ribbon on their cars, which expresses how grateful they are to their troops... I really liked that Idea.




Here's a song to our troops, who sacrificed their precious life for us! - By Russ Morgan

Around her neck she wore a yellow ribbon
She wore it in the springtime
And in the month of May
And if you ask me why the heck she wore it
She wore it for her soldier who was far far away


Far away, far away
She wore it for her soldier
Who was far, far away

Around the block she pushed a baby carriage
She pushed it in the springtime
And in the month of May
And if you ask me why the heck she pushed it
She pushed it for her soldier who was far far away


Far away, far away
She pushed it for her soldier
Who was far, far away

Behind the door her daddy kept a shotgun

He kept it in the springtime
And in the month of May
And if you ask me why the heck he kept it
He kept it for her soldier who was far far away


Far away, far away
He kept it for her soldier
Who was far, far away

And this one, in our own Language :)

aye mere vatan ke logon
tum khoob laga lo naara
ye shubh din hai ham sab ka
lahara lo tiranga pyaara
par mat bhoolo seema par

veeron ne hai praan ganvaaye
kuch yaad unhein bhi kar lo
jo laut ke ghar na aaye

aye mere vatan ke logon
zara aankh mein bhar lo paani
jo shaheed hue hain unki
zara yaad karo qurbaani

jab ghayal hua himaalay
khatre mein padi aazadi
jab tak thi saans lade vo
phir apni laash bichha di
sangeen pe dhar kar maatha
so gaye amar balidaani

jo shaheed...

jab desh mein thi diwali
vo khel rahe the holi
jab ham baithe the gharon mein
vo jhel rahe the goli
the dhanya javaan vo aapane
thi dhanya vo unaki javaani
jo shaheed ...

koi sikh koi jaat maraatha
koi gurakha koi madaraasi
sarahad pe maranevaala
har veer tha bhaaratavaas
jo khoon gira parvat par
vo khoon tha hindustaani

jo shaheed...

thi khoon se lath-path kaaya
phir bhi bandook uthaake
das-das ko ek ne maara
phir gir gaye hosh ganva ke
jab ant-samay aaya to
kah gaye ke ab marate hain

khush rahana desh ke pyaaron
ab ham to safar karate hain
kya log the vo deewane
kya log the vo abhimaani

jo shaheed...

tum bhool na jaao unko
is liye kahi ye kahaani
jo shaheed...

jay hind jay hind ki sena

jay hind, jay hind, jay hind

I was listening to this song today... and I am amazed the kind of patriotic feeling it brings out in you....

SOUL MATE Vs 1 BILLION DOLLARS

After a cramped day in office... Yes! All (15 of us) sat in one conference room for the whole day... We are moving to a different building.. and hence this "adjustment" for a day till the facilities moved all our stuff...

I don't have anything else in my office.. I carry around my laptop everywhere.. But I am amazed at stuff people have here in their office.. one guy has 7 boxes of stuff to be moved.. No! Nothing "office" stuff...;-) Photographs, A small fan, Some hazar pens, Letter pads (I wonder who uses them these days with all the e-mail, g-mail mafia!)

Anyway, all that aside, Ride back to home.. Friday evening.. heavy traffic... 5 mins ride becomes 15 mins... Car Radio is blasting off with "Mitwa...mitwa..." (I am very very very eagerly waiting for that movie.. :D :D)

Song over, RJ starts of with the "billion dollar" question...

"When you come to a crossroad in life where you
have to choose between your soulmate and a billion dollars, which will you
choose?"

I expected everybody to shout and say "Soul Mate"... after all atleast that's what people "say" right? But no! I was in for surprise.. 1 in 5 said "1 Billion dollars"!!!

I will write the merits and de-merits of both, will you help me choose?

SOUL MATE

For:

• Life is made. You will live happily ever after. (Atleast that's how it's supposed to be theoretically).
• Not everybody is lucky enough to get their soul mates, so when you have yours don't let them go!
• He/she will be with you during your times of ups and downs
• You can "talk" your heart out to your soul mate.

Not For (I will not say "against"):

• How will you know who is your soul mate?
• Ok First of all... "define" soul mate, please!
• Money buys you food and shelter.
• All said and done, nobody can live happily without money!

1 BILLION DOLLARS

For:

• It is a LOT of money!
• You can "own" whatever you want... just name it you will have it!
• You can roam around the whole world.. how many ever times you want to.
• Whatever materialistic things you need... you can get it without having to think "can I afford this?"

Against (Here I will say becasue somebody(not me though!) said "Money is bad!"):

• You cannot "talk" to your money.. nopes you can't talk to it.. you can make others talk with it though!
• You will have more enemies than friends if you have so much of money.
• Even, friends will be after your money and not YOU.

K that's all the inputs from me.. what do you guys and gals say? Go ahead shoot!

Are we in some stone age era?

Please read this!

• Isn't crime a "CRIME" irrespective of who committed it!
• If a "woman" helps in committing a crime against another woman.., isn't it all the more reason to punish her!
• What does "woman can't commit rape" mean? - Isn't "attempt to murder" equally bad as murder?
• Why should there even be a consideration for any gender when it comes to punishing the guilty?

I know, I am now writing against a woman! But please! She helped her husband in raping some other woman! How miserable can people get?

In my opinion, she should be punished all the more! More than her husband, because if she being a woman can't empathize with another woman who else will!?

It's because of women like these that our country is struggling hard to come out of the dungeons!

Isn't it surprising that "most" of the injustice committed against woman is by another woman?

• Dowry Violence/Deaths - Most of the times Mother-in-Laws are behind this. Reason? Money!
• marriage breakups - Unreasonable in-laws - trouble in the family - should I have to mention that mother-in-law : daughter-in-law affair?
• High infant (female) death rate - Mothers killing their own children!

It's high time we women stop treating other women like a piece of shit. We should first respect ourselves.. And then expect the rest of the society to follow!

Wake up women wake up! Today you helped someone commit a crime against your fellow female.. Tomorrow you will be on the receiving end!

THE weirdo that I AM!!

I was so happily yapping about my holiday pleasures and just as some people say "happiness is short lived!"... I get TAGGED!!! Yes! And that too to tell the whole world out there about how weird I am! Adi I am going to kill you for this :P!

See, that's No.1 weird behaviour of me! I don't know "sometimes" (really... truly...) how to react to certain situations. Now was I supposed to be happy that I got tagged?? **I will let you readers decide that**

No.2: I am a clean freak! I used to clean my house so much... (and make my sister also do it so much..) now she just refuses to clean the house... she says she has already done cleaning the house when I used to stay with her which is enough for another million years to come!

No.3: I "cry" for anything and everything! No! Not that booohooo types, but I get tears in my eyes almost instantly for anything and everything. I get happy, I cry... I get sad, I cry... I am not sure how to react, I cry.... I even cry watching K-Serials!!! Now! Everyone knows that those serials are anything but waste of time... even I know that... but still...**blushing**. Tears... damn them!

No.4: I can't do any "work" (by work, I mean office work...) without listening to some music. Nopes! Not even for half an hour... I am so addicted to music.

No.5: I am too lazy to fill my water bottle at work... I mean, I will be thirsty and all, but still refuse to go and fill in that bottle! But yes I know theoritically that water is really good for health...blah..blah...blah....

No.6: I can never get ready before time! Specially when going to work... I always make up my mind "each-and-every" night that I will get up early the next morning and get ready "aaraamse" and go to office aaraaamse... but alas! that has never happened till date! Nopes! Not even once! I always get up just 30 mins before leaving to office and "fast-forward" all the activities and barely manage to reach office on time!

No.7: I can't say NO :(! This has landed me in terrible situations all my life.. but I have never learnt my lesson... I end up over commiting myself and then struggle really hard to get things done!

No.8: I can NEVER stop talking... I can go on and on about anything and everything under the sun!..

Somebody stop me...... please... lest I reveal all my secret weirdness to the whole world! ;-)

Oh! Before I forget.. let me continue the chain... I tag,

hardu

winterblue

Girl Interrupted

Happy Blogging you poor "tagged-souls" :P

The Saga of July4th Weekend - Day3 : South Padre Islands

We had arrived at this place on the previous night. For a change we had done our homework. We knew exactly what we needed to do in that place... (surprising? well yes.. sometimes god bestows us with good sense also!)

Here's the list of things that we planned to do.

• Loaf around in the beach
• Para Sailing
• Horse Riding
• Visit the Butterfly Garden
• Take an educational tour of Sea Turtles
• Take a cruise ride for some whale watching (This was only if time permits, anyway we had seen enough whales in San Antonio..;-) )

So, good list huh? I am improving... not bad! **:D**

First we went for Para Sailing, thought it would get too hot later to go up there, better to finish it before it gets too sunny. But then, since it's the star attraction there, we couldn't get any slot before 4 in the afternoon...

Beach: So, we went to the beach to give ourselves a good tan (not that we are very-fair or anything... but come on... brown complexion can also get a tan.. only, we will look "black" later on..;-) that's all na...). Played endlessly in the water.. where is all this enegery on a monday morning in office?**thinks**. The water was not very wild.. but I was really terrified to venture too deep into the water.. why? I don't want to drown and die in a foreign land!!!!! So, after 4 hours of beach fun.. we went searching for a bathroom... Now here's the most surprising part.. In this advanced land.. I expected to find a bathroom somewhere close to the beach! What do people expect? Go back home with all the sand on your body and not to mention hair? My hair was a mess to say the least with all that salt water and sand in it ...***yukkk***. But then we didn't find any! nopes! none! How were we supposed to get back now? After searching around the place for quite some time... finally found a place.. and guess where is this? In the middle of the road!!! What was that? I mean do they expect us to take bath in the middle of the road (yes! It was an "open" bath!) So ditched the idea.. just washed the hair... to make it a bit more bearable... Changed clothes in the rest room and rushed to grab something to eat before we could go for para sailing.

Lunch: Managed to get only french fries! Yes! That's the price you have to pay for being a vegetarian and not have enough time to hunt for a place which serves some ghaas phoos!

Forget it.. Lets move on to Para Sailing!

Para Sailing: That was a wonderful/fantastic/beautiful/whatever experience to say the least. It's an amazing feeling when you are up in the air and see the whole of an Island in just once view! When the cool breeze dances on your face! When you can actually see a lot of colors in the sea apart from the usual blue that we see from the shore! When you actually feel that you are so small in this world! When you feel that time should just pause at that moment and you can enjoy it forever! I missed a heartbeat or two when there were some strong winds which kind of swayed my parachute quite a bit ! oooooh I felt chilly *smiles~*. All in all a wonderful feeling worth every cent of the 45 dollars I coughed up ;-))

Horse Riding: It was evening by then, and we went for Horse Riding on the beach side. I expected that for an amateur like me, somebody would hold the horse by it's mouth and take me along for a ride.. Or even better some handsome hunk would sit behind me and ride me along....****mmmm drifts away in dreams*** (No please.. No.. P don't read this....pretty please..) But No! That was not how it was! They gave a horse all to myself! I know! I live in Texas but there's still a real long way to go for me to become a cow girl!!! Anyway they gave me a 2 mins "training" on how to maneaver the horse and lo! I was all alone with my Dixie! It was a bumpy ride but felt really nice and adventourous :) After one hour of galloping (ok I know I am exaggerating! I never galloped! I just "rode" on the horse for 1 full hour).

Butterfly Garden: We then thought we will visit the Butterfly Garden... Found out later though that it was closed at this time of the year! Come on! The call centre female had said it would be open! I am sure she was not even sure what I was asking about till then!!!!

Sea Turtle: Garden ditched, we moved on towards the Sea Turtle Centre.. We had the address and all and everything (remember our homework?) so went straight to that so called place and guess what it turned out to be? A house! A normal residential house with a family in it! All they had to attract the attention of Yahoo Vacation guys was that they had these huge sculptures of turtle all around their house.. and some paintings as well :))) So, they told us that they are not conducting any "educational-programs" but were just preparing dinner for the evening! And we were not the first ones who had ended up in their house thinking that it was some site for some turtle watching..;-)

After such an eventful day, we went to have dinner in a sea side retuarant. My is the sea beautiful at night... worlds fail to describe it!

I know my own soul, how feeble and puny it is: I know the
magnitude of this ministry, and the great difficulty of the work; for more
stormy billows vex the soul of the priest than the gales which disturb the sea -
John Chrysostom

After some really nice vegetarian pasta and some yummy salads we were all set to head back to the hotel... I opted for a nice stroll on the sea shore alone while the others listened to some music being played in the restuarant.....

The Saga of July4th Weekend - Day 2: San Antonio Sea World

I woke up to a nice morning filled with freshly brewed coffee smell..... mmmmmmmmm
Took a nice long hot bath. Now comes the difficult part, to "choose" what to wear! Not that I had too many choices, since I was on vacation, I had taken limited clothes.
But, then I had bought this skirt some time back and was dying to wear it... but was not sure whether I should or not! Reason? It's atleast 10 years since I last wore a skirt...**blushes**.
Anyway, I had to choose between Capris, Jeans and Skirt. Ok finally after lots of trails decided on the skirt.... Abbah! A big acheivement :)

Had a nice yummy breakfast (though it cost us quite a bit! - anyway who cares! vacation time... don't think about money...;-))

K. First of all let me give a brief description of what Sea World in San Antonio is about.
As the name suggests it's a world of sea animals. There are shows of tamed killer whales, sea lions, penguins etc etc. In some places you can even feed these animals. There are also some water rides and some dry rides (the usual fantasy park kinds). There is a 4D movie theator. Some water sports like water siking etc are also present.

We had only 1 day with us and we wanted to cover as much as possible, so we kind of short listed what shows we would like to watch and what rides do we go for.

Just as soon as we stepped out of the hotel, it started raining! Now! I love rain.... but not when I am about to go to a fun park for god's sake! Anyway we dared the rain and went... and guess what! it was a blessing in disguise :) There was no crowd at all though it was a long weekend! hurray! we needn't have to wait in long queues for everything!

We first went to "feed" the dolphins. No! I did not feed them! I can't even stand the smell of dead fish, do you think I will hold in my hand and feed the dolphin! No way! So I blissfully watched others feed them...~smiles~.

Then we went to watch the sea lions show... my! was I impressed. They actually enacted a play with the sea lions doing their part... It was just way beyond my imagination... fantastic!
Toward the climax, a big sea lion actually did crunches!!! can you believe that? That was really an enjoyable show..

Next we went for the most awaited "Shamu Show". In this show they have trained killer whales giving performances. It was ming boggling to say the least... people have managed to tame such huge creatures.. and the way they listen to their trainers.. and dance to the tunes of music... too good....

Then it was time for a 4-D movie .. This was dissaponting...:( I had been to one in Disney Land in Paris.. (hardu you remember?) and that was atleast 10 times better than this one.
This one hardly had any special effects...

Lastly we went for a dolphin + whale show.. along with some people doing acrobatics... It was also very nice.. everybody well trained and performed to perfect synchronization.

By that time, it was time to start our 5 hour jouner to South Padre Islands... that's what's going to come next on my blog...:)

P.S1: My other laptop in which I have all the snaps betrayed me...:( The screen is gone! No display.. so I am unable to put the pictures. Once I get the repaired, I will put all the pictures..:)

P.S2: I am right now listening to some of the compositions played by U.Srinivas (I have randomly selected some)... and guess which one I heard just now? "Gaanamoorthe Sri Krishna Venu"... My! Do I love that song!
My mothers sings this song beautifully to say the least... Amma, I dedicate this song to you!

The Saga of July4th Weekend - Day 1

I wanted to write something on a happier note (my blogs recently have been cribbing so much… I am myself feeling depressed… normally I am never depressed..!!)
Anyway pavan suggested the best way to “brighten up” my blog would be to write about my long weekend trip. It was a holiday on July4th for American Independence day, and I conveniently look off on July3rd to make the weekend really long..;-)

Well… we planned for something at the last moment, to be specific on Thursday! Not that we plan well ahead on other occasions…! But that’s the thrill of life… everything should be instantaneous… ;-))

Anyway, the initial plan was Saturday- San Antonio, and Sunday-Monday- South Padre Islands. Does anything for us work according to the plan? Hah! Fat Chance! So our trip started pathetically to say the least…:( (Is that a surprise? Not for me at least ;-))
We were “supposed” to start at 5:30am but ended up starting at 8am! Forget it… this was kind of expected because none of us have time sense ha!ha!ha! ;-) And anyway this was supposed to be vacation time…. ;-)

100 miles from our house and a flat tire in one of our cars! Struck in middle of nowhere. The road side assistance took 45 minutes to reach there and another 15 minutes to put a donut tire. Obviously we could not continue our long journey of some 300 miles on a donut tire, so had to get the car changed (this was a rental car by the way.) And yes! You guessed it right.. there were no "National" rental places nearby where we could go and change the car.. and to top it off it was a Saturday and hence the few ones near by were closed! So what next? That poor fellow and his wife had to return back :( what a way to start off the wonderfully planned vacation!!!

With all these time delays we finally reached San Antonio at 8pm! The main intention of visiting SA was to go to the Sea World. We were too late now for that so we went for a walk on the river side. My! Was it crowded?
Anyway who cares about the crowd… we surely had a nice time there.

We went for a long ride on the boat around the city, a beautiful one at that. I was really impressed at the way they have preserved each and everything of their small small treasures. For instance there was this tree which was some 100 odd years old.. and they had a small story around it, they had decorated it and it was treated so specially. I am sure there are lots and lots of such trees in India… but do we even care? I know I know.. I will refrain from complaining about “anything” from now on in my blogs..:) So however we are.. that’s how we are!

There are cute small bridges around the river all over and all of them have a story behind it. There was one in which a female didn’t want the government to divert the river after a series of floods and hence painted a beautiful painting depicting how it could look like if the surroundings were “built” and infact succeeded in getting them implement it :D

There are some 9 species of fish in that river! (is 9 such a big number? The guide atleast made it sound like that! ** Am I missing something here? **)

After a nice relaxing ride in the boat.. it was time for a nice stroll on the banks with some photo sessions of course! After all walking and clicking, we finally settled down at a Mexican restaurant on the river banks. I was expecting to get some nice food which we generally get in Mexican restaurants in Dallas… but this is what I got finally :D

Anyway it tasted quite nice… though it was just fried vegetables… The best part was live music. There were some 4 people who would come to each tables and play songs which people requested for. We have a fantastic knowledge about Mexican songs so we gave them the choice to play any song of their choice (he!he!). They played some foot tapping numbers, that’s all we could make out of the song ;-)

So, after a tiring but enjoyable day, half empty stomach and humming Mexican tunes we were back in the hotel to catch up on some sleep….zzzzzzzzzzz

P.S: After some of my recent "close-to-crying" posts, my friends have been mailing me with great concern... thinking that something has gone wrong with me.. Dears, thank you so much for your concern.. But I am not depressed... nopes I am as happy as before... Leading a bindaas life as ever... Only that some of the happenings around me have been bothering me that's all. I am upset with rest of the world... But not with "my" world. I am happy :D infact very happy :D

P.P.S: This phrase in fanaah has really touched me...

Tere dil mein meri saanson ko panaah mil jaye.
Tere ishq mein meri jaan Fanaa ho jaye.

P... are you listening :)?