This Is One Stop

This is probably the first "all photos" page that I have posted. Hope you like it!

This is at Mulshi in Pune, India. I was an amateur photographer then! This was clicked right before a storm struck Pune in 2009.

This was also on the same day in Mulshi, but a little before the storm struck.

This is also on the same day in Mulshi, at our family's hangout resort.

This is the local market on a very cold night of a summer's day in Kasauli in North India.

This is the small local church at Kasauli.

This is the river on the way to Manali, a very beautiful hill station in North India.

The locals of Manali earn their incomes by raising rabbits for tourist's interests. This is a local rabbit from Manali. It sure looks like a stuffed toy!

A Reason To Live Everyday - Life

This is something new!

My cousin once sent me a text message on Easter's day, saying," Jesus Christ died so that we could live an eternal life! So live a rocking life, happily!" I read that message, and said to myself, "Rats! I have to live a life so that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross will be worthy!" But it so happens that when you decide something instantaneously, without a little pondering, you end up not doing it rather than practising it! It SO happened in my case too!

According to doctors all around the world, people who worry, spend a lot of time under stress, tend to shorten their life expectancy! These people are known to be obese, have blood pressure problems and other heart related problems. This is one of the derivations made on the bases of the Bible, written in Matthew 6:11, wherein it clearly states that "Give us this day our Daily Bread". It is not mentioned as "Give us this day our Weekly/ Monthly/ Yearly Bread"! God gives us enough food to suffice us a day. He doesn't give us an entire week's stock of grains right on the 1st of any month! Similarly, He expects us to live one day at a time. He does not want us to get involved in finishing up tomorrow's quota of work today - instead He wants us to enjoy what we are presently doing, and so eventually we will be more productive in whatever we do!

God wants you to be relying on Him that all things will come to pass according to our time of need. He will not make you stand in the cue for getting your wishlist checked! He knows what all you need, when you need and what you are going to do after you have got that! He is IN CONTROL! But all that He asks of you is for you to live each day, each moment, each second of the day! He wants you to be struck with life - an awesome life, which was given to you when Jesus Christ gave away His on the Cross of Calvary!

This is something new that I learned from God! This is what He wants us to do!

Once a joker cracked a joke in front of his audience. They all laughed till they were in tears. Again the joker cracked the same joke in front of the same people. This time a few people laughed. Again the joker cracked the same joke, and this time no one laughed! Then the joker said, "If you cannot hold onto one good incident and be happy about it for the rest of your life, then you have no right to hold on to one bad happening of your life and be sad about it for the rest of your life!"

A Political Chaos

We are all experiencing the storms stirred up by the "fasting" meetings held at Ramlila Ground and other places. We are witnessing, everyday, a new turn on the grounds formerly known as "Indian Politics". On one hand, we have a determined approach towards killing corruption and on the other hand we have a highly vague, highly ill-founded idea of getting all the black money, that is India's, back to India. However the Indian population (majority) believes in these ideas, whether vague or determined, and is following the very footsteps of an extremely famous yoga Baba and a schedule caste socialist. Even donkeys can do that - I bet! 

Can't we give a second thought to all that that is currently happening in the scenario footed "India"? Can't you take a just a few seconds off and ponder over this "follow-the-Baba" thing? Think about it! When you are protesting, shouting on top of your voice, in a nearby house there might be an elderly or a baby or a diseased or a pregnant woman, who is trying to sleep. On the road to the protestations, there would be so much crowd that even the ambulance carrying a dying person that needs to get to the hospital or a man whose wife or mother waiting in his house for dinner, might get stuck in the crowd of utterly brainless people. Or the public properties such as electricity might be on a high wastage there or the peace of that area would be disrupted. Heck, the government's time would then be casually wasted in getting the injured people from the "protests" to the hospital and keeping their count and not only this, but also the government would get exhausted getting this protest mess right than spending time on amendments and then before anyone would know it, the elections would be here! Seriously, India! Do you want this? Or do you want a corruption-free government? 

If a clean and tidy government is what India desires, then India has to change the ways in which it communicates to the officials! Hell, more than half the people who are participating in those rallies might even have a criminal record or a record for money-laundering or any other dark practices, and no one will even know because those guys were "protesting for the good"! Hell of a Saviour, huh? My opinion about these masses is that they should check themselves first and make amendments in their ways of life and only after that should they go on to the government; because India is a democracy where the government is of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE and for the PEOPLE!

And She Called Me "Rinku Didi"

It was the 2nd of December in 2009. A really cold, frosty day in Pune. I had my school in the morning, until 5:30 pm, and then I left for home. I used to drive a scooter back then to home, so for the same I got all wrapped up in woolens, said a goodbye to my friends and went on my way. As I was driving, around the third turn I saw a really old man walking. I was so drowned in my own world of thoughts that I didn't notice the fact that my bike was actually going to run into him. And as soon as I regained my "brains", I pressed the breaks and I stopped immediately! Phoo! That old man went on his way, and I wiped the sweat off of my forehead and drove along.

After reaching home, I made a quick cup of ginger tea for myself. As sat in my room sipping the tea, I went over all the events of that. Besides the regular routine, I had one more event to go over - the old man. When you go to think about it, the positive side was that he was saved by my irrefutably, always-ready brakes, but if I hadn't woken up from the unconsciousness, I would've definitely taken that man's life! Not only his life, but I would've taken away his wife's husband, his children's father, his company's employee! And I would've been the culprit - me. But at that moment, he was safe - safe from an unpredicted happening.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that it was also my cousin's birthday on the 2nd. So, I left at 7 pm for her party. I didn't know until then that my li'l cousins, Blessy (2 years, then) and Joshua (a few months, then) were also going to attend the party. And so, it was a joy seeing both of them there. The party went well, and as we were sitting for dinner, Blessy was showing us all the things that she had learnt from her mom such as saying words like "cucumber", "umberella" and her full name. It was a complete happy, family time there! But when you were almost going to kill some, you tend to sit shut quite often, and in my case that can occur more than rare!

Well, after dinner I took Blessy and my other younger cousins outside to play on that chilly night. As I watched them play, I again went back to the old man scene, and was lost. What if that would've happened to someone close to me? I would've been devastated! I smelled the chill of the air around me, and it went right through my nostrils into my bones, numbing me even more! I was lost, lost in a cloud of mixed thoughts - positive and negative. In the midst all of those really puzzling thoughts, I heard a tiny voice from behind me saying, "Rinku Didi"! And she said that again and again. With some curiosity I turned around and saw little Blessy shouting "Rinku Didi" and when she caught my eye, she started running here and there saying the same! Ah! I smiled, and after 10 seconds I just wasn't able to shut my mouth! Blessy was running here and there shouting my name, laughing at me, teasing me and all that felt beautiful! And then, after that I just couldn't stop smiling, and believe me, I had forgotten everything about that old man, and my little could-have-happened accident! And I played with my little sister for the rest of the time that we were there! :) 

That's exactly how God taught me to look at the positive side and always think positive - through a little girl. He wanted me to look at that fact wherein the old man was stable, alive and with his family today! :)

A Happy & Fun - Loving God

 I belong to an Indian Christian family. When we speak of being an Indian Christian, and a Methodist at that too, we are directly speaking about going to church every Sunday, giving your tithes to the church, covering your head once you are 18 years of age (for girls only) and etc. Given that my birth was in a God-fearing family (totally), I was taught about Jesus Christ, God the Father & Holy Spirit since I learned how to speak! It was like my parents said, "This baby girl knows how to say Mummy; let's teach her how to pray!" And so, there goes! I learned how to pray at a very early age and today everyone compliments me on being so persuasive and faithful in prayer! :)

All these hassle-tassels aside, I was given a portrait of God, not by my parents, but by my priest, and was asked to believe in it, have faith in it, make the guy in that portrait my God! What in hell, now, was that? Well, until I grew 16, I never gave this itchy-twitchy tradition, belief or whatever you want to call it, a second thought! But sooner or later, I realized; and coming to light with my Father in Heaven was the coolest thing that ever happened to me! :)

Poetically phrasing it, but when my eyes opened, I saw God in me; in everything good, beautiful, majestic, powerful, humble and passionate, I found God. But most of all, I found God in my goals, aims and aspirations! And soon I established that the guy in that picture was a crook, a useless painting of some cheap artist, whereas the presence that I felt when I was on my way to achieving success, the existence that overcame all hardships, troubles, worries and satisfied my queries as a teen, was God Himself!

And the other day, in April 2009, when we were worshiping, I saw Jesus Christ! I saw Holy Spirit dancing to the tune of our worship, that ascended to Heaven as a fragrance! And finally, I saw God the Father, sitting at His throne, in all majesty, looking over Zion, and He named us that!

And so, I can finally say, irrefutably state, that God enjoys it when we worship Him, as a father enjoys the restless nights' singing of his child! Jesus Christ loves being our family member (as He already is our Brother) and Holy Spirit too! But how can you totally rely on a person you have just met? I had just met God when I was born in Christian family. But now, me and my God, we are the "bestest friends"! God touched me, healed me, caressed me & took me upon His shoulder! And hence, now you can find only one pair of footprints in the sands of time, as I am not walking anymore; I am sitting on the shoulders of my Father, and He is walking me towards the perfect destination! But how mean I would be if I'd let this journey, till my destination, pass away without a laugh, a sharing, a learning, a little fun, a little play? No, I ain't that mean,  at the least not towards my own Father! :) My Father and my Brothers love having fun! :)