There is still hope for us....

Ganpati bappa morya Pudcha varshi lauvkar yaa,ganpati gayele gaonaala chain pade na aamala......we sang this song as we bid our ganpati good bye. As we bid him goodbye my faith in children became stronger... You maybe wondering how. Well my bestest friends seema 's son Vivaan this year celebrated ganpati in a unique way . Vivaan is a 7 year old young and active citizen of our country ,truely an active citizen. Vivaan is an ardent fan of ganpatiji and he has been getting ganeshji to his home for the past few years. He loves celebrating this festival . When he was smaller he did not know the difference between POP ganpati and clay ganpati so he never insisted what ganpati he wanted but once he knew the difference he insisted on only getting clay ganpati ,he is very particular when we do the visarjan we don't put the garland into the sea. Infact last year he insisted we shd do the visarjan in an artificial pond. Every year he makes me more and more proud of him  but this year he made me have hope for my nation and trust our generation next , I am sure they will bring the most needed change we want to see in our country.

       This year Vivaan made his own ganpati . He attended the workshop for making Eco friendly Ganesha . He made a cute little ganpati and the family decided instead of buying a ganpati they will pray to the ganpati that Vivaan made with so much love and affection. Even for decoration he used his blocks and others stuff that was at his home. We all prayed to our own little ganeshji and believe me that small little ganpati    gave me soo much peace in my heart honestly have no word to describe it. This year he was very happy as he knew he made a Eco friendly Ganesha so he did not mind doing the visarjan in the sea. We all prayed to our little ganpati ji for the last time before we took him to the sea to bid him goodbye so he can meet Mother Earth,and the best part of the visarjan was that Vivaan could carry his own ganeshji to the sea shore and do the visarjan also by himself. He was so happy ,as usual when he finished his Puja before the visarjan he made sure the flowers and garlands were put in the bag so that we don't put it in the sea ,everytime he does that we all friends have a proud smile on our faces. He carried his little ganeshji to the sea dipped ganeshji 3 times ,and then let ganeshji go ,what a wonderful feeling it was we actually saw ganpatiji dissolve in the water as soon as we put him in. This feeling was a feeling that made us all decide every year we will only use the ganpati that Vivaan makes . 

    Everybody on the beach found Vivaan's ganeshji so cute ,there were so many who came and praised him infact many people clicked his photo also. Thank you Vivaan for making us proud yet again and also giving us a hope that change is possible and it's not far when each child of our country will be instrumental in bringing about this change......there is hope ......

   

   

Ganapati bappa morya...

     Ganapati bappa morya mangal murti morya.... Every where we can hear this ,today and for the next 11 days. It's the time we welcome ganeshji with love and affection. Let me start from the very beginning a very good place to start ,Why do we really celebrate this festival ? Lokmanya Tilak started this festival that we call sarvajanik Ganesh utsav. The reason behind this occasion was that British put a rule on Indian during the revolution period ,we Indians were not allowed to be in a group anywhere as they did not want the freedom fighters to meet and plan their revolutionary moves, if they were found in groups they would be arrested,so it started becoming difficult for freedom fighters to meet . Britishers would never interfere with our religious functions ,that's how this utsav was created it was called a sarvajanik utsav means a festival for all people. 1 place was decided where all the people would meet and celebrate this festival and it also became a meeting place for our freedom fighters to plan their next moves without the Britishers interfering . We got our freedom but we still continued celebrating this festival as it was a good way for everybody to meet .

       I have grown seeing and enjoying this festival.  I have seen this festival turning from sarvajanik utsav to political utsav to individual utsav. When we were kid we had 1 common pandal where everybody visited ,prayed and had cultural events. it was truely a sarvajanik utsav . Then as we grew we started seeing different political groups having different pandal .we saw friends becoming rivals ,each 1 trying to make their Ganesh pandal more bigger and more commercialised . Ganapati became bigger and more expensive. Clay ganapati turned to pop ganapati ,organic paint turned to toxic paint . The noise level increased ,every possible pollution level increased. Soon each pandal collecting funds for their pandals became a big hole in the pocket for business people and individuals ,I am sure many agree with me though many may not accept it as in India we fear god ,people fear it so much that they think if we say a no for anything to do with religious purpose will make god angry and he will punish us, but seriously why should we be god fearing ,instead we should be god loving and god does not hate or punish his children. Anyways coming back to Ganesh utsav ,what we see now is sarvajanik Ganesh utsav has become individual house festival. Each individual gets The Lord to their homes . So what is actually happening today is everyone is so busy running from one home to other to take darshan that we actually have no time to meet each other at all. It's become more a formality than a utsav. It's lost all it's fun. Few days before ganapati we can hear people only say "arre yaar have to go to 10 different place will be dead tired", "don't know what excuse to make for not going to so and so house","what ganapati was just running around so much had no time to actually see or pray." Funny a sarvajanik festival has become just a festival now.

       Then comes the bigger day ,the visarjan day ,the day we bid goodbye to ganpatiji ,we send him off with same enthusiasm as we got him to our homes, with the same amount of love and affection we put him into our ponds,lakes and sea hoping he meets Mother Earth  again , but does he really meet Mother Earth. We put him in water and don't even turn back to see what is his state after the visarjan. The same idol that we get to our local pandal and our homes becomes nothing but a pile of garbage the next day of  the visarjan . Sad Reality of this festival. The after effect of this festival is worst ,the roads where pandal are made have big holes ,and so  much garbage is created, and how can we forget the traffic jams. Life becomes a big chaos for all.

       I hope the sarvajanik Ganesh utsav comes to its original form. A festival for all and for that we do not need 100 ganpati's but 1 ganpati for each area ,we do not need ganpati in each lane ,each bylanes ,each bylanes having 100 different groups with different ganpati and each home having a separate ganpati .This festival was made to unite us Indian not separate us. 

        We need to remember it's called Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav ,not just Ganesh utsav.

   

Women really who???

    " Hai meri chamak chalo". " hi sweetie." " hi sexy ." Are some of lewd comments we women have heard sometime or other hmmmm not sometime actually all the time. Honestly what do these men who pass such remarks think ,do they think they are Salman or Shahrukh that they will say such things and women will give them a shy look and come running to them.... Come on people there is difference between reel life and real life . Women hate such comments seriously it boils our blood . Believe me even Katrina or Kareena also will find these comments insulting.

     Today's headlines as usual was about a woman molested by 3 men. She had to go  to 4 different police station to just register her FIR. Can you imagine what that woman must have gone through , and to make matters worst our law enforcers made her go through her nightmare for 9 hours before they registered her FIR ,she had to repeat the same experience again and again with every hawaldar inspector and driver too. That was not the end of her plight she was asked why she was dressed in shorts ,why was she out so late at night ,what was she doing with a boy. She was molested again and again not physically but emotionally and mentally in the police station.How will that women ever feel secured ,how will she ever trust our law system. Why should she trust our law system who treated her more like a culprit than a victim. But hats off to this women, she relived her nightmare again and again but made sure she lodged the FIR. She didn't give up. But why did she have to go through all this ,why is the law so different for women. We live in a democratic country where all are equal or did we miss the small writing which say democracy applies for human , and women don't come under this catogery. We women have a special rule book which has many do not's..... Like do not wear short clothes, do not look pretty, do not smile, do not laugh ,do not do this  do not do that,  coz there is some pervert who will be eyeing you somewhere or other. Honestly does a pervert care if a woman is wearing a short dress or is fully covered ,does it matter to him if she is smiling or crying, does it matter if she is few months old or a 100 year old ,for that person she is just a sex object who has a been given a rule book by our society which she has to follow ......

   Somehow women's silence has become her biggest weakness. Women please stop being silent stop taking such remark with silence ,our silence is just encouraging such people to increase in number. Let's be the change we want to see. Mothers before we teach our children ABC and 1,2,3 let's teach them to respect our daughters ,teach them to treat a girl like a human who has feelings and is very much alive . Teach our girls to have a voice ,tell her ,her words are important she is important and she should learn to respect other girls also because nothing can be worst than a women treating other women with disrespect. 

   Women do not want to be treated superior she wants to be treated equal treated with same respect you expect others to give you. She does not want to be your mother ,sister or daughter to feel safe in our city she wants her individuality her identity and respect for who she is. It's high time women we all say " Enough is Enough" ab sach main bas.......

Juhu beach or garbage bin.time to think ...

       " Long run at Juhu beach on Sunday ". A message from our coach excited all us runners. Maybe all of us wanted a change from our usual place. Sunday 5:30 am we all meet at our usual place and car pooled to our destination ,all excited about our pleasurable run.

        We reached the beach and were welcomed by the beautiful site of the sea it looked soo beautiful and serene. The high tide and big waves hitting the shore was a pleasant sight ,till we saw the shore . We all were in for a big shock, we all could not believe our eyes . The beach was filled with nothing but garbage I didn't even know if I could really call it a beach I felt it looked more like a garbage landfill. As we were already there we decided to start our run ,we did our warm up and started running . What came ahead was more shocking ,there were tons and tons of plastic everywhere ,so many different type of garbage varying from plastic bag ,flowers ,bottles ,wrappers , cushions animal and human excreta yucks ,there was just garbage ,what we saw everywhere . The tides were high but my spirits was low and my OCD issue hit the new height. Running became the most difficult task for me ,it was not a pleasurable run but a stressful one,somehow I just could not handle the sight that welcomed me. Everytime I met other runners each had a sad and disgusting expression and only words that came out from everyone's lips were " Oh My God" . I don't think god himself could help us. The cleaning crew was a welcoming sight oh it's felt so good to see them clean our mess, yes I call it our mess after all we are the ones who create this mess ,we humans are so ignorant we think by throwing our garbage in the sea ,it will disappear,forgetting Mother Nature never keeps things that's not hers she always returns it back to us ,but we still do the same again and again and again. Today I was reminded about what my daughter vanshika once told me when we were discussing about the dirtiness around our city. She says we Indians are very spoilt people and very pampered people,we have house helps to do the cleaning of our house the housekeeping staff to do the cleaning of our surrounding ,we have drivers and car cleaners who clean our cars, we people are so used to others doing our work that we always think wherever we throw garbage there will always be someone behind us cleaning it and that is why we so openly litter while in other countries they don't have help so they do their own work so not littering is a habit with them,unlike us . The sad part is we call ourselves children of Gandhiji ,a man who believed we must do our own work not expect others to do it which he followed till his untimely death. Today when running I wished he would have made it a rule for us Indians ,maybe then today we would have made it a habit not to expect someone else to clean our mess .Sadly this bad habit of ours is spoiling our Mother Nature.

     I continued my run no today I couldn't call it a run I walked ,dodging the garbage and looking around at people walking ,children playing ,some enjoying the sound of the sea and some like me just dreaming one day we will see our beaches clean and just clean plain clean.....bas itna sa kwaab hai....

India is my country and I am proud to be an Indian a pledge I take and hope you too will.....

             Bharat humko jaan se pyaara hai sab se pyaara gulistan Hamara hai. Janma bhoomi hai Hamari shaan se kahage hum.....I am sure when we hear such songs immediately we become patriotic. We suddenly become proud Indians and say Bharat mata ke Jai.......'But 'there is always a but....are we really proud to be Indians really really proud ,and why does our patriotism show only on Independence Day or Republic day.

             Honestly by changing my display picture to a national flag or putting a flag in my car,show I am a true Indian .is that enough ???? This is something I always think when I see someone spit on the road or travel in expensive cars and throw garbage on the road. Do these people really love their country...I always remember taking a pledge all Indians are my brothers and  sisters and then I wonder how does a brother watch a sister being teased or raped or killed..I was told India is a free country...but honestly what are we free from..poverty, illiteracy ,inequality, corruption all these things makes me wonder are we really free? I was told Indians are proud of our history but what do we do with our historical monuments and our natural resources.. Historical monuments are becoming  a canvas for people to portray their artistic skills and our natural resources are so badly polluted. Indians are supposed to be united always , we got our freedom because we were all united but somehow I see this unity more during a disaster .... do we really have to wait for a disaster to show our unity. Everytime I read the newspaper and read about a child raped, molested ,killed or abused I wonder what is the future of my country when we cannot protect the future of our country. After every Independence Day and Republic day when I see our national flag thrown around my heart cries and I am sure many people also feel the same. So many things are there that makes me wonder are we Indians really proud to be an Indian ???

              This Independence Day lets do something different let us all really fall in love with our country not just for 1 day but for everyday till our last breath.Truely be proud to be an Indian by not letting anyone litter,not letting anyone abuse anybody ,let us all respect each other and respect each other's rights ,lets all stand with each other always and not wait for a disaster, be truely proud of our history and treat our natural resources with its due respect. Let's treat each human being equal . Let us all stand up against corruption. Let us not throw our national flag but keep it safely and use it again and again and again.....The day all we Indians do this that will be the day when truely we have the right to say 'India is my country and I am proud of my Janma bhoomi'.

             A Very Happy Independence Day to all the true Indians who will be the change makers for a better and prouder India....

        

 

No time to stand and stare.....

       What is this life full of care no time to stand and stare.....these are the lines of a poem that I remember I learnt in school. Somehow these lines have always remained in my mind. It comes to me everytime when I am rushing around trying to do everything at once,and when I remember these lines I wonder what am I running for . What is it that I want to achieve in such a hurry? And sometimes I wonder do I really enjoy this running around. Then I look around me and I see every person is doing the same thing,each one wants more in life and in wanting that more we don't even realise the best days of our lives has passed by and we still running trying to have a better life.

    I had got this lovely Hindi poem forward which talks about small happiness coming knocking at our door everyday but we keep pushing her away hoping for that 1 big happiness that's no where at sight. It made me think it's so true we are always waiting for that 1 big happiness that we don't even see . We plan our children future but miss on their day to day achievement. We dream about big happiness with our loved ones but we reject their small happiness everyday. We spend a lifetime waiting for that 1 big happiness without realising life is all about small moments.these small moments join together and make us achieve that 1 big happiness and when we reject all the small happiness how will we possibly reach that big happiness..something to really ponder about .

    I sometimes wonder what are we really running after ? Are we really running after that happiness or are we just pushing away that happiness so far away that it is not reachable at all. Planning for our tomorrow we totally forget our today . Everyday we postpone our plans for today thinking we need to plan for tomorrow and what if that tomorrow never comes, what if when that tomorrow actually come would you really enjoy it as much as you would have enjoyed it when u really wanted it...hmmm I wonder.

   Honestly I believe today is more important for today is mine today I know I am here, I am healthy to enjoy whatever I want ,I can and am able to enjoy what makes me happy . Tomorrow I don't know ,tomorrow is so unpredictable.

     Truely said 'Today is mine ,Tomorrow who knows'...so people enjoy the small happiness that come your way..... kya pata kal hoon na hoon..

     

    

My 1st trekking experience ...kalavanti pinnacle.

               Kalavanti pinnacle my 1st trekking trip . One more thing striked out of my bucket list , I am sure all of us have a bucket list ,things we want to do before we die . Trekking was something I always wanted to do but somehow never managed . Luckily in my running group we have a friend who is into trekking, Dr Hema ,and ,she was nice enough to organise a trek for all of us ,along with my best buddy dhiraj. Both of them planned the whole trek with precision. We all were soo excited about the whole event. Though many people dropped out and few joined in we managed to actually leave for the trek.

            We 23 people that's including few children met early in the morning and left all excited about our trek. On our way we had the most amazing vada pav ,poha and tea. We reached thakurwadi village and parked our cars there and started our trek . We started the climb with full enthusiasm . We had to climb for about 2 hrs to reach the village above and then from there others 2 hours to reach the kalavanti pinnacle. The road was tough with lots of obstacles, but the view was breathtaking it made us forget all the hardship we went through ,though the road was tough with lots of slippery stones and mucky track and narrow way we managed to reach the village ,the view was breathtaking something that I cannot describe or even the camera cannot capture the beauty of the place. The air was so fresh and pure the mountains were so welcoming ,though rough but still welcoming the greenery was soo amazing ,all the tiredness we felt when climbing was forgotten and we were all ready with new enthusasium to start our trek to kalavanti pinnacle.

         We passed some villages and then started our climb to the pinnacle. If we thought our climb to the village was difficult this climb was totally different level of difficulty we had take every step carefully ,there were place where we literally went on our fours to avoid from falling. We had to hold on to trees for support some shrubs had thorns which scratched us but we all walked up just enjoying the breath taking view. We reached the 3 highest point where few of our friends decided to stop and not go further ,the view there was magical . Few of us wanted to experience the pinnacle so we started the climb for the pinnacle it was the most difficult trek we had to literally walk on our sides sticking to the mountain ,lifting ourselves ,climbing the rocks and slowly steadily climbing each step with upmost care. We reached the 2 highest point . The view their was like a dream ,the mountains, the fog ,the greener was like nature at its best. Most of our friends decided to end trek there,but dhiraj wanted to go to the pinnacle so he climbed the final climb,to climb the pinnacle we had to use the rope looking at him climb kunal also decided to climb ,looking at him climb up ,usha and myself to got excited , usha climbed 1st ,seeing her climb I too got the confidence to do it. But when I was climbing suddenly a strong gust of wind came and I was all shaken ,my cap flew off my head and feel into the canopy down below ,I was very scared thinking wht if I also fall but with my friends encouragement I confidently went ahead with the climb and reached the highest peak of kalavanti pinnacle .Wow the feeling of reaching on the top was something out of this world. If down below we felt the view was like a dream the view here was like a dream come true. The feeling we all felt when reaching the top was actually like a dream come true. We took in the view of the nature around us to the fullest . We did not want to leave the place but we knew we had to descend  which was a really difficult task down. We managed to slowly and steadily get down ,we slipped many times but managed to reach the village .the villagers had cooked for us an amazing meal,we enjoyed the meal soo much.we played like kids in the waterfall for sometime ,clicked some group snaps and started our walk down to thakurwadi village . By then it had rained quite a lot ,so the track had become more slippery , and sadly my husband shoes broke and he had no option but to walk barefoot for the rest of the trek. He really had a tough time the pointed stones made the trek more difficult for him. Dhiraj and me kept our eyes on the track to make sure that he wouldn't step on some glass pieces which were there on the track. And me in the process slipped and was totally covered with mud but I just couldn't stop laughing coz I don't remember when was the last time when I was fully covered in mud. We laughed our way down to our car and that was the end of our wonderful trek.

    This trek made me closer to my friends ,the support we gave each other made the trek easy and fun. I learnt more about myself ,I was surprised with my own strength and determination. I am sure all of us who went on this trek were surprised with our strength and determination. This trek made us feel ,age doesn't matter any obstacles can be conquered if we have the will power and the support of our friends . Trekking is all about how well each one supports the other and how much determination you have. Here I should thank my friends for all the support ,our marathon coach suhas sir and Samson sir ,it's only because of their training we have managed to do the trek so easily, and be fit and fine the next day, Thank you hema and dhiraj for organising such a wonderful trek and making my first trek the most memorable one. I am looking forward for many more treks and memorable times ahead.