Happy New Year!!

Welcome 2007, and to all those of you, who’re reading this post, Happy New Year!!! :).

Here’s wishing all of you a wonderful, productive, thrilling and entertaining year ahead!!!

2007 promises to be an important year in my life… what with lots of professional and personal changes on the horizon. I don’t have any material/physically quantifiable resolutions yet, and generally never do, since I doubt my ability (*smirk*) to stick to them with a steadfast resolve.

Instead, (as is my practice), I do a mental review of my life in the past year, and wonder if there are any regrets / emotional burdens that I do not wish to carry into the new year, or any profound lessons that I’ve learnt. And while I analyze my actions / in-actions in a whole year, I also grade myself on how much of a better person I have become - sort of a soul analysis :). 

I’ve realized over time that this activity is quite spiritually rewarding, because it keeps me rooted, gives me insights about myself, and provides a chance to correct, to repent and to move forward, as a person. 

As part of the activity, I put forth for myself some behavioural resolutions - rather like a set of moral do’s and don’ts for me -  which I believe are important, and hope to practice everyday of my future life. And since this post is about New Year and resolutions, I thought of sharing some of these - in the hope that it will benefit one or more people out there, in their path of personal growth, re-discovery of happiness and peace, thereby making them better persons who truly embody the human spirit. And so *Drum roll*… here are my resolutions:

1. Say “Thank you” (and be truly thankful) anytime you are in the receiving end of a service (however insignificant it may be): Of course, with very close friends/family, it is often not expected, and may be met with resistance/surprise. However, it is a good thing to practice saying “Thank you” because it goes a long way in instilling gratitude in you, and will ensure that you don’t take anything for granted.
2. Take time to notice the wonderful aspects of the people you love, and the people who love you: Take a moment (or more) to wonder when was the last time you genuinely appreciated some aspect of (one or more) people close to you.
3. Say “Sorry” with real feeling, instead of just as a word which is used to expect excuse for any kind of behavior or error. As much as possible, make sure you don’t get into situations where you may have to say “Sorry”.
4. Stop encouraging thoughts of worry, hatred and fear in your mind: Thoughts have creative power, and negative thoughts can eat the life, the essence out of you - making you physically and mentally sick. 
5. Open your senses - your eyes, ears, nose, mind - wide enough to notice the beauty of the little things in this world: sunshine and rain, colors, clouds and a clear blue sky, sound of water, the warm ‘n cozy smell of home, a child’s smile, innocence and love.
6. Stop saying “Yes” or “Maybe”, if what you really want to say is “No”.
7. Stop donning masks / faking behaviour, just to be acceptable to some people: Be yourself. If they’re truly people you need to be around with, they’ll appreciate you for what you are, than what you project yourself to be.
8. Be truthful to yourself: You maybe saying lies to the entire world, but please make sure you’re not lying to yourself. You’ll be happier if you are comfortable with yourself, and the whys of what you do, what you’ve done and what you’re going to do.
9. Stop ignoring your instincts and your feelings: Often, there is a lot of wisdom hidden in them.
10. Take the time to feel connected: to yourself, to people, to nature, to the world, and to the universe.  You’ll realize that there is a omnipresent, omniscient higher power that loves you.

Once again, Happy 2007 everybody!!!

P.S. Forgot to mention - my blog has got a new year present already btw :). It has registered over 10,000 hits, from the time I started it - which was June 2006. Yay!!! :D. Thank you everyone! - my heartfelt gratitude goes out to all the people who have read and are still reading, commented and are still commenting on this blog! I’m honored to have your virtual company!

Simple Joys of Life

Ever wondered about those simple pleasures of life that you probably didn’t give much importance to, but contributed to making the experience of your life pleasant and wonderful?

Ever realized how sometimes, very trivial and at times, even funny, experiences or probably some routine things you do, turn out to be that which uplifts your mind and soul from the problems and worries of daily life?

Today I thought of listing some of those experiences that were important to me - the simple joys of my life. (And no, this isn’t a forward I received, but I vaguely remember receiving something similar a long time ago :)). Here they are in random order - coming directly out of my memory:

1. Enjoying the wind blowing in my face while travelling in an auto/bus - I deliberately remove the hairbands that keep my hair in place, because I love the sensation of the wind playing with my hair, and the strands dancing around
2. Seeing a child laugh. Infact, anything associated with a child is adorable, except for potty ;). Their laughter is the most uncomplicated thing in this universe.
3. Rain and all of its associated sensations.
4. Vanilla Icecream. I love the texture of icecream, and vanilla is my fav flavour.
5. Switching on the radio/to another radio channel, only to hear one of my favorite songs playing…
6. Listening to music on the walkman/mobile, and dancing like crazy at home. At times, when I walk into my home in the evening, after the trip in the office bus, the earphones are plugged in, and there’s this amazing dance number playing on radio, I just go shake, prance and groove all around the rooms of my house. Yeaaaah
7. Standing in a glass lift and peering through the glass with glee, while the lift moves up or down.
8. Throwing my head back and laughing heartily after hearing a joke/anything witty.
9. Hugging my cuddly n cute mum
10. Watching TV till late on a Friday night…Its my way of rebellion to compensate for the days I reluctantly drag myself into bed cos I have to go early to office.
11. Going for long walks with a dear friend
12. Taking a cool, refreshing bath (with sweet smelling soap) on a hot, sweltering, summer day.
13. Floating, neck deep in water. As a child, I loved floating in a tub full of warm water, with soap bubbles all around me. In recent times, a place I enjoyed being soaked and floating in water, was Hoganekkal… and with me, was my friend - we just lay neck deep in water for hours, bobbing up and down and feeling the waves of the water course through us. It was amazing.
14. The feeling of deja vu I get when I sense particular smells… I have always been able to associate many of my experiences, places and even people by smell - so much so that when I get a particular smell, I always have a sense of deja vu, and feel like I’ve been through it before.  It wasn’t till Balaji wrote about Synesthesia,that I realized what it may be :).
15. Getting in touch with a long lost friend
16. Cuddling in bed, wrapped in a blanket, on a cold wintry morning.
17. Shopping for accessories - mainly junk jewellery - I am a total junkie when it comes to stuff that hangs on my wrists and ears… bells, chains, stars, tinkling things, stones, metal…you name it. I love looking around for quirky looking stuff that matches with my clothes.
18. Discovering money (that’s been forgotten) in an old purse/jeans pocket. Ah! It makes me feel so rich in a moment :)…and sometimes, I purposely stash away some money somewhere for that experience of finding a treasure
19. Coming home to a warm, lovely meal with the family… in my case, its with mum and dad.
20. Getting a bouquet of red roses
21. Renting a video cd to watch on a lonely day
22. Solving a particularly difficult puzzle. To this day, I feel the same thrill when I solve a complex problem at work, or even sudoku in the paper, as I used to feel when I was solving math (mainly algebra) problems in school. Its wonderful.
23. Giving a compliment. I’m generally prone to blushing when I get a compliment - still don’t know how to deal with it :). However, I love giving compliments where they are needed. I’ve realized that it takes a very small effort to notice something extra special in a person. And contrary to popular thought, giving a compliment actually makes the giver feel much better than the one it is intended for… I think it brings about a connection between the humans: you feel appreciation/respect flowing out of it, and it is wonderful,… spiritually rejuvenating.
24. Reading the Sunday newspaper,whilst drinking a hot cup of delicious tea. Its my favorite activity on a Sunday morning, and one of the most relaxing ones. In fact, tea features in a couple of my other favorite activities, and I love drinking tea at odd hours… way into the night :).
25. Hearing an old song and being transported back into time. A lot of songs have that effect on me, and one I distinctly remember in terms of even the first time I heard the song, what I was doing, and what I felt, is Tere Dar Par Sanam from the movie Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi. To this day, when I hear the violin piece at the start of the song, I get transported to my room in Dammam, Saudi Arabia - on a cold winter evening in my bedroom, looking outside the balcony adjoining the room, while listening to this song for the first time on my walkman.
26. The high of performing on stage. Dance is my passion.
27. Seeing ducks/swans/lotuses in ponds. Often, as I’m travelling on a train to Kerala, once the picturesque locales of the Kerala countryside appear in the train windows, it isn’t uncommon to see ponds filled with pink and white lotus flowers. I also get to see ducks and swans paddling peacefully in the ponds, and I always wonder what lovely looking birds they are… so fluffy and cute… and clumsy, like me :).
28. Going through old photo albums. Photo albums are the only way of holding time still. Which is why I like photography - because I think it is a way of bringing time to a stop and getting a slice of life in a picture… I have a lot of old family pictures at home, and in my school years, it was often a hobby (a very pleasing one at that :)) of mine to categorise the pictures and put them into different albums chronologically, or distinguished by the families they belonged to, or by events etc,to write labels for all the albums and arrange them neatly in a bag. Today, Flickr is the online equivalent of that for me.
29. Poring over book titles in a library/book store, anxiously reading their summaries, biting my nails and wondering which one to rent / buy. I love reading books and it gives me great pleasure to curl up on a bed/couch with one and spend an entire evening reading it and musing dazedly on its contents.
30. Watching my favorite TV shows - right now, its re-runs of Friends, Full House and Bigg Boss, to name a few.

Some list there, eh? I wasn’t planning on such a huge list when I started out, but as I started counting the pleasures of my life… one by one of them popped up on its own accord. Just goes to show that even though we may not know it, we would probably have many such wonderful things that make our lives so special, and make us blessed to be alive and kicking in this world!