Sunday, February 17, 2008

Rules for Happiness

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.
2. Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.
3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
And be my friend...oops...that makes 6!! :)

Life is short---> Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance...

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Auckland Tales..

I travelled to Auckland, during my summers in Australia. Lots of things happened with me during that time. I could recall few of the following interesting events and put them on black and white.

I don’t have anything specific against white people. But as an Indian, it’s disgusting when you are being selected for the security check every single time. I was on the Auckland Airport, and every single officer there must have come to me to take my details and check why am I here?!! And when I asked why, they said, “Sir, this is just a random security check” Random!! Every single officer had selected me randomly. You definitely need to change your staff in that case, who selects only one person out of the whole crowd every single time, you definitely are missing on other prospective Osama Bin Ladens! You know for the first 3 times, I really thought I was lucky!! But then, I realized, I am an Indian! It’s not easy being an Indian. And on the top of it if you are a single male. Normally a person has to arrive 2-3 hours before the flight departure time, but I feel I should be arriving 2-3 days before. Just when the flight landed at Auckland, the officer came and asked, “Mr. Aggarwal, can I ask you few questions before you get down the flight!” I was sitting with my seat belt on. I wondered what they were interrogating during the entire time while I was waiting for the departure in Melbourne. There were these 2 white ladies sitting next to me and got scared suddenly, holding their breath, one lady said to another, “I thought he was an Italian!! He was sitting next to us the whole time. Holy Jesus!” How they took me to be an Italian is still a surprise to me. Though, it must be kind of cool all through the while when I was perceived as an Italian in that 4-hour flight. Officer starts asking questions. “Mr. Aggarwal, did you pack your bags yourself?” “Yes” “Did anyone else assist you in any way while you were packing your bags?” ”No” “Did your bags go out of sight from you anytime while you were on the airport?” “No” “Mr. Aggarwal, you are under arrest.” Oops!! If not this time, then definitely this last statement would be faced by me very soon. These people have gradually made me believe I am a terrorist, traveling openly so far in this earth. And you got to see my face when I see officers and cops around. I get nervous. It’s in the blood of Indians. We all get nervous when we see the cops. We try to escape from that place somehow. It’s not our fault, but we just get nervous!!!

I have seen some amazing thing here. Indians, they would never want their children to be with a white kid. Neither would you find any white friends of an Indian here. If there is a group of five people walking across and one of them is Indian, then in all probabilities, the other four are Indians too!! I sometimes feel that 'Indian' is the most racist race. They would say all kind of remarks against white people and still call them racist. What I mean to say is, even in these cosmopolitan cities, you can easily find the different races filtered out clearly. I can't comment much on mixing of the Chinese/ Oriental people..as for me they all look the same. Indians are always trying to find here some Indian community to hang out with. I mean, with an attitude like this, why at all did they move to this country!! Might as well stay in India only!

I went to this restaurant to have dinner. While browsing through the menu card, I found a new new dish here, called 'Chicken Omelet'! Chicken Omelet…. That’s like wiping off the whole family at once! I am a vegetarian. Even though it's very hard to find vegetarian options in Auckalnd, I don’t find anything wrong with people eating animals…as long as the animals are vegetarian! But, I am totally against with these family killings. There should atleast one family representative be left alive to take their family to the next level and perform required rituals, if any. This sounds like some really brutal dish!! That said, I am never against meat-eaters. There is nothing wrong in that, perhaps, as some of the hard-core vegetarians think. I wonder sometimes, why God would have made the animals with the meat, they could have made them with…umm… cheese, for example, otherwise! There definitely must be some purpose. The problem of food can be colved in India easily, if the people there start understanding this purpose. There are like thousands of people starving in India, and anxious how would they get food…while they are surrounded by soooooo many animals on the streets.

I met this guy here. His life would start with gals and end with them. Occasionally, you can find him in the washroom!! But that’s about it. He was explaining me the fundamentals of gals the other day. As per him, there are two kind of gals…white gals and easy gals! I asked him, what he means by easy gals. He said, like you don’t have to spend anytime on them and they are ready to go with you easily. There was this another Indian guy, who jumped into the discussion uninvited and says, “I like hard gals, ‘coz then you know that once you have them with you, it would be equally hard for other guys to take them away.” Sounds logical! Indians are always logical in their thought process. Though I doubt even the hard gals (as he christened them) could stay with him for long. I looked back at that guy again and asked, “you mean to say that there are no white gals in easy gals!?!” Now he got confused. He was like, “yeah, there are. But easy gals are different category out of them.” Not wanting to stretch this conversation too much, I closed the topic, of course after agreeing to him. Leave apart gals, there are hardly any people there. You travel 1km, then you find a guy. Another km, you find a sheep. Another km, you find nothing. Another km, another guy. Another km, you see a gal. So effectively, you have to travel 5 kms to see a gal!! Really, Auckland is a boring place. The women out here are totally struck up. I mean totally struck up. You can’t do anything here with them. Don’t take my anything in any other sense, but you really can’t do anything with women here. I dunno what people did with all the women here in Auckland but they actually have MESSED UP for all of us tourists. I went to a lady here in a cool casual manner and said, “Hi, how are you?” Bang comes the reply, “Look, I am fed up of your kind of guys who have been trying to talk to me since whole day, what’s the matter with you guys?” I was zapped. “Relax, I just want a McVeggie burger with the French fries”, I clarified the situation calmly!!

Monday, February 04, 2008

Krishna returns..

I would start with the holy name again..

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare!
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!!

Even if I would want to go away from the above thing, there is something which pulls me towards this somehow! After various visits to the temple in Auckland, I contniued the good work in Melbourne too. I went to ISKCON temple at Melbourne today, and found that everything was same as it was in Auckland! The same prayer, same rythm, same lyrics, same dance, same music, same atmosphere, same prasadam, everything was exactly the same. I was really awstruck! And after being there for long, I started to doubt if all this was actually being choreographed by Krishna himself!! Sometimes things look so perfect and you start doubting about its genuineness!!

I am just a visitor here. But still, in this foreign land, I feel that this piece of land is actually mine. I always stand so proudly on the temple land, and feel that I own everything which is happening around at the place. There was this white lady, who walked up to me today and asked, "Did you like our ekadasi prasadam?" I replied, "Yes, it's very tasty. This is all good." She actually had another question in mind, the reason why she walked up to me, asked me again, "Do you know, what ekadasi is?" Perhaps, she wanted to show her knowledge on the subject or show her devotion towards Krishna. I was having food in enjoyment. But this lady would not let me enjoy. I really want to concentrate whenever I am eating, the only time when I never like to get disturbed by any external element. I raised my head again... looked at her... smiled... and nodded in affirmation!

Well... not that I am too conversant with all the religious things, but this was a morale booster for me ;) and I proved (to myself) that I actually am not 'only' a visitor!!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Justice...

"Fiat justitia, ruat caelum."
(Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall.)

These words were said by William Murray, first Earl of Mansfield during a case against slavery in Britain on 22 June 1772. Now these words are symbol of Law & Justice without Emotion or Force. It shows faith in Judicial System with no interference and traditionalism.

When I have to believe that a court of law has given a ruling and it is just then I tend to look by both sides as there is no absolute right or wrong. There is some part of unjustice done to both sides and justice to all. Most of the times, there is no absolute winner or loser from any verdict. We have to make a path to social peace and equality.

If this statement holds good -- 'There can be no real peace without justice and without resistance there will be no justice.' -- then be prepared for a discussion... a fight... a law... a court... a decision... which will provide you a space to speak and let you show the world what you want to tell them. At that time not only it will be your prestige but future will also be at stake . And if you fail that day, history will never let you go unnoticed and your name will be there in the black dairy forever. There is no coming back from there.

This may be the most important moment of your life... commit to it..

Keep the Faith