JONI

First, i'll give you all an exercise. What do you guess about the lady in the picture..??

Let me name a few adjectives that you might think of...

1. Confident
2.Smart
3.Pretty... & the likes...

But would you guess ..."Quadriplegic"..??? ... paralyzed, right from her shoulders to her feet..???

Yes!!!...But pleaaase, for heaven's sake...please don't sympathize. She isn't handicapped, depressed, or even God-denying---WE ARE !!! (at least, when compared to her!)

She was born like many of us but brought up differently. She was brought up to be an athlete sort of a person. It ran in the family. Her father did all his work on his own...he even built their house-stone by stone..!! Obviously she lived a more physically active life than many of us. Horse riding, painting, diving, swimming etc were her favourite pass times......for 17 years. One night, she prayed to God and asked him to teach her faith. And then, the unthinkable happened...In a split second on a hot July afternoon, a diving accident transformed the life of Joni Eareckson Tada forever. She went from being an active young woman to facing every day in a wheelchair....

Now, For a few moments put yourselves in her shoes...How many of us would live through that..?? how many of us would be able to accept that..?? How many of us would still believe in the goodness and wonder of Life ..?? and How many of us.......Would still accept the "idea" of a ever helping "GOD"..??


We can't help but doubt ourselves, right??

She was no different... she did too. In the book-- "JONI", she reveals each step of her struggle to accept the difficulty, discover the meaning of her life and the hard earned truths that she learnt. Her life ....is WORTH knowing. So am not revealing more about this amazing woman... Now its for you guys to read or not to read one of the most ammmaaazzzing autobiographies EVER!!

Inspite of her disability, she has touched and helped more lives than we could even imagine. She's doing more...much more than many of us.

Kudos Joni...!!! I salute you...

and Thanks a lot Ann...for what may be the hundredth awessssome book that you have lent me!!
READ IT people...THERE'S A LOT FOR ALL OF US TO LEARN FROM IT..!!!!

Angel...?

I've never seen him. I've never noticed him. I didn't even know if he even existed. Nor did he know me.... And yet ...he has touched my life...














How many of us will risk our lives for another person?? Some might be courageous enough to die for their countrymen, others might be loyal enough to die for their loved ones....but will any of us risk everything we have...from hopes, to dreams, to even our life ; all for a stranger..???
Well, it was an afternoon like any other and i was happy after chatting with my friends and orkutting. While returning from the cafe i stamped over something...something that felt like a half filled cycle tyre. When i looked down however....it was a huge snake!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed and jumped...and then felt a sting. That moment, i knew that i shouldn't panic..

A few more minutes passed and while everybody was pathetically talking about stupid solutions like calling the principal and all, from nowhere, a man dropped down, untied the dupatta around my foot and started sucking out the venom (if any)...I couldn't see his face. All i saw was that he wore a worn out, torn denim cap and he'd thrown off a spade like thing while he dropped down (from heaven..??) . After a few tense moments of sucking and spitting the blood he looked up and said i was alright. Nevertheless, i was taken to a hospital (where the docs's main aim was to bankrupt me...but i was smart you see ;D ).

I was discharged the next morning and when i was back i started searching for the face i couldn't see...for that familiar cap, only so that i could thank him (and perhaps to make sure if he was real and human!!) Well, on my way back, my friends told me they'd seen him cutting grass in our campus...(Oh, so he wasn't heavenly!) Well, i saw him. I saw him sitting with the cap in his hands. I went up to him and thanked him. I had no idea how i was to express my gratefulness. I had often seen my dad give money on such occasions and even seen the happiness in the other person's eyes. I felt odd but if that would help him, i ought to try. So i went forward with some money. (If he had some normal human traits, this test would surely reveal it!) The moment he spotted the note in my hand, he leapt away... with a strange combination of a smile and a colloquial "ae chi thoo..." !! (Oooops!!)....alrite no prizes for guessing--- i was embarassed aaand...touched...

Could someone be so selfless??...so full of values, even without the so called education??...so full of goodness even though he was only a 21st century human?? so full of dignity even in the face of poverty..?? so full of morals even when one can't afford them..??

Test result: He IS heavenly..!! Another angel sent by my krishna.....our God..The universal superpower...


Even today, i see him.. sometimes in the grasses, sometimes cleaning our classrooms, some times on his cycle and each time i pass him, i try to meet his eyes, to smile, so that he would know that i still remember him, that i'm still grateful to him, and that perhaps......perhaps now, i even owe this life to him..perhaps... But he never sees me. He never notices. A perfect Samaritan, A perfect, ideal human being--- never asking for anything in return for his deeds, not even gratitude...not even recognition... So, i couldn't do anything for him. Perhaps i would never get a chance to either. Perhaps i would...but, do i have the courage to face it??...i do not know...i only pray i would...

SO, THIS BLOG IS A TRIBUTE TO HIM...A SALUTE TO HIM...MAY GOD BLESS YOU WITH ALL THATS GOOD FOR YOU...MAY EVERY HUMAN LEARN A LESSON FROM YOU...MAY THIS WORLD HAVE MORE PEOPLE LIKE YOU....THIS IS ALL I CAN DO FOR NOW...

THANK YOU.....

AND THANK GOD...FOR REASSURING ME TIME AND AGAIN...






YET...YET... i can't help but wish for more people like him. If only i had the courage to be like him....If only this world had more of people like him---who still believe in kinship, brotherhood, and selflessness rather than who believe in being negative and who don't mind killing one another in the name of making a living and in the name of the One divine power that manifests in all...



********* i wish ************ i pray**********

Holi hain !!!!!!!!!!

Its the most colorful festival of India. A festival which is widely celebrated but mano ya na mano i never got the chance to really "celebrate" it as such. It was an unfulfilled dream to splash colors on my friends and to get drenched in colour water from head to toe...So imagine my excitement when i see my classmates pour mugs full of colorwater on each other first thing in the morning?!!!
It was holi 2009 . What better place to celebrate holi, that too fultoo bindass with no tension absolutely, than our very own hostel??? For the first time in my life i had a large scale holi complete with colors, friends, photos,dance, and pure masti !!! AND boy! it was AMAZING!!! We did everything.... Waited for girls (seniors included) to enter the hostel and > S P L A S H < , danced on the lawns looking like colored monsters, took crazy pics, slipped and fell and splashed again and again, ran around the hostel corridors screaming and scaring the grown up M-Eds but we spared none and to top it all we all took a shower together!!!!

ALL IN ALL IT WAS ONE DAY I ENJOYED FULL THROTTLE !!! UNADULTERATED FUN FULL ON!!!


HOLI 2009 : A MEMORABLE DAY IN THE LIST OF MY HAPPY DAYS....

?#$%> BlUe)<>?^& ???????

Has it happened to any one of you?? Those "blue moments" when you feel dead for no reason?? I simply hate these moods of mine. I mean... God has blessed me with all that i need to be happy about at this point of time...all that i had ever asked for. Isn't it foolish to feel sad about things that thank God didn't happen to me?!! Well, I'm blue now. And i DEFINITELY don't want to be blue for the remaining few days and spoil my vacations--i deserve better and i don't have any right to be the blue me in front of my family and friends. SO, i thought I'll do this simple cute exercise that a coupla my best friends have done ... ;)

i love God when he makes his presence felt...in wierd funny ways..!!

I love my mom when she cooks and keeps cooking food that i love. i love her when she offers me panipuri from the roadside thelawala. i love her when she cries all night because i was barely bitten by a snake. I love her when she accepts the devil inside me and when she so easily forgoes thats dear to her for our sake...

I love my Dad even when he cooks the salty chutney when mum's away. I love him when he comes back from delhi- sweet and loving. i love him when he selects those not-so-selectable dresses in the mall and asks me "isn't it wonderful and classy?" :) i love him when he lets us hog chat and panipuri while he waits in the car.i love him when he uses fork and knife to eat a dosa...

I love my brother when he drops in front of my hostel with bags full of pizzas for all the 10 of us! i love him when he doesn't seem to have any idea about what to talk to me but still takes the pain of taking me to restaurants. i love him when i think of the innocent games that he made me play with him. i love him when i think of our fights. i love him when i think of that poem "My sister" that he had once stuck on our room's door...

i love my cousins for colouring my childhood..my life. i love anu when she listens to my sagas late into night and plays my counsellor. i love ammu when she startles me with her attachment to us and with her sensibility and insight.i love achu when he calls me porcupine! i love my appus..our vishnu when he says "ente karthu chechi"...i love him for all those innocent smiles that pacified me...

i love my grandparents when they wait for us, doors open ..every single year.i love appoopa
when he prays loudly for his wife and all his children and all his grandchildren. i love him when he hears me cough and walks all the way to my room with a torch, only to give me a littl vicks ka dabba. i love him when he makes me gulp down his favourite cough syrup. i love ammamma when she cries while waving me goodbye. i love her when she mothers stray cats and feeds crows.i love her when she says i am her follower..

i love my relatives for all the love, for all those loving gifts, for all those nostalgic crowded trips in hari ettan's car, for all those innumerable gestures that said "we are family" :)

i love my friends when they show they care...they love... When anurupa calls me up ever so lovingly and talks forever! When kanchan gifts me a slam for christmas.When Shalu remains the same even when i dont callher for months.When karun calls up even when she knows that times have perhaps changed against our will.when archu recognises the slightest change in my mood. When ashi nurses me all day even when all of us doubt i have chicken pox even with a sem exam coming up! When Ann solves all my problems as if it were her own, and when she makes me believe that i AM a wonderful person. When Trish makes me believe that she is a true friend even when we must have been together for barely a fortnight. . When arusha kisses me on my forehead and claims its her territory! When pooja talks of me as if i were someone stuck in childhood. when anju and akhu fight so hilariously...When shincy smiles says thank you even when i confess that i had by mistake gulped down her share of milk for the second time! When Liji listens to my shocking confessions and trusts me ...When you gals do all of the above n billions of other stuff .... i can't help but say that I'M TRULY PROUD OF YOU GalS!! ALL OF YOU ROCK!!...ALL OF YOU ARE MY ROCK...

***********THANK YOU GOD***** I AM NOT BLUE ANYMORE********