A MIGHTY HEART

A MIGHTY HEART by Mariane Pearl is a wonderful book that every one should read.  The book is about  Kidnap of a Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl in 2002 in Pakistan, and how few people helped her wife Mariane Pearl search for her husband. The passion,heartbreak and love in this story inspires everyone. In this book Mariane tells about the happy life that she shared with her husband and also gives some insight into international politics,coz of which  her husband got kidnapped. We also come to know how International terrorists Omar and al quaeda involved in the kidnapping and about their demands of military weapons in exchange to Danny . She describes inspite of all efforts to bring him back, how she came to know about his brutal murder.

When she describes in the book how her husband loved her passionately and respected her for what she is and how they shared their not only thoughts but everything ... I just stopped reading the book and asked,  why god?  how could you let it happen to her? Every loving wife and husband deserves better life. All the hatred and terrorism should vanish from this world. Wow.. I want to imagine people just for a while, without hatred,jealousy,ego,anger but ever lasting love.

On Valentine's Day we think of those  

Who make our lives worthwhile, 

Those gracious, friendly people who 

We think of with a smile.

Happy Valentines month to all! Its been long time since I touched my blog. Wow what a life It Is! Everything goes smoothly and suddenly we hear something unexpecteing then our mind goes Into deep thinking like ..what is this life? why are we here in this world?..hmm If I continue like this I'll be off the track. The point is on saturday night that is sunday early morning at 4, we got a call from one of our close friends that he had to book tickets immediately to India as his father passed away. We just had a nice gettogether on friday night and they were all so happy... the next day everything has changed for them. I hope God blesses them with strength and new hope. Just to deviate from those thoughts I watched a movie(some one adviced me that I shall watch a movie when ever I feell sad) 'my name is khan'- wow what a movie It Is. I could not see the scene where kajol cries for his son to come back to life and to her, as my eyes are covered with tears. Oh god how can one live through that kind of situation. And also I liked the dialogue - "There are only two kinds of people in this world...good and bad". Sharukh's performance is superb as a autistic person. Everybody should watch the movie at least once. What ever is the religion,color,language...we all human beings are equal.  Once again Happy Valentines month to all.

somnath,first jyothirlinga!

Traditionaly, Dwadash Jyotirlinga pilgrimage begins with the Somnath temple. The present Somnath temple is an elegant reflection of the past glory of Somnath. Built in Kailsah Mahameruprasad style, it was constructed under the guidance of Prabhashankar Sompura. The temple has Garbhagriha, Sabhamandap and Nrityamandap with a 150 feet high Shikhar. The Kalash at the top of the Shikhar weighs 10 tons and the Dhwajdand is 27 feet tall and a foot in circumference.

The temple has large central hall with entrances on three sides, each protected by a lofty porch. The temple carvings and sculptures speak about the great artistic endeavor of the craftsmen who built it. The main gate faces east, and the sense of space and light is glorious.

The sanctum of the temple is spacious. The shivalinga is huge, and one can see the priests performing different pujas. The doors are silver framed with golden ceilings. The entrance is from Shri Digvijay Dwar, and there is a small temple of Ganesh and Hanuman after the entrance, followed by Nandi. Then comes the garbhagriha, where one can have darshan of the jyotirlinga. A Tripurasundari idol on the right side of the sanctum and Ambika Mataji idol on the left side are offered prayers after the jyotirlinga.

NARADA PURANAM

Brahma had four sons named Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumar and Sanatana. All four of them became sages devoted to Vishnu. They were always on the search for wisdom and knowledge.
Brahma had a city on the peak of Mount Sumeru. The four brothers once went on a visit to that city. By the side of the city flowed one of the tributaries of the holy river Ganga. This tributary was named Sita. The brothers were bathing in the river Sita, when who should arrive there but the sage Narada himself.
Sanatkumara and his brothers greeted Narada and Narada reciprocated
Sanatkumara told Narada, "You are omniscient, you know everything. You are also a famous devotee of Vishnu. Tell us about the mysteries of Vishnu. Tell us about the methods whereby meditation becomes successful."
Narada prayed to Vishnu and started the recital.

Geography :
Prior to creation, there was the great godhead (mahavishnu) which was everywhere. When the time for creation drew near, the godhead expanded himself into three forms. Brahma was created from the right side of the godhead and Brahma’s appointed task was creation. Shiva was created from the centre of the godhead and his job was destruction. Vishnu was created from the left side of the godhead. Vishnu was assigned the task of preservation.
The female counterpart or principle of the godhead is referred to as Shakti. Shati divides herself into two, vidya (knowledge) and avidya (ignorance). Knowledge means an appreciation of the identity between the brahman and the universe. Ignorance is the absence of such an appreciation and it is ignorance that is responsible for the miseries of the world. Shakti herself is referred to by various names. When she is identified with Vishnu, she is known as Lakshmi; when associated with Shiva, she is called Uma or Parvati; and when in conjunction with Brahma, she is known as Sarasvati. But they are really one and the same, manifestations of the same force.
Brahma and Sarasvati are thus together responsible for creation (srishti), Vishnu and Lakshmi are responsible for preservation (sthiti), and Shiva and Parvati are responsible for destruction (laya). The unified Shakti is sometimes also called Mahamaya or Prakriti.
The universe is made of five elements (bhuta). Their names are kshiti (the earth) apa (the water). teja (the energy), marut (the wind) and vyoma (the sky).
The universe is divided into fourteen regions (bhuvanas or lokas). Seven of them form the upper regions and are known as bhuloka, bhuvarloka, svarloka, maharloka, janaloka and satyaloka. There ae seven more regions that constiute the lower regions or the underworld. Their names are atala, vitala, sutala,talatala, mahatala, rasatla and patala. The word patala is also used to signify all of the underworld as a region.
Each of the fourteen regions has its own inhabitants, mountains and rivers. The earth is bhuloka and the earth is split up into seven regions (dvipas). They are known as Jambudvipa, Plakshadvipa, Shalmaladvipa, Kushadvipa, Krounchadvipa, Shakadvipa and Pushkaradvipa. Bhuloka also has seven oceans named Lavana, Ikshu, Sura, Sarpih, Dadhi, Dughdha and Jala.
Bharatavarsha lies in Jambudvipa. It is that part of the land which is bounded by the Lavana ocean on the south and the Himalaya mountains on the north. Bharatavarsha is a wonderful place to live in, and even the gods desire to be born in this land. Bharatavarsha is known as karmabhumi. Karma means action. This land is therefore a place where actions have to be performed. Bhoga means to enjoy or savour, Bhogabhumi is a place where the fruits of one’s actions are pleasured or savoured. Bharatavarsha is not a bhogabhumi, it is merely a karmabhumi. The fruits of actions performed in Bharatavarsha are savoured elsewhere. Good deeds are rewarded in heaven (svarloka or svarga) and sins have to be paid for in hell(naraka).
To be born in Bharatavarsha means to be given the opportunity to perform good deeds. A person who does not avail of this opportunity is like a person who gives up a pot of amrita ( a heavenly life-giving drink) for a pot of poison. If one wishes to be rewarded in heaven, one should relentlessly pursue the path of good karma. But actions should not be performed with an eye to the fruits of such actions. One should disassociate oneself from the fruits, which vest only with Vishnu. This sort of detached action is known as niskama karma and it is superior to all other forms of action.

Pretty earrings

Wow! lets talk about jewellery. I love jewellery, any time any place any occation love wearing the pretty attractive creations of skilled artists. Because fashion jewellery was not allowed in our school, I never gave much thought about fashions or fads as a kid. But once we come out of the good disciplined schools, we would directly exposed to the running trends and gradually become part of the fashion. Same happened to me too. I love several brands and how they advertise their products to attract us. There is a great demand for jewellery designers these days as every one of us wants to try unique designer wear. Coming to gold jewellery, ofcourse our purse should be full as the gold rates are very bullish. I donot do much trading but never forget to keep an eye on markets. I asked my hubby to buy some gold since august but unfortunately instead of coming down the prices went up, so got satisfied with window shopping for now. Last week I was just watching some videos in youtube about how to cook dum aloo and suddenly came across the video about making jewellery like ear rings, necklace etc. So I just watched few of them and thought of why donot we give a try. Thats how I ended up with small jewellery making kit from walmart and started making ear rings for a beginner and I could not believe how nice the ear rings turned up. I like to attach a picture of them here in my blog. Coming to my regular life, joined gym and have to see how regularly I can exercise. Today is thursday and my daughter has dance class. I have to prepare for the class even though she is the one who is learning. Her teacher says that as my daughter is only 5 I need to concentrate on the class so that I could remind her the steps incase If she forgets. Then It came to me that may be she is too young for classical dance. We are also busy in planning my daughters birthday which is coming up this month end. Any how Happy thanks giving to everyone. Here are the earrings that I made.

Fall colors

Hello my blog and readers, hope u r all doing gud. This last week I was very busy with sruthika as she fell sick. Now she is doing fine with little cough left. Halloween is coming up and my daugter is planning for her costume. She has costume parade at school and spooky halloween party at our leasing office. coming to deepavali we had a nice darshanm at temple and my hubby volunteered little bit of his time. We burned few firecrackers, had a potluck at friends house and also had a pocker marathon all night. Well deepawali went well but sruthika came up with fever the next week and we were all worried a lot. Thank god she became normal soon. Coming to fall, Weather is cold out side and the colors around our home are very nice. During our DC stay we visited shenandoah valley for fall colors. But now need not to plan any tour as all the colors are at our home. While sunil driving, me and sruthika took video of the colors on the way, I'll attach the video here. When I am blogging sruthika asked me that she wants a blog too..as my knowledge in blogging is very little I showed her how to create a blog(too early for her) and created one for her. She did her first posting and looking for more. Thats all happening at my end and dont forget to check out the link.
fall colors at our home

The Year of Secret Assignments

Yesterday I read a book called  "The Year of Secret Assignments". Its a very nice book and funny too. The story goes with three friends enjoying their teenage, encouraging each other, assigning secret tasks to one another. As a assignment from their english teacher they have to exchange letters with their new pen friends from the other school. One of these girls gets a rude boy who dont want to respond to her letters and treats her badly. So her other two friends with their pen friends teaches a lesson to that boy. Mean while the girls who happened to have nice guys as their pen friends falling in love with each other, etc., the story goes in a  nice and interesting way. Its written by Jaclyn Moriarty. I listened to the book in the form recorded books(not exactly read). I liked this Idea of making the books as CD's ...so that we can listen to them even working at home.