A pup who quite literally had shaken hands with Yama(God Of Death) decided for some reason to come back to the world of the living with nothing more than a broken back, at first I wondered how she survived and it always gave me the chills to help with the pup who survived. Though shaken by the incident I was then sure that I could handle whatever that came along my way. But it was not death I saw but merely near death, I was yet to see death… I wondered whether I would.

Today, it happened. Queenie, an old but wonderful dog came to get an existing problem treated. Appointments were fixed for the next step and plans were made for helping her but alas before anything could be done she decided to move along. My mother who happened to be there at the clinic instantly burst into tears while my heart bled for Queenie’s mother. Queenie was placed on the table and I stood next to her confused as to why her chest was not moving or her head turning, I touched her and realized how quickly she had gotten cold. Watching Queenie’s mom weep hysterically over her baby made me wonder what she was thinking, we all regret or blame when we’ve lost someone we love, I am guessing it is a mechanism meant to make us recover quickly, did she sob about not telling her darling how much she loved her? Did she regret reprimanding her or was she probably blaming the situation? Did she forget to reassure Queenie that the vet visits were for her own good?

So did you tell your sick loved one how much you love and care for them? Did you tell them that you needed and loved them no matter how terrible you were to them? Did you hug them for loving you? We all want to but something always stops us and then it’s too late, in the end we all want our loved ones to know how much we love them and let them reciprocate the same. Maybe I should tell my darling the same right this instant.

I always make sure to kiss, cuddle and mollycoddle my kids before and after work but as I reached home I made a mental note to give them a double dosage of love. Our culture has 3 men in charge of the cycle of life, Brahma in charge of birth, Vishnu in charge of living and Shiva in charge of death. When I looked at Queenie one last time, I pondered whether Shiva was scanning through a checklist, scratching out her name and then handing Brahma a file with her name on it. Filled with a sense of hope I wished her the best of luck and let my colleague wrap her up.

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The Obvious Things Required For This To Work:-

1. Picasa, the latest version can be downloaded at their website (Windows),(Mac) and (Linux)
2. A Facebook account.

Random TitBits :-

• Once Picasa has been installed, you can either add the pics you need by having the folder scanned or you can wait for Picasa to automatically add the pictures
  • Automatic Updates:- Tools => Folder Manager. Add/Remove the folder or drive that needs to be updated automatically

The Actual USEFUL Steps :-

1. Now that you have Picasa loaded along with your facebook account logged into, get the pics you need ready. When viewing the pics in Picasa, use the “hold” option in the toolbar, you can hold one pic at a time or simply click once on a folder and then click hold
   
2. Now in your facebook account, use the “create an album option”. The easiest ways to get to the right upload option are :-
   • The button in the bottom toolbar of your facebook page
   • Type Photos in the search box in the top right.
   • OR Paste this link in your account http://www.facebook.com/editalbum.php?new
     
3. Click on the “Mobile Photos” option and note down the email address you see.
   
4. Now go back to Picasa  where you had kept the pictures on hold, In the same toolbar where you earlier found “hold”, you can see an option called “Email”. Click on that, choose whether you want to use Thunderbird or your gmail account, login to your gmail account through Picasa and change the subject title to something else.. Also make sure to remove only the last two lines “These pictures…..picasa.google.com/”
   
5. Click send and then wait for the upload to finish, once done you will find all the pics in “Mobile uploads” (Facebook). All of their titles would be what you added as the subject title. You can change the titles or simply move them to the necessary album.

Hopefully you found this tutorial easy and any feedback regarding this topic is welcome.

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Anonymous(2)

So I left from there much happier and sure that my children were in good hands. And I have never been the best of parents either, I still am ashamed about not keeping up with appointments but it usually had a genuine reason. No vet would ever allow credits easily but he did which made my life easier since I then had ample time to get funds for their treatment. Where I stay, it is unlikely a vet would even bother having small talk with the patients since there are clients to visit and money to make but whatever small talk  was shared between us always made me happy, yes I do admire him for he is the kind of vet I wanted to be. I remember one evening when he took out time during clinic hours to give my best friend G a guide on how to take care of her pup. After Pollux and Muffin got operated I was definitely sure that he would be the only doctor my kids would see, a joke related to that incident was about a syrup prescribed for the ladies;  being far too empathetic for my own good, I usually taste their medicine/supplements to understand how swift the force-feeding should be. Assuming the taste to be similar to all the others, I gulped a tsp of the mango flavored disaster…… Atrocious!!!! That syrup could make even a corpse dance to its tunes. Anyway I told the doctor about this incident, I could tell as he chuckled that he was making a mental note of never consuming that syrup.

He always egged me on to do whatever I could for animals somehow believing that I could probably do something. There have been times when I heard people cribbing about how he  “overcharges” or does not know what he is doing but the truth is that he is not overcharging nor is he ignorant of how his job is to be done. The small talk he indulges with his patients and their parents make it a really memorable and reassuring visit, I hope he knows this because we as parents need to feel that he loves our kids just the way we do and I get the feeling that he does. I once heard a person moan about how he prescribes too many drugs/tonics for each ailment, I understand the concern since I too used to wonder why I needed 3 different tonics for something as simple as a fungal infection or a fever but later after giving it some thought I understood his logic. Or at least I am guessing that, his aim is to cure the ailment without letting your pet’s body/health/immunity suffer so if your pet has an upset tummy he would probably give you one product that deals with the ailment, another to cure the side effects and the third to boost your pet’s health. Pretty practical as a parent can administer the same tonics later or prevent clinic visits completely…

Then came November 2009, Tristan-Galen was born through a Cesarean surgery. Dr A had earlier warned me that she would not live but when I saw her take her first breath, he did everything to normalize her breathing. I am pretty sure some other vet would have simply told me to not bother, he was also there to help me with other problems she faced (ring worm, constipation and gas).Now Tris is almost a month old and could rip off noses if given the chance. Just recently he offered me a job to work with him in his clinic, really excited…

So I end this with a toast raised to an awesome vet, one who is devoted to his patients and never lets you down. Hopefully you can inspire many more people to do all they can for their animals. I want to thank you with all I have got for doing everything you have done, no amount of words can ever be enough but I hope you understand how grateful I am for all you have done

UPDATE: For some reason this post never got published and was private since I wrote it. Well it has been almost 3 months since I started working with the vet and I am definitely loving it here. Kinda sad that I was a bit irregular at work because of my knees and back but working on it.

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SwaminiAnonymous

I began questioning my own sanity when my mind started devising strategies as to how I could pick up the toy without looking like a homeless hobo. Then again all of us have gone through the phase of “one man’s treasure is another man’s trash” . I was appalled that I was even thinking this thought, I could merely hand over a few coins to the shop right next to my abandoned desire and get a brand new one saving me my misplaced dignity. As these thoughts ran through my head, I could feel a rival’s presence;It was none other than the security guard at the building next to the shop. I felt my eyes were playing tricks on me but I swear I could see him smirking and I began wondering whether he placed that mule there just to tantalize innocent buffoons like me, yes this seemed true since how else can a security guard spend hours rooted to a seat in the heat. I walked a bit backwards in hopes of making him feel as if I was merely lost or trying to find someone but he lowered his eyes to the mule which made me defensive if not even more angry at the guard.

Putting on an air of nonchalance even going as far as to step on the mule while mentally apologizing to the poor thing (Cursing the chagrin guard for toying with my mind) I walked back home with my favorite stray Chuck Norris. While walking back I was still hoping to find a way to save that poor plastic mule, if only I could have gotten Chuck to “fetch” me my dear plastic mule. As I approached home I decided to post about the incident so I turned around camera in hand but as I reached the spot I saw the mule missing and a smug look on the guard’s face. I was now sure that he had placed the mule there on purpose and that I was his biggest/craziest prey, slightly dejected and mostly annoyed I get Chuck and we hobble away together for he too was lame after a fight with another dog when suddenly I saw a child play with the plastic mule and all hate for the guard melted away though I was tempted to trade in my pack of chips for the mule but decided not to.

**Sigh** If only I had picked up the mule and made a mad dash for my house but then again the child looked happy with it so I guess all’s well that ends well….

P.S :- Aren’t my posts just pure joy to read???

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How could I forget how unpredictable life is? Everyday I take step after step hoping, believing, fighting to be a person better than before not for me but for those I love because my goal is to see them happy; Then again there are days where there is a lot of chaos and it feels like you were asked to go to jail with no permission to pass Go and no permission to take your allowance by the same people you were fighting for, it feels as if nothing could alter that situation to make it better and it necessarily is not their fault. I write this today to remind myself and others that we are incredibly lucky to know who we are and be able to hold onto our loved ones. I do not expect anyone to read this and immediately write out apology letters, scream out “love yous” or hug their loved ones; I do hope that you will keep in mind to treat that person better the instant you see them again because you will not be given a second chance.

So to my family I apologize for the countless tantrums, tears, stress, chores and troubles. I love my family a lot no matter what kind of fights we get into or whatever rubbish we tell each other. I apologize to my friends for being reclusive and the consequences of my social awkwardness because I know how bitter I can get when I am left alone for too long.  An apology to my darling for he bears the brunt of my every emotion and yet smiles without showing me his pain. My children need an apology too for I have tossed, groomed, bathed and annoyed them plenty but they always give me kisses, rubs and hickeys(Cleo). Then again whatever I apologized right now applies to everyone for in one way or another I have mentally disrupted your peace many times making you doubt, misunderstand or dislike me which I never ever intended. Whenever you see this post, I hope all of you realize how much I love you all and I never mean to hurt anyone always wishing for happiness. Me and my darling many a time ask each other how we can bear with each other, we simply realize and enjoy the fact that it is our love that makes it easier to accept. I can get troublesome at times but never mean any harm so I give all of you my warmest hugs and lots of love.

My only advice is that every time you get into a sticky situation, avoid being mean to your  loved one after the fight, bite your tongue before a rude thought leaves your mouth and let time heal all wounds. If only all of us were empathetic about each other… Wouldn’t life have been much simpler? But make sure to be humble and grateful for being able to hold onto our loved ones for another day. You stop fearing loss when you are true to yourself and your loved ones, this is one preaching I want to practice.So here I end with another big hug a post that hopefully does not look like a rambling or a bad piece of literature lol

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Anonymous(3)Swamini

The movie revolves around the entire Whitfield family reuniting for Christmas after 4 years, the family involves Ma’Dere her lover Joe Black, Ma’Dere’s 6 children Quentin, Lisa, Kelli, Claude, Melanie and Michael. Lisa is married to Malcolm with 2 kids while Claude is secretly married to Sandi. Melanie is dating Devean while Kelli, Michael and Quentin have not yet found a serious partner for themselves. Because they are all reuniting after 4 years none of them want to reveal their personal problems thus prevent ruining the Christmas for everyone. The problems range from Ma’Dere not telling the children about her divorce from her husband (Quentin Senior) and the fact that Joe is living with her, Quentin comes back home only because he owes people (Mo & Dude) 25,000 dollars, Malcolm is having an affair and plans on selling his mother-in-law’s dry cleaners for something planned by him & his mistress while Lisa is simply stuck in the awkward marriage to a husband with a domineering aloof attitude. Kelli can’t seem to stand Malcolm because of how he treats Lisa while simultaneously is irked by Lisa’s dual personality ( being like Oprah with her family but reduced to nothing but a puppet in front of her husband). Claude is a marine corp who goes AWOL ^{absence without leave} to get married to his girlfriend Sandi who is incidentally pregnant. Melanie who is unaware of her mother’s affair with Joe as he moved in after she left for college and Michael loves singing but is scared to tell his Mother because she blames music for the Whitfield men not sticking around long (Quentin Junior & Senior are both musicians always traveling).

When Lisa tells everyone about her plans of selling the dry cleaner business and moving Ma’Dere and Joe to a condo Kelli realizes that it is Malcom’s idea and does not agree to sell her percentage of the business. Michael is offended that Lisa wants to take such a move and Melanie then is told of Joe living with Ma’Dere. Kelli then points out that they cannot sell the dry cleaners without Quentin’s percentage and as he’s not there but Quentin surprises everyone by suddenly popping over. Later in the night Kelli is seen trying to convince Quentin into not selling his percentage while Claude decides to secretly meet his wife at a local club. But the plan fails when Quentin, Kelli, Devean & Melanie all end up tagging along with him. At the club Claude meets his wife but tells her that he would meet her later as his family is present with him, Sandi upset yet hopeful about meeting him later leaves. The siblings then are shocked to see their youngest brother singing and are surprised when they realize that he is truly talented. Quentin finds his old High School buddy Gerald in the club, Gerald & Kelli end up leaving the club early for a date. While Claude ends up pulling his service revolver on 2 men who were earlier flirting with his wife. He is then taken away by his siblings and yelled at by Quentin, when Michael returns he tells the family that no one except him will tell Ma’Dere about his singing. Kelli returns from her date with Gerald (whom she has slept with) in the morning, she is asked to call the others down for breakfast; she then overhears Malcolm talking about his plans to his mistress but says nothing.  As the men are picking the Christmas tree, Gerald visits the Whitfield home in a Santa suit and fixes a date with Kelli. Lisa drops off Malcolm at the airport (He claims to be going to his office but is in fact is going to his mistresses place). Lisa then realizes that her marriage is truly a failed one.

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She wanted me to talk about why and how I write my posts the way I do. To me writing is not lecturing, relating or sharing; to me writing is all about entertaining, expressing, reassuring and enlightening. I write not for the sake of ranks or money(then again a pauper does not mind a little pocket money ) but to connect to those I know and do not know. Our brain being the most fickle creature in the entire universe is a companion who is eternally zealous about life lusting for every ounce of knowledge. And its thirst for knowledge is so great that it eternally processes thoughts and feelings generated in our being,feeding on energy present everywhere and starts drawing conclusions about life. These conclusions make us who we are and who we can be.

I always feel that I don’t have any writing skills, even now my darling reminds me of “punctuation” errors in certain posts. Like I said before your mind is eternally breeding with life to produce thoughts, those thoughts are my inspirations. I wait for the spark to ignite the flame in my very being, it is very easy to recognize the spark for it comes out of nowhere and ensnares you in its vastness; the entire universe flips around making that spark the center and if you are lucky you notice the change. If not then you must wait your turn . Now that the fire has been started you must provide those tiny embers with an open mind, heart and a lot of love, love never seen by even the nearest and dearest for in the end that thought is a key to connecting to your soul. Frustration, pressure, too much thought and dishonesty to those embers cause it to burn very low and die out, you end up losing all inspiration, flow, dedication and understanding. But with patience, positivity, love and understanding you connect to something deeper within. You know you have connected to that something deeper when you are able to feel your thought clearly. Bask in the warmth of those flames and disconnect yourself from everything, switch off that T.V, the music player, throw your favorite authors out of your mind, make some room in that loft in your head people!!. The time is now for you to shine. Start conversing with yourself mentally, ask yourself now the content of your topic and giggle when you see the perfect words dance to your tunes. Talk out your topic now, listen to how it sounds, write it down as you speak making sure not to correct what you are writing, correct only if it feels right… There is no time for punctuations and grammar. Keep a smile on your face while writing, it helps you enjoy the moment. Tis not the time to copy your favorites but to let your style come through for no two styles are ever the same .. Done with the topic already?? Well let’s proofread it then, time to adorn your topic with all those dots, waves, lamp posts and snakes. It is time to smoothen the jagged edges. Now wasn’t that fun??

My sparks come whenever and anywhere, sometimes while sleeping, while doing the dishes, talking to people or through observation. Today’s spark was one of the best  and much more refreshing than my caffeine. The reason we find it difficult to pen our thoughts is because we try to emulate different styles and people, sometimes the thought sounds perfect in our head but doesn’t come out right. Writing is nothing but opening your soul through words, at first you yourself will not understand or will not like the results but as time passes whether people like it or not, you will surely appreciate your words. Sometimes your posts are the best on first try and on other times they need to be proofread a lot of times before you are happy with it, at times I have rewritten a draft 10 times before actually liking it. It happens so don’t worry if your posts are not A-Class at first shot, it takes time and understanding   and your thoughts mainly depend on your faith in them. I sometimes read my old drafts and laugh at the amateur writing but am also thankful because I stuck to it. My energy & spark decide when and what the post would be, till date I have never “thought” of what I want to write about. I am lazy so I wait for it to get me started

I hope this is good enough Shalaka and you are always welcome to comment essays for there is no fun if I am the only one talking.

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SwaminiShalaka Desai

At home my bro gave his usual grunt of a hi and then resumed loving Dota so I decided to make some juice and have a closer look at the goodies he got for me, it was a I love N.J mug and tee.. The mug is big so I was definitely happy xD and the tee fit perfectly. Me and my darling decided to go against my brother in a game of dota where we were pulverized mainly because R.J was goading my bro to do so. We then headed upstairs to the terrace with the cats. I showed him the lion pillow I was making for him and he seemed to like it.  After showing him around we finally got down to the dreaded baby pic session, pics which he happily stole with the help of his camera. After a bit of a chat we decided to head over to my mom’s office, it was a rush job as his family were already on their way to pick him up. We barely managed to come back from Mom’s office that his family called him asking him where he was. Unfortunately I was unable to give him his lion but promised to send it to him as soon as possible. He was really annoyed that he had to go back so soon but we were really happy that we got to see each other at least. We even made a video with each other in it and the funkiest bit is that I am hardly noticeable in his video version while he mysteriously lacks a head now and then in my video.

Unfortunately I do not have a pic of him where he is standing alone and knowing me I know all of you are not expecting a pic of me so I have put up a pic of him with my bro and a pic of my Goliath mug. It was indeed an awesome day for us and I do miss him but am hoping that we have many more meetings ^_^

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Swamini

Sati’s reincarnated form was Parvati and Ganesha is the son of Parvati and Shiva. It is said that Sati was the daughter of a king and as she grew her love for Shiva grew more. So strong was her love for Shiva that she rejected marriage proposals and instead left the kingdom to meditate in the forest. One of her many names “Uma” when translated means you don’t which is basically what Sati’s mother kept repeating to her. But for a really long time Sati meditated and concentrated all her energy in getting the attention of her Lord Shiva. Finally Shiva out of curiosity and fascination appeared in front of her where he agreed to make her his bride. The day Shiva agreed to marry Sati a.k.a Gauri is what we call Gauri Habba (Gauri’s Festival). Different families celebrate the festival differently but the typical pattern for the day involves women worshipping idols of the goddess and fasting the entire day. Usually unmarried women worship Sati as a way of celebrating her marriage and asking her for blessings so that they too may succeed in getting a wonderful husband. Married women request Sati to let them have the same husband for the next 7 lives and they pray for the safety of their husband. Women fast on this day because Sati during her penance had given up on all temptations including food, she went for days without food. Such was her dedication to Lord Shiva. Many women break their fast in the evenings while others continue until the next day, the food allowed are fruits & water but many women refuse to have even water until the fast ends.

The Ganesha festival is usually a day after the Gauri Habba, though it is said to his birthday it was not a really popular festival. It was celebrated by the people who followed him but during India’s fight for Independence, Freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak started making Ganesh Chaturti bigger, better and open to the public. As the British could not object to festivals this was the best way for freedom fighters and many others to meet without arousing suspicions. Another reason why this festival was being popularized was because Lokmanya Tilak wanted to remove all racial feelings harbored by higher class hindus against the lower class. Slowly people from different castes, cultures and places started coming together for Ganesh Chaturti celebrations.

We usually get the idols, worship the Goddess then Ganesh and depending on the number of days the Lord stays at our house we chant prayers twice a day until we finally immerse the idols in a water body. As idols originally were made of clay the practice was that the Idols should be returned back to Earth but should not be disposed therefore they were immersed in seas, rivers, lakes and so on. Typically people worship the idols for 1 & 1/2 days, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days or 10 days but there are some who house the idols for months or an entire year.

We too invite our favorite guests home but this year was different where both the Gauri Habba and Ganesh Chaturti were on the same day. I told my mom that I would do the entire Gauri Habba while my brother would do the Ganesh Puja. I never did sleep in the night and was woken up by my darling (I was so excited to have him with me during the entire ceremony). I draped a saree all by myself this year, got all the things ready and began the 2 & 1/2 hour ceremony of chanting, offerings and praying. Never have I been so nervous while doing a ceremony but with his encouragement I managed to complete it and I was drained but excited too so I spent the day partially asleep in front of my computer before I decided to take a nap. Turns out my brother with the help of a friend managed to complete the ceremony without mom’s help (I am surprised). At midnight I decided to break my fast, had a nice heavy dinner and then spent some time with the nephew. The next day in the evening we said goodbye to the mother and son with some prayer and then promised to invite them again next year. This year was fun because instead of our parents it was me and my brother you did everything. The rest of the city was pretty calm this year though i am not sure whether it is due to environmental awareness or the economy.

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Swamini(2)

P.S :- She seemed to love the gifts I gave her but is yet to transfer the wallpaper designed by my darling to her cellphone. She liked it and was surprised that he even did something for her but she was glad to see him at midnight. Mom even called the nephew cute, quiet (he is not mom ) and a healthy big boy.

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SwaminiAnonymous