Valetine Day Special

Valentine day is celebrated amidst lot of fanfare every year on the 14th. day of February. This is a day when love is in the air and when lovers all across the globe express their feelings towards their loved ones. In the recent years, the fever of valentine day has caught up quiet strongly among the people of India. There is a sudden swift change all around the marketplace as lot of shops gear up to sell merchandises to mark the occasion, hotels come up with lucrative discounts to attract the love birds, and there is seen a sudden rise in the number of cinema-goers. All this a part of the interesting marketing strategies adopted by the corporate world. In India, this years valentine day festivities would be in the backdrop of the recent attack on women pub-goers in Mangalore.

The tourism industry also works at rapid fire pace as they gear up for this day with announcement of many lucrative tour packages to attract the consumers. People in love leave no stone unturned in ensuring they give their best to their loved ones and each one of them makes it a point that the day is memorable as it is the only day in the world kept exclusively for love. They spend lavishly on gifts and booking exotic tour packages to woo their loved ones, with metropolitan city goers of Delhi & Mumbai going as far as the backwaters of Kerala to renew their love vows.

There is a wide-spread caution among the law enforcement agencies all over the country to ensure that the festivities are not marred by any unruly incident by any group acting as a moral police. Acts like the one instigated recently in Mangalore in the garb of moral policing curtails the freedom of expression of the citizen of India and show it in bad light in front of the world. Therefore, the law enforcement agencies will be all geared up to prevent any untoward incident on 14th. of February.

Etiquette And Customs

India is a vast country and different customs are followed in different parts of the country. The metros are usually more liberal and cosmopolitan than the countryside, where you may come across unusual customs as are preserved over thousands of years. In general, the attitude to life is vastly different from that in the western world. But Indians are very hospitable people


1 . Always remove your shoes before entering a holy place – a temple, gurudwara or a mosque. Gurudwaras will also require you to cover your head.

2. Do not touch any holy object with your feet or your left hand. Also do not accept or give or eat using your left hand.

3 . Public show of affection is generally disapproved of, particularly in smaller cities and villages.

4 . Avoid wearing skimpy and revealing clothes. Though metropolitan cities are liberal on this front, but in smaller villages, do not even wear clothes that bare hands and legs.

5 . Always follow rules written on notice boards at holy places. If they are written in local languages, make sure you get them clarified from the authorities there before you make a blunder. The rules sometimes can be pretty strict.

6 . Giving tips is customary but not mandatory.

The Significance of Indian Traditional Wedding

More and more couples today are choosing for wedding that are more party and less rituals. Their view is that the rituals that have been a part of Indian weddings are for nothing and are of no use. However that is not the truth and every ritual that is carried out during a wedding have their own significance, whether symbolic or spiritual. Here are five of them that hold the most importance or let us say, made most important by wedding scenes in Bollywood flicks.

1. Kundali (Horoscope)
Matching of horoscopes of bride and bridegroom is what sets the ball rolling. In all arranged Indian weddings. The stars of boy the girl should match for the wedding to happen. Their horoscopes are matched on 8 accounts namely Varna, Vasya, Tara, Yoni, Gana, Nadi, Rashi Lord, and Bhakoot. All these aspects have different ratings and they total upto 36. A score of 19 is the minimum that should be attained to be qualified.

2. The Turmeric Anoinment
Both bride and bridegroom are anointed with paste of turmeric in their own houses. It is done on the day of marriage just before taking a bath. Turmeric is known to have medicinal values as a perfect skin conditioner. It open up the pores, cleanses the skin and gives it a shine and natural glow.

3. Walking Around The Sacred Fire
Fire in Indian marriages are considered to be holy witness to this event of joining of two souls in the holy matrimony. The bride and bridegroom walk around the fire seven times exchanging marriage vows.

4. The 'Saat Phere'
This is probably the most identifiable symbol of an Indian marriage. The seven steps taken around the fire which symbolize the seven vows affirming there mutual commitment at every rotation. These vows are regarding taking care of food and finance; taking care of household and children; mutual fidelity; wishing longevity and togetherness in all phases of life; truthfulness and abiding by the laws of Vedas.

5. The 'Mangalsutra”
Meaning the sacred thread. Mangalsutra is not just a piece of wedding jewellery, it holds a lot of importance and is supposed to be on the bride's neck at all times. It is a black and gold beaded necklace with a gold or diamond pendant. The bridegroom ties it around the neck during the ceremony. The Mangalsutra is believed to protect the bride from all evils.

Is This The Best Time To Be Alive?

I’ve learnt a lot about our past and I’m hearing a lot about the future. Our past was marred with fights of man with man, inequality and low life. And our future seems to be heading towards another clash, this time man and nature. Seems like nature will make us answerable to all the misdeeds that we have carried upon it.

Thus I believe that this is the best era to be alive in, but some people think otherwise. They give me examples of global democracy, injustice, plight of women and poverty to back their point. I agree with them that these are prominent troubles that are pinching our society. But these problems were there in earlier days as well, far greater in proportion than they are present today. And there were worse problems in our past.

Let us look at it from women’s perspective. In which period of our past, did women have so many rights and thought to be equal to men. Even in the so-called developed western countries, their condition was nothing less than miserable. But today, even the third world and Arab countries too have reserved rights for women. In today’s world women are becoming parallel to man in every respect, they are no more hidden in the layers of pardha (veil), can carry themselves without the support of their men folks, knows how to earn a living with dignity, and are gaining prestigious position whether in corporate of in prliament. Isn’t amazing.

Horrified by the thought of being of women in the past century? Imagine being ill. Epidemics and plagues were rampant thought the world, infant mortality rate were heart wrenching, number of hospitals and the facilities provided in them was pathetic. Add to that no antibiotics, And the scenario of a living hell is complete.

Today most parts of the world are virtually free of many killer diseases like the cholera, polio etc. The life expectancy has never been better. But then there are diseases like AIDS, that still remind us that nature is the one running us, and not the other way round.

Then they argue that we are the most indecent and ill-mannered society.
Oh Please! Let’s go back a little bit to the 1950’s. What do you see? Racism at its peak, caste wars, ‘No Black’ sign boards outside hotels and restaurants, no looking in the eye of higher caste people. Do that today and you are game for several years of free hospitality behind the steel bars.

No matter what others think, I truly believe that is, without a doubt the best time to be alive. Enjoy every moment of present, coz’ you really don’t know when the future begins.

I am Bound! I am Habituated

I would be wrong if I said that experiences have brought us only good. We believe that bad experiences in life hurt us, but make us stronger for future. True in many instances. But what about the good experiences. They might have made us happy and satisfied at times. But more often than not, we end up picking up habits that keep us comfortable and in a shell.

Whether good or bad, experiences bring with them a set of fears and habits that become a part of our lives. With time they slip into our unconscious mind and more or less, control the way we do things. There might not be anything utterly wrong with these habits, They might have worked for us in the past; not once but number of times. But now we are bound in a very tiny world where the waters are always calm, the weather is always pleasant.

We become unaware of a wider world where a lot more can be achieved. The very habits that we love the most curb our actual potential to achieve a far greater level of success. Of course, we have to step out of our comfort shell and try new things. There would be higher risks and more mistakes. But then, a person who has not made mistakes has not made anything else either.

Believe me, screwing up things once in a while, isn’t that bad or entertainment less.

The big question is how to go about it. First and foremost is definitely to segregate the hollow habits. It might look tough from the outside, but just a peak within you, and they start to unravel themselves. Empty vessels make more noise. It is easy to spot them. However it is not easy to throw them out of your system. Ask someone who has quit smoking or drinking. Those habits will admit ample impediments to stop you from finding new and better ways. But it is possible.

All you have to do is take conscious decisions. Make sure that you do things differently. There are thousands of ways to go about things and you have the capability to do it in all those ways. So why hold yourself back and stick to the habits that no more pay rich dividends.

Experimentation is the mantra to a happy and successful life. Because problems may remain same, but the situations always change.