Guess Things happen that way

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Johnny Cash's Guess Things Happen That Way lyrics struck --sad yet hopeful.

Well you ask me if I'll forget my baby.
I guess I will, someday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll get along.
I guess I will, someway.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

You ask me if I'll miss her kisses.
I guess I will, everyday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll find another.
I don't know. I can't say.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

Senior Citizens Bill...

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The Union Cabinet, in a significant decision for the welfare of the older people, approved the senior citizens bill on Thursday. The bill, the Maintenance And Welfare Of Parents And Senior Citizens Bill 2006, would be tabled in Lok Sabha in the coming Budget Session.

According to the new bill, efficient care and better protection would be provided to senior citizens in the country. The bill will also make available a prompt and reasonable legal framework for them. The legal support would help senior citizens to get better maintenance to live a comfortable life.

The senior Citizen Bill would make it obligatory for every person in the country to provide better care and comfortable financial assistance to their parents and grandparents.

The Bill says further that if a person fails to provide assistance to his or her parents, they would be treated as guilty of offence under the Senior Citizens Act.

Later, under the Act, the court may also order anybody to provide financial help to their parents and grandparents. Ignorance of those orders may send them to jail.

The idea and motive behind the bill is to make people responsible for the older people in the family. Moreover, the bill also says that the government would maintain a data of senior citizens living in an area and it would pay them Rs 1000 per month.

The government has also decided to provide enough old-age homes specially for those older people who have no body to take care of them.

Surprise.. In India, we talk about culture, family.. but we need a bill to enforce elderly care -- do you think this bill can change anything?? Can Law enforce love or respect ?

The Past.. re-lived

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crash landed on Reminiscences re-lived
and I did relive....The Past

A setting so perfect
It's past lushes in scenes
Frame works of still pulsing stopping living

But with great feelings I look back
Judging each character as my eye freezes
The moments of past pictures
Something, which the future can’t even grasp

There it was again.
That moment.
as the universe
went about its business as usual.
There we were for a rare moment of
water lapping the lake edge.
it had to pass the perfection of it drifted
beyond our grasp;
to emerge from memory's still waters,
a deep ache of longing.

memories - but then again, life certainly is constanly morphing thing

Making and UnMaking of Child Soldier...

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I recently picked up a book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, which lead me to read more about Ishmael Beah, once a boy solider in Africa.

I found this New York Time's - The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier kinda of summarize his book.

Child Solider, the life that I cannot think how worst it can be... Everywhere in the world where there are conflicts and wars. The children tend to be used as key factors in fighting. Countless numbers of these children are forced to join whilst others are determined and willing to join because of lack of parental care.

They are sometimes between the ages of 4-14 years old and trained up in the bush and become very dangerous like wild animals. These children are given a chemical substance that s their daily food during battle, it makes these children to be more and more dangerous like a bush fire in the harmattan.' Worst of all, they are armed with heavy artilleries and other big machine weapons like A.K.-47, RPG, and others. They use these weapons to launch a barrage of attacks on highways, towns and villages, seas and every corner of the country. They also use weapons like culasses and knives that they use to amputate and inject the stomachs of pregnant women. They challenge themselves over the pregnant woman's stomach by saying that the unborn baby is a boy or girl so by this, way they slit the stomach of the woman with crude knives and uproot the unborn baby.

Its no brainier to say, violence and involvement of children in armed conflicts must be stopped since this only means no peaceful atmosphere for the others growing up of tomorrow. The only thing that the governments and other local and international non-governmental organizations should do is to create disarmament, demobilization and resettlement programs in order to integrate these children into society again.

I Pray for those children.. and Wish my daughter or grand-daughter would read such stories in history museum and not in newspapers.

its Time...to Let go

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Letting go doesn't mean to stop caring.
It means I can't do it for someone else.

To let go isn't to cut myself off.
It's the realization that I can't control another.
Rather than to enable...it is to allow learning from natural consequences.

Letting go is to admit powerlessness.
Meaning the outcome is not in my hands.
It is not to try to change or blame another; but knowing that I can only change myself.
Instead of caring for, it is to care about.
It is to be supportive instead of to fix.

To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To allow others to effect their own outcomes, instead of being in the middle arranging all the outcomes.
It is not to be protective but to permit another to face reality.

To let go is not to deny but to accept.
Not to nag, scold or argue, but rather to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.

To let go is not to adjust everything to my own desires but to take
Each day as it comes and to cherish each moment.
Not to criticize and to regulate anyone, but to try to become the dream -I can be.

Instead of regret for the past...
It is to grow and live for the future,
To fear less and to love more.

~an unknown thought provoker

Adoption in India.. needs voice

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I heard Adopting a child in India is very very long and hard process. I can remember reading real life story My Temporary Son: An Orphan's Journey explains the some difficulties.

from mumbaigirl's post - I have linked petition below and appreciate your support.

Streamlining RIPA Re-licensing Process and NOC Process for NRI/OCI/PIO

To: Prime Minister's Offce, India

Honorable Prime Minister of India
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi

NRI/OCI/PIO families currently face several delays when adopting from India. One of the contributing factors is the expiry of licenses of the RIPAs, and the subsequent delays in the license renewal process. NOCs cannot be issued by CARA for the children and the parents cannot get custody of the child for pre-adoption foster-care until the RIPA's license is renewed.

The license for a RIPA is valid for a period of 1-3 years and there is a gap of several months before the license is renewed. At this time, 16 of the 67 licenses have already expired or will expire this month (Feb 2007). These 67 RIPAs are the only agencies NRIs/ OCIs/ PIOs can go through and when over 20\% of them have expired licenses that indicates a breakdown in the process resulting in significant disruption in the adoption process. Such disruptions cause the children to remain in the orphanages for much longer than they should. The longer a child is institutionalized, the greater the probability of attachment disorders and long term trauma. Also, the NOC is just one step in the process, and once the NOC is awarded, the case still has to be adjudicated in court which could take several months.

Uncertainty in the timeframe of RIPA license renewal is quite stressful for everyone involved – the RIPAs (who should be focusing on caring for the children and on operational details rather than chasing down license status everyday), the adoptive families (whose lives are on-hold for such long periods of time) as well as the State and CARA personnel (who have to constantly answer questions on status instead of focusing on completing their scrutiny in a timely manner).

These delays are not good for either the children or the families waiting anxiously to hold them. The sooner the children can go into a loving home, the better it is for them.

We would be very grateful if you could please help us in this regard by streamlining/ standardizing the process of license renewals of RIPAs. Timely renewal of licenses of RIPAs will help the children come home to their families sooner and assimilate/ integrate better. Some of the suggestions that might be implemented are:

• Implement the timeline suggested in the 2006 CARA Guidelines of 15 days for issuing the NOC to prospective adoptive parents.

• Any dossiers submitted before the license expires should be processed by CARA based on the "time in" stamp.

• If there are no complaints or detrimental reports against a RIPA, then a provisional license should be provided for a 3-6 month period while the detailed scrutiny is carried out, so that NOCs can be issued and adjudicating the cases in court is not stopped.

• Pre-approve the NOC for families who have adopted before and are in compliance with all reporting requirements based on the recommendation of the RIPA.

• Expedite NOC turnaround time for children that might require urgent medical attention to address chronic or other medical conditions.

• Post NOC statistics on the CARA website, such as average time to issue NOC and number of NOCs issued every month and to which RIPA.

As a community, we (NRI/OCI/PIO families) maintain very strong ties to India and we would like to bring home our adopted children as soon as possible. We teach our children Indian traditions and arts and visit India very often. We greatly appreciate your consideration of our request.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

Few Interesting Links on Adoption in India:
http://adoptionblogs.typepad.com/
Indian Adoption Resource
Indian Adoption Process
Indian Adoption Agency in US
Indian Adoption

Reality.. is very Subjective

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Subjective reality's container is the ever-present awareness, the field of consciousness in which all of reality takes place. This "reality" includes all thought and all of its manifestations, including the following: ideas, concepts, imagination, people, animals, plants, places, objects, events, circumstances, situations, relationships, beliefs, emotions, time (past, present, future), the afterlife, spirits, angels, etc. Anything and everything you can perceive or conceive is part of this reality. There is no outside. Even the act of considering there may be something outside is still taking place within that awareness. So if you die physically and find yourself a disembodied spirit, you're still experiencing subjective reality. Truthfully only your ego can experience death.

Your true identity is the ever-present awareness, the field of consciousness in which all of reality exists. It is permanent and immortal. It exists independent of time, and it can only be perceived in the present.

You are free to identify with the ego, but it is not your true identity. To say you are your ego persona is like saying you are your thumb. Your thumb is certainly a part of you, but it is not the entirety of you. Just as you are much more than your thumb, you are much more than your ego. But to the degree you turn your ego (or your thumb) into your whole identity, you limit your experience immensely. There's some value in having that experience to be sure, but eventually you'll suspect there's more to you than just a thumb.

People, including your own avatar, are projections of consciousness. They are not projections of your ego; your ego itself is a projection of consciousness as well.

Every human being is effectively a physical representation of part of the contents of consciousness. You are that consciousness, so every human being is a manifestation of a part of you. Consequently, everyone is significant and meaningful — there are no irrelevant or inconsequential people.

Every person you create in your reality is the manifestation of a thought. Every unique person represents a specific aspect of consciousness itself… a specific aspect of you. If you understand yourself fully, you will know all there is to know about people. And if you understand other people fully, you will know yourself completely.

Feb'07: WikiCamp @ Chennai

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The same team who organized BlogCamp is now bringing out WikiCamp, India's first unconference on wikis.

Wikicamp is all about harnessing and understanding the power of Wikis. It is a one day event aimed to bring together the best minds from the Wiki/Internet space to talk about issues, opportunities and what the future and evolution of this valuable tool looks like.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, will be a key speaker at the event.

The event takes place at Tidel Park,Chennai on the 25th Feb'07.

You can get more information at http://www.WikiCamp.in

If you are interested in taking part, you can register at
http://wikicamp.in/wiki/index.php?title=Participants

Social Skills: Introvert - may be BUT Extrovert - good to have

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As a child I was very introvert, often spending my time on the very few close friends, keeping to myself, pursuing other solo hobbies. I’d usually favor doing these things alone or with people I knew very well. I never felt too comfortable around strangers, and I never cared for big family events. Anyone who knew me would have described me as an introvert without a second thought.

In normal (south)indian lifestyle..this is no big deal and no pressure to socialize always. and I often viewed extroverts as lacking in intelligence and depth, and I can’t say I wanted to count myself among them.

However, over a long period of time, I eventually found myself becoming more and more extroverted. I embraced spending time with other people, went out of my way to meet new people, could comfortably introduce myself to strangers, and actually enjoyed it. To the people who know me today, this wouldn’t be surprising.

I’m not the kind of extrovert I envisioned as a child though. I feel I’ve done a good job balancing the introvert and extrovert parts of myself, such that I enjoy both types of activities equally. I feel just as comfortable staying at home reading a book as I do going to a new social event and introducing myself to people I’ve never met. I enjoy both group and solo activities, each for different reasons. Some weeks I’m far more introverted and mostly stay home with my family. Other weeks I have a full social calendar with an event almost every night. I enjoy both just as much.

• Undervaluing extroversion. Spending time alone and with people are equally important. If you’re very introverted, you may undervalue the positive role people can play in your life, such as knowledge, friendship, growth, laughter, and so on. The optimal outcome is to strike a balance between the two. You don’t have to give up the introvert activities you enjoy. In fact, when you balance them with more social activities, you’ll probably find them even more satisfying. After several nights of being around people, I really look forward to a night by myself to read, write, sleep, etc. And after lots of time alone or with my family, I’m itching to go out and be around other people.
• Underdeveloped social skills. Social skills can be learned like any other skill set. One reason introverts shy away from social activities is that they don’t feel comfortable because they don’t know what to do, especially if the unexpected were to occur. Being able to start up a conversation with a stranger AND feel completely comfortable doing it is a learnable skill. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Embrace the fact if you’re a beginner, and don’t compare yourself to others.
• Envisioning yourself as the wrong kind of extrovert. If you find the extroverted people around you shallow and perhaps even annoying, why would you want to be more like them? You wouldn’t. When I was a kid, I really didn’t want to be more like the extroverts I knew. It seemed very fake and phony to me. But you needn’t choose such a limited vision for yourself — you’re free to form your own vision of a positive way to be more extroverted.
• Hanging out with the wrong people. Why would you want to spend more time with people you don’t like? If becoming more extroverted means spending more time with people you’d rather avoid, you’ll have no motivation to do it. Again, you’re free to break this pattern and form a social group that you’d love to be a part of.
• Overvaluing online socializing. Online socializing has its place in your life, but it’s a pale shadow compared to face-to-face communication. Voice and body language can communicate a lot more than text, and emotional bonds are easier and faster to establish in person.

In my experience, I find many reasons for good-to-be-an-extrovert.

No thumbrulez, and Iam no expert.. but I believe Extrovert (and Introvert balance) can take you much further than otherwise you normally would go. If you want to get past some of blocks, the first step is to acknowledge them and consider how they’re holding you back. Then begin to work on them just as you would any other challenge in your life.

Lost ancient civilization of world - India

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Lost ancient civilization of world - India is Discovery channel documentary highlights early History of India..



What ancients did for us - The INDIANS
The amazing inventions, extraordinary ideas and world's first and advanced civilization by Indians that are still usefull today, such as plastic sergery, number system, wax, yogas, water clock, etc.


Must watch..