My first TAG!

Tagged by CG.
First time doing a TAG. Please correct me if I goofed up :)!

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Terrible. Bitter. But I would say: "This too shall pass...."

2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
Can't share personal stuff here....but one of my dreams is to help the poor and underprivileged (kids to begin with).

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
My opponent in RB (racquetball).

4. Why do you blog?
It's fun.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
I don't know - maybe, maybe not.

6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
Both - but if I have to choose one, being loved by someone.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
Until I grow out of love.

8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Leave the person - there is no other choice :)

9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Peace.

10. What takes you down the fastest?
When something happens to any of my family members or close friends.

11. What resurrects you the fastest?
TLC - from my near and dear ones.


12. What’s your fear?
Losing my loved ones.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Smart, candid, intelligent.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
I was happy being single and I am happy being married. Rich/poor doesn't matter much to me.

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Brush my teeth.

16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
I don't think I can fall in love with two people simultaneously.

17. Would you give all in a relationship?
I would always try to.

18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
I can forgive but cant forget easily.

19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
In a relationship.

20. Tag 6 people.
Andy, Shubh, Nidhi, Nirali, Tapan, Vijay.

Vibha Dandia 2008

I volunteer for a non-profit organization Vibha - which works to ensure that every underprivileged child attains his or her right to education, health and opportunity (http://wiki.vibha.org/Main_Page).

We organize a Vibha Dandia Event every year for our local Sacramento chapter. This event is not as popular as other Vibha events in our area. We did not make any money from this event last year, so we were thinking of canceling the event this year. But a few of us were motivated to keep this event going and gather some funds to do our little bit for Vibha.

The venue was booked and the date was set for 27th September. However, the "Dhol Baaje" band that we book every year had a conflict. Our efforts to arrange for an alternate band were not successful. Our chapter co-ordinator persuaded us to form a band from our volunteer base.

The event advertised a live band, so we had to have one. We found one volunteer to play the dhol and few volunteers who are good singers. The band was formed :)!

We also booked a DJ for the event - the band could not perform for the entire duration of the event, so we decided to do a combination of DJ and live band. I gathered few garba CDs and met with the DJ to co-ordinate the music for the event.

The band started practice only 10 days before the event.We BROKE the dhol we had borrowed during our very first practice. We got it fixed and returned it to the owner. Most of our singers were non-gujju, so they started practising few garba songs and they did a fantastic job picking up the Gujarati Garba lyrics. In the meantime, I contacted the "DHOL BAAJE" band and was able to get a DHOL for the event.

Now comes the day of the event. We had sold less than 50 tickets - TOTAL. I was very very nervous. I got ready around 5pm and reached the venue to help with the arrangements. My nervousness was obvious. Slowly, people started coming. It was mostly non-Indians and NRI teenagers (some with their parents). Around 7pm, we started the DJ music.

I started dancing, along with my sister and few other friends. And then everyone joined. And more people came. And they kept coming :)

We stopped the DJ music, introduced our live band - and they performed. Everyone loved it. Everyone was dancing.

Most of the crowd was non-gujjus and we were giving garba/dandia lessons to whoever was interested.

The event was a huge success with more than 200 people attending. I had to leave around 10.30pm as my parents were leaving for India the next day, but my friends said everyone was dancing and enjoying until midnight.

I came home with a feeling of content - of having made a positive impact on the future of India, of having helped an underprivileged child with his basic rights.

Here are a few pictures from the event:

THINK

I read this today morning and made me think/reflect about so many things - my family, my friends, my work, my priorities, etc etc.

Hope it makes you guys think too!!!! And please share this with someone you care about.

A professor stood before his Philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.

He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

"The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car..

"The sand is everything else--the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

"The same goes for life.
"If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Play with your children.

"Take time to get medical checkups.

"Take your partner out to dinner.

"Play another 18.

"There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

"Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter.

"Set your priorities.

"The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked.

"It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a cup of coffee with a friend."

SLEEP

Since I LOVE to sleep, I decided to write this blog post about it.

I always say to my family and friends, SLEEP is my first boyfriend.

I cannot live without him, and I have to spend time with him every single day.
The more time I can spend, the happier I am the next day ;)

I am very loyal to him, and have been with him since the day I was born.

Me and my sleep - we dream a lot together. We travel around the world, we watch horror movies, we attend weddings, we drive crazy fast, we snorkel with the fishies, and have soooooooo much FUN together!!!!

There have been very FEW days in my life when I haven't slept, and I remember I was always miserable the next day.

Last night, I slept for 12 hours. It was BLISS!!!!

Happie Sleeping to all of you :)

Respect

I have faced this situation several times in the recent past when people close to my heart and people who I respect have said that I dont respect them. They very well know that I respect them, but when I confront them about something with a very strong opinion, they do not take it positively and consider that disrespectful.

This makes me wonder. Am I wrong that I am confronting them about something that I feel so strongly? Should I just stay quiet about how I feel so that they dont feel this way? Where/How do I draw the fine line between expressing my opinion and still making them feel respected?

It hurts a lot to hear from a loved one that I dont respect them. I am very sensitive to it and their words sting me.

I am sometimes harsh with my words, but not always. My close ones know me well, and so I have an expectation that they will understand that I was harsh in anger, but I did not really mean everything I said. I try everyday to get better at expressing myself when I am angry or frustrated, and over a period of time, I have become better at it. But there's still work to do this area.

I hope I dont have to face such situations again and will try my best to avoid them.

Please send me your thoughts and opinions on this issue.

To infinity and beyond - A sparkling survival story

I have few colleagues/friends with Autistic children. I have read about Autism, but more than reading, I have interacted a lot with these kids in the last 5 years. I have a colleague who has a soccer team of Austistic kids, and to watch them play is pure joy. They have different skills, but each of these kids is exceptional at something - even at a young age of 3-5 years. It amazes me.

I am sharing a story I read on CNN today about a father and his son (who has Autism) who survived in the open Atlantic for 12 hours.

Walter Marino shouted to his 12-year-old son, Christopher, as he drifted farther away in the Atlantic Ocean.

Christopher and Walter Marino tread water for more than 12 hours before being rescued.

"To infinity," the father yelled.

"And beyond," Christopher replied.


After a rip current swept the boy and his father out to sea Saturday, darkness fell, and the sound of rescue helicopters and boats grew faint until they were nonexistent.

Despite the danger, Christopher, who has autism, was enjoying himself, his father said. The boy lacks a fear of death because of his autism and finds comfort in the water, Marino told CNN.

Marino finds comfort in his son. Their unique circumstances helped keep them alive for more than 12 hours in the open ocean, Marino said.

"With many kids with autism, the thing that is so dangerous is that they have no concept of fear or fear of death," Marino said. "In this case, though, it perhaps saved him -- that and the fact that water is one of his favorite things. Whenever he goes missing or tries to run away, we can always find him near water ... even at the mall if it is just near a fountain."

Christopher was laughing as the father and son were pulled farther and farther from Ponce Inlet, Florida. As the pair lunged for buoys -- and missed -- Christopher couldn't help but giggle. It was this spirit that helped ground Marino, the father said.

Pair rescued after more than 12 hours in Atlantic. "It was a big entertainment roller coaster for him, that's what got me through it -- because he wasn't freaking out," said Marino, 46.

But after four hours at sea without a life vest, and after it became obvious that rescue operations had ceased for the night, jellyfish began to sting the pair. That began to "freak Christopher out," his father said.

While Christopher is almost nonverbal in his communication, he and his father use catch phases from Disney movies, which the boy loves, to communicate.

After four hours, the currents picked up, and Christopher began to drift from his father's reach. Because of the darkness, they couldn't see each other. So Marino shouted out part of a phrase to his son.

"To infinity," Marino shouted, referencing one of Christopher's favorite lines from the movie "Toy Story."

"And beyond," Christopher shouted back, pumping his fist in the air like movie character Buzz Lightyear.

The call and response went on for a while, with Marino choosing different phrases and Christopher yelling back. But over the course of an hour, Christopher's voice faded until his father couldn't hear him anymore.

"That's when I resigned myself to the fact that he was gone," Marino told CNN, saying he believed his son had been pulled under the water. At the time, Marino said, he thought about giving up, until he thought of his daughter Angela. She had just registered for ballroom dance classes, and he told himself over and over he would live to see her dance.

"I just kept thinking about her and how I was not going to leave her without a brother and her father in the same day -- not on my watch," he told CNN. "It was the visual of her that kept me going."

Marino used other tricks to keep his mind focused in the 81-degree water. He remembered going to the Ponce Inlet museum, which highlighted a lighthouse. He then set out to use the lighthouse as a guide for himself, so he would know how far he was from shore.

He alternated doing the "doggie paddle" and floating on his back with his ears in the water, the way his son loved to.

He would float on his back and watch the bright stars. He wished on four shooting stars that flew by and used constellations in the sky to know what direction to go if he drifted away.

Under the stars and in the dark Atlantic, he turned to his spirituality, realizing his life was in God's hands. A religious medal rested on his chest.

As morning turned, Marino tried to stay alert for sounds that might mean help was near.

Hearing a boat motor, he waved frantically.

Soon, a group of fishermen pulled him aboard their boat. A flash of light from the medallion had caught the eye of one of the anglers, who shouted at his brother at the helm to stop the boat, one of Marino's rescuers told him.

The first thing Marino asked was if the men had heard anything about his son, but they hadn't.

Marino began to grieve. It had been nearly eight hours since he had last seen his son, and he believed he was gone for good. He wept.

When the U.S. Coast Guard arrived, Marino asked them, too, about Christopher, but they said they had not found him. The Coast Guard crew asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, but he decided to stay on the boat so the search for Christopher wouldn't be disrupted.

But Marino chose not to watch the water as the search went on.

"I chose to be down below, because I didn't want to see them pull up on Christopher being face-down in the water," he said.

So the Coast Guard vessel steamed on. After more than an hour, the boat went full throttle, jolting Marino backward in his space below deck. Suddenly, the boat was idling, and Marino was asked to come topside.

"That was my personal green mile," Marino told CNN, a reference to what some people call the walk on death row from the cell to the execution chamber.

"I took three steps up the green mile to the back of the deck, and they pointed to the helicopter and they said, 'You see that helicopter? It has your son on it, and he is fine,' " Marino recalled a crew member saying.

Marino was so excited he began "kissing all the Coast Guard guys."

The father and son were reunited at the emergency room at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where they were treated for dehydration.

"We were both very weak, tired and thirsty," Marino said. "But I reached out and held his hand and could tell from the same sparkle in his eye that he was going to be fine."

While Christopher can't truly communicate what he felt during those hours alone at sea, his father hopes that one day, he will be able to tell him what he felt alone in the Atlantic.


The one thing Marino knows is that his son still loves the water and that the experience hasn't taken away that special comfort from him.

"It may be a while before we go back to a beach," Marino said. "But he still loves the water. He's already gotten back in a pool."

Quotes

Here are a few quotes I came across recently that I would like to share:

- "Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder."

- Warren Buffett: "A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing."

- Melinda Gates: "If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped."

- Henry Ford - "If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me "A faster horse."

- Robin Williams - "You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."

- "It doesn't matter where you go in life....what you do....or how much you have....It's who you have beside you."

- Eleanor Roosevelt - "Do what you feel in your heart to be right. You'll be criticized anyway."

- "What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility."

- "Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult :). "