Wish you a Happy and Peaceful New Year!

"I give you this to take with you: Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can  begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting." 

— Judith Minty (Letters to My Daughters)

Guess who lives here?

From our garden

Earthen Lantern in the garden

Baby Koi peeking, new addition to our Koi Family

The Sun kissing these lovely flowers

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step

If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.

I find that people here don't smile often or enough. Most seem preoccupied with their worries or thoughts. No one seems to be here and now. Everyone is someplace far away. Why is it so hard to be in the present moment? (and this question comes from someone whose brain is multi-tasking, processing a zillion thoughts and ideas at this particular moment..lol..) :-)

I love the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. 

Smile and live in peace and joy ! :) 

Abandoned Puppy

Found a little female puppy abandoned nearby. What kind of wicked people can leave a pup to die on the street? Human cruelty - when will it ever end? My brother said,'' people can do this to little children so don't fret, this is just a dog''. She couldn't even drink milk from a bowl.....was so hungry when we finally managed to feed it.

Good news - we have found her a new home! :) My brother and sis-in-law ran around to animal shelter and to a pup adoption center since we found her this morning. Luckily one of his work mates wanted to adopt a puppy and was looking for a pup! The little abandoned puppy has found a good home! In this short time this little beauty also got a name - Leona! (psssstt...named after Leona Lewis)

Leona (on the right)  in her new home with her new sister Rugbee

So to this idiot who threw this few months old puppy (brown/black) @ some road in viman nagar on 12/12/10 morning - she is going to be with better human beings than you - lucky her! 

India Microcredit Faces Collapse From Defaults - NY Times Article

From the article:

Microfinance in pursuit of profits has led some microcredit companies around the world to extend loans to poor villagers at exorbitant interest rates and without enough regard for their ability to repay. Some companies have more than doubled their revenues annually.
Now some Indian officials fear that microfinance could become India’s version of the United States’ sub-prime mortgage debacle, in which the seemingly noble idea of extending home ownership to low-income households threatened to collapse the global banking system because of a reckless, grow-at-any-cost strategy.

Butterflies

Strong winds in Summer used to blow in the afternoons and bring with it bunch of dead butterflies. Butterflies of different colors and shapes. Little, poor, dead butterflies. My brother and I had a solution for this mass of dead bodies. We used to pick up each butterfly and bury it in a tiny grave that we would create for them. Burial was a solemn process. 

First dig a tiny pit a few inches wide, layer it with salt (I don't remember why we did that , may be someone told us to ..there must have been an important reason but i can't remember now), then layer it with tiny flowers, lay the dead butterfly in this grave, cover the grave with mud and put more flowers on it and finally stick a cross on the grave (we are Hindus so I am not sure why we put a cross on the graves, I think that idea must have come from some movies we had seen, also no one objected to this burial ritual except our gardener who used to pick out such graves and clear up the garden for the flower beds  amidst huge protests from me and my brother ) ,  shut eyes for a few seconds and pray that the soul of the dead butterfly rests in peace. 

I remember having a 'serious' conversation with my mother on why we should be allowed to continue sending these poor souls to heaven in this way and why we can't let them lie unattended here and there in the garden. Finally, as a result of this discussion we were given a part of the garden as a cemetery. We could create as many graves as we wanted and send as many dead butterflies to heaven as we wanted!

I remember feeling deep sadness and also a sense of responsibility while caring for these poor, battered, dead butterflies. As a child the sorrow of seeing a dead butterfly was huge and then the task of burial was even more heart wrenching. I remember seeing cocoons in the garden and waiting for the butterflies to emerge. 

Life is so ephemeral , precious and that lesson came to us from our parents - who let us observe and be part of the nature and open our hearts to all life forms.