Pyaarey puttar, Vahe Guru.
I'm writing this letter slow, because I know you can't read fast. We don't live where we did when you left home. Your dad read in the paper that most accidents happen 20 miles from your home, so we moved. I won't be able to send you the address as the last Sardar who stayed here took the numbers with them for their next house, so they wouldn't have to change their address. This place is really nice. It even has a washing machine. I'm not sure it works too well : last week I put in 3 shirts, pulled the chain and haven't seen them since. The weather here isn't too bad. It rained only twice last week. The first it rained for 3 days and second time for 4 days. The coat you wanted me to send you, your Aunt said it would be a little too heavy to send in the mail with all the buttons, so we cut them off and put them in the pocket. We got another bill from the funeral home. It said that if we don't make the last payment on Grandma's funeral, she will come up again. Your father has another job. He has 500 men under him. He is cutting the grass at the cemetery. Your sister had a baby this morning. I haven't found out whether it's a girl or a boy, so I don't know whether you are an Aunt or Uncle. Your uncle, Jatinder fell in a whisky vat. Some men tried to pull him out, but he fought them off and drowned. We cremated him and he burned for three days. Three of your friends went off the bridge in a pick-up truck. One was driving, the other two were in the back. The driver got out, he rolled down the window and swam to safety. The other drowned because they couldn't get the tall gate down. There isn't much more news this time. Nothing much has happened.
Love
Mom.
PS.: I was going to send you some money but the envelope was already sealed.
May 25, 2005
This is a letter from a Sardarni Mother to her son.
children in armed conflict
Child soldiers an article form hindu...
few more stories on this
http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/000260.html
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2005-04-25-voa27.cfm
depressing.
stem cell research
stem cell research bill passes
"The House then overwhelmingly passed a Republican-backed proposal that would use federal money to study stem cells taken from adults and umbilical cord blood, instead of using human embryos.
The vote was 431-1. One Republican voted against the bill, which was supported by Bush."
quotes
I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.
--Gilda Radner
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.
--Ivy Baker Priest
May 22, 2005
quote
On Being Saved
Reinhold Niebuhr
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime;
therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone, therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint; therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.
anonymuncule
zindagi se mulaqat kaisi rahi?
zindagi se mulaqat kaisi rahi?
daman main bikhre phulo si rahi,
unko chunte samay kanton si rahi,
phir bahte lahu ko thamte hatho se rahi,
badalte hatho ke anjane jazbato si rahi.
zindagi se mulaqat kaisi rahi?
suraj ke bikhre sone si rahi,
uski nirakarta samete badalo si rahi,
phir badalo se bikhri rimjhim si rahi,
rimjhim me mitti ki sondhi kushbu si rahi.
na jane zindagi se mulaqat kaisi rahi...
here it is (though i hate writing hindi in english)
humor
i always find speeches given by bush funny. here are parts of one more from cnn :)
Bush to 2005 grads: Get involved
"Someday you will appreciate the grammar and verbal skills you learn here," he deadpanned to laughter from the audience. "And if any of you wonder how far a mastery of the English language can take you, just look what it did for me."
May 21, 2005
food for thought...
from cnn:
Bush threatens veto on stem cell research bill
one of the much debated issue in genetic engineering: stem cell research.
the faq on this site gives some insite into the topic. like most other genetc engineering there are issues attached to it also.
religion no basis for Kashmir solution...
from indianexpress:
General says it: yes, religion no basis for Kashmir solution
In what could significantly - and pragmatically - push the peace process forward and alter the discourse on Kashmir, Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf said tonight that given India's "sensitivities of its secular credentials," a solution to the Kashmir issue cannot be on a religious basis. Instead, it could be on a "people's basis, a regional basis."
this is a different stand point that has been taken by the Pakistani President. well though i do not know that this is a definite progress with the way things swing between us and our beloved neighbor.
but it does make me wonder where religion can be used as a basis... was religion the right reason for hitler to kill Jews? was religion the right reason to form Israel? was it religion the right basis to divide India and everything that followed? was religion the right reason for 1984(post Indira Gandhi)? was religion the right reason for whatever has happened in Kashmir? was religion the right reason for babri masjhid? was religion the right reason for Gujarat, 9/11? was religion a reason good enf for the Saudi laws? was religion the right reason for Taliban? or post Taliban? was religion the right reason even for the crusades/jihad? does a book, an idol, a belief give us enough reason to kill?
does that mean that religion should be putaway!?!?!?!!!! is there a problem in the concept of religion itself? or is it a problem with our interpretation of it? or is it a problem with our will to be always right? or maybe a problem in accepting difference? or is it just human nature that it will misuse what it possibly can?
or is it just me thinking too much since i have had an extended discussion on religion :)
May 19, 2005
quotes
"Most people would rather be certain that they're miserable, than risk being happy"
--Robert Anthony
"We can avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision."
--Gray Collins
"We must accept finite disappointment but never loose infinite hope."
--Martin Luther King Jr.
May 18, 2005
Lao Tzu
was browsing through lao tzu teachings.
one of his teachings...
"stop thinking and end your problems"
at first thought it sounds funny though i have to figure out what he means by it.
a formless, unfantomable source of things -- Taoism
Look, it cannot be seen - it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard - it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held - it is intangible.
These three are indefinable, they are one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark:
Unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.
Form of the formless,
Image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.
Stand before it - there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the Tao, Move with the present.
initially tao's teachings seems absurd. but after going through few of them they starts to make "sense". i haven't read his teaching in a long time so forgot the essence of it. however he drives us to be in sink with nature, spontaneous action... he says to go with the flow(flow of nature) though most of them have tremendous paradox in them and go round in circles. but it is very interesting school of thoughts.
i wonder if we have come to far from nature to get back in sink with it?
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