{mosimage}My friend SMSed me that she had changed her religion. Admitted she is bit a religious girl and she was God fearing. Initially I thought she was joking, but then I learnt that she was really serious and had got converted to another religion. When I called her she started giving a lecture about her new religion and she said that all these time she had been doing wrong being in the religion she was before. What to say, it is her personal opinion, but one thing what I can't understand is "Do religion need to be taken so seriously in a human life?" I personally believe that there is a super natural force above us and there is no denial about it.

{mosimage}Last week a news in "Gulf News" was disturbing me a lot. It dealt with the rising trend in the suicide of Indian workers (54 in 2003 to 85 in 2005) and Indian workers form the majority of suicide attemps. Even shocking was the bias of the report that it tried to project that Indians attempt suicide wherever they are, thus washing off the hands against the exploitations here in UAE. Every suicide victim has a wrenching & moving story behind them, some come here for repaying the debts, some for the dowry of their sisters). Many pay downpayment of about Rs. 1 lakhs to the agents to land in the job that fetches Dhs. 750~800 (approx INR. 8500 ~ 10,000) with false promises of overtime jobs.

{mosimage}Today I sighed a relief that all the hype and hooplah that surrounds the Valentine's Day is finally coming to an end. It was really sick to hear the radios and media screaming love all over since February 1st. Whatever might be the story behind the Valentine's Day, my opinion is is that it is fuelled and foddered by the card manufacturers, florists, music companies and jewellary shops to increase their revenues. More numbers of love affairs an individuals have, more merrier those business men.

{mosimages}Sometimes we don't understand how certain things happen. We will be thinking of something / someone from our good old memories and to much of our surprise we would have stumbled on them that day / time. Similiar thing happened to me yesterday. While I was combing my hair this morning accidentally I looked at the calender, it had a caption - "Every journey begins with a single step". Somebody had written and signed with similiar line in my diary on the very first day when they came into my life. She had written in her words as "The secret of getting ahead is... getting started". She is someone special and always close to my heart. Whenever I was in trouble her words soothed me to greater extent. She had more faith in my capabilities... much more than what I had in myself. Physically she was around me for three-four months only, a crazy goose who'll drop just a line as a reply for 10-20 mails I had sent, but whenever I was in trouble she comes reaches out to me without any invitation to bail me out. Yesterday evening I was terribly frustrated and came to room with a headache, to much of my surprise that I got excited, I received SMS messages from her after a lo.....ng time. Sometimes life is really beautiful.

{mosimage}I think I had touched this topic previously but this starts from where the previous blog ended. We all admit that man is a social animal and we can't exist in vaccuum. That means we need others existence to survive, rejuvinate ourselves and populate, but the happiness lies within ouselves. But I believe in due course of time the concept of "social" has taken different form that completely overshadowed the felicity of loneliness. I am proud that I am one of the very few people who enjoy the loneliness among those people who claim that they'll go mad if being alone.

A Foreword: {mosimage}This is not a music review blog. I downloaded the songs of Thambi for only one reason - Vidyasagar. I didn't notice the lyrics for 1-2 times, then suddenly the line "vendaikayin kaambai killi..." caught me because it was novel. Then I heard the whole song for its lyrics. There had been so many nostalgic songs, but this one was with very simple lyrics that everybody could identify with it. Literally it shook me, because most of the lines have happened with me. Not only me, anybody who were from small town / village would have experienced these things. Those lines evoked thousands of memories.

2005 has finally bid a good bye and 2006 has started. Admitted 2006 was a shaky start at my workplace, hope it doesn't augur the way things will happen the coming days.

2005 had so many sweet memories and terrible moments, but when I look back I remember with fondness. 2005 had me in all ways - responsible and wayward, happy and gloomy yet there was a change in personality.

There was an auspicious event in our family which we were anticipating for a while - my sister's marriage. I was never a responsible brother or a dutiful son, but I am more than happy to help my parents atleast financially in the marriage. That way 2005 was a memorable one.

{mosimage}i) People say that they booze whenever they are happy or sad, whenever they are alone or whenever they are with their friends. When you are happy, you should enjoy your happiness fully and when you are sad you must take in the situation completely in senses and think of what to do further. If you booze, you'll lose your senses and how can you enjoy the happiness completely or empathise with the sad situation to the core? Boozing to celebrate joy or mitigate sadness is sheer escapism, an act of cowardice, inability to enjoy the essense of life, nothing else.

{mosimage}As usual Jacy gave me a flop movie VCD for weekend viewing - "Koi Aap Saa.." The initial scenes looked colourful and I sneak previewed the climax and decided to go ahead. It was more like my most favourite movie "Niram / Nuvve Kaavali / Piriyatha Varam vendum", I decided to go ahead, until that rape scene came. The heroine is raped by her fiancee's friend and for some reasons ( I didn't watch it) she delivers that child. I found that concept sick and stopped the movie forever. Infact I have decided never ever in my life to sit for a movie with a rape scene when I was terribly disturbed for a week after seeing "Damini / Priyanka" which revolved around the brutal rape incident.

{mosimage}Sometimes back in our office, this was a topic for discussion. The wide spread conclusion that came as the meaning for this phrase was - to be idle and leave everything to fate. I tend to disagree this interpretation. My take on this statement is that you should accept the way things happen rather than expecting it to have happened otherwise. This is the context what I took this statement and following it eversince I read it somewhere for the first time.