A post after long time - a get together

This blog post after a long time. It is about a get together we had yesterday, 2nd october. Get together of GSB families in mumbai who hails form kerala. It was at King's circle, the place where the annual Ganesh Utsav of GSBs take place. We all went, we two, our son and daughter in law and our pet grand daughter pabbi. When we reached, we are asked to proceed for breakfast - it was tasty, upma, bonda, banana, and tea or coffee... such social get togethers is an occasion for meeting our family friends and relatives. we met many. we were very comfortable that we could speak in konkani, that too with comfortable accent.

People started coming as time passed. All greeted each other, some with the modern 'Hi', and some with traditional 'Namaskars'. Morning session was a general meeting. After the traditional report reading etc., suggestions were invited from people on how to make the samaj activities better and more useful. Both men and women participated, at times with small verbal fights; they only add spice to any function, right?

I saw housewives chatting with each other, at times ignoring the meeting. This is one day they get relief from kitchen, and all enjoyed that; joking, laughing continued. All got energised with the nimbu paani served in between. Till lunch, the talking party of house-wives continued. in between we tried to hear their decisions of the meeting.

It was simple, yet tasty food; puries, waghu (mangalore konkani's preparation), dheve umman, godda paysu, rice, saaru and daali toy; a very typical konkani jevaN. People interacted during lunch also. We knew many people who came. The occasion helped to renew our contacts.

After lunch it was games and kid's quiz and housie. Everyone participated and enjoyed. The hall was full of energy, with people laughing, clapping and encouraging winners. In between had team and snacks, and time to say good bye arrived. From 'Hi' to 'Bye' we enjoyed, and started our journey back to our den.

After a long time, it was a pleasant get together, a pleasant outing and thought of sharing with you all through this.

Fight for Love

It is after many months I am writing this blog. I was busy with writing a novel in konkani and making corrections etc. The manuscript has been given for printing, and now I can devote more time for writing more blogs. This post is about my observations on love and fight for love.

Love comes from within. Everyone needs love and wants love throughout their life. One can get love only by giving it.

There are different types of love. Love between mother and her children, between husband and wife, love towards in-laws, love towards grand parents and grand children, love between friends, love between siblings, love between neighbours, love between teacher and students etc. For happy and peaceful life, everyone needs love. All our minds are thirsty for love.

A baby just out of mother's womb, start crying. The baby was safe and comfotable in mother's womb for almost ten months. After birth it feels helpless. Cry is the way baby can express its need for love. Nurses clean and covers the baby with dry cloths and the baby stops crying. The elders take the baby from the nurses. The baby feels comfortable in the warm covering. The baby's first cry thus becomes successful. From then on for every need the baby cries. It gets mothers love and enjoys it. Parents also enjoy the baby's love. After a while, the baby recognizes more people around. Everyone gives the baby love and in return they too get love. Baby becomes toddler and becomes more naughty. Everyone around loves the naughty acts of the child, and the baby acts as a bond of love in the whole family.

In school life friendships get developed and a kind of love develops between friends. During teenage, one has to be careful in love. It could land the person in trouble. Many times, such incidents and associated love is forgotten after they leave school or college. After marriage, love between husband and wife gets blossomed. These days love marriages are becoming common. Many years back, the relationship between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law was not generally that sweet as these days. Actually it is the fear that overtook the love between them. Mothers fear that they will lose their son's love, when the son gets married. Things are changing now, as more and more people become educated (I mean, not college education, but realization of relationships and values), more and more daughter-in-laws get accepted as daughters (many times acceptance more than daughters) leading to lively homes. Only love among the family members can create a happy family, whether it is a nuclear or joint family. To create such happy family, every one has to fight for love. It is an inner fight and not physical fight. That fight helps create sharing of love between husband and wife, in-laws, kids and parents etc. Everyone has to succeed in that fight for love. A failure in fight for love can come out as unhappiness or depression, which is a symptom of problem in family. Everyone has to intensify their fight for love to remove that failure and regain the harmony.

It is the ego that creeps in as a virus in a harmonious and happy life. If love between the family members is real, then ego cannot creep in and spoil the harmony. Even in love, there is place for fights and tension. When different human being live together there is bound to have fights. Then love from heart has power to ease such tensions and return of the lost harmony.

If we consider the whole world as a family (vasudaiva kutumbakam), and there is real love and concern for ever other person, then there is no reason fo so much disturbance. I fear that the real love is disappearing from the world, as we see more and more wars and fights between different countries and different sects these days. All of us have to strive hard to spread love among mankind, so that all can live happily.

I believe, there is no power in the world that can beat power of love. Let us spread love and let everyone learn to fight for love than fight for all material things.