Change

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton Season 2 edition 18; the eighteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

I hate change
But my bus driver insisted,

And so did my vending machine!

Its a sad life.

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The Mystery

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 17; the seventeenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

"You'll end up dead or incarcerated, but you'll be looked up by everyone." The words Pete uttered before his oath resonated inside Bret as he hung up the phone.

With a semi-automatic, Bret headed to Pete's place. It was dark. Unusually. As he entered, Bret heard a click behind him. He knew what it was!

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Celebrations

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 16; the sixteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

It definitely is a week of celebration so far. Celebrated Halloweens with friends for the first time. I was the Crazy Joker with a bloody butcher knife. And to accompany me, some of my friends also masked up in scary avatars. The Zakusi guard, the Zombie with braided hair, the monster who never smiles, the nameless warrior, the headless phantom and the scream guy. Super fun it was!!!

And the big thing to celebrate was I graduated with a degree in MS from Univ of Minnesota after putting in lots of effort. The sweat, the energy and the soul I put in it reaped the fruits.:P This leaves me with the big question, what next? But who cares now? At least for a little while let me enjoy the happiness. I definitely am happy now that I'm done and it should be obvious from my words. Also, bought myself a brand new iPhone4 as a graduation gift. Here is a screen capture from my MS project, and it's a rendering of simulated blood flow through aorta of heart with a mechanical heart valve and the path some of the blood particles take throughout the course represented as lines.

And although we didn't celebrate Diwali the way we would in India, it was a non-stop food celebration. Made vadas for the first time after hours of effort, and here you see our yummy vadas with finely grated onions, chillies and ginger added in style.

But none of these can ever match up with the way we celebrate Diwali in India with family and friends. I hope everyone had a wonderful Diwali!

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26th August 1967

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 15; the fifteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

26th August 1967
Alston locality, Cumbria, UK

I'm not sure if I should consider myself lucky for having an opportunity to learn from the oral arguments in court. Oh boy, it was stressful. After such a day, I'm glad I took a day off from my Professor and colleagues and made it to this place from Durham. Alston, at it's location above sea level is a busy market place I must say. It is a small and scenic town, and is lovey this time of the year. As I wait for my train back, I sit on this bench and cogitate what a beautiful day it was. "Every moment is an experience!"

How I wish I had a chance to speak to that young lady I saw this morning. A beautiful young lady she's. She has got those big expressive eyes, the kind that sweeps you off your feet and make you feel like you are getting lost as you look into them. If only I had enough courage to barge in and initiate a conversation instead of silently sipping my coffee at the stone built Angel Inn. No wonder they say, "Good judgments come from experience and often experience comes from bad judgment."

Magnificence of seven centuries stood around me as I walked inside the St Augustine church, although majority of the church came down a couple of centuries ago. It has colourful stained glass paintings, but the one handed clock left an impression on me. It reminded me of the lines written by Henry Van Dyke for Katrina's Sundial - "Time is too slow for those who wait, too Swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice; but for those who love, time is eternity". And we try to overcome our mind and it's perception of time, with our clocks ticking one second at a time. But, this one handed clock ticks only once in 15 minutes.

An old local businessman joined me during lunch. It was him who suggested me to try the famous Alston Cheese. Having learned that I'm a student from India studying law, we discussed various popular cases in the past few years. He studied Philosophy about 30 years ago and he fervently discussed how he wanted to do remarkable things in his life but could not. Is it really hard to break out of the cocoons we build around ourselves and to come outside our comfort zones to do what we really want to? After all, I'm not my job. "A musician must make his music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to ultimately be at peace with himself."

Enjoying every bit of the natural beauty and Pennine landscapes, I walked to the Alston Train station. I could not resist using my expensive Polaroid pack camera to make a pictorial memory of this beautiful station. Quite old but an elegant brick structure designed artistically only to enhance the beauty of the nature that surrounds it.

As I finished reading the last word of the yellow wrinkled page from my dad's diary, I looked at the photo deeply. With every page I read, I get a little more close to him and it makes me much more happy that he wanted me to know him. Know him, and the world through his eyes, his ideas and his ideals. I still remember the day he told me how Alston and his experiences here were so important to him. And how he didn't let my mother go after he saw her for the first time in Bangalore in 1973. It still brings a smile on my face when I think of my dad's adventures in getting his lady love. He was my hero, and he still is. Here I'm in Alston on a cloudy and cold beautiful October evening, to experience live what my father has experienced more than 40 years ago.

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Credits
Image - Alston Station by Wandering Soul
Courtesy - www.deviantart.com and www.northumbrian-railways.co.uk via www.blogaton.in

Return

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 14; the fourteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Sliver of hope and
Stillness in heart, I return.
Strong and confident!

Vee...

P.S.1: Thoughts on my mind inversely proportional to words on my post.

P.S.2: This picture was clicked by my friend Sri. Do check his wonderful creations.

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Goodbye

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 13; the thirteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

There are two types of people in this world.

Those who give up and kiss goodbye to the world, those who fight till the end no matter what!

Where do you belong?

Afraid of this materialistic world as an eight year old kid, Amar could have given up when he envied how peaceful his mother looked in death. But he didn't.

Unable to withstand the abuse by her malik where she worked as domestic help, Priti could have ended her life as she didn't have any where else to go and live. But she didn't.

After seeing his world - his wife and little child pulled away by death in the form of mud slides due to the floods, Raheel could have said goodbye to this world. But he didn't.

The long wait for monsoon didn't seem to end to Sivaiah. Not sure if pesticides would work on eliminating pests, but it  sure would have worked on him had he wished to end his life. But he didn't.

Not coping up with the expectations of an engineer father and doctor mother in academics in the competitive world, Vidya could have ended her life. But she didn't.

Brain-washed by the power hungry politicians, Nachiket could have set fire to himself in the name of a protest against ruling government. But he didn't.

Every goodbye is the birth of a memory, except death.

Try to become a memory, not history.

For history doesn't remember the weak!

• Amar means long life. It's unfortunate that many children in our country experience a lot of physical and mental trauma due to poverty.
• All Priti wanted is a little affection and love in her life. There are more than 11 million abandoned children in our country with 90% of them female. What are we doing to ourselves?
• Raheel means the fearless one who shows way to others. It's important to have brave people to lead us, especially in the crucial times. This is also a reference to the current floods situation in Pakistan. May it all end soon.
• Lord Siva sure has Ganga on his head, but not many such Sivaiahs who are taking their lives after untimely monsoon thrashes all the money and effort they put in their fields.
• Suicides by students is one of the things that bothers me a lot. Why do they have to resort to such an extreme step? Isn't it true that today's students are tomorrow's future?
• Nachiketa means fire. And these days we hear many such Nachiket's taking their lives for their politicians! I'm definitely talking about the Telangana issue.

All we need to do is give them a little support and help them face the challenges. I will do my best, I hope you will too.

~Vee...

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This post is also written as a part of Mera-Bharat-Mahan-India-Shining-Proud-Blogadda-Contest  and this is my product of choice from Pringoo.

Wish

This post won me Silver Blog-a-tonic award of the month (Silver BATOM).

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 12; the twelfth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

"Between the wish and the thing, life lies waiting." - Anonymous 

**

Ciuadad Juarez, Mexico - Gabriela is a daughter of a businessman. She has everything she wanted, except that she cannot go out without her security guards. Out of the fear of extortion threats by the local mafia she was not allowed to play with her friends. Like any other kid she wanted to go out freely and play. One day, in their huge mansion, amidst the colorful walls with fancy paintings light by the magnificent chandeliers were a group of finely dressed happy people waiting for her to cut her birthday cake. She stared at everyone and with a grin blew those five candles at once, and made a silent wish. 

** 

Bali, Indonesia - Dian is an orphan. He had been through lot of rough times since his childhood. But he always believed in hard work and finally made a decent job. He met a girl recently through a friend and never before was he so happy in his life. After meeting her frequently for some time, he made up his mind and proposed and she happily accepted. All he wanted is to make a happy family which he never had and they planned to get married. A day before his marriage, he went out along with friends and was gazing in the sky thinking about his marriage. He spotted a shooting star and quickly made a wish.

** 

Santo Andre, Brazil - Isabel is born with a congenial limb deficiency. When she was 2 years old, her left leg was amputated till knee. Her mother is a dancer by profession and she always wanted to be like her mother. Once during spring time she went to the nearby fields along with her father. The dandelion puffs in the fields reminded her of the story her mother told when she was a kid about how they are signs of hope. She picked one, made a wish and blew the dandelion.  

** 

Philadelphia, USA - Cody was a perfectly healthy kid until he was recently diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis, which is quite rare in kids. Despite being terminally ill, he dresses up head to toe in support of his favorite Philadelphia Phillies team for every ball game and cheers for them from his bed in the hospital. He always wanted to spend time with the members of his favorite team. When volunteers from Make-A-Wish foundation visited him in the hospital and asked him what he wanted, he knew it exactly. He made his wish. 

**  

Ranchi, India - Sujata is a single mother working in a construction company. Ever after her husband deserted her with their two kids, she took the responsibility of earning bread by working hard. All she wanted is to make sure she could feed both her kids every day, but thats not an easy task for her. Just like every other day, on her way to work she stopped for a minute near the Ganesh temple. She closed her eyes fervently , mumbled a small prayer and made her only wish.

** 

As kids when we played marbles, we always started with equal number of marbles per player. I *wish* life also follows the same logic and gives everyone equal opportunity to begin with. On the ending note, may all their wishes come true.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.