Beautiful....

People are like stained Glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets, their true beauty is revealed when there is a light from within.
-Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Diwali..The festival of lights...@Msterdam??

The time difference between India and Amsterdam is actually 3 hours and 30 minutes. But today, I was in for a great surprise, when I learnt that there is a Diwali celebration here at Amsterdam, Netherlands, one week before the actual Diwali celebrations in India. I thought the earth had speeded up overnight to be ahead of India by a whole week!!

It was held in Amstelveen central, its a square, a literally square place with malls all around. There were Indian colourful tents set up and there was Indian music,and looking further,there was a queue outside the tent. Now, thats typically Indian, we dont find such a long queue elsewhere!!!
The admission was free, and there was a stage, with Indian cultural items and there was the aroma of Indian food filling the air. The Indian roadside chats, Biriyani, Jellabi, sweets, pani puri, sammoosas, there was a plethora of food before our eyes.And what more, there were so many Indians crowding the place. I guess most of the Indian population in this country had flocked into the tents. Many were attired in the traditional Indian costumes, and many had a mix of both western clothes, with the indian accessories. It was a nice place to be in. The DJ later commented that we made a small India in the middle of Netherlands. It just felt exactly like that. There were stalls displaying Indian culture, and the best part of the event was the WHOLE EVENT WAS ORGANISED BY THE AMSTERDAM MUNCIPALITY!!!! The Amstelveen Mayor later spoke and he said he paid a visit to India earlier this year and he was fascinated by our culture..Jai Hind!!!
He was so happy to organise this event for the Indians in Netherlands. After his speech(informal), a guy who plays the punjabi drums(I dont know what they are called) requested the mayor to dance to his beat. The Amstelveen mayor who was attired extremely formal, actually DANCED TO THE INDIAN PUNJABI BEAT, IT WAS A SIGHT TO SEE. So nice, he was enjoying every moment of it.
India is always making its mark in every corner of the world. Today it was a great experience for both of us to be there and feel the Indian beat.
The event had culturals like Bharatanatyam, Indian Bollywood dances, Punjabi Music, Indian Instruments and everything. At around 7:00pm, when darkness slowly set in, the highlight of the day commenced. They had arranged fireworks for us. Just like in India, Diwali is the festival of lights and today Amsterdam sky was glistening with the sparks set in by an Ancient Indian story set centuries ago. How history has changed us. It was extremely nice of them to arrange all this for us. Especially to re-liven the spirit of Diwali in us, and spreading the message everywhere. A very remarkable experience. Everyone enjoyed this day,"Being Indian" for a whole day, meeting Indian folks, tasting Indian delicasies and lightening their souls with Diwali.

Finally a degree......

7Th October 2009...

"AWARDED THE TITLE OF BACHELOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, HAVING FULFILLED THE REQUIREMENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AMRITA VISHWA VIDHYAPEETHAM"

A certificate of x microns weighing y grams is handed over and the official procedure of awarding the degree is complete, with a pat on the back speaking, all the best for the future.
But, being on earth, in "INDIA", in "KERALA", in "Kollam", in the outskirts of "Vallikavu", we the people,"Now the gradutes" know much more than that. For us, the certificate weighs heavier than our bossom can hold and is thickest, that even the sharpest sword on earth cannot pierce a blow.

All the four years of our life are encapsulated in the certificate. From the first day when we were all young and fresh and adventurous, to the day we left the place with memories in our hearts, and longing to be there a day more, the certificate is a diary that holds our secret thoughts tightly bound, bound by a force hidden fathoms deep in man, "Memories".

Life at college is the best moment of ones life. When at college, we always used to take things for granted, always wished for something better, wished we had more luxuries and wished we had more sources of fun. Now at this point, when we are no longer in the college, all the days, even every second is treasured deep within our hearts. True, everything in life is in a similar state. when we left home, on the first day to join college, we felt home was heaven on earth, and now when we leave our college behind, we feel we left our second heaven behind. Craving to be back there, to feel the spirit we had all once felt when we were a part of college, to breathe the Vallikavu air once again, to feel the backwaters, to drink in the beauty of Kerala(God's own country), to hear the laughter of the classrooms that echoes in our hearts, to see our friends through our true eyes,to be free of all the worries in life, to be with the one you loved the most, to feel the hands around your shoulders, to feel the genuine and innocent smiles, to make jokes in the class, to have fun with the professors, to be in the corridors with the bells ringing for the commencement of exams, to be in the rain without a umbrella, to be in the trains during the journeys, to be in the sunlight with the wind blowing your hair, how much we wish those days would come back?
We could trade off our entire life gems to get a glimpse of those days and they become the hidden prizes we cherish in our hearts forever.
Life has moved on and more than 6 months have passed with all of us scattered like the beads from a fresh cut necklace. But we all know the places we hold in each others hearts, and the necklace of CSE 2005-2009, would be incomplete without a single bead falling back into its place.
For each of us a glimpse at the certificate would bring in a different thought flashing across our minds. The single thought is the one we cherish the most about the place, and maybe the thought leads to a series of other thoughts that trigger a chain of emotions in our hearts.
Life has definitely taught its lessons. It has enlightened us with the experiences that we may never forget in our lives, which will affect the future sequence of events and which has a strong origin in the past. We have defined ourselves better after the four years. We have learnt to choose wiser in our future experiences and yet we cuddle the fond memories of the past. The points where we had been very serious and worried are just points which bring us smile as to how we had reacted in those times and yet how everything is fine now, even without us burdening ourselves with so much tension and worries.
In the future the pattern may manifest itself, and one day, will be the last day on earth and we would be laughing out loud on the movie called life which once we had directed so seriously, only now to be ended in just memories. Life is a fast flow of events and only factor remaining constant is the thoughts that flow in our mind.The thoughts keep evolving and yet they are the same in their series.
There would be a day when we would be unfortunate enough not to see a certificate saying,
"AWARDED A DEGREE OF LIFE, FOR COMPLETING THE REQUIREMENTS LAID DOWN BY GOD".
It all comes down to living to the best in your present and doing your best, because you never know how long you would be here.
Life keeps moving, with time flying out of our hands at each step of our life, but awareness that everything is dynamic, will change, will change us, is what we require in each step of our life. Doing your best in this moment, but alas! How can we, with so much thoughts rushing past us, telling us that life was much better then. We fail to realise how important are the seconds we spent ticking in life where we are right now.
Dream high, See the newness in each day, Watch the activities in nature as a new event in your life, watch it with the innocence that a child would have, Give your best to everything you come across, you never know if it would come back again to you, slowly with a smile fill in the pond in God's garden called life, fill every drop with love so that your pond will be the source of life for every being around you. Its all upto you....
All the best for the graduates who had received their degree certificates on this auspicious day. This is a point in life, where we have to look back , see the person who we have become, look ahead, decide the person whom we want to be, and in the macro-level inspection realise how short is our stay here in this temporary abode called life and live life to every moment....
God Bless u all.....