Category Archives: Musing

Astrology: A Science or…..?

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Do you believe that stars and planets have a hand in our lives? Do you believe that the Sun, Moon, Planets and other celestial objects predict the future events of a person as well as their personality? Welcome to the science(?) of Astrology!

Astrology is defined as “the divination of the supposed influences of the stars and planets on human affairs and terrestrial events by their positions and aspects”.

It is the study that assumes and attempts to interpret the influence of the heavenly bodies on human affairs.

In many countries, including India, astrology is considered a science, a metaphysical science perhaps, but a science nevertheless. At the earliest known ordering of existence, long before recorded history, it has been called the “Mother of all Sciences”

According to astrology, planetary movements influence time, which influence us since we are all part of time. In India, when a child is born, it is very important that the exact time of birth is noted and the doctor or nurse in attendance does do it. The exact minute the child is delivered is noted, one reason why most birthing rooms have clocks there! This time, along with the latitude and longitude of the city of birth becomes the basis on which the child’s astrological chart or kundli is made. This document, then becomes the basis of deciding the date and time of all important events in the person’s life.

Astrology remains an important facet of Hindu folk belief in contemporary India. Many Indians, especially Hindus believe that heavenly bodies, including the planets, have an influence throughout the life of a human being, and these planetary influences are the “fruit of karma”.

The scientific community rejects astrology as having no explanatory power for describing the universe, and considers it a pseudoscience. Scientific testing of astrology has been conducted, and no evidence has been found to support any of the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions.

At the end of the day, whether you believe in it or not, this is something quite personal. I have always been interested in the esoteric and the occult, so it’s not difficult for me to believe in this. Also, to a lot of us sciences like Astrology are emotional crutches we use to give us hope, that maybe tomorrow would be a better day, because the stars foretell it.

What about you? Do you believe in Astrology?

Friends: Someone with whom you can dare to be Yourself!

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Everyone has friends, these are the people you choose to have in your lives – for better or worse. You meet people, strike conversations and suddenly there’s that zing which comes because you click so well with each other and a friendship is born! You can go days and even years where you don’t speak to each other, but can pick up almost instantly when you meet next.

Social media has a allowed a lot of people to reconnect with old friends. When I moved to Singapore, I completely disconnected with most of my friends. This was pre-social media days and so we used to exchange emails thats all. But with Facebook and now Whatsapp, friendships which were last seen a very very long time ago has been revived! I now regularly communicate with school friends, most whom I have not seen since the day we collected our school leaving exam results. Yesterday, I reconnected with my MBA friends, again whom I have not seen of or heard in ages!

We also make friends where we work in, but are these friendships true? Yes, sometimes, there are people with whom you have that connection and you go on to remain friends for the rest of your life and I have such friends too. But most of ‘work friendships’ are friendships which are ‘convenient friendships’. You are friends with someone at work because it is helpful to you. Do these friendships sustain themselves outside of work?

I have such friends too A friends I could talk about pretty anything in the sun and she would be my sounding board – it was like being with a therapist and counsellor together. Her answers would be unbiased and with an outsiders view and I suddenly got insights that I never had thought of. Or if I wanted to vent about work, she was there with her two cents worth, which would make me see the issue from another angle. But, and a big but, we didn’t socialise outside of work. After we both left the organisation (she first and then me after about a year), we have met for the grand total of…..Once!! We still text each other once a while – think birthdays and festivals and keep talking of meeting up, but that never happens.

Slowly I realised that office friendships don’t really work. People in most workplaces want to be friends with you for a reason – once that reason is over, they tend to ignore you and you keep wondering what went wrong, or they continue to talk to you, just to get information from you which will benefit them.

Now I may sound cynical, but this has been a long drawn-out lesson in the world! I am pretty naive like that – I like to see the goodness of people and prefer not to think that people have ulterior motives, but then that is the truth in today’s world.

It’s taken me this long to realise this – have a small number of true friends – friends you can share anything with – and not be judged rather than having a large number of acquaintances.

But if you have a true friend, cherish them and keep them close to your heart, as in the words of Mastercard – true friends are PRICELESS!

Festivals of India: Holi

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Tomorrow is Holi, when all of India, especially to the north of the Vindhyas, will be awash in colours. Holi is a spring festival and like the other spring festivals across the world, herald the end of winter and the blossoming of new life, aka Spring!

The festival is mainly celebrated in North India and Nepal, but these days are being celebrated across the country as people move around for work and education. The day before Holi is the Holika-dhan – where a bonfire symbolising the story of Prahalad and the Naramisha avatar of Lord Vishnu – is burnt.

On the day of Holi, people colour each other and throw water balloons on each other. People usually wear light coloured clothes that day and at the end of the play, look like they were dipped in multi-coloured dye, making everyone look colourful.

However, in recent years, the festival has gone out of hand. Some people use the festival to indulge in unwanted activities and try to molest women in the name of tradition! Also synthetic colours cause harm to the skin and there are many times, you see people with dyed hands and legs even weeks after Holi.

Bollywood also loves Holi with many songs portraying the festival. Here is one of my favourites to get you into the mood of the festival…

Random Musings

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For a while now, I have been drawn to this shloka from the Mahabharat. What it means is that “You have the right to perform your actions, but you are not entitled to the fruits of the actions. Do not let the fruit be the purpose of your actions, and therefore you won’t be attached to not doing your duty”. So basically what it says is that a person should do what is it that they are supposed to be doing, but with no expectations from their deeds.

I am so drawn to this that I actually printed it out, along with the meaning in English and pasted it in my workspace – so that I am reminded of this every single minute and just do the work I am supposed to be doing, with no expectations. So no expecatations = no disappointments right?

Little Boys and their Toys

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Coming home from work today, suddenly I was struck with a thought – what is it with little boys and their toys? Every boy in the age group one to ten that I have seen, including BB till date loves their vehicle toys. Be it a bus, car, train or plane, they hold one in their hands, even while sleeping!

Is this something that is genetically embedded in them? While minoring in Psychology aeons ago, I learnt of the “Nature versus Nurture Theory” and when I realised I was pregnant with twins, I was determined that in my case, it will be nature which determines BB & GG’s individual and specific character and personality traits and not nurture as both will be brought up in the exact same environment.

Toys used to be gender neutral and had to be shared. There was nothing really that called out to gender-specific toys, but we could see nature fighting her way through quite early. BB loved vehicles – anything with a wheel, he wanted. When we left the house to go out, he would quickly come carrying as many cars,/trains as his little hand could hold and insist he wanted all of them to come out with him. He went through a  ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ where he managed get almost all the major characters. It does not help that S is an equal, enthusiastic partner, who loves to buy these toys for his son. He even had some cars which he had kept all these years! Big boys and their toys!! Now BB has graduated to playing with his cars and planes on an online world.

So is it our environment and the external world which reinforces gender stereotypes? Maybe that’s true as advertisements almost always show boys playing with more aggressive toys and girls being shown as more gentle. Why can’t boys be the more gentle ones? While reading for this post, I came across some very good articles which highlight this gender imbalance. Here’s one and another. And they wonder why girls don’t go in for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) subjects in school!