Namaste

As WE were walking on the streets of Chinatown talking in Hindi , suddenly someone from behind says "Namaste!" ,I also reply back with "Namaste" (with a nice smile) .
*Namaste :Its a Hindi word commonly used in Northen Part of India to greet .

And then the conversation

He : I recently went to India !!
We : Oh! Okay [ Just to hear the word India from a foreigner in a foreign country makes you feel so great! ]
He : I went to Gujarat for a wedding [Gujarat is a state in the western part of India !!]
We: Okay
He : What a wedding !!!!![ *Excited* ] . So colorful. We went for a Patel's wedding. One of my daughter's friend's wedding.
We: Ya. So you enjoyed the dancing in the wedding?[With no doubt ,Indian weddings are so colorful ]
He: [Starts Singing a folk song in Gujarathi] We had a very nice time!!
We: :o )[ A sheepish smile after listening to his Gujrathi song! ]
He : I went Kerala .One of my daughter is getting married to an Indian.
We: You went to backwaters and all ?
He: I went to Thekkadi and Munaaaaar [Munnar in his english Accent]
We: Munnar is a hill station, Beautiful place !!
He: India is so rich !! [ I realized this after i have stayed outside India for almost an year now! ]
We: [Smiles all over our face with proud] :o)
He: But Traffic Jam is a major problem
We: [Oh! No . Again a sheepish smile.] Ya ,too much of a traffic jam
He: Nobody follows any rules .
We :[Interrupting in between] There are no rules ;-)
He: Hmmm.... Ya

One lady taps him from behind asking him to board the bus
He: Okay.Bye Bye
We: [Shaking his hands] Nice meeting you .
He: Jai Shri Krishna !!! [ Its again a common greeting in Gujarat .Its like Praising Lord Krishna]
We: Jai Sri Krishna !!!

We :Myself and Ashish who were roaming around China Town photographing. It was supposed to be a photoblogger's meet ,but other cudn't make it so it was only two of us.
He was a foreigner who has recently visited India and was very much impressed by its culture ,except for the Traffic part of it .We were really proud to hear him praise our country .Its really a nice feeling to hear about our country but yes its sad to hear something bad about our country too. I wish i could do something about the Traffic system in our country !!!
After staying outside India for almost an year i have realized that Indian culture is so rich and there is so much importance to famliy values !

India is great and i have another 4 days to go my own country :o) ,INDIA here i come after 361 days !!!

Faith.

Faith..Belief in
Faith in God
Faith in a Person

Faith is this week BSB Contest's theme and my contribution is the this picture.

As the poojari gets the plate of the holy lit fire (Aarthy) ,people rush to touch it and get the blessings . A FAITH , a belief that by doing so everything will be allright . I am not a very religious person ,i believe in 'Do good ,Be good' .

Unless you don't do any harm to any other creature in this world its okay . I am not the kind of person who would go and do 'Archana' when we go to a temple ,not that i am an aethist neither am i against GOD !! I feel i am bribing god ,i feel that i am putting an application with my name ,my raashi ,my gothra and asking him to something for me. And i have seen people's FAITH shake when things they prayed for , don't happen ! Do they really pray to get the things done from GOD ? Why do we pray ? Does praying has some terms and conditions attached to it ?

Praying *

* Conditions Apply

In our Brahmin community women are not supposed to do the pooja part ( i mean cleaning the god and stuff !) . Certain days of the month we are not allowed to enter the temple also. reason :They are not clean . They are not clean bcos of the periodical cycles !! But i thought its GOD who made women like that ,so why this discrimination ?

They say things are already written in your destiny and no one can change it ,then what are we praying for ? To change things or to confirm that things are in place ?So is it that you don't have FAITH in god and thats why you are praying or is it that you don't have faith in yourself ?

This is what i believe ,if you have faith in yourself and you are not harming in anybody ,you don't have to be scared of anybody !!

A trip to Melaka - Part 3

Continuing from the previous post

After climbing down from the St Paul's Hill we were really tired ,wanted to drink some cold drinks or so .So we walked in search of some shop. Came across a series of shops ,picked up a bottle of Coke and Cold water.

Roamed around all the tiny shops which were like tin bunkers . Lots of items carved out of wood and bamboo were there . I particularly liked this small grinding stone made up of some kind of wood . Bought two of them for 16 RM .Cute ones .

Myself and my friend bought a cap too for 5 RM . The sun was right on top of our heads now .we decided to have our lunch . Removed the lunch box in which there was Pulliogare (Jai MTR Pulliogare Mix !!!!) . Finished the lunch sitting under a tree after which we didn't know where to go, So just took a random street and walked , it happened to be a street known as Jonker Walk famous for antique pieces.

The streets were beautiful with colored doors and windows . The narrow streets and the houses with common walls were really nice . The shops or rather shop houses had lot of antique pieces ,my mom would have loved to come to this place . Shop houses are shops which are house cum shops . These shop houses are built for tropical climate and provide maximum comfort ,health and happiness to its residents

I always wanted to buy this beautifully painted masks, so i picked up two of them ,one male and one female . There were lot of massage shops as you can see in the above picture, loved the add with a big foot :) !

As we walked through the narrow streets of Jonker walk , it started drizzling .We reached at the same point were started walking . Searched for an Indian place to eat some evening snacks and tea .Found one just across the street .A lady with a pleasant smile welcomed us .We have a plain dosa and tea which was very very sweet . Took a taxi to Melaka Central and bought the tickets direct to Singapore. The one trip was really nice ,we did miss seeing some places but all in all it was great and we spent only 25 Singapore dollars to and fro !!!!