Phenomenal women

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

:Maya Angelou

In love with two.....songs

When I first heard this song I was in my late teens and fell in love with it instantly. I could feel and understand the emotions of love, caring and sharing and inspiration then, so I related to this song very well.
This song from black and white movies era touched me so deeply. I recorded a 60 min long cassette with just one song, "aaja piya tohe pyaar du" from movie 'Baharon ki sapne, 1967.
I used to listen to this same song repeatedly, discovering a new meaning every time. and used to think I will sing this song for love of my life :)

This year I felt the same connection with this new song as soon as I heard it very first time. I again fell in love with this song called "mere sang chal zara" from movie 'New York' 2009.

Both the songs have striking resemblance in terms of sentiments, emotions.
In both the song the lady love is trying to cheer up her man; inspiring him to get up and get going, start afresh. She is saying that I will be with you, for you and stand by you always.
Both songs are conveying the same message to her man that 'sukh mera le le, main dukh tere le lu'.

Let me share the lyrics of both songs with you; so you will 'see' what I want to convey.

First, Aaja piya tohe pyar du (Baharon ki sapne, 1967)

aajaa piyaa tohe pyaar du
gori bainyaa tope waar du
kisaliye tu, itanaa udaas
sookhe sookhe honth,
aakhiyon mein pyaas
kisliye, kisliye

jal chuke hain badan kaee, piyaa isee raat mein
thake huye in haathon ko, de de mere haath mein
sukh mera le le, main dukh tere le lu
mai bhee jiu, tu bhee jiye

hone de re, jo ye julmee hain, path tere gaanwon ke
palakon se chun daalungee mai, kaante tere paanwon ke
lat bikharaye, chunariyaa bichhaye
baithhee hun main, tere liye

apani to jab aakhiyon se, bah chali dhaar see
khil padee waheen ek hansee, piyaa tere pyaar kee
main jo naheen haaree, sajan jaraa socho
kisliye, kisliye


And now, mere sang chal zara (New York, 2009)

mere sang to chal zara kyun dikhe dara dara
chal tujhko aa chhupa loon apni main baahon mein
chal khwaab kuchh sajaa doon teri in nigahon mein
main jo sang hoon tere rang hoon
raahon se teri chun loon main khwaab
har lamha yun guzre ke gehrata jaye ye

hasde zara sa to teri hansi se mere kal ho haaseen
bas itna chaahun main iss zindagi se zyaada kuchh nahi
main jo sang hoon tere rang hoon
raahon se teri chun loon main khwaab
har lamha yun guzre ke gehrata jaye ye pyaar

rukna na raahon mein roke agar kal tujhe parchhaiyan
sang tere main bhi hoon tanha nahi hai teri tanhaayian
main jo sang hoon tere rang hoon
raahon se teri chun loon main khwaab
har lamha yun guzre ke gehrata jaye ye pyaar

mere sang to chal zara kyun dikhe dara dara
chal tujh ko aa chhupa loon apni main baahon mein
chal khwaab kuchh saja doon teri in nigahon mein
main jo sang hoon tere rang hoon
raahon se teri chun loon main khwaab
har lamha yun guzre ke gehrata jaye ye pyaar

tell me now it is same feeling, isn't it ?

I found Treasure

The schools have re-opened after summer holidays. Now I have lot more time for doing things which are not possible to do in the presence of an active 4.5yrs old.
I was looking through this carton full of documents and notebooks the other day and found few empty and some sparingly used notebooks. I sorted it out and kept it for my son's writing practices.
I picked one of those notebooks for making my daily to-do list. ( yes, I make to-do list every morning and sometimes complete all listed tasks too ;-) ) So, yesterday when I was about to make my to-do list, I accidentally landed on the last page of the notebook.

The page had something written in hindi and it had my husband's hand-writing. When I read it all I was soooo happily surprised. I felt as if I found a lost treasure. Its a poem he wrote for our son on the eve of his second birthday as one of his birthday gifts. I was crying happily while reading it after so long. I could re-live those two years in these few lines.

Its true that children are God's blessings to parents.
How fortunate are we to have 'Sankalp aka Sunny' in our lives. He is the sunshine of our life.

I would like to share that poem with you :





तुमने बदले हैं ज़िन्दगी के मायने,
देखा ज़िन्दगी को पनपते हुए,
अपनी आंखों से, अपने सामने,
साँसों को महसूस करते हुए !

तुम्हारी डगमगाती पावों की लय में,
मिली हमें अपनी स्थिरता,
वह मुस्कान, विश्वास और आनंद,
जिसे ढूंढा वर्षों तक, जिया इन दो सालों में,
उन छोटी उँगलियों ने,
मेरी हथेली सहलाते हुए बहुत कुछ कहा !

तुम्हारे सर के बीच में मुख छिपा कर,
स्वप्नों को ही तो जी रहें हैं हम !

तुम आधार, तुम विचार, तुम सवेरा,
तुम ही तो हमारे विश्वास का बसेरा !

नहीं आवश्यकता हमें बोधिसत्व की,
तुम ही तो अंत शाश्वात्ता की खोज का !

वह बिना बने शब्दों की भाषा का सत्य,
वह संकेतों से बनी दिशाओं का सत्य,
वह अँगुलियों से बनी स्थिरता का सत्य,
सत्य यही की तुमसे हमारा जीवन सत्य !

Magical and musical : its rain

Rain has such lovely magical spell on us, isn't it ?
Today it finally rained after month long wait.

It was around 10 am this morning. I was busy in household chores: cleaning, cooking, laundry etc. Since it was windy and cloudy (those thick grey clouds which assures that it will definitely rain) so I was in better mood already, listening to country songs while doing chores.
I was changing the bedsheets when it started pouring....it was raining cats and dogs....(this phrase reminds me of movie named 'The truth about cats and dogs', its a cute movie)

WOW....I felt sooo happy, smiling all to myself.
I left all the chores, came to balcony. Amazing...I thought lets have some rain fun (Sunny went to school so I was all by myself in the house).
I arranged my plants, got a chair and a small table to the balcony. I fixed my music system on that table and got an old tape which has fab yesteryear's songs. This tape I myself compiled and recorded when I was in college.( I will talk more about these songs in next post)
I sat in the balcony with latest issue of 'Good housekeeping' which incidentally has monsoon theme this month.
What a bliss !! listening to my favorite songs while flipping through the pages of my favorite magazine....and its raining...I felt so good after ages.
Every things is so bright and clear after being washed by rain. All these plants and trees around looks so shiny green, lively and happy as if they are dancing and romancing with rain.

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain.....musical and magical, hai na !!!

rains and memories

Finally....some rain....though not much but it had bought down the scorching Delhi's temp a bit. And it made me feel good and cool (literally !!).
Its fun to watch boys playing football while its raining on my society's park....reminded me of my college days. How I wish to join them and get drenched in the rain.
I remember one downpour, a hard one, when I was in my first year of college. We(our gang of 4 girls) were returning from college. On the way it started raining and before we could reach girl's hostel (gargi bhavan), we were wet. When we reached we saw a big pond freshly made with the rain just in front of hostel. We ran inside and kept our books in the visitor's room(that was the first room we could find to keep our books safely!).
We looked at each other, smiled and all of us ran back outside. We got drenched fully, stood in that pond with knee deep water, tried to swim, sang those rainy songs, danced, made loadsa noices and enjoyed so much. we also pulled our seniors, a like minded girly gang of 5, named MANSY. our gang's name is JAGS. (I will tell secret behind these names some other time) . SO JAGS n MANSY had loadsa fun together n enjoying the rain. We even posed for camera all drenched. oh....it was soooo much fun !!

How I wish to relive those moments, when we were so wild and free and just followed our heart's more than mind.

Giving makes us richer

My son is 4.5 yrs old now. I have many of his outfits which he has outgrown of.
While arranging some drawers, I found one such old but in reasonably good condition summer dress which was one of my favorite dress for him. It was bought when my son was 1.5 yrs old. I have many beautiful memories attached to that outfit. I wanted to keep such dresses forever.

But recently I had change of mind . Now I want to give these cloths to needy people.
While talking to my domestic help, I came to know she has a 2 yrs old son. Last week I gave that favorite outfit of my son to her. She just took it and left, not a word or expression of thanks from her.

The next morning when she came for cleaning my house, the first thing she told me, "didi, maine wo dress apne bete ko pehnayaa. Bahut sunder lag raha tha wo."
Her face glowing with happiness, love and satisfaction that a mother feels when she sees her kids happy. That said it all. It was worth giving that favorite outfit to her. Being a mother myself I totally could feel how pleased she was.

Thats the beauty and power of giving. Her happy face and chirpy voice kept me high for whole week and am still feeling great for doing this good deed.

zindagi ki talaash

कैसी थी वो ज़िंदगी जब छोटी-2 बाते बड़ी-2 खुशियाँ दे जाती थी.

ज़िंदगी का मतलब – जब मैं और तुम साथ बैठे एक-दूसरे की आँखो से मन का संगीत सुना करते थे….

ज़िंदगी का मतलब – जब तुमने मेरी 22वी सालगिरह पर स्व-रचित 22 कविताएँ गिफ्ट की थी…

ज़िंदगी का मतलब – वो शाम जब Bangalore के ring road पर santro में घूमते हुए तुमने कहा था ‘these are the best days of my life’

ज़िंदगी का मतलब – सर्जरी के बाद बेहोशी में भी मेरा तुम्हे तुम्हारे ‘pet’ name से बुलाना

Dilli ki garmi

Delhi is currently a furnace with mercury touching almost 42 degree C. Its so hot that one feel roasted specially around mid day 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

My son comes back from school at 1:15 pm. The AC school bus drops him just in front of my society building. Y’day I went to pick him up and on way back home, I saw a baby, barely 2-3 months old sleeping on the roadside pavement. It was sooooo freaking hot and such small baby wrapped in a thin sheet was lying under a tree shade. I got terrified and gave panic look to her mum who was sitting beside the baby with other two kids. I asked her “itne chhote bacche ki aise kyo litaya hai, bahut garmi hai, loo lag jayegi (Why have u made such small baby lying in such heat. She may get heat stroke)”
She gave me a puzzled and faint smile and said, “madamji, gareebon ke bachhe to aise hi palte hain.(Madam, kids of poor parents are raised like this only)”