Mumma, Mummi, Ma, Mom, Maate - Mother....Happy Birthday!!!

Mumma, this one is for you. For the 50 years of your life and almost 26 years and those special 9 months of my life in your life. What you are to me, no one ever has been and can be.

“A child gives birth to a Mother right when a mother gives birth to a child.”

The above statement could be looped into a vicious circle and which is why this one relationship is the strongest as there is never an end to it. That one moment when her fingers touch you, even though you are too young to understand, talk or express but you feel the touch and are at peace. That is the magic of the first touch of a mother for the few minutes old baby, who is crying and shouting. It is that moment that fills her heart with a gush of happiness, satisfaction, endless and selfless love and peace. It is that moment that fills the child with love, happiness, peace, protection and care. Well, like every child, I do not have memories of that first touch but I am so sure that it was magical for me as Mumma’s touch till date is so magical.

You have been the one person I have seen in life who can provide the utmost clarity to any situation. You have been the one who has always put me to peace. You are the only person who would question me with a doubt but still had the unbreakable trust in me. You have been the one who has cared for me the most in your own ‘unique’ way. You have been the one I have fought so much with, but could never stay without patching up for more than an hour. You have been the one who has taken all my attitude and tantrums and still never complained. You have been the one I have always asked to ‘treat me like a grown up’ still wanted to be a child with. You have been the one who has been awake all day and night for me when I would be unwell or hospitalized. You have been the only one I have been awake day and night when you would need the same care from me when you were unwell or hospitalized. You have been the only one who has made my each day special in your own way. You have been the only one I have never minded to inform details of where I am, when will I reach, how will I travel and the like even though I would tell you I am old enough to take care of myself. You have been the only one to whom I would want to just inform that I have plans with friends and I am going out but still end up asking for permission for those plans. You have been the only one who has been able to put me to sleep by just keeping your hand on me and by being next to me. You have been the only one who has always made sense to me still never wanted to agree to that sense. You have been the only one who has taken all the efforts to be there with me and for me at any minute, in whatever way. You have been the one I would not want to tell some things simply because you are my MOTHER but still you are the only one I would want to tell also. You are the only one who is the best friend for life. You are the only one who loves me in this world unconditionally and selflessly. You are the only one who makes me just me all the time.

Those days still flash to me as fresh as yesterday, when you would wake me up in the morning to get me ready to school. How much ever you would need to rest, you would give me importance. Force me to get up when I would do most nautanki, help me get ready, make breakfast for me, pack my lunch for me and sit with me trying different tactics to make sure I drank that full glass of milk every single day which I would be ready to throw down the drain. You would go to your work and be back in time every single day by the time I returned from school to make sure I see your face first. Your face even after all the work would be as fresh as a newly blooming flower. You would cook lunch for me, feed me, put me to sleep and hardly sleep yourself. Make that effort again in the evening, to wake me up, make me study, make me have fun, play with me, get irritated of me still not let me know, make me have fun and still not complain.

Those days, when just to trouble you or seek your attention, I would hang myself around your neck from behind, irritate you with my never ending questions; make you angry with my carefree attitude and wait for those hugs and kisses at the end of all this, still flash as fresh.

Mumma, you have been the source of all courage for me, you are the source of all the love in me, you are the source of all emotions in me, you are the source of the person in me. From the pure soul that you are, the beautiful heart that you are, you make the most wonderful person around that I know. 'For I must love because I live, and Life in me is what you give'

Mumma, I have no idea if I can ever think of growing up without you, with you not being next to me. How much ever I have loved being treated as a grown up by you, I am still your little child. My life seems just so incomplete without you. Now is the time when I have actually grown up, grown up enough to start my own new world. But my new world also will be incomplete or rather cannot exist without your touch, your inspiration, your love and YOU.

As I move far, far miles away in a few months…YOU will be the one missed much. I don’t know what will I do without you, how will I manage without you, how will I be without you. I only wish I can be remotely close to what you are in my world – the lady that you are, the wife that you are, the mother that you are, the daughter that you are, the daughter-in-law that you are, the friend that you are…simply the person that you are.

Mumma, after I am gone, will really miss you but will still be closest to you. No one in life can replace you and no one in life can be what you are.

Mumma, you are a magic to me and my world around you so magical!!!

'Love you so much Mumma, and wish you a very happy and special 50th Birthday.'

Loads and loads of love

Saumya

25^th August, 2011

Expectation and Relationships

We all have had this discussion a lot of times with each other about our relationships and expectations from them. Have we ever wondered how relationships would have been if there were no expectations at all? Have you ever wondered why you fell low only when your expectation went high? Have you tried to think that only if you did not expect anything from your relationship then there would be no dissatisfaction, there would be no fights and anything small that came your way would give so much more happiness and it would only be smooth.

We see so many relationships breaking, so many people walking out of their marriages, so many tiffs between the parents and children and so many fights amongst siblings. Has anyone tried to see the root cause of each one of them? Well, if you talk to people at some point everyone would have walked out of a relationship (relationships mentioned above or any other) only because his expectations were not met or not fulfilled by the person on the other side.

What is an expectation? How do you define an expectation? Well I define it in many ways too but the most appropriate definition I derive from the word itself: EXPECTATION = EXPECT A SHUN!!! Why I define this as most appropriately is because when a person’s one expectation is fulfilled by someone else, the person moves to the next expectation. With each increasing expectation, it gets bigger and deeper and there comes a point when the person on the other side knows that he cannot fulfill them anymore so initially he starts to avoid (read as shun) recognizing your expectation and then gradually starts avoiding (read as shunning) you. Now here in this process the he starts shunning you. The time it takes for the person on the other side to shun may vary from an individual to individual and the extent to which he shuns you may also vary but the word itself tells you that EXPECT A SHUN! So, why make things difficult for yourself and for the other person?

Well, I may be questioned by many of you that what is the essence of the relationship if there are no expectations and how can you have zero expectations? Let’s say the essence of any relationship is togetherness, love and the feeling of just being there. If you have these and no expectation you will find the essence yourself. How can you have zero expectations? Well, it is not easy, I agree but it is not impossible. I have not reached the state of zero expectation myself but at each expectation I make this conscious effort to recognize the expectation within myself and tell myself to put it aside. It takes some time initially but it works ultimately, trust me, and I say this from a personal experience. In a situation, where you are just not able to put your expectation aside, just tell yourself that if God believes that this is good for me then I shall get it. How and when you shall get it, leave that also on God, don’t try to decide that yourself. Then tell God to take care of you and you will be able to pull the burden of your expectation away from the other person from whom you were expecting. It works; it works like magic once there is a deliberate recognition put from you. This works because you are able to take away the burden of your expectation from others and at the same time you have only made your belief in God strong. This also tells us that existence takes care of you. This simply means that leave it on existence to take care of you and fulfill your expectation and not a particular person. Now let existence decide who that person has to be or what that source will be that takes care of you. Don’t let others shun you, but aim to shun your expectation on your own. Remember, when expectations rise high, you fall low in life!

Once you are able to start doing this, you will be able to welcome everyone and every relationship in your life for lifelong and with equal warmth and love all throughout. You will see that you do not have fights, you do not have arguments, you are not dissatisfied and in fact you are filled with happiness all the time.

I am living such moments already but I am still not living all of it fully because I have not reached the state of Zero Expectations. I am waiting to be there…And I am sure once I reach that state there is no stopping between me and the smile on my face all the time, between me and the happiness all the time.

One thing to note here is that as I say all this, remember that no where do I mention that do not do things for others. Remember, that each thing that you do for someone else, you are doing because you want to do and not because the other person expects you too. When you do things for others, do those also with no expectation of return. Also, when you know the other person is not expecting your smallest action would be worth the thousands of happiness for the other one. You will be able to feel it, sense it and be satisfied.

Get loved, spread love and give loads of love!!!!

Lots of Love:

Saumya

September 21, 2010

My Adventures Of The Flight To SFO

With little anxiety and a lot of excitement, I left home to catch my flight to SFO. I had a flight via London and then a connecting flight from there to SFO. I left home at around 5:30 in the morning to make it well in time for the flight. I reached airport in about half an hour and went straight to check-in counter. Since I had done an online check-in, I just had to drop my bags, and so it was quick. The new Delhi Terminal was mesmerizing, it was so cool to see the Delhi Airport terminal of the international standards….loved it totally. Like a new totally excited visitor to the airport, I made my way to the security check and then the gates, clicking snaps on my way of the new terminal. We finally boarded the plane and the long journey of almost 8 hours started.

We got breakfast and after that I slept. I got up in between, to have some water, to change my position in that limited area/seat and then slept again. Time flew by along with the plane and I hardly got to know the time spent in that journey. We landed at the Heathrow (London) airport at 1:00 (10 minutes later than the scheduled time) but it took them almost 30 minutes to attach the staircase to the plane and arrange for the buses. We then de-boarded and were taken to the terminal. I followed the ‘Flights Connections’ sign and rushed through the crowd to make my way to the counter to catch my connecting flight to SFO. I was the first at the counter there. But as I reached the counter and showed my boarding pass, the lady at the counter informed me that I am late for my connecting flight and so cannot board. I was just looking at her, when she pointed me to a counter and asked me to go there and the people at that counter would help me thereafter.

I started to move towards the pointed counter and made my way through the queues of people and finally was called by an officer at one of the counters from a row of counters called ‘Customer Service and Relations’. The lady at the counter saw the boarding pass and told me that since I was late for the connecting flight, they would re-route me and put on another flight. She confirmed with me, if I was OK with going to SFO via Las Vegas, I immediately said a yes and then there was a totally different thought on my mind: “Only if I knew before then, I would have actually taken the flight via Las Vegas and spent my weekend there, can I still do that?” And as I thought this, my thought was interrupted by the lady again and she said: “that even better, I will put you through a flight via Chicago. Since the next connecting flight is after 2 hours from there, you will get enough time to make it for your connecting flight!” I said ok, sounds good and again I had thoughts of a different tangent running though my mind (do I know anyone in Chicago, I would have visited Chicago and planned something like that if I knew…shucks not fair) and I was interrupted again. The lady at the counter then informed me that since Chicago, will be my first port of Entry at the USA, therefore I will have to go through the immigration at the Chicago airport. Then also, since my connecting flight from Chicago was in American Airlines (AA)(partner airline of British Airways), I would have to collect my baggage from BA and re-deposit (check-in) with AA, and then go through the security check and take my flight. I suddenly thought that hell a lot of things to do to just catch a connecting flight…so I checked with her: “how about my luggage? I mean will you make sure it travels with me on these new flights and does not go to SFO or be left behind here in London?” She checked my baggage tags, scanned the bar code and updated the baggage flights also. I confirmed and re-confirmed with her about my baggage! She assured me again and again and then just asked me not to worry since I had good enough two hours between the landing at Chicago and the departure to SFO. Taking her words, I moved away from the counter.

As I turned around, to make through the counters (where I was first told, that I was late for my connecting flights; I was the first one that time) I realized that there was suddenly a flood of people at the airport. I had never seen any airport that flooded in all these years that I have traveled abroad anywhere. Ignoring that I made my way to the end of the longest queue (that I thought) and moved towards the counter slowly. Passed the counters and made my way towards the security check. And to my shock, when I reached the security check I realized that few minutes back what I thought was the longest queue ever, was probably one of the shorter ones. The longest ever was at the security check. It seemed that whole of London had decided to come and camp at the security check of the airport. Thousands and thousands of people, standing in the queues, longer than ever before and waiting for the security check. Without any choice, obviously, I made way through the security check (but at that point in time, I wished Google had given me a business class ticket, I would have made it to the ‘PRIORITY COUNTER’ queue which was way smaller’. As I kept on thinking of these random thoughts, I cleared the security check.

After the security check, I realized it was already more than an hour that I had spent in all this and so the two hours wait that I had at London before the Chicago flight was reduced to a large extent. I went to the restroom, washed face, got ready a little with better tied up hair and a cleaner look, I came out and saw that the gate for my Chicago flight was announced and so I made my way to the gate. The gate turned out to be little far, had to take a train to the gates and make my way. I went, following the sign boards, took a train, followed boards and kept on walking to realize that my gate ends up to be the last one on the floor. As I reached the gate, within 2 minutes the boarding started. We boarded the plane. At the London airport, my cool phone (nexus one) had caught a Wi-Fi connection taking advantage of which I had quickly put a mail to my family informing them about the change and re-routing. However, while at the boarding gate, I realized that the Wi-Fi connection was not free and so my mail never went through to my family. Since I could not have helped beyond that point so I left at that and boarded the plane.

After boarding the plane, I realized that it is just far beyond time that plane should have taken off. And then the captain announced that there were 6 people who had checked in, but never arrived at the gates. They were trying to get them and when they never turned up so they were trying to identify their baggage and de-board the baggage. All this took away 20 minutes and the flight was late by 20 minutes. After another 5 minutes the captain announced that due to heavy traffic, our take off position was after another 40 minutes. My mind immediately calculated that this means that the flight was delayed by total 60 minutes (1 hour) to land at Chicago. And a random thought passed by again: “isse toh Las Vegas ki hi flight le leti” how that would have helped I still don’t know because not that I was getting time to spend at Las Vegas…. Anyway, all these random thoughts took a U-turn again and the realization came that I will now have just an hour to go through immigration, luggage collection, luggage deposition, security check and boarding the next flight again….a little worry went through me. Then I thought that in any case sitting inside the flight I cannot do anything, so might as well watch a movie, eat, sleep and then will think later. And I exactly did that. After I woke up, there were about two hours left to our landing. I then watched a video on my screen which talked about requirements for the US immigration. From that video I realized there was one form that I had not filled and so asked the flight attendant to get me the form. When he got the form for me, I also asked him if he could spare few minutes for me to answer some questions and he readily volunteered to help. I explained him the whole situation and also told him that now since I had only an hour in hand for my next flight what exactly will be the process. While discussing with him, I also figured out that my departure to SFO was from terminal 3 at Chicago and we were landing at terminal 5. Hmmm, I thought another added item to my check list for Chicago. Anyway from that discussion with the attendant another confusion that came up was the uncertainty about my luggage following the same route as me. The attendant told me that even before you go for immigration, please check with the BA ground staff about your luggage and get that sorted. And I was mentally prepared for some good amount of efforts to be put at Chicago and still trying to make it for my connecting flight since I was not at all now ready to miss that flight again as it was already over 24 hours that I was traveling and I really wanted to reach and relax. There was this sweet lady sitting behind me, who heard my whole conversation with the attendant and guided me a little about the Chicago airport and told me that one has to take a train to Terminal 3 from Terminal 5. Now by this time I had started to become immune to the additions I was hearing that I had to complete in an hour. She was also very sweet to ask me if I had any change for emergency and I told her that I had dollars even I dollar but all in notes form and no coins. She fished her bag and handed over some coins to me for emergency. I was only glad and thankful to her.

Just when we were about to land, the captain announced that all people with connecting flights between 7:00 pm and 8:45 pm should contact the officer right at the exit of the plane. I was definitely one of them since my flight was at 8:25 pm. As the plane landed the announced Local time was 7:00 pm. I knew I had exactly 1 hour and just few minutes to make it for the flight clearing all those added things in the check list. As the plane stopped, I jumped out of my seat, collected my hand luggage to be the first one to exit. While waiting to start de-boarding there was another guy hurrying just like me. He asked me if I had a connecting flight and what time. I answered him and he told me his connecting flight was at 8:15 and from terminal 3 only. We both just looked at each other, smiled, wished each other luck and inside ourselves wished ourselves better luck and started running. At the plane exit, the new boarding passes for all of us were pinned at a board. We were asked to look for ours. As I found mine, the officer standing there informed me that I should hurry up and rush to all the counters to make it in time and at each counter I should flag my envelope which had bright orange sticker that said ‘Express Connection’. This only gave me little hope that I can make it. But as I started running and rushing towards the immigration counter, the thought of checking the baggage passed my mind but then I said to myself: “just leave and stop thinking about it, for now run you can make it. Will see when I reach the baggage conveyor belt”. And I rushed. Wow! As I reached the immigration counters there were huge queues yet again at all counters, I tried my best to flash my express connection card, but found no one interested in looking at it. I kept on moving ahead trying to find a counter with least number of people. As I was moving, I got a pat on my back, as I turned I found an officer who had finally seen my express connection and asked me to follow him. With him was that guy from my flight too who had a connecting flight at 8:15. We both ran behind the officer, and he made a new counter open for all of us who had an ‘express connection’ card in hand. Stood in line at the immigration counter, the turn came but officer took his own time to inquire details from me, do not blame him since I knew this was America. “Welcome to America, baby!!!” I said to myself. There was a smile on my face as I said this and my immigration was cleared. I rushed to the luggage belt, and as I managed to pull a trolley I saw my luggage coming out of the belt and I took a breath of relaxation that there were no added items to the check list for Chicago airport. I collected my luggage and moved towards the exit. Right after the exit, there were American Airlines counters on the left. I ran towards the AA counters but obviously now I was not shocked or surprised to see long queues at the counters there too. And I flashed my ‘Express Connection’ card to which a lady responded and called me out of the line. Took my luggage and asked me to hurry up and move to Terminal 3. Following the signs, running through escalators, corridors I reached the train platform. Flashing my card again, I got attention of an officer towards me, who guided me the exact place from where I should board and de-board the train to make it nearest to Terminal 3. I followed him, and behind me found that guy from my flight again. We were both only smiling at each other and just feeling satisfied having crossed so many things on our check lists already. We both had same check list exactly. We then started to talk in the train and were just talking how lucky we were to get luggage in time and just hope to get through the security check also soon.

As we finished talking this, we reached the terminal 3. We both caught pace and rushed up the escalators one after the other and they just did not seem to end. And finally after 3 long escalators we were in the corridor, making our way through people running to catch that last hope that we will definitely make it. We reached the security check and yet again a long queue. And both of us with our express connection cards tried to make way, but security officers did not care a bit of that Highlighting sticker. And slowly moved the queue and my turn finally came. Opening the bag, taking out the laptop, putting things in different trays and all this process seemed longer than ever before even though I went through this at all airports….I was only hoping to make it. Right after clearing the security check, I checked the display and my gate was open already and just ready to board in next 3 minutes. I knew I could make it and I had to make it. And I ran…..realizing that even though my gate number was H8, but it was almost at the end of that section. Running through all the gates from between the restaurants and the smell of the food, I had no time to even think that I had not had anything after London time 4:00 pm (London and Chicago 6 hours difference). I finally reached my gate and boarding had started. They were boarding the priority customers (business class). So I knew had few more minutes in the hand. I then quickly looked for a phone booth and reached for it to make a call to Mom-Dad. Bless that aunty who gave me change in the plane, I was able to make a 2 minutes call with that one dollar to mom-dad and at least inform them that I was re-routed and so will be reaching SFO late at night. As I informed the main things, the phone got disconnected since 2 minutes were over. I then made way back towards my gate and boarded the American Airlines flight. Oh God, I had another 4hours 30 minutes flight to go through. I sat on my seat and just waited for the flight to take off. I slept all through most of this flight too; I had no other choice actually.

At 11:00 pm, SFO time (pacific time zone) I landed the destination, my original destination airport SFO. I AM HERE BABY, I AM ALREADY HERE!!! With those thoughts in mind and a smile on my face I moved towards the luggage belt. As I waited for the luggage I connected to the Wi-Fi on my phone once again and received a mail from my sister informing that she had booked a cab for me via my hotel. I thought she had done that for the original evening time flight and so I replied to her, asking her to call me up immediately. I confirmed with her for which arrival time had she booked my cab and she told me it was for this late arrival time that she had booked. Aaaaaah, I do not have to try and struggle to get a cab at this hour after all this for myself….THANK YOU DIDI!!!! I was so relieved. While I collected my luggage, I coordinated with Didi to find the driver who had come to pick me up. And there I was finally in the car to my hotel. At last, alas!!! At dot 12:00 mid night, I checked into my hotel and finally entered my room. Oh the look at that bed itself was so comforting, I can’t even explain. My sister being the elder caring sister was on the phone with me all the time as she worried about me traveling alone in a cab even though she had finally booked this cab as she was worried initially about me taking a public cab at night. But she will always remain my DIDI and so performs her duties of an elder sister really well, without asking for some….Muah!!! I got into the room and she called up again to check with me if I had got into the room. Then we talked and I narrated the whole tale to her and discussed on what an adventurous note had my trip to this part of the world had begun!!! J Well, after that I spoke to mom-dad for a bit and then changed into night suit and got ready to hit my BED…I checked my mail and Ryan was coming to pick me up the next morning at 11:00. So I knew I had to be up early and so at 1:30 or so I made my way straight into my cozy bed and slept until 8 next morning!!!

These were the adventures of my flight to San Francisco!!! Loved it totally!!!

Saumya Goila

August 30, 2010

I am Becoming a Lover Every Moment!

Love is only a feeling, and not a thought. When you say, you think you love me…Well I say you don’t, because you don’t feel it! You say: “but I said I think I love you, because I feel it”, I say: “When you feel it then you don’t have to give it a thought.” Love is the only feeling, without a thought. Love blossoms when you feel it inside. When it blossoms, it is pure and unconditional. When there is a feeling inside me without a thought that connects me with you and everything around me that is ‘Love’. When I do things for you to bring a smile on your face, I call it love. When I see a flower bloom, it brings a smile on my face, I call it love.

I want to get out of Yash Raj, Karan Johar, Suraj Barjatiya and the like movie concept of terming 'love' as just a relationship or a feeling just between two people: one male and one female. I want to term love as everywhere, in everything and in everyone. I am talking about the ‘Love’ which is spread and found in everything and in everybody. I feel love in writing my thoughts, I feel love in making a card for you, I feel love in watching the rain drops fall, I feel love in helping the poor, I feel love in forgiveness and you are reading this right now that is because I feel love for you.

I want to become a lover every moment. Why can’t we grow out of the traditional thoughts and teachings engrained in us and in our society? Why do we teach our children ‘to respect our elders’ and why not teach them to only ‘love’ our elders and every being and existence? When there is love (pure) that blooms, then there is respect in that love. Why should I not respect my peer, my junior, the poor or the rich, the plants or the animals? I want to just love everyone and every being that is around me. When a painter paints, he respects his each work, he loves his each work and so he loves his work and then loves himself. That is the eternal love that I want to feel.

When I love something or someone, why can’t I keep it unconditional? Why do people have to remind me to expect something in return from my love? Why do you have to tell me to listen to you when you love me? Don’t you think I would in any case be listening to you if we both love each other? Why do I expect you to give me time just because I love you? Why do we mix the term ‘love’ which is a feeling from the heart with the things that our mind wants? When we say always listen to your heart when in doubt, why do we still question from our mind the rightness of the feeling of the heart?

I am exploring the new world of love and understanding the true and pure meaning of love these days, and so I am writing these thoughts. I am sharing with you all, because I feel the love and want you to feel the same love. I want to let you know about these so that you explore your inner self too and spread the love. For once, when you have read this, before thinking, feel what you just read? Once you do that, you will never question me in reply to this: “What’s wrong Saumya is everything ok?” You will never even have a question or doubt: “Saumya are you in love?” And of course you will not definitely ask: “Who is he or who is it that you have fallen in love with?” To all these questions of yours, there is only one answer that I will have all the time: “It is no one in particular; there is no ‘he’ in specific. It is just that I am falling in love with everything and everyone around, I am becoming a lover every moment!”

As I end this piece here for now, I am going to keep adding to this as and when I keep exploring the unconditional and pure feeling of love! Grow in love, grow in yourself, grow in God and grow in your soul!!!

Love,

Saumya Goila

January 10, 2010

August 25th, 2009!

The day started with Mom’s birthday celebration at 12:00 am, when she was pleasantly surprised with the video conference wishes that Jiju and Didi gave her and became part of her cake cutting ceremony.

The happiness on mom’s face, the surprise on her look, the spark in her eyes was so satisfying. It all made me so happy inside for giving her more than she expected. Her tiredness just flew away within seconds of this surprise and she still looked so relaxed and happy.

At about 9:00 am, mom came to my room as I was still sleeping (bunked office because was working till 3:00 am, so could not get up to go). Mom lay down next to me with the same happiness, glow and spark in her eyes and face with which I had wished her good night. She was feeling so special still after the midnight surprise. The look on her face said: “I am so special, out of the world and so I am flying so high!” Not even slightly did I think that the small surprise would do wonders.

I made sure Mom did not go to the factory and spent the rest of the day with me. We talked, slept, planned things and what not. And then Mom received a call from Aunty (didi’s Ma) to wish her. While talking to aunty, mom invited aunty and Prashant bhaiya over to join us for dinner. And the excitement that I saw on mom’s face with that invitation was like that of a 10 year old kid excited about her birthday party in the evening. She made sure she did not accept a ‘no’ from aunty for any of the two. And as mom wanted, aunty called back in few minutes to confirm that she and bhaiya were joining. And mom’s excitement doubled. She was so happy. If it was in her hands she would have behaved like one pampered kid. But obviously she won’t do that!

She then got ready and went to the factory for few hours. Mom and Dad came back at about 6:30 pm from the factory. We all got ready and went for the dinner at Punjabi By Nature in Noida. Aunty and Prashant Bhaiya joined us there. The dinner was nice and pleasant. Mom and Aunty discussed their kids, their childhood and what not. Lot of fun!

Towards the end Mom said that she would always remember ‘two birthdays’ of her life. One when Didi celebrated it with ‘Rasgullas’ when she was 3 or 4 years old and the second being this one! And there was immense happiness that I had inside. I then realized that the small surprise of a video conference with Jiju and Didi was like giving the world to mom. And that gave me such immense satisfaction and happiness inside for being able to give that world to mom! J

On our way back, mom was all praises for Prashant bhaiya and obviously aunty. Aunty for mom is like her long lost friend and trying to catch up on all of these lost years. Dad and Mom discussing how simple, intelligent and what not Prashant Bhaiya is. Well, me sitting on the back seat of the car was only trying to figure how similar can people be when I heard them saying: “Prashant ek dum Sonali type hai – simple, intelligent etc etc aur Rahul ek dum Saumya ki tarah – cute, naughty, intelligent etc etc”.

And finally the satisfaction and a sigh of relief on their face for giving their daughter’s hand in such a great boy’s hand and sending her to such a fabulous family.

And as day ended, I wished mom once again “happy birthday”. Gave a good night kiss to Mom and Dad and came to my room and slept with the satisfaction inside never experienced before!

Friendship's Day!

You are the ones to cheer me, when I am low.

You are the ones to make me laugh, when I am serious.

You are the ones who make me understand when I am wrong.

You are the ones, who forgive me when I do something silly.

You are the ones who listen to my non sense talks even when you are most busy.

You are the ones who are there for me even before I realize I would need you.

You are the ones who don't need words from me to call you.

You are the ones who need no introductions in my life.

You are the ones who can never be replaced in my heart.

You are the ones I can live my each moment of life for.

You are the ones I can die for.

You are the ones with who I can be myself.

You are the ones who read me even when I am avoiding myself.

You are the ones who make me fall in love with you each day, each minute and each time.

You are the ones I want to spend all my time, and wish time to stop right there forever.

You are the ones who are the caricatures of beautiful souls, pure heart and love.

You are the ones who make me feel what I am.

You are the ones who are just YOU all the time.

You are my FRIENDS and I am proud to be your friend!

I'm feeling Lucky!

A Good Night Wish!

As the day comes to an end,

In god’s praise I bend!

Even when things around me, I know are messed,

With God’s grace, I still feel blessed!

I know that he cares for my happiness,

He makes sure I don’t experience sadness!

As I look around me,

I find people with who I want to be,

I write this short poem for wishes I intend to send,

To all those I call my ‘friend’…

It is not that late at night,

But I wish you a good night!!!

Loads of love always,

Saumya

It's All About Us...

It’s all about that spark, about that connect, about that frequency, those vibes that you exchange…

It’s all about that meeting first time; about getting to know each other…

It’s all about those few days, and then about many more that follow…

It’s all about crossing those few miles, and then about that realization…

It’s all about that mentoring, about that ramping and all about those common hobbies…

It’s all about that gyaan and about that laughing…

It’s all about being over grown and all about not being grown…

It’s all about namesake, about the Hindi music…

It’s all about cribbing, and all about hearing it…

It’s all about sharing opinions, about getting rich together…

It’s all about freaky Friday, and about the bullet tee…

It’s all about loving each other, and about missing each other…

It’s all about feeling happy and about sharing thoughts…

It’s all about shedding those tears, and about wiping them off…

It’s all about knowing someone in a moment and about not knowing someone in 6 years…

It’s all about 5 people and about their stories together…

It’s all about people I call “Friends” and about their relationship that we call “Friendship”!!!