Independence Day: Varying thoughts.

Today is the 65th Indian Independence Day. The day that reminds the spirit and feel of 'freedom'. As I try to learn what this means for each and every person and country - I realize one ugly truth - most of the countries today have been colonies! The unending hunger of power, quest and conquer! Wow.
Even though colonization was a concept for a long time, the recent most in familiarity or in relevance to the Indian Independence is the Colonial Era, which the Spanish, French and the British dominated. I started to  wonder if there were any countries today that did not share a saga of fight or struggle for independence and who did not celebrate their 'liberation'.
Japan, China, England, Germany, Russia, France, Sweden - probably(within my research limit) they are the only ones that do not have an independence day. Some of them have a National Day, which is not exactly Independence Day.

I wonder how it feels to live in those countries or be from those lands, where people have not struggled or fought to be recognized and liberated; where people just lived their lives without a strive; where people never knew how much it costed to held their head up and stroll down their own streets of motherland, without worrying about a foreigner knocking them down; where people did not know the value of silencing speech or thoughts and that uttering what one thought or writing what one felt would be punishment;  and much much more - all simple attributes of a free life.

And I think of Rabindranath Tagore's poem:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where the knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake!

This short poem from Gitanjali reflects such a powerful force, with each word and sentence defining independence. How many of us today really appreciate or use it like our forefathers dreamt of or fought for?!

Taxes 2011 - is it better to delay them?

Last year we filed for an extension and did not really file taxes till end of Sept.
We wanted to be proactive this time and talked to our CPA last week. We did not finish the task and were going to schedule something this week. Then I read this on Yahoo News -

Taxes--April 18 (Yes, that's Right) Is Coming Up

Why does Congress wait until the last minute to come up with these changes?I am confused whether or not to delay now..I'll probably go for it anyway.

Easiest way to peel coconut for storage

If happen to have a lot of cracked coconuts, and if you are soft handed like me, then you know peeling the coconut from its shell is the toughest job to do - especially when you do not want to use the fresh coconut right away.

Tip: Store the broken/cracked coconut half in the freezer(doesnt have to be in a cover). After about a week, remove from the freezer and you will find that the shell separates without any effort. Now keep the coconut half as-is or grate it is upto you. Store in a ziploc bag and throw in the freezer, enjoy the goodness of coconut for months! Thanks to my mother-in-law for the tip.

Wreath, Tree - why these Christmas traditions?!

One the traditions I follow for thanksgiving is hang the wreath ring on the front door.
Once I draw out the ring from its box, dust off and hang it, I am filled with excitement - as it marks the start of holiday season and all the warmth(despite cold weather) the holidays bring.
However, I, for the first time this year, wondered, 'why wreaths, wreath rings for holidays' ? Ever since I am in the US, I started seeing that people do a lot of things to mark holidays, most evident outside the house as you walk past or drive by watching decorations are wreath rings on the door and/or lights. Wreath was easy, less work and suitable even when we lived in an apt...and so I simply picked up that tradition to mark holidays.

Other question was on Christmas Tree. It is so common to see a Christmas Tree during this time..but why do people put up the tree? I just couldn't seem to find or remember the reason from recalling all the fables I read or heard as a child.

To satisfy my curiostiy - I googled. Thanks for Wiki, there is an extensive explanation on Christmas Tree it give elaborated information on even star or angel decor on top of the tree:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree

Wreath was a tough one...took some time to find. I found a link which give a decent history(though am not completely satisfied):
http://www.e-wreath.com/wreathhistory.html

What I gather essentially is, in the Western half of the world, since Europe was the only effluent, flourished establishment of population many many years ago they followed and documented their traditions. As the Europeans invaded and acquired other parts of the world, they carried their traditions with them wherever they went..and few common ones became popular over time.

The joy of holidays is defined, but not limited to traditions.Origins apart, it is simply fun to follow them.

How much time do we really have?

Time is a relative term, it has a relative definition.
'I do not get enough time' - is a common phrase that we hear and most of us use - most of the time!
I take pride in thinking that I am different from the common lore in that I manage time, chores and energy effectively and pay enough attention to life at all fronts. My pride was shattered with my recent visit back home.

Two weeks straight, I watched my mother, a 57 year old lady, work her way through each day with utmost discipline. She is a primary grade teacher by profession; and a dedicated mother and daughter-in-law by passion.

I was comparing my daily routine to hers. I wake up in the morning and talk on the phone for a while even before stepping out of bed. Get ready, pray, have breakfast and step out of home to work. I take about one and half to two hours to do all this. I applaud myself everyday that I sit steadily and eat  my breakfast and then step out. After I watched my mom - I was ashamed. Give these 2 hours to her in the morning - she wakes up at 5.30 in the morning and leaves homes by 7.30 to catch the school bus. In these two hours, she cooks for the day, cleans, fills up water( we do not have 24hrs water supply, so need to fill up and store water for later use), gets ready, prays, has breakfast and then leaves. I was totally amazed and ashamed looking at her. Because I was around, she was talking about health, welfare, finances - any topic at random that came up at the spur of the moment. If I were to talk about the same, I needed to sit down, have a calm mind, and need a settled time to 'discuss' these topics.

Forget about just a morning; in one day, there are so many things that she does or can do. You can call that every day is complete for her because apart from simply doing the daily chores as in-charge of the household, she catches up on news, reads books, caters to her in-laws and helps neighbors if needed too. So much in a day?! It is the same 24 hours she has that I have too. I can never do so many things in a day.

All in all what I came to realize is that time and schedule is how we handle. It all depends on how lazy you let yourself be versus how much you to push and stretch yourself to adapt. Given a good physical health, the ability to do something comes from the mind. This still did not satisfy me and answer my question as to how my mother can do everything that she does.

I thought hard and finally gave up. I talked to her and she said - 'time is money'. As the old proverb goes, if we imbibe this in us and treat every moment like its the most valuable moment of life, discipline and time management automatically follow the course of action. You dont need to sit down and plan on what to do or how to manage time, it is a mental process. Amma says, 'its a problem with your generation'. Instead of just getting up and doing what needs to be done, she says, we spend more time thinking and talking about what to do rather than just doing something. I got furious when I heard that first. I thought she was poking at me. But when I think about it, yea, she is right. We set our bars too low and get satisfied with simple achievements of everyday life; when time, energy and wisdom can be spent much more efficiently. She says spend each day for a purpose. Now, I do not know how exactly I can or will do this, but I am going to try for sure.
Its all about 'making' time - not 'having' it :)