Monday, February 28, 2011

Moved to wordpress!

I have moved my blog to wordpress. Check out my new site at www.smilesndreams.wordpress.com

Also, here is a link to my blog that has been featured on Indus Ladies for the international women's blogging contest as the top ten entry and also the other top ten entries.  Top ten entries. Please feel free to leave your thoughts/opinions on this blog or any other blog on my website. Thanks for visiting my blog!




Sunday, February 20, 2011

A poem that I wrote once

This is a poem that I wrote to my husband once. This was the time when I was a student and we were living away from each other in two different cities, and I was thinking of him during valentine's day.

"In my dreams I think of you,
In my thoughts I have you;
I cherish your memories,
I smile remembering you.

The times that we have spent,
As good and bad they can get,
For every moment is precious to me,
The place you reside is in my heart!"

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Women and multi-tasking - balancing your career, family and the house!


I am writing this blog on 'A perspective on the roles on Indian women' for a contest at Indus Ladies. 



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During my grad school, I once attended a presentation titled, “How to balance your career and family”. It was kind of a networking seminar for women. I distinctly remember one Chinese woman who stood up and asked a question, "when is the right time to have a kid when you are working?" To this, the presenter answered, “It’s all about priorities, and you need to figure out whats important to you at which point in your life”. At that time I really didn’t think too much about that question, but it surely got registered in my mind. These days, that question has come back to my mind.

I’m trying to find examples from my circle of friends and relatives who have truly ‘balanced’ their careers along with their family, especially after having their first child. I am yet to find someone who says, the right word is indeed ‘balance’. A few my friends told me, ‘sacrifice’, ‘compromise’ and ‘extreme hard work’ are more like the appropriate words when it comes to having a full-time job and having a baby. Don’t get me wrong, I truly think there is nothing more precious for a woman than having a baby. However, more often than not, it’s the women’s career that takes a side step during this change in ‘their’ life (the husband and wife). In my opinion, it’s alright if the woman wants to take a break and care for her child full-time, otherwise, it is absolutely important for the husband to ensure the so called ‘ balance’ is achieved by doing the ‘sacrifice’, compromise, and ‘extreme hard work’ also if he truly appreciates her career and being a Mom also. Hence, I do not agree that it’s about priorities, but believe it’s about having shared responsibilities.  

A woman can be a good author, an engineer, a scientist or a good doctor, but she HAS TO BE a good daughter, a good wife, of course a good mother and surely needs to look beautiful and well maintained most times. That’s what we see on TV and read in newspapers these days.  “I appreciate your success, and encourage your dreams, but hey, I hope you know how to cook” is what a typical Indian guy would ask his girlfriend, or his would be wife. She must have been a good student at school, must have been good at sports, or music or arts, but when she is ready to get married, she must know how to cook.  That’s what a good wife does. Along with all the gazillion activities she might be involved at school, she should have made sometime available to learn cooking. Or does cooking have to naturally come to her? What if she turns out to be a pathetic cook? How many guys out there are willing to cook and clean the home along with a full-time day job while also taking care of your kid? A woman may or may not have a career, but needs to look pretty and be a good cook. In my opinion, today’s women multitask than ever before, juggling so many things at one time! Luckily for me, my husband helps me out in the kitchen and is a good cook too!

Times have changed and today's woman is more independent to choose her career, her husband, and voice her opinion in matters of education, sports, and politics and in many other arenas of life. Many other women have established successful businesses in India and abroad. These days, parents give the same message for a boy or a girl (in many bigger cities) - follow your dream or your passion. They teach their girls to be independent and are told, ‘Sky’s the limit’. However, I think one important part of educating our kids, is to ensure the boys are taught to respect, show compassion and share the responsibilities of the house with the women in their life.


I tag the following people;


Swathi


Shanthi

Finger licking food

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Million $ Baby!


This past weekend, we saw Million dollar baby on Netflix. I know that movie was an academy award winner and all, but I really don't care too much about boxing movies and never really cared to see it earlier.

This movie is really not much about boxing, well although the 'million $ girl' is a fighter/boxer - the movie is more about passion and about achieving your dream/s. Her determination to do what she wanted was really inspirational. I just loved the movie overall, loved the direction and acting by Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and of course the lady Hillary Swank.

She achieves everything she ever wanted in life (i.e to be a fighter) and get trained by the most talented boxing trainer, but somehow the ending of the movie made me feel bad and somehow felt the ending wasn't correct. To state it briefly, she get's injured severely during the final championship for the ultimate title and breaks almost every bone in her body. She ends up in the hospital and pleads her 'boss', the trainer, to put her to rest saying that she doesn't have any regrets and that she has achieved whatever she wanted. The boss injects a serum into her and within minutes she passes away peacefully in her sleep.

I guess being used to more bollywood movies where the ending is almost always happy, I just wasn't happy with the ending! I had a 2 hr discussion with my husband about the ending after seeing the movie that night.  After the discussions with my husband, I realized that despite your best efforts, sometimes you may not achieve your 'ultimate goal' (in her case, the title for the championship) but you may have already achieved success/happiness when you have taken the path of your passion and your dreams. 

Anyway, I learned something from this movie and it will always be one of those movies that has touched me emotionally and I encourage everyone who hasn't seen it yet to go get the DVD.  

Thursday, February 10, 2011

My Artsy side

Recently, I started going to these paintings classes called Sips and Strokes where they basically give step by step instructions on how to get a painting done on a 16 x 20 canvas. The base is acrylic and they provide with all the colors and essentials to get the painting done and you keep the painting once it's done. I attended a couple of these classes and they are great and bring out the hidden artist in you.

I've always had an interest in artsy sort of things but never really got the time to act upon this interest, until a couple of months ago. To add, my Mom does oil paintings as a hobby. She is pretty good at it, and mostly does portraits, but could also do landscape, abstracts and pretty much anything. More about her paintings in another blog…

As for me, apart from paintings, I have a attended pottery painting class, and a stained glass class also. Most of my art is pretty much re-creating from what already exists as an original idea, so nothing what I did is an 'original idea'. It still gives me some joy looking at what I created. Although most of the paintings, or artwork I've done is not an 'original idea', it still somewhat becomes 'my piece of art' as no painting turns out to be the same.

Going to these short term painting/art studio classes, I can try and keep up my hobby and hopefully start creating something my own with my own flair to it.

In the coming few months, I plan on going for another pottery painting session, maybe another painting class, and also a stained glass session where my idea is basically to create a stained glass window for my home. So here's wishing myself all the best to more art classes in the coming months!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Reflections on thy self and Life

Some days life just goes on. You feel like you are in a silent movie, or you are set in a still mode waiting for the key to be turned so that you can start moving again. You feel the world's passing by and you are stuck somewhere in a path where there are no choices, or maybe too many choices and hence the confusion. You find that life presents to you different pieces/paths similar to a jigsaw puzzle and you are trying to connect the pieces or the dots together.

You just hope and pray that things will fall in their place. Sometimes, I feel I'm stuck at a traffic light that is red and I'm just waiting there forever to move. These are the days when it's hard concentrating on anything and you get lost in thoughts wondering what your next step should be.

Recently I am trying to pick up on a hobby (painting) that would keep me engaged in times like this, and keep my mind diverted away from the daily mundane things.

I wonder if anyone else feels like this and what they do to overcome such feelings and emotions?

Friday, December 10, 2010

New Zealand

This past month, me and my husband went to New Zealand for a vacation. Initially I was jet lagged for a couple of days, but later on got adjusted to the ever changing Auckland weather and had a great time! (Pictures to be posted soon)

For those who are not that familiar with New Zealand - It has two islands: North and South. North Island is more densely populated while South Island is more sparsely populated. North Island is where more 'business'  happens, while South Island is more tourism oriented. However both the islands are equally beautiful, scenic and have something for the adventurous people.

Having lived in Auckland, NZ previously, going back on a vacation to NZ brought back some old memories. I went back after 5 years. A lot had changed in Auckland - for the good of the city I hope!  We spent most of our time in Auckland, took a ferry across the harbor, went to Rangitoto Island, Davenport, took the train at Britomart to go to Newmarket and Parnell district for some shopping. I also got a chance to meet up with my university professors during my visit.

After spending sometime in the North Island-mainly Auckland, we went to Christchurch and then Queenstown which are located in the South Island. Christchurch is a beautiful garden city, while Queenstown is absolutely majestic. Lord of the Rings movie was shot there. There were 'Lord of the Rings' tours being conducted in Queenstown for a huge price per person (nearly $350 pp), but I guess for any of those movie fanatics the tour would be perfectly worth it. From what I had read and heard, the tours were all day long, and included a trip to the Hobbit village. We however decided to skip the tour as we were short of time plus really did not want to spend that much money. We instead most of our time (2 1/2 days in Queenstown) just sightseeing ourselves,  took the gondola for an amazing view of the city, went for a boat cruise and did some shopping around the city. We stayed at a place called Rydges in Queenstown. The hotel was amazing and we had got a nice deal for the 2 night of our stay. Here is a picture showing the view from our room. It was basically like a 'live' painting on the wall!

We had a great time overall during our NZ visit, and hope to go back there soon again!