Expectations

I have read

I have been told

I have experienced

But still I have not learnt,

Is the core of all problems

Expectations

Wants, desires, wills

All come in a package

Called life and love

They don't sprout

Without a cause

Without a reason

They come with feelings

Of friendship

With kinship

And affection

They grow with

Bonds over time

Chats over coffee

Conversations

And occasions

In some instances

They nurture and foster

In others cases

They sabotage and kill

Relationships

Companionships

When you expect and don't get

You get frustration

When you get expect and get

It makes you want more

But

When you don't expect

You get fulfillment

Joy and happiness

If you can

I expect you to not expect.

Anything

Nothing from me                        

From anyone

My Name Is Pooja!

A few exciting facts about the name Pooja. Yes, don't look here and there; I’m talking about my own name.

Oh BTW, it can also be spelled as Puja, saves one alphabet and also some paper and lead, in the later years to come.

For starters technically my name means, a prayer, no ways was I a prayer for the Gods!

But otherwise it also means to worship, does is mean I have to be worshipped or should I worship? Well as I still have this confusion, I don indulge in worshipping or let anyone worship me!

           

If you haven’t noticed by now, let me enlighten you, Pani-Puri, pizza, pau-bhaji, petrol, paint and Pooja, all exciting, delicious and interesting things begin with a P.

If I remember correctly there were al the least 2 Poojas in each of my class, every year. Some more in the other sections and divisions, in short the most popular name in the school was undoubtedly, Pooja!

There is this person whom I know of, his best female friend was Pooja, later his girl friend also had the same name, and he married (not his girlfriend) another Pooja! But that’s not all; his younger brother also fell in love and later married a Pooja, this time the same one!

But then coming back to my name, that’s what the blog was supposed to be about in the first place, Pooja Shah Desai, that is Pooja as in my first name, which I have elongated elaborately, brings us to Shah, my maternal name.

The Shah surname which I guess has some origins or roots from some or the other royalties, remember all those Shah Jahans’ and Akbar Shahs that appeared so frequently in our History texts, latest in the list being Shah Rukh Khan. But I have failed badly to try and draw a connection between any of these famous personalities, mainly because they all are Muslims and me a Hindu, as if you dint guess it from the name Pooja.

Here let me also tell you that Shah, if not more, is an equally popular surname amongst the Gujarati clan. It is one surname that the US government is not issuing visas to also.

And if all this was not enough, I married a Desai, now here I will go back on my words above where I said Shah was popular, because there I had not taken into consideration Desai’s popularity.

On the last count, only on facebook, count for number of Pooja was more than 600 and these were only with some mutual friend connection and with pictures, I did not dare find more, so I gave up the idea of finding how many Poojas like spelling their name as Puja!

Number of Pooja Shah also happened to cross the 600 mark, I dint have the inclination to count further.

And now what, u guessed it right, the count of Pooja Desai also crossed the 600 mark. I think there is something with FB which allows only 600 names to be displayed!

And here I was trying to find out, which of my name is more popular! If the government were to start taxing parents for calling their daughter Pooja, they would be lesser debt!!

But all said and done, there are some virtues too in having a name that is so common! I have all the anonymity that I would want, and still use my real name. I can say “My name is Pooja, naam to suna hi hoga!” with more ease than any Rahul!

                    

                    

Upcoming Fab-Feb!

No other day (or celebration or what ever you may call it,) has been witness to changes as turbulent as has our Valentine’s Day, from a little known day amongst thousands of days that are celebrated all over the year through out the world, it is one of the most awaited days in the year, not only by the youth but for everyone in the family.

In the 80s or even maybe early 70s, if I remember correctly, Valentine’s Day was not much celebrated or even recognized by many. Before this, in India, other than Independence and Republic days, only children’s day was celebrated, or rather recognized.

Initially it was assumed that the day is for lovers only, as in a girl and a boy, and was considered a taboo thing so the youth used to hide it from parents and celebrate it outside. It was more like an anti-social thing. But gradually, slowly but surely we can say our understanding changed.

Once people were familiar they embraced the day and hence forth from the mid-80s, it was celebrated with lots of fane-fare in almost all metro cities. But it also had to face the wrath of some political parties, who even got violent and nasty in some cases. Who does not remember the Shiv Sena revolts in Mumbai, then Bombay?

After being politicized and criticized, and not to mention, they got their publicity, what they had intended in the first place, it was accepted that as the day is to encourage love, friendship and peace, it shall be allowed to be.

From then on, the marketing gurus took on; the day was the 1^st amongst many to be looked upon as big spending excuses. From cards, chocolates, cute teddies (just noticed how all of them begin with C) to expensive (read profitable) options like jewelries and diamonds. The list was a long one and never ending one. I had read somewhere about properties also being sold as valentine gifts!

And Valentine’s Day became what it is today. There is no news paper, no magazine, no TV channel no web site that does not remind you that it’s around the corner, and they also give you ideas for making it special for your loved ones (I often wonder do people really take it seriously after getting out of college?)

Talking about celebrating days, I just found out (from my service provider, who smses me the dates and days, and suggests I should send smses to my loved ones too.) that in the month of February, there are so many celebrated! Here’s a list, please add if I have missed out any.

Most of us think, February is the month of love, but it is also the friendship moth, I know like you people even I was thinking then why we don't have friendship day in this month too. So that we have to buy friendship day cards and gifts twice! They are not called marketing gurus just for nothing!

Feb 8^th – 14^th is Smile day, Rose day and also Propose day. (To make things simpler, they have clubbed it so you can celebrate all these days throughout the week!)

Feb 9^th is Chocolate day, and most of the time, people send virtual chocolates, so much for management guru tricks!

Feb 9^th is also celebrated as a Flower Day; this is news to me too! It’s supposed to be Primrose and Violet flower’s day, they are like trying to compete with rose day! They are supposed to be the flowers of the month.

On Feb 13^th is the International Friendship Month, how can a day be celebrated as a month? Whatever!

 

Now that you have celebrated friendship day, internationally, on the 13^th we shall also bring in “I value our friendship” day. Someone please help me with all these dates and days! 

And finally arrives our special Valentine’s Day, need I mention the date also? But this is not the end of the celebratory week

!

But not many of us know, well actually even I would not have known it had I not been writing this post, that on the 14^th we also can celebrate, Heart to heart day along with a Hug Day! I’m sure all the guys out there dig this day!

 

OK so had fun on the 14^th? Now its pay back time! On the 15^th we have the “Thanks for a great valentine day” ritual. And here I was thinking we will get a break.

 

But the best one is yet to come, on the 19^th, after celebrating and thanking your valentines, its time for a Temporary Insanity Day! Yes INSANITY DAY, thank God it’s a TEMPORARY one! There were serious chances we would be permanently insane if we go through celebrating all the above mentioned days; not to mention almost bankrupt too!  

 

And to end the month, the last week is also celebrated as the International Friendship day, yes, in case you forgot to celebrate it the whole month, you have one more chance, I shall refrain from saying last chance, as I’m confident, next month also we will be given lots of similar opportunities!

 

And the finale,(the best of the lot) take a guess people, there is Bread and Banana day on the 23^rd, followed by a cuddle day on the 25^th, will someone please tell me the difference between a hug day and  cuddle day? To top it all, on the 27^th day of the month, we have the Polar Bear day, i seriously can’t go on. I need to go out and celebrate over the head day!

I am sharing a forward I came across my inbox yesterday, could you please tell me if its for real?

Dear Friends!

Petrol in Pakistan Rs17 per litr

Malaysia Rs 18 per litr

In India it's Rs.65per litr

Why is there a difference within India itself? World Market CRUDE Oil is not


the reason for this. It's all Gain for private owners? As we are the general public, or Common Man as R.K.Laxman wud hv said, we have to raise our voice, let's raise thru Emails.

Forward this to all Indians who care.


IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF PETROL FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD
CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE " Feb.14 th" HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND " DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF PETROL THAT DAY.



THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS
MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD
OUT. WAITING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL
IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF PETROL GOING UP BUT
AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES,
TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH AFFECTS
PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING,
BUILDING SUPPLIES MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE
DO!


WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE
DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE
WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR
CALENDARS AND MAKE* *
*Feb.* 14 th



A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS SAY
"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

We forward so many junk email to many of our friends, now let us do
it for some useful cause to cut down the price of the petrol .. ....

REMEMBER : *Feb * 14 th

 
I would like to know your take on the situation.