After reading Pseudo's blog post, I thought about my own beliefs and felt like blogging about it.
I am a strong believer in a higher power (which may just be the power of all the good thoughts of humanity). But to me this higher power is not someone/something that can be neatly codified and labeled as this or that. In my view, when somebody professes to believe in God, the absolute given is that God is much more than any human being. Therefore, how can anyone one of us human beings presume to quantify this Power.
Religions have always reminded me of the story of the elephant and the eight blind men,. a commonly told story in India. To me each religion is a way of trying to make sense of the unknown and the part of the higher power that a particular group of people have come into contact with. But that higher power is much more than that.
Another point I feel strongly about is, that my relationship to God/the Power is a totally private matter. I do not need someone to intervene for me or give me specifics on how I can communicate or not with God. I pray/have mental conversations, whatever I may feel like at the moment and there have been times when there have occurred happenings that have made me feel "that is truly grace" for which I am oh so grateful. But having had those moments of grace, I feel, does not give me the right to tell anyone else to believe in the same kind of higher Power that I do believe in, believe the same way as I do or communicate as I do.
'Love thy neighbour as thyself' sums it up for me.
Having said all of the above, I do hope, as this blogger says, that this post does not cost me some of my bloggy friends and that I do not offend any other readers.
27 September 2010
25 September 2010
22 September 2010
I can't believe that I haven't posted for more than a month on this blog! But so many events happened during this time, which kept me away from blogging. All I had time for--when I got at a computer at all--was usually just enough to catch up on mail and a some of the blogs on my blog roll. Now at last life seems to be settling down.
I have also come back from a short holiday, which was lovely and all the more because it was sudden decision on the part of my husband. As he is not at all given to that kind of thing, (specially as he has grown older), it made it even more exciting for me ! The place was so relaxing, the weather pleasant and, to top it all, I had a wonderful back and shoulders massage from the Ayurvedic clinic there (ubiquitous now in Kerala). The place was here though we didn't stay right in those floating cottages.
So now, I hope to post more often.
I have also come back from a short holiday, which was lovely and all the more because it was sudden decision on the part of my husband. As he is not at all given to that kind of thing, (specially as he has grown older), it made it even more exciting for me ! The place was so relaxing, the weather pleasant and, to top it all, I had a wonderful back and shoulders massage from the Ayurvedic clinic there (ubiquitous now in Kerala). The place was here though we didn't stay right in those floating cottages.
So now, I hope to post more often.
16 August 2010
Yes friends, I'm alive!!
I have been having guests. Two of my brothers from the US visited with me back to back (one came and the day he left, the other one came). It was good to have them with me and while my younger brother visited, we sang all the old songs.
Now my son is here and very soon the family, as there are some weddings coming up. And then it is Onam, our lovely Kerala festival. So probably very little blogging after that. I will put up pictures of our flower carpet (athapoo) after our school Onam celebrations on Wednesday.
I have been having guests. Two of my brothers from the US visited with me back to back (one came and the day he left, the other one came). It was good to have them with me and while my younger brother visited, we sang all the old songs.
Now my son is here and very soon the family, as there are some weddings coming up. And then it is Onam, our lovely Kerala festival. So probably very little blogging after that. I will put up pictures of our flower carpet (athapoo) after our school Onam celebrations on Wednesday.
24 July 2010
Random post
Among other reasons for not being a regular in blogworld is my personal trainer! When I come back from work at lunch time, she feels I should be out playing. Post lunch and her lunch, she may allow me a bit of a sit down. Then again it's time for a walk and playing catch and then getting dinner ready. No sitting down allowed!! So blog world gets sidelined :-)
I am such a big fan of modern technology, the Internet most of all. Recently, an old room-mate from my college hostel, who I haven't seen for 40 years, got in touch with me through a website. She was from Fiji and so I never thought that I would ever be able to find her or get in touch with her. So it was such a wonderful surprise to get her mail. Similarly, through this same website, a classmate of mine from school got in touch with me a while back and she I saw last in 1966! The wonders of modern technology.
I am such a big fan of modern technology, the Internet most of all. Recently, an old room-mate from my college hostel, who I haven't seen for 40 years, got in touch with me through a website. She was from Fiji and so I never thought that I would ever be able to find her or get in touch with her. So it was such a wonderful surprise to get her mail. Similarly, through this same website, a classmate of mine from school got in touch with me a while back and she I saw last in 1966! The wonders of modern technology.
03 July 2010
June was really a busy month , particularly socially. There were 2 out-of-town birthday parties. One was grandson's 5th and since it was a Sunday, and he was so keen to have us, we went. The other was a close family member's 60th birthday and so we went out of town for that too and that was the next weekend after that.
Then there were sundry other events as well and of course the first month of the school year here. But most of all, one of the biggest reasons for not doing much in blog world were the frequent power outages. You start doing something, the power goes off and the first thing that goes off is the internet connection. We do have a generator, but it can't support 2 computers and since my hubby is on it continuously--working from it, I switch mine off. But soon after everything is switched off and the generator started, the power comes back on. This kept happening so often, it was most cheesing off and so all I did was a quick checking of mail on hubby's comp, as when there was time & his comp was free.
Not seeing me online, blog friend Mallika of Eve's Lungs called me wondering what had happened. Thanks Mallika.
Anyway, now the power situation seems a bit better and too, I am here all the weekends in this month and so there's enough time for blog world :-)
Then there were sundry other events as well and of course the first month of the school year here. But most of all, one of the biggest reasons for not doing much in blog world were the frequent power outages. You start doing something, the power goes off and the first thing that goes off is the internet connection. We do have a generator, but it can't support 2 computers and since my hubby is on it continuously--working from it, I switch mine off. But soon after everything is switched off and the generator started, the power comes back on. This kept happening so often, it was most cheesing off and so all I did was a quick checking of mail on hubby's comp, as when there was time & his comp was free.
Not seeing me online, blog friend Mallika of Eve's Lungs called me wondering what had happened. Thanks Mallika.
Anyway, now the power situation seems a bit better and too, I am here all the weekends in this month and so there's enough time for blog world :-)
24 June 2010
It's pretty difficult being a liberal in a small town!
Yesterday there was a debate organized at the local YWCA, the topic being cohabitation/pre-marital sex, in the light of a verdict which had been given by the Supreme Court in the quashing of a large number of cases against the actress Kushboo. [Here is the front page of the Hindu paper after the verdict.]
There were 2 speakers each, for and against 'cohabitation', one a lawyer and one a lay person. I was the non-lawyer speaker in defence of the Supreme Court verdict and co-habitation. I can tell you, I was really in a funk at the thought of doing that. I know that my non-Asian blog friends would probably not understand that at all!! Anyway, at the start of the debate I was surprised to hear the moderator say that she had been specifically asked to clarify that what the speakers say, should not be taken to be their actual opinions. Now it's true I had worried, but I didn't think it necessary to make such a qualification. Obviously, the young advocate who was in my team, had asked for that clarification to be made.
Finally, after the debate was over, nobody in the small audience even wanted to vote. The moderator finally got them to vote by asking everyone to close their eyes and then raise their hands for the side they thought had won. As you can imagine the other side won. Later somebody came and congratulated me at having been able to defend the idea at all. I am sorry to say *in a blue funk* that I did not see fit to disabuse her on that point. There was not one woman present, who was even willing to say that it should be left to the discretion of the people getting into such a relationship. I realised, a little sadly, that there was not a single person I knew, of my age certainly, to whom I would even be able to say what I really thought on the matter--there is just no place for even a discussion on such a topic. I realised too, that I was probably one of the very few women they could get to even ask to defend the topic (something to be proud of ?).
As to my view--I don't know if I would have opted for a live-in relationship in my time, but I very certainly do not condemn somebody who chooses such a relationship, if there is commitment on both sides. Besides, I truly feel it is none of my @#*...business anyway. Whatever, here's to being open-minded.
Yesterday there was a debate organized at the local YWCA, the topic being cohabitation/pre-marital sex, in the light of a verdict which had been given by the Supreme Court in the quashing of a large number of cases against the actress Kushboo. [Here is the front page of the Hindu paper after the verdict.]
There were 2 speakers each, for and against 'cohabitation', one a lawyer and one a lay person. I was the non-lawyer speaker in defence of the Supreme Court verdict and co-habitation. I can tell you, I was really in a funk at the thought of doing that. I know that my non-Asian blog friends would probably not understand that at all!! Anyway, at the start of the debate I was surprised to hear the moderator say that she had been specifically asked to clarify that what the speakers say, should not be taken to be their actual opinions. Now it's true I had worried, but I didn't think it necessary to make such a qualification. Obviously, the young advocate who was in my team, had asked for that clarification to be made.
Finally, after the debate was over, nobody in the small audience even wanted to vote. The moderator finally got them to vote by asking everyone to close their eyes and then raise their hands for the side they thought had won. As you can imagine the other side won. Later somebody came and congratulated me at having been able to defend the idea at all. I am sorry to say *in a blue funk* that I did not see fit to disabuse her on that point. There was not one woman present, who was even willing to say that it should be left to the discretion of the people getting into such a relationship. I realised, a little sadly, that there was not a single person I knew, of my age certainly, to whom I would even be able to say what I really thought on the matter--there is just no place for even a discussion on such a topic. I realised too, that I was probably one of the very few women they could get to even ask to defend the topic (something to be proud of ?).
As to my view--I don't know if I would have opted for a live-in relationship in my time, but I very certainly do not condemn somebody who chooses such a relationship, if there is commitment on both sides. Besides, I truly feel it is none of my @#*...business anyway. Whatever, here's to being open-minded.
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