Saturday, February 21, 2009

Mixed Emotions and Story of Change in a Foreign Country

Most of my friends, who have known me from India, believe I have changed a lot. Ofcourse they say its all for the better...I feel this change myself noticeably evident in my thoughts and actions...The once shy, quiet and traditional girl now reflects an aura of confidence and independence....This must have been a smooth transition process because I hardly realized this happening....

When I first came to USA in August 2004, I had hardly gone to the bank about couple of times in my life (the last one being to get the travellers cheque's since they require your presence and signature to issue those cheques), had never written a cheque, had never used a credit card or an ATM, had never filled petrol in my activa or kinetic, had never driven car in the traffic areas like the city, had never made my own bed, had never washed my clothes or cleaned my utensils, had never made any buying decision alone, had never been confused on what to cook etc.. and the list goes on and on....I remember when my uncle first took me to a bank, I asked them how to write a check..My uncle and aunt showed me to how to use the ATM, to withdrawn the cash or deposit the cheque(Depositing a cheque is still something I prefer doing at the bank in front of a live person)...When my uncle took me to the shopping mall to buy comforter set for my bed in my new apt, I asked him which one should I buy and there he taught me an invaluable lesson for life. He teached me, now that I was in a country, where everyone is independent, I should be making my own decisions...and thats how the process of own decision making started in my life...Still, sometimes I would call up my parents or my friends and ask them what they think about the things I buy...I remember buying my first own 60$ camera, not a branded one, and I had emailed my old friend in india back and forth, just to make sure I was making the right decision.....so the change was not all of a sudden atleast I would think....But then the number of decisions to make kept on increasing from buying an ipod to driving to canada to visit an old friend and see niagra falls, to present at a SWE conference in Anaheim california, to work as a intern, to take up research, to visit india, to graduate, to look for a job, to deal with customers, to live in a foreign country called slovenia (whose name I had never heard before)for 3 months, to travel in Europe, to rent an apartment and the time available to make these decisions kept on decreasing...forcing me to making my own life decisions fast...taking full responsibility of my actions...

I don't know when I changed from the Bhumika, who thought its ok for a girl to live at home and not work, to bhumika who believes every individual is responsible for their own self and can make their own decisions on how they choose to live their life. Gender should have no influence on whether you want to work or cook!! If I was still living in India, I would have considered divorce is wrong, that should never happen, being in the independent land, my views have changed to, you live once, if both of you are not happy in the life you are living, it is better to separate and live a happy life rather than live under the same roof in pain for the sake of others( the society), who are not even your family and have no right to interfere in what you do is your personal matter. These views might be considered too modern and liberal by the still conservative, male generation of my birth land..

I wish friends and families in my home country, India, become more respectful of girls and encourage them to acheieve their dreams...The culture of a country is never lost by individuals voicing their opinions....Infact, the spirit of culture becomes more strong when you have the liberty to decide what is right and what is wrong for self.....

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Astrology and character traits....

I believe in horoscopes and sometimes I get confused with the compatability reading between different signs.. I am a leo and I wonder if leo's do not do so well with signs like Gemini, Cancer and Scorpio, why do I have majority of my list of best or close friends falling under the sign? One thing that has fascinated me in the last couple of years is how astrology works. How are they able to predict a person's nature just by the configurations of the planets on the day they were born...How wearing certain stones makes you lucky or helps you nullify the bad influence of the planetary positions on your life...Can this happen? Is is true? Well, I do not know if I fully believe in stones and their influence, but I had this ruby ring as a gift on one of my birthdays and have always thought of it as my lucky charm..Things in life have changed for the better after wearing that..Now, maybe the things were destined to change and thus changed, but somehow I just noticed them after wearing this..But then what is destiny..How can you be destined for something..Why do some people get all the things in life without working for it and why do some people work so hard and still get no results..Being born in India, I had been introduced to the Karma theory since birth and now I see people in the west believing in it too... Do good and u get good in return, but still how much good things you get would depend on your past karma? So then, I would say its unpredictable how much good or bad things/experiences you would get in life!! Well not really sometimes, if you believe in astrology..The other day I ordered some reports from this website called astrology.com, believe me, the astrologers there know what they are doing! I mean, I got this real you reading and it said all things about me, which I usually ignore or would not like to believe existing...So, the day I was born and the time I was born, actually makes the nature I have today..Like if I am very social, it is not because I want to be social but its because I have been born under that planetary confirguration which makes me social..Wow!! amazing huh...Well, so I have been pondering about these things for a while now and during one of the discussions with my close friends, one of whose father happens to be a gynaec surgeon told me, these days instead of the natural birth of the child when it would occur, parents like to have their babies delivered at some particular time which they have confirmed with their astrologers to be the most auspicious time..Now,one thing I keep thinking about is, what if in the future all the babies are born on such days that they are always going to be lucky and rich, how would the basic economic theory of supply and demand hold? Can everyone be rich and lucky at the same time?