It's the festival of lights!

Diwali diyas

Diwali is my absolute favorite festival. I love the lights, diyas, colors…just about everything associated with the festival.

The almost two weeks leading up to Diwali (it’s on 5th November this year) feel like holiday season. I took a day off work just to go to the Blind School mela, an annual ritual for the husband and me. They have a variety of stalls selling the most beautiful and unusal stuff, ranging from furniture to lamps, pottery to jewelery, and clothes to knick-knacks. From there, we headed over to the potters market near Sarojni Nagar to buy diyas (small earthenware oil lamps) and idols of Ganesh and Lakhsmi. An entire day spent shopping, rounded off with dinner at Fez Dining, one of my favorite hangouts at Malcha Marg.

A potter at Dilli Haat

The atmosphere was festive, with people out doing their Diwali shopping and all the shops and malls and houses beautifully decorated with lights and lamps…I wish we could have at least 3 days off for the festival, but alas. All we get is the one day off for Diwali.

For those of you who don’t know much about the festival, here’s an overview of Diwali:

A still from Ramayana (animated 3D movie)

Diwali celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance, although the actual legends that go with the festival are different in different parts of India.

The Times of India summed up the modern meaning of Diwali as follows:

Regardless of the mythological explanation one prefers, what the festival of lights really stands for today is a reaffirmation of hope, a renewed commitment to friendship and goodwill, and a religiously sanctioned celebration of the simple – and some not so simple – joys of life.

Diwali is known as the “festival of lights” because houses, shops and public places are decorated with diyas (these days fairy lights). The lamps are traditioanlly lit to help the goddess Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) find her way into people’s homes. They also celebrate one of the Diwali legends, which tells of the return of Rama and Sita to Rama’s kingdom after 14 years of exile.

Wikipedia has an informative and detailed wiki on Diwali and if you like, you can read more about the different legends of Diwali as well.

What do you love about the festival of lights?

Halloween 2010: Heidi Klum's alien transformer avatar

It’s fun to see how celebrities dress up on Halloween. My absolute favorite celebrity costume this year was, yet again, that worn by Heidi Klum!

Dressed as an alien transformer in an armor made of red and purple plastic, with a flowing fuschia wig and two rows of sharply pointed false teeth, this gorgeous model transformed herself into an Alien Autobot.

Husband Seal, in a hugely muscular metallic silver suit, came dressed as the Silver Surfer.

This couple sure knows how to live it up and celeberate in style!

Be sure to check out Heidi Klum’s Kali avatar from Halloween’08 as well.

A few other notable mentions from this year:


Kim Kardish as Little Red Riding Hood	Kyle MacLachlan as Maitre d'(eath)	Busy Philipps as Tinkerbell

What did you dress up as this Halloween?

Book review: The Raising by Laura Kasischke

Click on the image to pre-order the book

In The Raising, Laura Kasischke exposes the ugly face behind sororities and the duplicity and cunningness of the human heart, and of people caught up in events that lead to often unforeseen tragedies. With her very first sentence:

The scene of the accident was bloodless, and beautiful.

She manages to draw the reader into the world of young Nicole Werner and her boyfriend Craig Clement-Rabbits; of Craig’s roommate Perry’s attraction to Mira Polson, the professor of sociology, who takes a class on Death, Dying, and the Undead; and of Shelly, who finds her life ruined because she happened to be the first and only witness at the scene of the accident.

Moving back and forth between the past (the year of the Nicole-Craig love affair) and the present (post Nicole’s death), Kasischke brings to life Nicole as a young, virginal, all-American girl. But as you continue reading, you realize that not everything is pretty and pink — there’s a dark side to that innocence, that, in fact, that innocence is just a façade for something more sinister.

Kasischke’s plot development is superb. Initially, you find yourself thinking that this might be another vampire/ghost love story, and you do manage to guess the end once you’re about mid-way through. Nevertheless, Kasischke’s writing style keeps you moving relentlessly forward, and she has thrown in some interesting plot twists along the way.

Overall, an interesting and engaging read.

Click here to pre-order the book from HarperCollins.

(Want to read more reviews? Take a look at the other featured Book of the month and more book reviews.)

2 blogs, 1 girl, and limited time – help!

I’ve been wondering about something since a while now – I maintain two blogs – this here, my personal blog, and my photoblog, Shutterbug. The photoblog has a niche – photography and art – which I keep hearing is really important to building a successful blog. My personal blog is, well, personal! I write about a whole lot of stuff, though there are some dominant themes – traveling, book reviews, spirituality and even photography. So, there is a definite overlap between the two blogs.

Then there’s the question of time. I work full time, so there’s a limited amount of time that I can spend on my building and promoting my blog. I’ve devoted most of my energies to building this blog up, and my photoblog is suffering as a result. It’s got a few readers and subscribers, but if you look at the stats, they aren’t too impressive.

I started it because I wanted to have a “portfolio” of my photographs. It was a very vague notion in my head, and I started it on a whim. (I had thought of quitting work and applying for a course in photography, but then dropped the idea as being rather impractical.)

Image by silgeo via Flickr

I can very easily merge the two blogs by changing the Friday Frame feature to a weekly one instead of doing it twice a month – that’s the frequency at which I post on my photoblog anyway.

What I’m wondering is:

Should I merge the two blogs
Maintain both blogs
Post the same picture both here and on my photoblog every Friday?

I don’t see the point in the last option, except to have it as a portfolio if I ever need or want one, as a place to chart my own progress maybe. But it’s so hard to ignore the stats! And I am so confused!

So, what do you think? Which of those three options should I chose? Or do you have another suggestion? I need ideas and help here, please!

Book review: The Courtesan by Susan Carroll

I recently participated in SITS’ Find Your Tribe event, where we teamed up with fellow bloggers in our niche to support one another and help our blogs grow. So today, allow me to introduce you to Jacki from The Raven’s Spell. Her blog “chronicles the ever changing adventures of a stubborn, book-obsessed woman as she redefines her life, family, and self. While raising a spirited young man, blending two families, returning to school after a 10 year hiatus, and pushing her own boundaries, this life will just never be the same.”

I hope you enjoy this review of The Courtesan — I know that I want to read this book ever since I read her review! Also, be sure to head over the The Raven’s Spell tomorrow to check out what I wrote!

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Title: The Courtesan (The Dark Queen Saga #2)
Author: Susan Carroll
Format: Paperback, 534 pages
Published: July 26th 2005 by Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345437977 (ISBN13: 9780345437976)

Wow, Susan Carroll does it again. I started the Dark Queen Saga with the last book of the series (didn’t realize that it was a series at the time). My next book, The Courtesan, is book 2 in the series. I am hoping at some point I will get this all figured out, but it is not likely.

Set in Paris in 1575, much sought after courtesan, Gabrielle Cheney, seeks to win the heart of the future king of France, her ambition driving her to become the power behind the French throne. Thought forsaken by her sister, the Lady of Fair Isle, Gabrielle seeks her own path and revolts against the ways of the Daughters of the Earth. However, she must outwit Catherine de’ Medici, a witch hunter from her past, dark magic, and her own heart in order to succeed. Is power and ambition what she seeks, or love and a life with Captain Nicolas Rémy, the loyal Scourge set on destroying her plans?

While there are some back stories that I wish I knew more about, I was able to get through The Courtesan without any trouble (although, knowing how it all ends kind of sucks). Gabrielle is a wonderful character who you love, but at the same time wish you could smack every once in a while. Actually, all the characters are that way, which makes them very much human, and all that more likeable.

Like any good historical fiction, The Courtesan left me wishing I had paid more attention in history class, although I doubt I ever would have gotten these kinds of stories. But it did leave me intrigued and searching for more information about this period of France and the history surrounding Catherina de’ Medici. Always a success in my book when a work of fiction can help the reader fall into a time period and come out wishing to know more.

The story is intriguing and enjoyable and I found it very difficult to put the book down. If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend.

Mindfulness

Carve out some time to hear this session on mindfulness that Jon Kabat-Zinn led at Google. It is very, very relevant given the fast-paced lives we lead. As we run from one task to another, to cross each item off our to-do list, we need to find some rest and relaxation, some stillness, each day – no matter how much or how little time we have in any given day.

“Meditation is an act of love…an act of sanity…just to stop for a fraction of a second and drop…into being…” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

Hope you liked this session.

(Click to read older Spiritual Sunday posts)

Friday Frame #5: Desert dance

Click to view Salamah.y's photostream

(More Friday Frames)

If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!

Phenomenal Woman – Maya Angelou

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

– Maya Angelou

This poem has traveled all over with me – tacked to the bulletin board above my study desk, taped to the wall at the appartment I rented while working in Mumbai, on my office desk, in my closet…so how could it not be on my blog?

Got a poem that’s traveled with you everywhere? Tell me about it in the comments!

What motivates you?

Image via Wikipedia

Ever wonder what motivates us to give our best at work? I know a lot of you will say “Money!” but that just might not be true.

Surprised? I was too.

Research has shown that the carrot and stick approach to performance enhancement works only when the job is a mechanical job. The minute it is a cognitive job, higher rewards = worse performance. Surprising, isn’t it?

To a certain extent, money is a motivator – If you don’t pay people enough, they won’t be motivated to work. But if you pay them enough that they don’t think about money, they are better able to focus on work.

So, what then, are our drivers?

Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose

Want to know more? Check out this really cool video that discusses just this.

So, what motivates you?

Love is…strong

Love is...not without its complications Relationships can be messy and complicated. There may even be times when we wonder what possessed us to get married in the first place. So when a friend recently asked me what makes my marriage tick, I had to think long and hard about the answer.

I’ve been married 8 years and knew the darling husband for 3 years before we tied the knot — that makes it 11 years with the same man. Wow!

If I said it was an easy journey, I’d be lying. If I said I was blissful every single day, I’d be lying. But I do know that I am truly blessed that we found one another. There are times when I can still get weak-kneed just looking at him…times when I marvel at the universe that brought us together…and yes, even times when I wonder how insane I was to have gotten married! But those are fleeting moments, generally brought on when I am really angry or frustrated with the husband — and those moments happen in every marriage.

So, what makes me feel like the luckiest woman alive when I wake up next to him every day?

The fact that, no matter how many fights we have, the core of our relationship —our bond — has grown stronger over the years. We can fight and argue and storm out of the house on each other, but at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, the love is very much alive and growing.

What is it that makes your relationship tick?