The last week - 2007

...Hi! Wish you a wonderful and a delightful year 2008..

Some motivation for my new year resolutions!

:: Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it, it's only good for wallowing in - Katherine Mansfield

:: It takes a strong man to swim against the current; any dead fish will float with it.

:: We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them. William Arthur Ward

:: Speak when you're angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret. Lawrence J. Peter

Glow of the STAR

This weekend, there is a very touching piece from Attitude is Everything.
Wish you all a wonderful time ahead!

The Strand I Could Not Fix
By Janet Perez Eckles

Like fog in the morning, the spirit of Christmas had vanished. Still, I shuffled in the garage. One by one, I retrieved the bins I'd stored the previous Christmas. While the aroma of sugar cookies wafted through the air and Silent Night played in the background, I began the decorating.

Placing the nativity scene as the focal point of our family room, I spread the rest of the decorations around the house: red and green candles, musical boxes with winter scenes, and bright red poinsettias framed with green garland adorned with burgundy, velvet bows. They all transformed our home into a lively winterland.

Next, I retrieved three stockings to fill the marked places above the fireplace; each embroidered with our sons' names: Jason, Jeff, and Joe. Once Jason and Jeff's were hung, with tears burning my eyes, I clutched Joe's against my chest.

The empty stocking sears my heart. It's been five years since the Lord called Joe home. Five years that Joe's absence left an emptiness we can almost touch. And five years that God's grace wiped away portions of the grief that flogged our hearts. But often, it's the scorching pain that opens our eyes to a bigger picture.

Years ago, when our three sons, including Joe, were still young, I focused on providing a perfect Christmas; a perfect tree to wrap a perfect celebration. As a result, little things tended to roil in me such as a light strand that refused to shine because of a burned bulb. Annoyed at the glitch, I promptly set off to resolve it -I fussed, I rearranged, plugged and unplugged until frustration grew hot in me.

How foolish and silly. I focused on that one bulb, dismissing the glow of the star atop the Christmas tree. I'd done the same with light bulbs that burned in my life-from broken relationships to shattered plans. Exerting tons of energy trying to fix them, I missed the star-- the one that gave significance to my life.

When that void in our heart aches to be filled, it's the star of comfort that makes it whole. When bitter sorrow robs the spirit of Christmas, it's the star of His genuine love that whispers joy. When a health diagnosis shakes our world, it's the star of reassurance that shines the certainty of new tomorrow's. It's the same star that never loses the brilliance of hope, incomprehensible hope, one we can only embrace when all strands of life burn out.

With eyes focused on the star, I hang Joe's stocking along with his brothers'; not empty anymore-but filled with sweet memories--his wit, laughter, his hugs and kisses.For that reason, God called it His "Morning Star" to dispel our darkness, dry our tears and repair strands we cannot fix.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janet Perez Eckles is an author and national speaker. She loves to host visitors to her site, and imparts bits of inspiration in her blog. www.janetperezeckles.com

A 'mother'ly blog

The mothers of this world are just amazing. No ordinary words can describe them and even the best known psychometric tools in the world cannot assess them when it comes to the way they love their babies. Of course, even trying to write about it would be a futile exercise as enough has been written and sung already in every possible dialect.

This blog might just be the only one of its kind, where a working mother talks about office, daily routine including the sweet simple nothings, what the baby did, what it enjoyed, how and where it slept, the books the mother read, the little noises the baby made, the movies they went to and even describes the shopping and outings.

The beauty of it all is that the narration is addressed to the baby! What a moving narration! The baby is truly blessed as now there is a daily journal in mother's own sweet words.I didn't dare to leave a comment there as I felt it would be a rude intrusion into the serene world of the mother and the baby. It suddenly appeared as if it's not just a blog but another fantasy world of its own, truly alive with the love and affection of the mother.

God could not be everywhere,and therefore he made mothers.-- Jewish proverb

A mother is she who can takethe place of all others but whose place no one else can take.--
CardinalMermillod

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not.--
JamesJoyce

Life on a 2000 acre screen

The travel schedule took me to Hyderabad and the two day stay at the Ramoji Film City was absolutely relaxing, to say the least. Pity there wasn't much time to explore all the areas as the stay was supposed to be work related :(

Ramoji Film City was declared by Guinness World Records as the World's largest integrated film studio complex. Well, when you spread the campus across 2000 acres of land, manned by a team of 7000 people & decorate the landscape with more than 90 different themed gardens, intersperse it with replicas of gardens and monuments from across the country and you need a whole fleet of buses just to take people from one spot to another what else can one expect? It has front facades of international airports, hospitals, post offices, central jails, railway engines, you just name any scene and they either have it already or can create an entire location in hours.

This location also has just received the Golden Pony Award for innovative and excellence by Games & Parks Industry. No wonder!

It offers preproduction & post production resources, 500 set locations, capacity to produce over 100 films simultaneously, more than 50 studio floors, locations, mock ups, set constructions, costumes and stage and an overall assurance that a film crew can just walk in and within days can walk out with a fully complete film ready for release...such is the comprehensiveness of the facilities here. Actually, the owner of this creation also happens to broadcast 12 television channels in multiple languages and the overall production happens here...it also houses the earth station for their bouqet of channels here.

I am not much of a filmoholic but the grand scale of the Film City,the sets and the facilities within the city seemed mind boggling. The Hotel was grand in structure as well as the comfort it offers with a fantastic pool surrounded by still grander tile designs. The professional service from the team here was the high light. The conference rooms are decorated in true filmi style...adding a lot of glamour to the official work.

There was also a practical demo of a stunt scene involving sliding along a rope, kicks and punches, electric flashes, bomb blasts etc ending with a free fall of one of the actors from a height of two story level.

While in the film city, I was thankful to the fact that I was not there as a producer as I could enjoy the grandeur without having to worry about how about the film's collections, or the availability of the actors or any awards!

Mail from up above

Past few weeks had been really demanding and it was not possible to actually put in a decent post. Could only manage few peeks at known blogs but other than that the weeks just flew past. Was checking out the Google Reader - what an amazing tool that saves so much time!

To continue from the Kolkata trip, all the tension and demonstrations quietened down by the same night and still I was amazed at the response of the taxi driver who was to take me to the airport the next day morning. He actually drove to the hotel on the previous night itself and assured me that since he has already parked his car and himself at the hotel itself I can sleep comfortably during the night! This is great customer service. And as luck would have it, our drive to the airport at 5 AM in the morning went quite smooth though we had to drive through the curfew affected areas.

The next stop was Guwahati...and memories flew at me with the same speed as the landing craft. I have spent quite a few years in Assam before moving down South. The moment I landed flipped on my mobile eagerly to dial a lot of numbers....shock...no network for Tata Indicom in Assam :( That finding is the biggest disappointment in recent times. But the ever delicious Tenga with fish more than made up for the disappointment.

The next two days at Delhi went smooth...only I wasn't prepared for the cold evenings and in the outdoor gathering I couldn't leave my seat beside the huge stand having glowing coals throughout the party.

Coming back home, the cold had set in and even till today it is getting chill by the day.

With all the travel and stays at hotels, this anecdote in the in-flight magazine of Spice Jet lightened up quite a bit

Wrong mail ID
"
A man checked into a hotel on a business trip. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send email to his wife who was expected to join him at the hotel next day.

Meanwhile, somewhere a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. She decided to check her eMail, expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message she fainted.

Her son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the mail on the screen:

subject: I have reached safely

I know you are surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now, and we are allowed to send eMails to our loved ones. I've just reached safely and have checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was...
"