Lotus v/s Lily

This question has always intrigued me. What is the difference - lotus/Lilly? Childhood explanations were lotus is pink,lily( Naidile) is white, lotus blooms in the day and lilly at night,lilly is smaller. Somehow in my mind they were always inter changable.


I actaullly love to differentiate between closely species(?not just) like I want to see what is really different between koreans japanese chinese in appearance, wild dogs of the world and wolf, how different they are, Chimps bonobos orangutans, white and pink temple tree. bothers me untill I get the exact difference. No wonder I think I am really blessed to be born in the days of internet.


Actually white and pink temple tree is an interesting one, I looked up all over the place trying to look for species of plumeria.. no-where did I see anyone differentiating between the two. Ive always noticed that some plumeria plants are just so handsome and some.. well they are gawky.. flowers are the same except for the scent. I was looking up bangalore trees.. I wanted to find the name of those huge trees that grow all over bangalore, about 10 ft dia trunk on residency road near mayo circle? Its called MaLe mara..Rain tree..(Of south American origin, I had always pictured this tree to be from Africa.. I cud imagine it standing tall and alone in a vast grassland. but no :P)Thanks to rain tree, I found this wonderful blog http://www.wildwanderer.com/journal/flowering-trees/2/






Blog also lists Plumeria ( my temple tree!!!) and guess what there are actually two sub species. he says.. "There are 2 species of Temple Trees that are met with often. The Red Frangipani Plumeria rubra which is a somewhat odd-looking tree while the White Frangipani Plumeria alba is the more handsome. Both are of small stature; the former being deciduous and the latter evergreen" :-} That was an Aahan! moment :)






Anyway coming back to topic, Lily lotus . I saw a lotus plant in a nursery and they called it lilly, it has bloomed in the day and it was purple!! I searched a lot on the internet but it took me a long long while to figure out what exactly lotus is and what lilly is.. even wiki and google images didnt help... lot of misnaming of the flowers. many ppl are as confused about lilly lotus as me.


finally I figured out, thanks to my mum's artificial lotus bloom. It is not the usual floaty thing that u get, but it is actually like this....













You know what ? I realise, I had never ever seen lotus in the wild, all the pink white yellow ones I have seen in so many ponds and lakes all these years, were all lilies. I found this artificial lotus really weird. why is it like this.. such a tall stalk? he's made it like that so that it can be kept in a pot.. etc..I saw a few pictures of chinese gardens... Saw lotus. didnt figure , then I saw tiger hunting deer in a lake- Rantambore.. and ...there's lotus in the background!!! I dono if it is rantambore, Its that place in Rajasthan where there is a fort in the forest and the tigers roam around on that fort, there is a lake right next to the fort. Those lotus( hundreds!) were just like my mum;s a few feet above the water!!..So..Beautiful! sometimes I think may be I imagined it, fort- lake- tiger and then Lotus too!?!! and that evening sun, Nat geo/Discovery guys catch so often? Imagination? no...


Artists capture it beautifully if u lookup lotus paintings....compare that with monnet's water lillies.. how different these two are!


lilly leaves float on top of water, lotus leaves grow right up - upto height of a few feet above water. lily leaves are flat like a plate and lotus leaves.. so beautiful, wavy. lilly gives an appearance of a floating plant, lotus more stalky. lotus has its seeds at the center. The famous seed pod. ever eaten lotus seeds? Ive heard my grand mum's stories...she used to go to the lake to pluck and eat lotus seeds when she was little and one day she saw a crocodile! scary! must have been younger than 12, she got married at 12! If that is so.. then this was in 1920..1930s..


lilly just has pollen.. never seen lily seeds. lilly has thin conical petals, lotus has rounder petals.. the flower is actually quite different. fuller buds too. lotus is usually much bigger than lilly. but not always true I guess, there is the gaint lilly from the americas.


lilly comes in all colors usually with a yellow center. Lotus I think in very few white and pink.?.. Sacred lotus.. its awe inspiring, really!! not so lilly. You can grow lily in a 3ft dia tub... for lotus u need slush a few feet deep. hmmm. I have tiny lilies in my tub now :) one day I want to grow lotus. those foot wide flowers!! hmmm.


I know, Now I have them all figured out. I went to the nursery to buy lilies and when i saw the lotus I cud say - Ah! u have a lotus! how did u manage to grow it :D

new Dawn

Yeah it feels like, My conscious is slowly emerging out, first rays of the sun... The dead quite and a twitter here and another there... :-P I am getting out of the Drama addiction. Finally I can start to feel my toes and fingers :P I am out of the numbness!

and hence the blog.

Hallyu( korean cultural wave) drowned me! I loved the movies but its the Dramas that did it. Totally addictive and numbing. u dont want anything else in this world than to watch the next episode. Once the drama is done, u go looking for NG's, behind the scenes , Commercials staring those actors and then u bump into another drama starting those actors and the cycle continues :D

How did i get out it.. I guess Kim Hyun Joong hasn't acted in any more dramas :P and I din get hooked to Bi Rain... yet....

First blog post in months, first gardening in months ( I got water lilies for my lily pond and some fishes too ) first meditation in months :-$, first time playing with coco in months, first time visiting my mum's house without laptop in months.

Make that months - month - the addiction just lasted one month :P still I can crib cant i?

Still Good morning Deepa! Congrads on wakin up! :P

chintu chotu both got Obituaries , Why not Sonu? Shes been gone for a couple of months now.

I guess I havent let u go yet Sonu! Love you. They say angels come when u need them and go away when their work is done! ? Were u an Angel? Why did u go away? I still need you? :-(

When I was a lil kid.. like 3-4 or something I remember I used to play with a cat. afternoons when everyone used to be asleep. It even scratched me a couple of times when I tried to get too affectionate :-) when I think back we didnt have any cat at home.. i wonder how id made friends with that cat, may be one of the neighbours. my family never played with it tho.

I also used to play with Black ants, those harmless "seeme hase". I used to let them climb all over me and talk to them, yeah I was a lil weird.

Crushes...

:-$ :-) Reading that blog from that other deepa, I realised I too had my heart on my sleeve and I too had thousands of crushes why not write about them.. many would say Aiyo Rama!! why ever write about them :-)
This is frank honest list :D :D :D :D ! noooo :P
Brian The Chinky guy, Called him Korean or what ever, It turned out he was from patna! :-} I finally did get to talk to him, I borrowed books in final year, he was working by then.. How heart breakin to see B loves A written in those books! hahaha!
and that Suneil shetty the boxer of Batinda - push ups guy! damn I cant get his name.. Gill.. Puneeth sher gill ! sheru :D hehe He opened his mouth and Man!!! If it stunk like a sher’s mouth it would haev been better. what dumbness.
Kazim - cute fellow, shy cute..
Norain commet! :-)
puRohit..french class
and that boss of mine forgot his name never admitted to any one I had a crush.
Mr Sanz :)
and rAncho! :D
and how can I forget, My mum’s cousins son.. dono his name V… something.. Dashing. I almost swooned and stammered when he was around talking about relatives there was this one I saw in one of the weddings.. embarrassingly young, much younger than me was in PU when I was in BE. Again,obviously a secret crush.
Aaaahhhh and … Goa Green shirt! Sweetest smile ever.! Damn if only I was abit bolder, I met .. ok ok, more honest would be I saw this one in Goa – Dona paula sigh.. could it get more romantic…ashte.. saw.. then these guys asked us to click their snap. We clicked.. ashte, no email id no phone number nothing… change by password to goagreenshirt and it stayed that way for years… this was 1998….
how most crushes just melt away - long time since I had a crush tho :D :D :D Just Fahid from Kameny for now.. Shahid from Jab we met too.. perfect guy!
thinking of movie curshes
Troy ooooooooo brad pitt, but that was just one movie.. I never liked him before or after...
Joey from friends!!! When he fell in luv with rachel! cute !!! :)
Leo is leo.. I cant call him crush.. its true love now its been eleven years since titanic and still going strong :D
Amir khan in Dil hai ki Manata nahi... when the cigerette falls from his lips.. as he dances for "hum hai rahi pyar ke..." ...
PS:This account is entirely fictional and Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental :-P

Freak Blog!

http://waves.rediffiland.com/blogs/2008/07/23/Just-another-cliched-blog.html

Did i write this!!!!

Patty comes on facebook today and asks me this.. : D Funny!

But this blog is Freakish !!! Man!! . I have a friend soums! and a kid brother and a best friend who stays miles way( patty herself) and I do think like this deepa!!!! WOW Its just like Ive written it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW WOW WOW

why is it so hard to remember, when you are upset or angry with the world, its not the world you are angry with but yourself?

congratulations to me

Now I am an Advanced Pranic healer :-) I finished the class yesterday! Wonderful techniques. Such an Ass I am for not doing it sooner! Cant kick myself enough. so much advanced than the basic techniques. Very effective.

I have the next level class - Psychometry, on Sept 19th 20th. I will finish it, God willing.

Cant wait!!!

( feminist speak )

I am surprised at how most ppl my age in india think..

Women should cook.

yeah they dont say that explicitly anymore but its so much part of their psyche . The main task of a woman is to cook,clean and keep house... working not working doesnot matter. A woman works 10 hrs a day at some bloody office but her main responsibility is .. u guessed it...cooking. No exceptions CEO of a company or Even Indira Gandhi. I am sure there are ppl ( my age and younger no less) who say oh that lady, she could nt even make plain dal! ( or could she?;-) )

Its not the guys I am talking about, Its these CEO and PM women themselves I am talking about. What they think about themselves. atleast what they would like to project to the world is - yeah I am successful but I cook at home. I know of a few exception, all Jhansi rani types like me :-).

The popular office joke is "hey u r a guy and u cook at home? shame on u!" "your husband cooks?" !! - When will these apes turn into humans? :-)

There is this Wipro sugar Ad "is your husband turning from fit to fat? take care of him" Its womans responsibility apparently if her husband is going fat! eh! and her... who cares for a bloody woman!!!

husband and wife should do everyhign together..

. err sorry its not exactly like that. wife.. should do everything with her husband and nothing on her own...she is not supposed to have any tastes or hobbies of her own(except Fashion designing ) or a life of her own. even if she does, she should be crafty and scheming enough to hide it or do it without affecting her primary responsibilities mentioned above.

I go on a trek on my own... with out my husband and I questions I am asked! - dont u miss ur husband? poor thing how does he live? who will take care of him. who will cook for him :-D How can a woman live without her husband like this?( din ur mother spend 2 months summer vacation every year at ur grannies? :-P ) ... when i get married Ill not go anywhere without my husband. Or even better - I wouldnt "let" my wife go without me. ( AAahhhh He would n't "let" her ! :-D )

and a Guy comes with out wife... anyone ask any questions? no just patted on the back - probably one question - boss, enjoying ur freedom!? his freedom!!!

The Gender disparity of it all. Is it Chauvinism? its all ppl... girls guys all and its mostly younger generation who think like this.. older gen have changed themselves to adjust and see things in a different light.. atleast the older gen I am in contact with has.. may be they have seen life?!?

I wonder - why dont i think like that? I have my prejudices they have theirs :-) some-other day on my prejudices...

saw something beautiful at work...

dust particles flying in the beam of the projector :-D they looked magical ! hehe!

safe life

I feel like I havent really seen life at all, I feel like I was in school before, now I feel like I am a graduate or a post graduate student, I know more, but I hardly am in it. I feel like I am leading this safe life and watching from the galleries and how ever much I grow up, it is going to be like this for me and for many of the people from my class, middle class Indians... we are not really into the ups and downs of life... most of the kannadiga middle class especially. We are making safe choices and leading a very safe life, our parents have given us a good education and enviromnet at home we study well and get a safe job and then we have a safe marriage and then we follow the same routine for our children, one or two misadventures do happen away from the normal path but not enough to screw up or change our life. We sometimes go and paddle our feet in life at times...- ok thats me, ( this doesnot apply to most of my class, they wont even do that much) but then retract and go back from life into our ... cages? or safely??
Why am I feeling this? I am reading this novel and I am so not relating to what is happening there... how many people get into real trouble by getting pregnant. its sucha bigggg bigg issue for people. even in revolutionary road.. its like some huge rock is put on your head at times.. and at other times people are estatic! Cant relate! Couldnt relate!

If I look back on my life... I dont feel like this... things have come and gone. When I am in the thick of things I do feel like I am involved, but at the end of it, I am kind of a detached soul amnt I? Why dont I swim in the river of life? why am I not in it ... I am not wet :D I mean I am not involved in life! I love my life now.. I love reading, I love finding out these things,, after the vacation I feel I have learnt how to live... I have found loads of things I really really love, I love my pets... but its all nice but when I see it -I mean when I see others lives I feel ( Its not about Drama!! boy !!! there is drama in my life or what!! ) I feel I am living a very protected life... who is protecting it? me? from very young age.. the people we meet.. all except one( not mentioning here :-) ) have been really nice people... why? how? are we too choosy in meeting people and going out and living...I not complaining about my life... there is this ... feeling its not really fear ... that I am living in a protected environment and not in the wild... you know.. like I am probably a zoo animal living in the comfort of a real nice zoo probably made by me... and there is wild out there which I dono of... AND I am definitely not complaining... I DONT WANT TO GO INTO THE WILD. I just want to look at the wild... read about the wild.. like I am reading now....I wonder if there is a wild and if I am in a zooo and who made the zoo. .. Actually I just hope I will be in the zoo till the end of life I am scared I dono anything about the wild I dont want to go there.. I am not sure it exists even... may be this is the wild but I know how to live in it? this is the wild that I have created and it is good? ?? :) I donoo..
Actually u know what I want to do, I totally dont want that wild to exist I want to live in the zooo and persue my hobbies.. and carry on with my life... I am just scared... its the same feeling that I wrote about in the other blog about to be or not to be.... same thing..
feeling of naivity ....I am stil naive and I am always going to be???? should I really bother to go and find out about not naive?

3/20/09 - 9:49AM

embarrassing moments part 2

When u are waiting for someone and have nothing else to do, twiddle ur thumbs, Dont roam around and push open door! cause they may be emergency exits and they will start singing like the fat lady from the Opera! :P :-$

news paper se..

Prince group - a group of laborers from Orissa, two of them have polio won a talent show India's got talent. They are just too too good, they are just wonderful. It is so unbelievable and touching :,-( You have to see it to believe it, I never even realized two of them couldn't walk untill I saw the video again on youtube. Some daily wagers from a small town have so much talent!! and they are struggling for their daily bread and still found time to dance ! wow! . God bless them!

BJP is in Chaos, They are clueless. They are lost and they have gone to dogs!! I am really saddened at the state of things. BJP was the middle class hindu party. They were our hope. Yeah they were too right wing and anti Muslim, I am leaning left. but I thought they would evolve into a progressive party. I loved their patriotism,Aggression. Good relation with Israel, Roads.. Nuclear test... I want that BJP back! the Vajpayee wali BJP :-(

Sach ka samana, Reality show where everyone is telling the truth. Dirty linen. Lot of debate on it, is it ethical, What kind of cheapness is this, This is Vulgar etc..

I think it is quite cool, All of us holier than tho ppl.. we need to know what the world is like... it is a reflection on ourselves actually. if we look a lil deeper inside us, we will find the same old much that is comin out in sach ka samana. If we only dare speak truth to ourselves.. Boss time to have a relook at this bloody hipocratical soceity and admit to ourselves.. yeah we are like this only, we are not gods we are human and we are .. exactly like the people on sach ka samana.. time to pull out all those dirty stinking veils under which we hide the baser feelings. you can get over them only once you admit them. no?

I would like one experiment, Ask the same questions anonymously to 1000's of ppl with lie detector offcourse and publish the results... they will show the true face of humanity. and I dont judge that face.. It only shows the rules and the morals and the so called standards we have .. they are all fake . that s all it shows, It doesnot show anything bad about ppl/human as such... we just programed ourselves to value wrong thigns.. western ppl Money and materials and easters false values and morals.

Raw nerve

I get upset at times, I get upset on comparision. from childhood. I used to get really wild when my aunts and uncles used to compare me with my cousins. why dont u grow ur hair long!! aah, how I hated it. What is their bloody problem. what for them. why dont they just mind their business and I will do what I want to do. dress as I please.

Wear a saree!!! X@W#$@$@!! Christ! or do some make up or wear jewellery. Especilay annoyed when my mom compares me to my sis in law. Why dont u dress up a lil. see ur sis in law, she is always wearing bright clothes. not annoyed when my mom-inlaw talks about my other sis in law;s buying 10k worht saree etc. because there is no comparision there I guess.

I'd built myself into a rebel, if I conform I used to feel miserable with myself. :-)

Why is it such a sensitive issue with me? why does "why dont u be like X" create such a strong emotional response in me. it brings out the "I am me. I am like this only" complex out very strongly. I dono why I am so stuck up with " I am like this only, I come with + and - . u need to take me just as I am. if u dont like it , then u can take a hike" complex. I am really really stuck up on this. Is this what u can call Individuality or identity .

I used to be really stuck up and proud of it, but now I am begining to think, there is chink in the armour. or rather I think I have an unnecessary armour.

Why this raw nerve. why do I so strongly say I dont care... It only means I actually do care, no? a lot actually. Most of the time things that affect you most are the ones you think are wrong with you. If someone called me blind- say because I wear specs, It does not affect me. If I felt bad about wearing specs then I would have minded. Same with being fat, I dont really think i am fat and these comments are clearly jokes. If someone made fun of my job for example... I think i would mind ...

The things mentioned above short hair etc.. I definitely dont think are wrong with me! but something must be there. if I take the logic further if I thought I was better than others, all these small things wouldnt affect me. may be in my mind I dont really feel so great about myself? and feel others are better? May be I dont feel i have the right to be as I want to be. specially I think I seek approval especially from people who are close to me, and I hate to admit it and act according to it. So anything that points to this, khatak ta hai??? May be..

Sight

Today I noticed that If I focus on somethin outside the window and shake my head ( if you are wondering why I did something like this, I was looking out of the window and walking on the treadmill) the view outside seems to shakes with my head , the window grill remains still. Even if I foucs on the window grill or on anything this side of the grill, it doesnot seem to shake with my movement. but the view outside still does!!!

tried it one step further, what I see inside the mirror shakes!!!

is it the glass that is making it shake? refraction or whatever!?!!?!?! I dono the science behind this one. Anyone help?

Is this same as the view when u go by train, the trees and the fields run paast u in oppostie direction but the moon and sun, they travel with u in the same direction?? In this case there is some logic, the speed with which the view moves in the opposite direction is proportional to its closeness to the train. closest stuff moves away fastet, fields and hills seem to ravel with you for some time and then slowly fall behind and the moon..u know it.

During meditation and energy rising exercises I found lot of Qi or prana collect near my stomach. I was scared and discontinue the practice.Thanks to the communities on the internet, it was suggested that I try this to distribute the Qi more evenly. It is supposed to be a good thing to be able to feel the Qi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong

I want to try this. It is surprising that it become such a phenomenon in china and china govt actually banned it!!

Time

Theory of relativity "The faster u move, slower the time moves" seems very attractive concept at first glance. How many times have I wished for time to slow down. But when I think about it further... For example, I board enterprise the Star Trek space ship Brian Green likes so much, I take a nap for 8 hours. I come back and earth has moved on some million years!!!! :-S Thats not what I want do I?

I want the exact opposite!!!! I board my machine, I sleep for 8 hours. Make that 18. I come back and not even 10 minutes have passed here on earth. THAT! That is what I want. Would be lovely wouldn't it??

Or would it? In this scenario- I age faster than everyone else!!!!!! Damn! If I take a break of 2 years and I come back Ill be sporting wrinkles while my frineds and everyone else will have fresh tomato cheeks! Hmm!! would I trade wrinkles for 8 hour extra sleep? hmmm....Damn!

That apart, How exactly do I make this happen? How can I speed up time for me alone???

There is one place tho, where time moves faster for me - Dreams! If I take a 10 minute nap and dream that I slept for 8 hours :-D and remember that dream. That would be the solution to my problem?

ps: No, I am not sleep deprived. I just hate that the 2 day weekend has slipped away like mercury and I am stuck with Monday morning. feeling like I have loads of backlog :(

food

How much food do u actually need to survive? Sometimes I wonder if anything at all we believe in is true. I learnt that I need like quarter of the food I eat normally,not just survive but to be much much healthy and energetic. JNI Diet was 6 glasses of juices , 4 bowls of soup and after this u need very little else - 2 chapatis for the afternoon and papaya and watermelon at night. First 2 days u fall sick get a headache feel cravings and then u get used to it. and feel much more active than before.

I tried ramzan last year, no water and food from dawn to dusk. It was not as hard as it seems. It was not the hunger that was most difficult to deal with, but the habit. the routine. Coffee time, Lunch time, I was so restless, confused about what to do.

I realise food means so much more to me, much more than fillign stomach and satisfying hunger. its not just about taste buds either . It provides comfort, feeling of safely? especially our staple food. we are so much emotionally in touch with food, many of emotional needs are met with food. Curd rice makes you feel at home? feeling lonely - how about a big bar of dark chocolate. and bhajji with rain? u want to be hungry for that?. Curd rice or moolangi dal is not the tastiest stuff I ve eaten. but if I go for 15 days without south indian food start feeling cranky. childhood food does it connect u with ur mum?!? thats why no chapati but rice for me?

They say there is a built in mechanism in our body which prompts us to stock up on fat and carbs, especially true for Indians as our ancestors went through lot of drought and rough weather. my ancestors seem to have been particularly badly hit :P

All this I think this is true only for foodies tho, skinny ppl are skinny cause they are not emotionally connected to the food eh?

Mystic babe 's back...

Reading about String theory and stuff. Cant help but double check the cover of the book, Is it science or philosophy! it is exactly like reading one of those mystic books. hidden dimensions, vibrations, dense particles and mass less particles ( subtle particles in mysticism) . Ours is but just another universe among millions. Cyclic notion of creation and destruction. time is an illusion.! past present future exists now.. notion of Bramha's year being equal to trillions of earth years.

Come on! If u cant see the similarities then u are being a Dogmatic scientist. Dog-sci is one who gives vague pseudo scientistific may be explanations to things which science cant exlpain today. for eg Prana: I can feel it, you can feel it. But if you are Dog sci u will say it may be static charge, say it may be pyscological. you jsut deny anything to accept or see anything beyong the narrow domain of today's science. This can happen to anyone, Einstein didnt accept Quantum Theory! Till his death.... hmm may be we humans are conditioned this way. Openess doesnot come easy for most. I am in this category most of the time too, I am all too ready to paint everything with a broad brush of superstition. If not for the pranic healing experience I was one of the worst dog sci's in the world I think.

Coming back to string theory - I think, Mysticism is the theory of the universe told by ancient people which has gotten lost in myth and lore now.

I am waiting for day when scientst will discover the prana particle which is more subtle than the gravity particle and the consciousness particle which can control the prana particle. I will go ahead even with my limited knowledge and say these particles are closed string particles as they can travel across dimension! just like gravitrons.?.

We dont need machines to feel these particles, Our body and brain are the machines to control these particles. only tuning is required :)?!

I have this book Tao of physics, written by a scientist who was into Buddhism. Seems like an interesting read. If only I can get a bigger break from the Samsara :-D Ill finish that one..

That sachin no...

It's what we call "that Sachin no" syndrome. when I trip my shoe is stupid, when I go late to the bill counter, the counter ladies are the idiots... too slow.

We were at Chandan's place one weekend. Joy boy comes home all flustered, one look at him. He starts shouting, "its Sachins fault, he only told me. I didnt do anything"

"ok what did u do"

"I didnt do anything, that Sachin no! he only did everything.. "

After a few exchanges of WHAT DID U DO!!!!, and SACHIN'S FAULT. SACHIN ONLY TOLD ME TO DO. SACHIN IS BAD GUY. I was really curious to know what he did do this time around :-)

Shubha was so worried by this time, She ran down only to find the security fellow at the door complaining about broken tube-light and naughty boys throwing stones at all the tube lights in the society and joy was already in his guilty corner by now :-D :-D

Some lesson in life that was, Now... No matter what happens , we know whom to blame... that ubiquitous Sachin :)