Day 23 - Practice, Practice, Practice.

"Life is like a trumpet. If you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out of it." William Christopher Handy

I remember this incident from my childhood days when during a TV show, a classical singer was asked the key to her successful music career and she beautifully rounded it up to just one word 'practice'. Practice is repeated performance or systematic exercise to acquiring any skill or proficiency in any subject matter. Now haven't we all heard this word 'Practice' too often in our lives. My daughter associates the word 'practice' with 'boredom', and I remember having the same attitude when my parents advised me to practice anything. Perfecting any art form or acquiring any skills needs ample of patience and practice. We are all born with some potential or talent, but the onus rests on us, to develop it further, by honing them through consistent practice. 

Popular singer Lata Mangeshkar once said: "If you ask me, I am a lot very much scared while doing stage shows. I practice for months together. Only then I face the audience. Because I do not like the trend of recording the songs beforehand and just moving your lips in front of the audience.....Nowadays I do not practice as before, riyaz is not possible as before....I have recorded the tanpura on cassettes. I put on the cassettes and sit for practicing. But mind it, every singer needs riyaz. If the throat doesn't get riyaz, it gets spoilt."

Practice is essentially a habit. When we learn any dance form or music or any sport, we repeatedly practice some movements and with consistent practice we slowly become good at it. Nothing is easy in life. We can learn something only by making conscious efforts. The key to playing the trumpet well is not just playing it loud, but to blow air into it with strength, which is technically called wind power. Similarly, in order to achieve our goals and target we need to practice in a correct way. Only hard work will not do. We need to know the wind power - the correct method of practice, to make our efforts go in the right direction. As Bruce Lee said: "I fear not the man who has kicked 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

Follow your dreams, work hard, with practice and perseverance, you can achieve your goals. 

Blow your trumpet to signal a glorious new morning today.

Day 22 - Life is like a flower, let it unfold!

I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath;
I am the memory of a moment of happiness;
I am the last gift of the living to the dead;
I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.
But I look up high to see only the light,
And never look down to see my shadow.
This is wisdom, which man must learn.
Khalil Gibran, Song of the Flower

Beautiful words from the poet Khalil Gibran. We humans have always found flowers to be alluring and they have been an indispensable part of our lives, as we celebrate our joys and mourn our sorrows with them. Flowers are an essential part of our culture and traditions. In India, flowers are a part of celebrations and prayers, religious rituals and rites, ceremonies and festivals. The lotus flower, a symbol of purity and eternity, is not only our national flower, but it's also used in religious ceremonies. Similarly other flowers like marigold, roses, jasmine, etc. find an important place in our culture and traditions.

Different flowers have different meanings and convey different sentiments across the globe. For example; Aster was used to ward off evil spirits by the ancient civilization, bamboo is popular in China and is a symbol of grace and strength, Cherry Blossoms in Japan is associated with the transience of life, while Tulip is associated with fame and perfect love and is the national flower of Holland. Infact, Tulip bulbs were more valuable than gold in Holland in the 1600s.

Here, are some buildings around the world that were inspired by the shape of flowers:
# The Lotus temple, in New Delhi-India designed by Fariborz Sahba, and opened in 1986, is inspired by the lotus flower. It has 27 free-standing marble-clad petals arranged in a cluster of three to form nine sides.
# The 2,722 feet high Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai-UAE, designed by Architects SOM opened in 2010, is inspired from the symmetry of the desert flower Hymenocallis.
# The ArtScience Museum in Singapore opened in 2011, designed by Moshe Safdie is inspired by the lotus flower.
# The Tbilisi Public Service Hall in Tbilisi-Georgia, designed by Architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas in 2012, has eleven diversely shaped petals.
# The Qizhong Stadium in Shanghai-China built in 2005, with a capacity of 15,000 has a blooming magnolia-like steel roof. It was designed by the Japanese architect Mitsuru Senda.
# The Wuhan New Energy Centre in China currently under construction, designed by Grontmij with Soeters Van Eldonk Architects, is shaped after the Calla Lily, with a 140-metre tower in the centre, surrounded by lower towers in the shape of flowers and covered in vegetation.

Somebody has truly said,
Life is like a flower, let it unfold. Have a beautiful day ahead.

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Day 21 - Yoga: A journey

Yoga is the journey of the self through the self, to the self. Bhagwad Gita

Today I got up in the wee hours of the morning to watch the live telecast of the yoga event held at Rajpath in Delhi. It was a pristine sight and a synchronized event with the Prime Minister of India performing yoga with thousands of people including government officials and students. For a change, it was good to watch the news channel telecasting yoga events and good health practices instead of newsflashes on crimes and terror. 

Just a day ahead of the International day of Yoga, and I saw many not so enthusiasts of Yoga, posting their pics on the social media in several Yoga poses. Another amusing sight was that of the potbellied Government officials perfecting their poses and postures for the mega-event. However, it was good to learn that Yoga is being used in schools, prisons, and other places too to help alleviate suffering. There are some non-profit organizations in India that helps families and schools with autistic children through yoga. It is said that the children respond to simple breathing exercises that help them to slow down and ground themselves. Also, research says that yoga helps children between the ages of 6 and 11 to improve their academic performance. This information was enough for me to roll down my mat too and begin practice yoga with my daughter.

We also saw that as the Prime Minister of India propounded the International Day for Yoga sometime in September last year at the UN, he was met with protests and controversies from within our own country wherein lies the origin of Yoga. An article in TOI essentially pinpoints on how yoga is beyond religion. The first translation of the Patanjali yoga sutra was in Arabic and was commissioned by Mahmud of Ghazni. It was translated in Arabic by a renowned scholar Al Beruni and called 'Kitab Patanjal'. Moreover, one doesn't need to be a Hindu to practice yoga. Across the globe, yoga is seen as an alternate method to strengthen your mind and body. 47 Muslim countries including UAE is co-sponsoring International Yoga Day. Yoga is for everyone irrespective of age, gender or nationality. More than 20 million people in the US itself practice yoga where the top five reasons to practice yoga was flexibility, general conditioning, stress relief, improve overall health and physical fitness. Today we have several forms of yoga, from acro yoga to aerial yoga, but the essence of it lies in its timeless quality. Yoga is about self-development, being productive and creative. It's about acquiring deftness of your skills, achieve peace of the mind, which in turn helps acquiring motivation. 

Hope people around the world understand the long-term benefits of yoga and not make it a one-day affair by just 'twisting' and 'tweeting' for the day.

Hope yoga changes the world for better! Have a rejuvenating day.

Day 20 - Steps to success...

"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs." Vance Havner

A staircase is often linked with success. Ask a dream analyst and he will tell you about positive and negative interpretations about ascending and descending a stair. A cinematographer will tell you how stairs have been used creatively as the centre stage of many films. A fitness expert will tell you of how regular stair climbing can aid in your cardiovascular workout. Ask me as an Architect, and I will tell you about the importance of stairs in a building. 

Our life is like a staircase. We have many dreams and aspirations, but we need to take small steps to get there. Success is not instant. Little steps every day counts in making something a little better. Somebody has truly said that there is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs. Whether you want to save money for your vacations, you want to give up addiction to something, switching from one career to another, learn a new cuisine or an art form, you need to take small steps each day. You can't jump to the top. 

You will find thousands of people climbing the stairs with you but not reaching the top and giving up in the process. I would say if you want to reach the top, take small steps from the bottom, take a break when you begin to pant and wear off, relax and reward yourself for whatever little goals you achieved, and then continue with sure steps. Don't quit...remember why you took the steps in the first place. Stay motivated and prepare yourself for long-term goals, that gives a direction to your success. With self-discipline, hard work and determination we can certainly achieve our goals. 

Some interesting facts about staircases I couldn't stop myself from posting:

• The longest staircase in the world can be found on the slopes of Mount Niesen on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. There are 11,674 steps in all and is nicknamed the 'Swiss Pyramid' for its triangular shape.
• Angkor Wat temple stairs in Cambodia were made supposedly made steep to remind the climbers that heaven is hard to reach!
• The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps is perhaps the world's longest mosaic staircase with 163 steps. Over 2000 handmade tiles and 75,000 fragments of tile, mirror and stained glass were used in the finished staircase in San Francisco, USA.
• The Bridge, over the Traversinertobel in Switzerland, is a suspended footbridge spanning a distance of 56 metres, with a difference in height of 22 metres between the two ends. The problem of connecting two different elevations over the gorge was solved by creating this staircase.
• In England, the Cockney dialect uses the term "apples and pears" to refer to stairs. Imagine saying "I am going down the apples and pears quickly"!
• In China, the first granite stairs were used as a symbol of religious power.
• For all the Maths wizards - The Devil's Staircase is a mathematical function known as the Cantor set, wherein the derivative is 0 almost everywhere, but it magically rises from 0 to 1!

Finally, don't ever stop dreaming...take small steps today and every day.

Step on to a nice day today!

Day 19 - Enjoy the rains.

"You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it." Denzel Washington

It is summer time in Dubai. Temperatures during the daytime are soaring to 50-degree C already. How I wish it rained here! 

Several regions in India have already been hit by torrential rains. 

Think of rains and I am reminded of colorful umbrellas, children in raincoats, water boats, puddles and more. Not to forget the scrumptious hot savories and snacks that are found in the streets. Rains call for hot pakoras and hot masala chai available at roadside stalls. Another popular street food is the Bhutta (corn cobs) braised with lemon and masala, made by the 'bhuttawala' just down the street. If you are indoors while it's raining, hot samosas and kachoris are bound to keep you satiated for a long time. Typically a rainy day makes me very lazy. All I would love to do is read a book sitting on my favorite couch or enjoy listening to music while hearing the pitter patter of the rainfall. 

Come rains and India becomes a field of woes. There is one common problem that binds every city in India i.e unpreparedness of the civic bodies to deal with the rains. There is water-logging in several parts of the city since there is improper drainage facility and low-lying areas become water inundated. There will be unending traffic jams, water logging on the roads, disruption of internet connectivity and television signals, and other associated problems. Some things just never change!

But then every season has its highs and lows. Just as John Ruskin said: Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, the wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

So, while I enjoy the hot summer in Dubai, I hope all my family members and friends out there in India, enjoy the rain while it lasts. 

Walk in the rain, dance in the rain or just get wet...Have a happy rainy day!

Day 18 - Home is where your heart is...

"Home is where your heart is." Pliny the Elder

It has been years since I visited my hometown and it's that very house in that small town, where we two sisters grew up, fought and played pranks. It was in that very house where we achieved many of our childhood milestones. It was probably the longest time I have ever stayed in one house. Over the years, we have moved to so many different apartments but I still remember each one of them. I don't remember how many windows my previous apartment had, but I remember what beautiful views it offered, I don't remember the size of my drawing room, but I remember every corner wherein echoed my child's laughter, I don't remember how big the dining room was, but I remember the parties we hosted and the fun we had with our friends in the dining area. I remember our previous houses, not for their architectural details but for the comfort it offered. Wherever I am, at the end of the day, I always want to return to that enclosed space called my home.

Somebody has truly said - a house is built with walls and beams, a home is made of love and dreams.

Here's some interesting stuff I found about homes:
- In parts of Germany and Poland, when a couple marries, the guests break a whole lot of porcelain in front of the bride's home to symbolize the struggles the new couple will face as they build a home together. It's called 'Polterabend'.
- Brass door-knobs disinfect themselves. It's called oligodynamic effect. The ions in the metal have a toxic effect on spores, fungi, virus, germs, etc and eliminate them within eight hours.
- The original house-warming party was indeed house-warming. The guests brought firewood as gifts and lit fires in all the fireplaces in the home not just to warm up the place for the family but also to ward off evil spirits.
- A red front door symbolizes many things: the ancient Hebrews believed it would protect their first born children from the angel of death, for the early Americans it meant the home was a safe place for travelers to stop for night. 
- According to Feng Shui, a red front door invites positive energy into a home. 
- In Scotland, homeowners paint their front door red when they pay off their mortgage.
- According to an old superstition, if a bird flies into a home, death is soon to follow.
- The people of Easter Island have a word 'tingo', which means to 'to take objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them until there's nothing left'. Now that's what I call true friendship!
- Chinese 3D printing construction company WinSun successfully put up a 5-storey apartment, an 11,840 square foot villa, and 10 small houses, in a single day using quick-drying cement and recycled industrialized waste.

Have a Homy Day!

Day 17 - Love your daughters

"A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give." Laurel Atherton

One of my happiest moment was when my daughter was born. I still remember her chubby little face and small curls on her head, her tiny fingers twining around my thumb, and oh she was simply adorable. The day she was born I had decided that I will give her the best I can, just like my parents who gave us two sisters all the love, care, support and have always been our guiding pillars till date. This post is dedicated to all the girls around the world.

We all know what is the status of a girl child in India; she faces discrimination even before she is born. Denial of fundamental needs and rights, preference for sons, early marriages, domestic abuse, no access to education, and also less food. On reading a UN report, I learned that this is not the case just in India but in other developing nations too. Just have a look at what the statistics have to say:

- Of the more than 110 million children not in school, approximately 60% are girls.

- By the age of 18, girls have received an average of 4.4 years less education than boys.

- From the 130 million primary school-age children worldwide who are not enrolled in school, about 60% are girls.

- At least 1 in 3 girls and women worldwide has been beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime.

- Around 450 million adult women in developing countries are stunted, a direct result of malnutrition in early life.

I was horrified to find not just these appalling figures but also many other stories and incidents around the globe which highlight discrimination against girls. I found stories wherein it's not just the male members who discriminate against the opposite gender but also the women of the household who are to be equally blamed. 

A few words from John Mayer's song 'Daughters' that fits in here:
Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too.....

Poverty, cultural norms or whatever the reason maybe for this gender disparity, we can and should give, the best education and support to our daughters. Many a times I have came across parents who have refused to invest in their daughter's education with the same vigor as they do for their sons since they feel that the girls will ultimately end up being housewives and mothers, so its wiser to invest in their marriages later. They are ready to spend crores of rupees on marriages but not on education. They don't realise that when they educate a girl it is more than book-knowledge; education empowers women socially and economically. You never know, your daughters may be educating your grandsons tomorrow!

My message to all the girls and the women around the world (though it may sound a little cliche but it comes straight from the heart):

Don't be afraid to speak up, fight for your dreams. 
You have the power to create a better world. So make it happen. 
Live with dignity and laugh without fear. 
Most importantly believe in yourself. 
The world is yours.

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sources referred:
www.un.org
www.who.int
www.unicef.org