Excerpts from the thoughts of an animal lover..continued

The purity of the animal kingdom's life has brought continuous renewal to our world and humanity . Animals teach us to enjoy life. If you will notice they are not confined to schedules as we are; all they know is that they want to do something and they see no reason not to do it. We go out and play with them and begin to feel younger in the process.

Animals teach us how to relax. Watch them and you will notice that they find time to rest each day with no worries about anything. This is a lesson that everyone could use.
They teach us to love. Animals give love unconditionally to those that care for them. They do not give you ultimatums or conditions given; all that they ask is for love in return. Learning to love those around you with no expectations is a lesson we could all use as well.
Compassion is perhaps the greatest lesson animals can teach us. When they look at us with those innocent eyes we begin to melt and feel concern for them and their plight. We begin to want to do more to help them through and get them out of the worse situations.
Patience is something they teach us. When animals have behavior issues or habits that we as people find to be less than desirable we somehow find the patience to help them change those habits. We find ways to control our tempers no matter how angry the behavior may make us and begin to look for ways to alter their behavior.

I think that the biggest lesson that we can learn from animals, or at least pets, is undying love and devotion. You read stories about pets that gave there lives to save their owners, or pets that find their way back to their owners somehow, often traveling great distances to do so. Most of us humans would not even bother going out of our way for one another, even those that we love. But if an animal loves you, then they love you all the way, and they would do anything for you. All they want are the basic things that all living creatures need.

Animals could do things they know will hurt because they hope if they take the chance, the turn-out will be different. Just as maybe we think we can trust a relationship we know won't work out to test the waters and take a chance, even though we'll end up hurt and heartbroken.
When animals use their paws as hands or look at us a certain way, they seem more human than ever and yet we wish not to see the similarities.
Animals can teach us respect, patience, responsibility, and strength. If we're strong enough to respect them and likewise, we can get along. Just as all people should realize that and get along.
I'm not crazy, I just like to believe there's more than meets the eye.
So next time you throw a rubber ball for "man's best friend" to fetch, consider your roles for a second and how you're treating another being. Does your dog really want to fetch or does he just want to make you, his owner, happy?
What if someone said "fetch, simple human"? Would you oblige?

My TO DO list

Things i want to do in my lifetime :
*To acquire the skills and competencies required for my job (s/ws etc)

* Study an MBA - to hold higher positions of responsibility and also more money!-->to do all that i want to )

* Update myself with the current news in my company as well as in the field

*Donate money

*Take my family on a trip (Andaman and Nicobar??? )

* Marry the Guy God has planned for me in a beautiful chapel/church wearing a beautiful white gown.

*Stay thin!

*Get to travel Europe ( Eat various cuisines as well)

*Swim with dolphins(at least play with them! ) and learn more abt them

*Spend time working with an NGO (some weekends)

*Go to South America

*Go on a cruise

*Have a candlelight dinner by the seashore (candles mite get blown off rite?? )

*Lie down on the sand by the sea and gaze at the stars and live that moment truly

*Go to an astro club n gaze at various galaxies and stars

*Go to the biggest theme park in the world (with friends!)

*Go on an air balloon ride

*Go ice skating

*Explore a cave (with friends!)

*Echo my name over the mountain ranges

*Travel to a country I've never heard of before

* Travel to space

* Go on a submarine

* Retire at 50

* Get a pet for company after all my adventures :)

The video below was made as part of a presentation for one of my electives in college called conflict management. It contains scenes from the movie BLOOD DIAMOND (must see movie! ) . I couldn't show it in my presentation due to lack of time but i feel it truly deserves a spot on my blog. Isn't it ironic that Sierra Leone is the poorest country in the world, while it has a rich set of natural resources and minerals, including diamonds, which have caused entire countries and corporations to get involved to fight over them? I truly believe that the resources of a country are the sovereign property of its people. They are not anyone elses to steal or exploit in the name of comfort or consumerism. Civil war raged for the control of diamond fields in Sierra Leone. Thousands have died and millions became refugees. None of whom has ever seen a diamond!I want to thank Preets (Myla) for making me watch the movie and to Merben for making the video (Kudos to you!) :)

Excerpts from the thoughts of an animal lover......

I have always believed animals can teach us so
much about life and inspire us to become better
people. Be it in the wild or at home, people who
have stayed with animals truly know what a life
changing experience they bring into lives.

Personally, i have fallen in love with the animals
i've seen through a glass screen and animals i
have only heard about and also my pet cat,
kamikaze. What inspired me to want a cat was
a book i read called "The cat who came for
Christmas" . In that book , the author Cleveland
Amory, says in the end that , you'll never know
whether you owned a
cat or the cat owned you... :)

I'm not only a cat person as some people put it.
I love dogs too and am just waiting to get one,
once i'm on my own. Animals , specially pets, truly
teach you to love and give love, as much as they do.
They become your best friends and part of your
family. You end up feeling incomplete without
them around..

I have heard so many stories about how
animals were rescued from all sorts of danger
and also how animals have in turn saved the
lives of many people. They have been a huge
inspiration to me and often leaves me in awe of
the love shown by both human beings and
animals.

Once long back, my ambition was to become a
marine biologist to study dolphins. Dolphins are
animals i've seen only through a tv screen but
they amaze me by their intelligence and friendly
nature. Well, life has taken a different path
now, but i still want to swim and play with
dolphins and learn more about them one day.

With animals treading into the path of
extinction in such a rapid pace, people need to
understand and respect the nature and animals
around us and coexist in harmony. This is far
from being true in today's conditions.
I feel every person should strive for that and
everyone can in their own small way make a
huge difference in some other life.

I truly believe that all animals, from the largest
to the tiniest of them, have some quality or the
other which can help one become a better
person. Love truly conquers all !! :)

A different world altogether!

Let me take you to a world where blue sweaters were the code of the evening and red sweaters and house ties were the code of the morning, money wasn't the need of the day, friends become your only family and everyday a memorable event in some way or the other. My life in a boarding school was one i'll never forget. When i stepped in there i felt that everyone around already had their own group of friends as in any other ordinary school. Mom helped me unpack and then had to leave. The dorm was filled with loud music and sought after reunion of close friends after a long summer vacation. Girls around me were busy unpacking; they were showing each other their new stuff with lots of "uuhhs and aahhs" and "thats soo cool" statements. There were others who were busy exchanging gifts they had bought each other during the holidays along with animated conversations of exciting holiday trips and there were others who were swaying to the music in a place where the bunk beds were pushed apart to make some space. Then one of the girls who had chinese looks and pretty features came upto me and introduced herself and asked me my name...Then slowly we had to all go down for roll call where they allotted us our classrooms and called out the people who would be classmates. My 8th grade class was then announced and i was looking around for anyone who was in my class as i didn't know anybody there. Then a girl with long hair pulled into a plait came upto me and said " Hey i'm Anjali , you're in my class ok?" and i was so relieved tat i almost jumped.. :) Then, after a homesick night, classes started and i slowly made friends with a few people who were new to school like me..But friendships changed and soon they had friends of their own and so did I. Somehow, after giving a wrong first impression to that girl with long hair in my class, we ended up being best friends and then she introduced me to two of her close friends , mahak and archie, and after a few initial fights, we ended up being (the four musketeers as it used to be called! ) , the best of friends!!
Then coming back every semester to school was like coming back home..it felt so good to be back each time! There was something or the other going on in school to keep us busy. It was either band practice early morning, with the headmaster with a cane in his hand , shouting his head off at some of us and making a few others kneel down...or athletics practice early morning 6 am with warm ups and competing for 100ms and 200ms with my friends for practice. Sports was quite an important part of almost everyone there and we had a lot of interhouse and interschool competitions which were fun to be part of and to watch as well. I even went for some NSS marchpasts and some horse riding classes in the morning whenever we were asked to. We had dance practices(it was here that i actually learnt to dance after a loot of practice and help from my best friends! :) ) and all kinds of house competitions in the evenings before prep. Prep time was usually a good time we had in class in the evening when we were actually supposed to be sincerely studying or doing our homework. The guys were usually upto some mischief or the other in class as long as the teacher who was supervising wasn't passing by our class. It was good to be part of the fun and we had quite a good amount of laughs at the things that happened in class though i missed out some of them as i had to be down in the library for being a library prefect. But the moment i came back to class, these guys had to tease me in some way or the other indirectly AARRGGGHH!!! Anyways they make memorable moments that i can always look back at and laugh at whenever i talk to some of my classmates at present. Holidays(including Sundays) and special programs in school were always looked forward to as it was a time where we didn't have to wear our uniforms and everyone looked...well.... their best :)
Our dining hall was a place where i actually came to know who people other than my classmates were and listened to some new music which had just released and ate both formal and informal dinners and also had our birthday cakes and celebration as such with the class.
Though there wasn't much interaction or talking with the opposite sex in my batch other than the few couples who were going out, there were secret letters passed between friends(some of which were caught and people got caned for) and proposals going around too, and news of which guy likes which girl , n viceversa, all of which made interesting gossip! :)

Then came the end of 10th standard and i had no idea of how time flew; we had slam books to fill that too, secretly when teachers weren't around...(quite a few of which were interesting to read, i should say! ) and many of my batchmates leaving school to new,strange places in the outside world and some still staying back in a place that had become almost their own home..

I left my so called "home away from home" in 10th and i heard school totally changed after i left with different sorts of people joining who were i guess... not as innocent as we were.. :) and things changed, and so did some people i knew...but few others stayed very much the same!!!

I have luckily managed to keep in touch with a lot of my classmates through the net and have come to know a lot of people from my batch whom i haven't even spoken to in school and have become good friends. That is something which i did not even imagine would happen and i'm so glad it did!

Well..as I walk down memory lane , i realise that my life in school has taught me a lot of things i wouldn't have learnt in any ordinary day school at home and given me invaluable moments and experiences and the best of friends i could make which could not have been otherwise!

A friend is.......

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.

A friend is a living treasure and if you have one, you have one of the most valuable gifts in life.

A friend is one who will always be beside you, through all the laughter and through each and every tear.

A friend is the one thing you can always rely upon, the someone you can always open unto, the one wonderful person who always believes in you in a way that no one else seems to.

A friend is a Sanctuary.

A friend is a Smile. :)

A friend is a hand that is always holding yours, no matter where you are, no matter how close, or far apart you may be.

A friend is someone who is always there and will always, always, care.

A friend is a feeling of forever in the heart.

A friend is the one door that is always open.

A friend is the the one to whom you can give your key.

A friend is someone who comes into our life and makes some changes, maybe one maybe two, yet we are still very much the same and yet so much a part of each other.

A friend IS one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be!

It's upto you!

One song can spark a moment,

One flower can wake the dream,

One tree can start a forest,

One bird can herald spring,

One smile begins friendship,

One hand clasp lifts a soul,

One star can guide a ship at sea,

One word can frame a goal,

One vote can change a nation,

One sunbeam can light a room,

One candle wipes out darkness,

One laugh can conquer gloom,

One step must start each journey,

One word must start each prayer,

One hope will raise our spirits,

One touch can show you care,

One voice can speak wisdom,

One heart can know what's true.

One life can make the difference,

You see, it's upto you!