Wednesday, November 25, 2020

The Legend will be living forever in our hearts


Today is a very sad day indeed! The first news that I read was about Diego Maradona died at the age of 60. One of the two joint winners of the FIFA player of the 20th century awardee, who played 585 matches, 9 club trophies and 311 goals scored, has become a star in the sky forever.

"To see the ball, to run after it, makes me the happiest man in the world" ~ Diego Maradona

I am a die-hard fan of him since childhood. Being a hockey player I always admired his dribbling and ball control skills which I often tried with my hockey sticks as well.

Coming from a country then in India Football was popular too as Cricket is. It used to be like a season one after the other sports and watching international matches on Television was so much fun.



Television was not something everyone could afford or have and hence it used to be a match that we friends and family watch on Television just like one is watching from the stadium and the cheering and supporting teams excitement and thrill always added a galore to the whole event.

"When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success" ~ Diego Maradona 

Small wins and those thrill dances when Maradona used to kick into the court for goal - I can only imagine those memories in mind. Some beautiful memories that Maradona has given to generations and to the football lovers. 

I was so much connected to him which I never realized until now when the news is still sinking that he is no more !!!!

Even now when FIFA world cup matches were happening I used to look for a glimpse of him in the audience and often felt bad to see his health conditions.

I was hoping everything will be alright after his discharge but I guess 2020 had to play its own game and like he said once, 'Certainly, one day we'll kick a ball together in the sky above!!'

Diego, we will miss you in person on the grounds and in stadium but you will always be in our heart living as a legend.


As Thanksgiving holidays start at this side of the world, I would like to Thank You Diego for giving us wonderful memories to cherish life long. Whenever and wherever the name of football will come, your name will shine first Maradona!

"My mother things I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells me." ~ Diego Maradona


~ Dawn


Saturday, November 21, 2020

“Some things can only be perceived one way because they only have one meaning..”

 It's been a while since we all are stuck at home. Even though it's not a complete lockdown in California, there's not much motivation to go out all the time either.

Besides work and daily walks, one thing that kept me busy was watching web series on OTT platform. It's a continuous hunt as what else is there to watch. And when I finished almost all sources, one evening I happened to click The Crown series and I got hooked on to it.

The reason I got hooked on to it was the English language which I missed after moving to America and then I felt lot of historical events that I read in my history classes had some background story which I could relate through these series.

"Who wants transparency when you can have magic? Who wants prose when you can have poetry?"

As one watches these series episode by episode, there is lot of insight behind the royal monarchy and some of their traditions and some of their beliefs which they probably wanted the world to know and some not too. It's a series one can take it with a pinch of salt, if I may say!


I am going to share my feel about the series and these are only my thoughts and nothing else.

While starting the first season, I felt sorry for the Queen Elizabeth II for getting into this high demanding job profile at that tender age. Because I related at that age what a kid would like to do, their aspirations and dreams and when Parents even directed them to follow certain aspect of their wishes, many have rebelled and many who have followed have later got out of that cage. She had no escape and specially when she gets bullied by her own family members for not knowing much of the world affairs and general knowledge. It made me feel awkward that she was only 4th grade and then she learned through a tutor but imagine she never studied Math or Science whereas I grew up where nothing is possible without Math and Science. 

"To do nothing is often the best course of action, but I know from personal experience how frustrating it can be. History was not made by those who did nothing."

I also felt for her when Winston Churchill the then Prime Minister, how he looked at her for her age and her inexperiences but she didn't get discouraged instead learned from the wise.

The Queen was not expressive of her emotions when it was towards her children, something I didn't understand and if you look at it the problem that Prince Charles was having for not getting that motherly care and love like any other normal kid could have. If Queen was like Diana not hesitating to show her affection to her kids things would have been different.


At times, I felt the Queen was deliberately not showing any affection as if her emotions will show her as a weak person. I am sure that's the old school thinking because vulnerability is a leadership skill, not a weakness but now its too late.

Her Sister Princess Margaret seemed like a spoilt brat and I felt the Mother Queen was also sad that she didn't get to rule too long as all rights and privileges went to the Queen Elizabeth II her older daughter but I guess power and position can make any relation fragile and weak if the seekers are out only for that.

"In a rush to heal wounds you end up committing yourself to something, someone that isn't quite right."

The husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh born in royal family but sad story at the family front and yet got everything by being the husband of the Queen. At times you will feel sorry for him and at times you will feel things happen for a reason.

I mean the time when the astronauts were visiting the Palace, he specially asking for 15 minutes with them in person and not meeting them in a group tells a lot where he wanted to prove that he is someone above all these Royal family and he is superior as he is a pilot and has interest in space related activities. But as soon Neil Armstrong says, ask the questions that he wanted to ask, Prince Philip was not able to do so. There was a dilemma in accepting that common people are the ones who landed on the Moon and they are no royal or have any such show-off as supposed to what was in Prince Philip's mind and then we see he going to his faith and feels happy with the priest who later became his friend. That made me think of himself like a lost guy.

Any how I didn't think very high of him the way he treated his son Prince Charles and also by sending him to the school where he went and the bullies that a child had to go through, which Prince Charles later said was like a hell on earth.

"We're all dying. That's what defines the condition of living."

Till now, I am sympathizing with Prince Charles but not after he is grown up because I felt he is always doing his victim cry and demands attention and the one gave he fall for them.

It was good to hear another familiar character Louis Mountbatten - the once Governor General of India and it was funny he giving Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru's reference on and off. 

I felt he was a father figure to Prince Philip and to Prince Charles but sad ending.

Sometimes these series actually take the curtain off of people's face as what they are and what they claim to be. I just googled about him and read a whole lot about him and little boys.

Coming to Prince Charles, I felt he always have his victim cry and probably that's the reason he always demanded to be cared and loved like a baby!

The whole rule book seemed like is for the Queen because besides her everyone was into infidelity, extra-marital affairs, divorce etc.

"Where there is heroism there will always be hope."

But the whole drama of Prince Charles and Princess Diana... I don't know what to say because I think I was there when it started and when it ended too. I mean I was in school that time and saw their fairytale wedding on tv and now when everything unfolded in these series it all looks like a mockery.

The family know their son is in love with another woman still they don't let them to marry and then that woman marries another lover of hers and still continues the affair. And while the affair is on the Prince decides to marry so that he can give a Princess to the royal family. It was like an open book for everyone inside the family except the world felt that it's a fairytale.

"In the first flush of romantic love, we're all blind. We see only what we want to see."

As a young teenage girl Diana, getting all excited to be part of the royal family may be she didn't know what she is getting into and probably by the time she realized what was going on and even after her trying to keep the family and marriage intact, when things really didn't work out she probably went like any other person looking for her escape from all these issues.

"That's the thing about unhappiness. All it takes is for something worse to come along and you realize it was actually happiness after all."

But it was funny to see how every time Prince Charles wanted to marry his love Camila who was already married and when he asks her to leave her husband and marry him, she gives the reason that it is not good for anyone to break the marriage but she has feelings for him. That moment I wondered didn't Charles even had a slightest thought that she is a player too?

At this point I was lost as what is she interested in? I always got the feel from the series that she only petted Charles and probably he also wanted that.  

One more thing was clear from what the Queen said, you have to make your adjustments, meaning she was fine with Prince Philip going to other women as long as that's done in hidden way and not impacting their marriage - seemed very mechanical and superficial relationship. She had to have a deal each time to keep him in the marriage. 

There was no rights for women even though the Queen herself is a woman. Men can go to other women but women cannot.

It only makes one think of, what if everyone had given their way of choosing life - how would things look today?

Probably the Queen Elizabeth wouldn't be the queen today.

"Some things can only be perceived one way because they only have one meaning."

I have to admit and appreciate the craft, crew, casting, script and performance by each one in this series is amazing. I very much loved everyone for being in their character fully. 

I had only one thing to say that I didn't like that the Queen Claire Foy was replaced by Olivia Colman and Prince Philip Matt Smith was replaced by Tobias Menzies, and so on so forth. It was hard to reconnect with the characters and get to the flow that one starts in the beginning of this series. I wish it was one artist playing their role through out...it connects one with the artists as well and the characters.

"Who we are is not what we wear or what glitters. It's the spirit that defines us."


~ Dawn

Friday, November 06, 2020

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions :)


 

Today a day before my birthday, I look back to the time when my Mom was expecting me. All I could think about looking back is the story that she has told me.


It must be waiting period for her but I know she was not feeling well with Pneumonia and her doctors were mainly and only thinking about saving her life. Why I say this is because she lost her friend who was also suffering from Pneumonia and was admitted in the next room in the same hospital.


As they say, life and death are part of the same play. One has to leave so that next cast can enter the show. 


"All things that have form eventually decay" - Orochimaru ~ Masashi Kishimoto


My Mom lost her best friend and she got cured and discharged from the hospital. 


I was born on Nov 7th between 10:30 am and 11:05 am, while she was visiting her hometown in Kerala, India to see her Dad who was not well at that time.


I was told my both parents were eagerly waiting for a baby girl as their first born is a boy, they didn’t want another boy ..lol!


My Dad had my name chosen already that is even before I was born he suggested Usha (Dawn in English).


"Childhood is the most beautiful of all life's season" ~ Jerry Smith


That time and now, how quickly these years went by. As a person I would not change anything from then to now as everything that has happened in my life whether its my parents, my friends, life’s experience and people that I met on my way - all have helped me to be a better person. 


Life has been kind to me and so are the people that came across in my life. It is a humbling experience and it cannot get better than this.


"One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood. ~ Agatha Christie 


But if I can talk about age, I truly don’t feel that I have grown old and I say that because, it reminds me of my childhood days.


As a child you’re nourished well for your physical and mental development and when you grow as a girl there’s more attention given as a small girl grows into a teenager and physically women and her body goes through so many changes that even now I feel I am going through those same changes.


"The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in the details of daily life" ~ William Morris 


As a woman you go through your menstrual cycle and the changes that comes with it in your body, your hormonal changes, your body to adapt and figure out these changes all those then and now are the same.


You eat well so that your hormonal fluctuations are minimal and you exercise more as mobility helps and keeps you healthy physically and mentally. Being an athlete it never bothered and now when I am busy with work, I do the same eat well so that the nourishment that the body should get is well accomplished and remain active with whatever time I can get and be healthy and sufficient.


"Our life is a series of moments. Let them all go. Moments. All gathering towards this one. ~ Now Is Good


So in all this what has changed? I feel today that I am that girl who was going through the changes of puberty and so the same I am going through even now.


I feel women never get old. They just keep gaining experiences to tackle with everything that comes on their way and this experience is very much humbling for me. 


"Yet, he thought, if I can die saying, 'Life is so beautiful', then nothing else is important. If I can believe in myself that much, nothing else matters. ~ Mario Puzo  


Life is beautiful and there’s so much around that nature has given us to enjoy and be thankful to be that one doesn’t need any materialistic things to celebrate.


I am thankful for this life and the people who have touched my life in one or the other ways.


Being able to see myself in great health and joy is my greatest accomplishment in life. 


Its been 15 years in United States and, after Obama this birthday brings Biden-Harris win as a gift. More reasons to look forward to humanity and love ;-) 



~ Dawn

We are all different. Don’t judge, understand instead!!!

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