Destiny?

Today while driving to work, I heard something on radio that made me think back to how I met my hubby. They were talking about stories of couples who were destined to meet & get married. One of the story was this guy went to his wife's parents house and noticed a picture of her and her dad at the Disney world. He joked that the guy behind him looked just like his own father. Turns out, it WAS his father with him in a stroller.!!! It's not even that they lived around Orlando. He was visiting Disney from Canada.!!

And another one was this girl got married to a guy who lived in an apartmet above hers in california. Turns out they had lived most of their life in mid-east. Went to same region schools, same region colleges, her ex-boyfriend was friends with his ex-girlfriend, but never met untill they moved to LA. Like they always meant to meet.. Another couple found out that their parents were collegues before they had moved to different locations.

Well, my story isn't this freaky co-incidental. ;o).. Ours was arranged marriage. One of our relatives had given my horoscope to Yogi's family. They checked with priest and it did not match. So the idea was dropped and two families continues their search in different directions. After several failed matches, my MIL decided to look once more at mine almost after a year of first matching. But this time, they sent his horoscope to my dad to get it matched. But the fax that they sent wasn't clear, so my dad took Yogi's birth details and went to our priest. He said it would match perfectly for marriage.

Now the confusion was, why didn't it match in the first place and why it did now. Later they realized that all along his birth timing was read wrong on the horoscope since it was a pretty old copy and the timing was not clear. Since my father took the actual time and matched against it, it worked. And who knows if it was clear then he would have got matched with someone else & got married by then. :o)

Later, both families decided to "Ask" in our ancient Lord Ganesh temple in Idagungi. This is a request to God that both the parties put. They "ask" the God whether we can get married or not. My dad representing our family and an uncle of Yogi representing their family went to temple. The priest prays to God and puts one kind of flower petal on God's both feet. If the right one falls first it means a "Yes" else "No". I heard that people sometime wait for days for the "Answer" from God. Well, in our case it was a matter of minutes it seems.. So I guess we were destined to be together. :o).
Look around you might find a story of your own...!!!!

Kashmir da Saga....

Well, To begin with I didn't go to Kashmir. But my elder sister did. Her family along with 6 other families went for Kashmir trip last month. I was on phone the other day with her asking about her trip (well, for more than an hour) and the way she was explaining the place..... ahhhh, it was like I was always there, right there with her.

In her words....
Kashmir is like heaven on earth. Never seen such beautiful place, beautiful roses, clothes, ice-laden mountains, people. They are just so fresh and closer to nature than anyone. Main centers are always watched over by the army men. Wherever you go you see them. People go extra mile to make the tourists comfortable. They even say "you guys are the ones who feed our family. Please don't forget us and keep coming back to see us."

Kashmir is not that developed, mostly because of lack of interest from government. If they would wish, they can create this immensely popular tourist destination on the face of the earth. Only the 3 or 4 summer months are Kashmir's popular tourist season. Only at that time they have a chance to earn, so you see all these people begging, fighting to get your business. Be it a horse ride, ride on the house boat or just buying a pashmina shawl.

Pashmina Shawls are made from the wool around a pashmina goat. Those are the softest wool found. The craftmenship of these stoles and shawls is immaculate. There is no comparison to those beautiful designs. There was a pashmina shawl in a musuem which had the whole Kashmir valley designed on it. What's the specialty in that you ask? well, this was done way long back, when there was no map.

The young generation wants to do something, achieve something and show India that they are also part of them and not to forget. They aspire to become lawyers, doctors. This beautiful lady would tell her that all she wanted to do was get done with her masters and try to find a good job in Delhi. The bell boy at the hotel, would not accept any tips. He was working there part time during his break from college, so his younger brother could afford college. Father and son duo at the Hotel Shawl Shop would offer answers to thousands of questions and no pressure on buying. The son was studying during his morning hours to become a lawyer and evening would come and look after this store.

Valley was just so beautiful that it would take your breath away. Literally when you would come acorss those huge pine trees, or crossing the bridges or looking down to see the deepest valley right beside your foot... :o). Oh, the quietest and peaceful place in the world ---- Shankaracharya's mediation place atop Shankaracharya hill, which sits more than 1000ft above Srinagar. When you are there, it's like there is no tomorrow, there is no yesterday, there is no pain or sorrow... Just T.H.A.T moment... peaceful...

Hmmmm., it's me again, back to reality. After I heard my sister, I want to go visit these places... and enjoy them in real, just like I did when she narrated me.. Oh, forgot to mention, she is a teacher and sure is the best in that. :o). Love ya Vittai..