My Melbourne Tour

Yesterday night it was almost 1 am when I slept. And at 6a.m my husband wakes me up and says, he come on we have to catch the flight, the taxi is here, you are still sleeping!!

Oh my god, how could that happen, how can I forget we are going to Melbourne, I have not done my packing yet, which dress I would take, and about my daughter, it’s ok, her all dresses are nice and I can just keep a bunch of dresses from the cupboard, but for me, all I have is Indian wear, will it suit there? What do I do? Oh, **** How nicely I should have planned and kept everything for the most memorable trip of ours, and I have been so lazy! L

Now it is too late to regret, we just kept everything in a hurry and got in to the taxi.  Thankfully we reached in time and my daughter Anagha was full of excitement. Everything was checked in, and were through the security check, it was like LEVEL 1 cleared. Hey, there is a direct flight from Hyderabad to Melbourne, that is great. I was so happy, I was really worried how would we manage changing flights, how many hours It would take, how do we handle our luggage during flight transit and so on, above all how would I manage my four year old daughter Anagha in this mess, but bravo, there is direct flight.

We landed in Melbourne after few hours, and there our taxi was waiting. The taxi driver was a Sardarji, that was great; I didn’t even need to ask whether you know English, as we could speak in Hindi. By the way which language they speak in Australia? Who cares? Now we got our own Indian driver. We had good amount of casual talk with him, he assured us Australia is a safe and beautiful place, nothing to worry and we were so happy. And guess what he dropped us to TajMelbourne, Taj group of Hotels from ITC in Melbourne, great!! I felt so so happy. Obviously we had good reception, no problems, I could see Indians everywhere, so did not feel like I am in ‘Pardes’ a foreign land.

My husband paid the advance amount at reservation, he could pay using his ICICI debit card, great!

It was already night, and we discussed in the reception about our next day’s plan, and they told us everything is arranged, we can be ready by 8a.m and they will take us to all the places.

So we had a good sleep in the night, and got up and got ready. I had to wear my Indian attire, Chudidar newly stitched. Thank god at least I had few new dresses and good that my Tailor friend who is also a neighbor gave those dresses only yesterday, even though I gave her the material few months back.

So we went to cricket stadium, that is the first thing I wanted to see, which we have seen in Television since 1980’s where Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri played.

The next one was another place which was in our priority list, that was Phillip Island, this got the priority because of my daughter Anagha, as she wanted to see Penguins. Why does Babu have to disclose her everything, now that he told her about penguins out there, she wanted to see that first!! So we were there. Oh the lovely penguins, they make so much noise, just like Anagha. If Anagha starts dancing with them, she would as well believe she is one of them!

So soon we were feeling hungry, and I heard, tables were booked for us at Fenix in Victoria and great we reached there by 2pm, and there was something vegetarian to choose from! Babu was experimenting with so many items, Anagha as usual happy with some fruit juice.

Next destination again as per Anagha’s demand Puffing billy steam Railway. Australia’s oldest steam railway. And I tell you the experience was so mesmerizing. That is the real train. These days trains really don’t give us that more than life experience.

What was our next tourist spot? Before I could check out in the pamphlet, I heard somebody calling me, wake up!!

Hey where am I? At home? Was it a dream? Where is Anagha? ‘She went to school’. You did not wake me up?

She wanted to give you surprise, we thought today she will get ready without your help, as you were sleeping!

Is this the surprise? Oh, no. My Melbourne trip?

I thought, no way, I cannot miss the remaining places. I told Babu, what is the balance in your bank account? He asked why?

 I told him  …it's your time to visit Melbourne NOW!’

And asked him to log on to www.visitmelbourne.com/in.

Its not the marriage, its the Love that matters

The discussion is not new its as old as Shiva and Parvathi, and when goddess chose Shiva who was not considered as ideal husband by her parents, but still she married him and they became the ideal couple to the world, and we call them as 'vaak artha iva samprikthau, jagatah pitarau vande parvati parameshwarau' Is there any question or doubt about Love marriage?

We have seen many couple around us, since childhood starting from parents. The married life of parents very much affects the thoughts of children. If they are happily married and an ideal couple children will think theirs was the best marriage, it could be Love or Arranged. Then you start looking at all the people around you and have your own conclusions on marriages. But hey until you are married what ever analysis you do on others life is fake!! Because none of the couple will show what they are inside outside! So all your assumptions they are happy, they are unhappy is baseless.

So how do you decide whether to go for Love marriage or Arranged? You need not decide. When it happens it happens. If you fall in love and get same reciprocation from otherside, just go with that. If you do not fall in love, or if you do not get reciprocation from otherside, just go with traditional search and love the partner you get. It is that simple. Nobody decides to fall in love. If you decide to go for Love marriage and go on rejecting all proposals you get from traditional ways, you might have missed your love in one of them, who knows!!

And after marriage, whether it was Love marriage or Arranged marriage, it is the Love for each other that makes or breaks a marriage.

If each person has a space for other person in his heart, ready to make sacrifices, then only the life long partnership will continue. If one is selfish, and does not want to sacrifice anything for the sake of partner, then  no doubt the marriage will not last.

Love marriage with the blessings of elders is a dream come true. But often it does not happen, but then you are proud you have taken your decision, you have not ditched the person whom you loved, you take all the responsibility to keep the other person happy. The other person will not ditch you because he or she know how much you sacrificed to marry her.

My vote is for Love marriage, as long as both the people involved in decision making are mature and sensible. But I really wonder how many of the young generation are really smart enough to take right decisions, choose the right life partner. Because you do not choose a life partner just because she likes the same chocolate which you eat, but if she reads the same book you read, there is some match. But again it is not common interest that matters, it is how much love you have for each other, how much of an extra mile you will go to keep your love light the way.

As long as you want to make your partner's life a heaven and not hell, and do not expect him to make your life heaven, then your life, love and everything around you will be a paradise.

check out the new TV Program here www.facebook.com/LoveYaArrange.