T - 2 weeks!

australiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

(didgeridoo noise in the background)

be back blogging soon with pictures and musings :)

blahhhhh

so not really in the mood for blogging right now because in a few weeks i will be getting ready to go to Australia and already im stressing out a bit...

when i get there on June 9th, i will resume blogging about my new life and surroundings!

G'DAY MATE!

in my mind...

“O foolish mind, stop your fearful fretting about the extensive torments imposed by Yamaraja. How can your enemies, the sinful reactions you have accrued, even touch you? After all, is your master not the Supreme Lord, the husband of Goddess Sri? Cast aside all hesitation and concentrate your thoughts on Lord Narayana, whom one very easily attains through devotional service. What can that dispeller of the whole world's troubles not do for His own servant?”

– Mukunda Mala Stotra (Translated by Prabhupada)

true dat.

2 months

today of engaged bliss.

i love this boy.

Belgium in September!

"Known as the smallest town on earth Durbuy is also one of the prettiest. The old town dates mainly from the 17th century. Its pedestrian streets, winding between the ancient houses, are narrow and cobbled. Durbuy is a very pleasant holiday resort renowned for its excellent food.

The town itself with its shops, cafés and eating places set in narrow flowered and cobbled streets lined by old stone houses which forms the key attraction of this town. A walk through the old town is a must for every visitor."

ooooooooooooooooooooh swoooooooooooooooon.

 

Tulasi

instagram-spam

im not on that hype yet cause i get to steal all the good pix off of other people...

this is why im a smitten kitten.

I think we should see other people...but not date, just you and I sit on a bench together and look at people.

-Madhavendra Puri Das.

Australia here i come!

tickets booked.
visa accepted.
june 7th mate!

true love.

im a cat lady now and forever...

my little samba ha-peep is the coolest animal in the world.

beyond humid and bored.

its
summer
in
india.

humidity = 85% so when its 90degrees out it feels like 114.

all i can do is lay on my bare marble floor and stare up at my ceiling fan.

well today i had a revelation... observe.

Ganga Love.

i just barfed a little.

i know she is like the worlds sweetheart right now, but honey, she AIN'T MINE!

one day...

this will be my home.
in Zons, Germany.

modele.

did some modeling for my friends tshirt company, Juggernaut...

check em out on facebook:
Juggernaut

azn sensation.

trying...

so im trying to keep a plant alive, because they say if you can keep a plant alive you can keep an animal alive, and when you can keep an animal alive then you can be in a relationship... well, i skipped the first two steps so i gotta back track a little. the cat is under my control next if the plant doesnt die...

apple-shmapple.

sick again today so i decided to upload each album cover that itunes doesnt identify...

yay.

getting ready...

for my two new homes come June...

save me.

phatty beats.

so i gave my lovely husband-to-be all of the music i had in my possession to school him on some heavy tunes. the poor boy lacked proper guidance in choosing the right music as a youngster (Pearl Jam?) and asked me to show him the ways of the dope-ass-music jedi. so here are a couple lists i mustered up for him. mind you, this  is mostly the popular stuff from each band so he can get a taste of what they sound like, but if you dont know anything on this list, i suggest you tune in my young padewon learners. 

side note: i did not include a list of the beatles. if you dont know their whole discography, including every "oooh" and "lalalala" then you are a waste of perfectly good beatles-freak space.

Classic Rock Favs:

-The Talking Heads- Burning Down the House

-George Harrison- Hear me Lord, Beautiful Girl on disc 2, #11 (last song)

-The Mama’s and the Papa’s- I Call Your Name

-Van Morrison- Slim Slow Slider

-Jimi Hendrix- If 6 was 9, Voodoo Chile

-Paul Simon- America, Peace like A River

-The Rolling Stones- Brown Sugar, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking

-Allman Brothers Band- One Way Out (first album)

-Beach Boys- Feel Flows

-Big Brother and the Holding Company- Summertime

-Black Sabbath- Paranoid

-Bob Dylan- Like a Rolling Stone, Boots of Spanish Leather

-Buena Vista Social Club- Chan Chan

-Buffalo Springfield- For What It’s Worth

-Cat Stevens- Wild World, Bitterblue

-Cream- Sunshine of Your Love

-Crosby, Stills and Nash- Wooden Ships

-David Bowie- Oh! You Pretty Things

-The Doors- Peace Frog

-Elton John- Mona Lisa’s and Mad Hatters

-Eric Clapton- Badge

-The Faces- Oh La La

-Graham Nash- Better Days

-James Taylor- Fire and Rain

-Jethro Tull- Locomotive Breath

-Jon Lennon- How Do You Sleep?

-Marvin Gaye- Inner City Blues

-Neil Young- Old Man, The Needle and The Damage Done

-Otis Redding- I’ve Been Loving You Too Long

-Rod Stewart- Mandolin Wind

-Simon & Garfunkel- The Boxer, I Am A Rock

-The Velvet Underground- Oh! Sweet Nothing

-The Who- Ba Ba O’Riley

-Jamming On My Sitar (no artist)

Recent-ish Favs:

-The Pixies- Where is my Mind?

-Fleet Foxes- Your Protector, Blue Ridge Moutains, Mykonos

-Beastie Boys- So What’cha Want, Sure Shot

-Beck- Black Tambourine, Devils Haircut, Far-well Ride, Girl, The Golden Age, Lazy Flies, Where It’s At, Soul Of a Man

-Cat Power- The Greatest, Lived In Bars

-Death Cab For Cutie- Bend To Squares, Champagne From a Paper Cup, I Will Follow You Into The Dark, President Of What? Title and Registration, Title Track (my fav)

-Duke Ellington- In a Sentimental Mood

-Elliot Smith- Needle in The Hay

-Flaming Lips- Do You Realize?

-Gipsy Kings- Djobi Djoba

-Iron & Wine- Naked As We Came

-Moby- South Side, Natural Blues

-Ray LaMontagne- Let It Be Me

-Submotion Orchestra- Angel Eyes

-Weezer- Say It Ain’t So

-Wilco- Jesus, etc.

-Yo La Tengo- Autumn Sweater

-Ying Yang Twins- Jigglin (surprise grab bag)

Led Zeppelin Favs:

-stairway to heaven

-the rain song

-tangerine

-misty mountain hop

-whole lotta love

-bring it on home (my fav)

-when the levee breaks

-that’s the way

-ramble on

-over the hills and far away

-moby dick

-since ive been loving you

-babe im gonna leave you

-I cant quit you baby

-no quarter

-going to California

-what is and what should never be

-good time, bad times

-dazed and confused. 

Pink Floyd Favs:

-childhoods end

-comfortably numb

-bike

-one of these days

-see emily play

-love scene version 6

-echoes

-have a cigar

-learning to fly

-us and them

-fearless

-wish you were here

-shine on you crazy diamond

-money

-time

-on the turning away

-pig (3 different ones)

-young lust

-stay

-the gold it's in the...

-speak to me/breath

-high hopes

-welcome to the machine

i will miss...

-the sunrises through the spotted clouds and all the birds chirping away to one another.
-the tumultuous storms after the heat and humidity are too much to handle.
-the greenery for miles and miles filled with palm trees, kadamba trees and banyan trees.
-tropical flowers that bloom and smell perfectly.
-that all the buildings are half up/down and are in shambles but still used and are not forgotten.
-that people ride more bikes here than in Amsterdam.
-Krsna is EVERYWHERE.
-i have to make due with what i find locally, which forces me to become simple.
-the sound of the Navadwip boat puttering early int the morning.
-the Ganga in all her glory and how perfect she feels flowing past my skin.
-laundry drying on the rooftops, just blowing recklessly in the warm winds.
-walking around barefoot like its normal.
-doves and pigeons trying to do their strange mating dances.
-the different temples that line Bhaktisiddhanta Road.
-bengali's yelling "OH PRABHU".
-the rare sightings of Hanuman monkeys in the Mayapur grhasta park.
-the shop keepers all knowing who i am and saying "Good Morning" as i walk to work.
-cows grazing in the distant fields.
-the seemingly endlessly winding staircase to my front door.
-always being able to see Srila Prabhupada's samadhi from no matter where i am.
-back paths, dirt roads and cobblestone streets.
-barely stepping foot outside the main gate to the big road.
-seeing the Ganga and Jalangi mix, or not.
-the sun setting through the palm trees and tops of ancient temples.

my heart will always belong here.

im leaving home.

Australia from June to August.
Belgium from August to June.

I'm officially growing up and leaving the nest to be with my new husband.

its a gurrrl thang.

so i decided i wanted to lighten my hair up a couple shades so it looked more natural and less like a fake vampire. BUT as you all know, i live in India, in the country with dirt roads. so... how was i going to accomplish this you ask? simple.

hydrogen peroxide and fabric bleach.

oh yeah.

bad idea, NOPE! i was one of the lucky few who actually dipped her head into a pot of bleach, scalding her scalp for 30min, only to turn out with the perfect shade of light warm brown...

praise KRSNA! ALLAH! JESUS! BUDDAH and whoever else made this possible...

pics to come later as ima take a cat nap now ;)

teacher pain.

When we carefully study what drives people to spiritual life, we often find a surprising correlation between pain and misery and a rise in spiritual earnestness. Pain pushes us to seek relief beyond the body and mind. Pain and disappointment knock on the closed doors of a superficial life and call us to open ourselves to the Lord in full surrender

While doing so, pain frequently slices through the illusory veil of mindless sense pleasure. We arrive at the cardinal question: Where is my ultimate shelter?

But pain is often seriously misunderstood. After having recently suffered bouts of physical pain and disappointment in my life and contemplating deeply the wisdom of some Himalayan yogis, I realized something that may surprise my readers. I tried to put my realization into words in the following poem:

Greetings, I Am Pain, Your Guru

Oh, how you curse and condemn me

as if I am your worst enemy.

You will pay any price

to rid yourself of me finally.

No journey is too far,

no medicine too expensive,

no therapy too abstruse.

You attack me with painkillers,

sedatives,

mindless diversions,

an army of pills.

You call doctor after doctor,

run to healers and hospitals,

approach sadhus for blessings,

burn incense, pray–

simply to kill me, your teacher,

who has come to save

and redirect you.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

 Please wake up.

I am your sincere friend and not a cruel-hearted enemy.

I am a soul-awakener, an eye-opener, a guide, an inspirer.

How could you have failed

to recognize me?

You thought I was working against your interests.

But I have entered your life as your friend,

an angelic messenger of God.

I brought you the wisdom and strength

necessary to change your wrong ways

and to point you to the path divine.

I break you from harmful attachments

stop your progress on the road to destruction.

I whisper in your ears:

Come out of illusion

and seek shelter in God.

I am the other side of pleasure,

who is my younger brother.

Pleasure begins karmic things in this world

but I construct roads out of this world

which lead to the Divine.

I pinch people so that they think about philosophy,

prompt them to spiritual practice,

teach the things wayward souls have forgotten.

By my power I turn sensualists into transcendentalists.

Pitfalls You Could Not See

You failed to observe the laws of right conduct,

of simple living, spiritual thinking.

You abused body and mind,

did not eat properly,

cultivated unhealthy thoughts.

You abandoned exercise,

neglected to breathe clean air,

drink clean water.

You thought you were “living fast.”

Your mind became a storage room for negativity,

attachment, fear, anger, lust, greed, and illusion.

All these years where were your tears of gratitude

and your sincere service?

Perhaps you were even disrespectful toward the weak,

or the women, the children, the old?

By clever manipulation and lies

you might have tried to “benefit” yourself

at the costs of others.

Go inside now

and find what went wrong.

I am here to help you discover

what you already know.

Others may have abandoned you in disappointment,

but I came to enlighten and heal you.

I am your friend, sent by God.

Lessons to Learn

Lead a natural life of divine love in harmony with God.

Think of Him always.

Serve Him with your senses.

Worship and prostrate yourself before Him.

Conduct your physical, emotional, and social life in a way that supports your spiritual development.

If you don’t know how seek competent advice and learn to live.

Have courage to be yourself, a happy, free servant of eternity.

Follow what I came to teach.

When you do, surely I will give you peace and leave you.

Be blessed.

Epilogue

I am aware that some of our pain is “karmic debt” that we cannot escape so easily. We may have to tolerate it for some time until the debt is paid. There is, however, hope, a light at the end of the tunnel. By devoted spiritual practices, one of two things can happen:

1. We may develop the required insight and change of habits. At that time our teacher, pain, may be satisfied that we have learned our lessons and say good-bye.

2. We arrive at the spiritual level whence we are much better able to deal with pain and disappointment.

-Sacinandana Swami

already starting to lament about leaving my sanctuary...

always on the inside looking out.

and he did...

trying.

Dont try to see God, but act in a way that God sees you.

ya heard?

sometimes i feel like i'm already dead just thinking that i'm alive.

-my dad.

all time fav scene.

'She Smiled Sweetly / Ruby Tuesday' (The Rolling Stones)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)

It's said that Jackson Browne, watching The Royal Tenenbaums, was so transported watching the "These Days" sequence that he thought wistfully, "this guy plays like I used to play." And then he realized - it is me. Wes Anderson's brilliant use of the Nico original galvanized and reinvented the song even for Jackson Browne, who now plays the song in its original mode at his live performances. All this, because Anderson picked the right song, the right camera speed and the perfect actors to play Margot and Richie Tenenbaum. It aches. And there is another stunning music-in-movies moment just around the corner in Tenenbaums, when Anderson busts out The Rolling Stones.

Margot and Richie have finally escaped to be alone under a tent with a record player. Their music choice is a vinyl (hooray) copy of Between The Buttons. Anderson lets the album track in the long unrequited love scene between the two. (Sadly, they're adoptive siblings) When "She Smiled Sweetly" flows into "Ruby Tuesday," even though Wes is re-sequencing the album, the result is an left-hook of deeper emotion. Now this already wonderful scene takes off into true greatness. Many a director has tried to use "Ruby Tuesday," the evocative Brian Jones/Stones classic, and failed. Wes solves the problem by letting you hear it the way the way you'd hear it in life; devastating and random in the way it pops up, innocently requiring you to remember the moment forever.

-cameron crowe

someone once said...

that this song was better than porn.



agreed.

past horror.

i was missing my sister this morning and thought about all the random things we've done together.

one instance that came up was when i decided to educated myself with the movies 'A Clockwork Orange' and 'Natural Born Killers'... don't ask me why. well, being the dutiful sister she has always been, she decided to watch them with me.

twenty minutes into 'Clockwork' we switched it off because it was too ridiculous to follow, but for some reason we made it all the way through 'Killers'... and a part of us have never been the same again.

miss you jay-jay.

hes MINE!

style icon...

true dat.

without you, who would i be?

i heard that...

a man i work with just walked by my desk and muttered:

"nobody cares"

it was a bit sad actually, and i realized that he is quite right...

blogging again.

so im going to start this blog up again for the two months i have left here in India. come June i will be heading to Australia with my fiance for 3 months! so allow me to ramble on about love, life and the such so that the time will pass me by a bit quicker!