Leisure - a luxury in modern life !!!

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can,
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

When I read this poem by W.H.Davies in class 5 for the first time, it seemed like hogwash to me. Wherever I looked, I saw people with time and leisure. So where were the busy people? I hail from a small town in India where people always went home for lunch and also had a post lunch siesta. Holidays were plentiful and work or school was just a few minutes away. People could afford to go and come to weddings or other social functions for days. They took long holidays each year. And as far as I have known, it has not made them lazy or poor.

I understood the real meaning of this poem years later when I got married and moved to Mumbai. My uncle lives in Mumbai and as far as I can remember, I have visited their family with my parents many times. But even as a child, I disliked the fast life and constricted space. I would pine to get back to my sleepy little town. Long to play in the streets and playgrounds. But moving to Mumbai was like being hit by a train. This time I was to call it my home. I was suddenly surrounded by millions of people. There was no respite from the noise of the busy city. Even at home, voices and sounds of construction filtered in from the paper thin walls. Outings had to planned according to the rush hour times. Even visits to my brother's home would entail travelling for 1-2 hours. It was a relief that my husband had a motorbike or I would have had a nervous breakdown trying to get onto the public transport.

I am not lazy but constant activity without solitude tires my soul and in Mumbai, for the entire 2.5 years that I lived there, I could not find a moment's respite. Then we moved to Beijing and it was the same story again. People everywhere, construction going on at all hours [even at night], noisy public transport and then it snowed. Beijing's snow doesn't take time to turn into slush but those first few hours when the beautiful flakes decend from the sky like Angels, transform this ancient, grimy city into a white, quiet wonderland. Luckily my first snowfall was on a Saturday morning. I was in bed with the curtains drawn, just waking up, but suddenly I could feel something was different. Then I realized it was the quiet. The feeling of a city coming to a standstill. The constant traffic noise of the third ring road had hushed. The construction near our building had stopped. This felt strange, this quiet, after so many years that I just closed my eyes and savored it for a while. Then I got up and looked out of the window and lo behold! The city was covered in a white blanket and on this cold, white morning even the cabbies and the construction workers were huddling inside their blankets. It felt wonderful. Like a delicious icecream that you know is going to melt but you enjoy every lick.

My point in telling all this is that now a days wherever I see, I see people rushing to get somewhere, busy all the time, running forever. And just looking at them tires me. I long for those long summer afternoons when I did nothing but lay under the fan and read my favorite books. Life has become so full of care. There are a hundred chores to be done, bills to be paid, emails to be answered, shopping to be done etc. etc. etc. And this is only for me - a homemaker who does not work. There is a saying in Gujarati 'Pai ni paidash nahi ane ghadi ni navrash nahi' It means that though I do not go to work or do not earn, I do not have time. I do not like this. I want to change but do not know how. Even change will take a lot of preplanning! Why do we need so many things to be happy? Why do we have to rush all day? Why are the days becoming short but not the list of chores? Why does the weekend zip by? Why? Why? Why?

Sometimes I think maybe I am the defective one because I have friends who work and manage homes at the same time. Can someone please give me some tips to de-clutter my life? Please teach me to still my mind and not worry so much. Please teach me stand and stare...again !!!

Loving & Losing

Touching poem I read somewhere...


Why do I love you With all my heart?
Why did I fall for you From the start?
Why do you cause me So much pain?
Why do you stick to my heart Like a stain?
Why couldn't I see You weren't gonna stay?
Why did I believe You were gonna take the pain away?
Why did you play my heart Like a game?
Why couldn't you ever Feel the same?
Why do I sit In my room all alone?
Why do I pray You would call my phone?
Why cant I stop thinking of you? Why can't I say goodbye? Why do I still get jealous When I see you with another?
Why do you come back in my life As soon as I'm letting go?
Why do I still get butterflies When you just say hello?
Why can't I forget about you And put you in the past?
Why does a part of me still believe that you and I were made to last?

India - Its time to change

When my 7 yr old nephew said, ‘I hate India’, my first reaction was shock, second was sadness & third was introspection. He really got me thinking. Till then I had heard many people around me complain about India’s poor infrastructure, education system, corruption, pollution, lack of opportunities, disregard for public property etc. but they are all adults and I do understand that as we grow older, we become a bit jaded. But what would make a 7 year old make such a strong statement? If I remember correctly, at that age we did not care about how bad the traffic jams were or how polluted our cities were.

But today’s kids are much more exposed to information. We should not underestimate them. My nephew has traveled to USA & Europe and so if he makes a comparison, I cannot discredit him immediately. I want him to love this country as much as I do but when he asks me why it is not as beautiful as Europe or as organized as the USA, I have no answer. It just makes me realize that times have changed. No matter how much ever worse India gets, our generation will always love it because we have grown up with an emotional bonding but today’s kids are different. They are more practical than emotional and so if in the future, India wants to remain the youngest country and keep its young & educated ones at home, we must change.

And come to think of it, what is wrong with it? We ape the western culture but all we have taken from it are the bad habits – excessive fast food, television, addiction etc. We have learnt to drive, bribed and got a license, bought expensive cars but we have forgotten to demand good roads to drive them. We do not think twice before bribing or breaking the law. How many people actually know which side to overtake from or when to not honk? Have we learnt to give the ‘right of way’ like the Americans? Look at our cities and towns. Do we have tree-lined streets? Do we have good quality playgrounds & parks? Do we even have pavements where people can walk? Do we have garbage free residential areas? Do we have good traffic-jam, pot-hole & beggar free roads? Do we have good public transport? Can we relax during peak hours? Then how do we say ‘India shining’?

Most 7-15 year old kids I know today want to study and live abroad when they grow up. Think India think. How to keep them at home? How to make them fall in love with this wonderful country again? How difficult can it be to have good & safe roads, better infrastructure, tax and education system? After all, it’s not rocket science. Come let us all work together to make India a better place. A place which is clean organized and cultured – ‘ekdum imported jaisa’ in Munnabhai’s language. Let us take the best of the western world, combine it with our culture and get the best of the East & the West. Then not only Indian but all the kids of this world will say ‘I love India’. Vande Materam. Jai Hind.

Mehr

Dosti, mohobbat, Dhoop, apnepan ki Mehr thi…
Tab Zindagi mere saath hasti thi…
Subah uthte hi labon pe muskaan aati thi…
Raat ko sote bhi labon pe muskaan hoti thi…
Maa ka aanchal, doston ka saath aur aap ke mohobbat saath thi…
Lagta tha ki zindagi ke har Mehr mere saat thi…

Kyu lutt gaya woh zamana?
Kyu lutt gayi woh Mehr?
Kyu aasuon chalakte hain muskaan ki jagah?
Kyu Maa ka aanchal durr hai ?
Shaayad meri dost ki tumhe zyada zaroorat thi…
Shaayad mere pyaar ki unhe zyada zaroorat hai…

Ab bas intezaar hai…
Ki kab maut ki Mehr hogi mujhpe…

The importance of saying ‘Good bye’

If I have learnt one thing from life, it is that there are no guarantees in life and ‘Permanent’is the most over rated word. It hurts so much when a friend or a relative goes away suddenly without saying goodbye so I thought I should say ‘Good bye’ in advance because kya pata ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’.

So today I want to say ‘Good bye’ to everyone I know. First and foremost to the two people who brought me to this world. My parents. I love you mom-dad and where ever I am and how ever I am I shall always love you the most. Thanks for being such wonderful people and loving me the most in the world. Then I want to say ‘Good bye’ to my family : uncles, aunts, grand-parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. Thanks for being a part of my life. I shall love you all forever. Thanks for sharing and caring.

Then I need to say ‘Good-bye’ to all my friends – the ones that I played with in Kinder Garden, the ones I played with on the street, the ones I spent time with in school & college, the ones with whom I went ‘boys watching’ on ring road, ate pani-puri with and shared secrets, talked all night on the terrace, made bhel at 2am, the ones who teased me, made me laugh and made life good. Good-bye my friends.

I also want to say ‘Good-bye’ to all those people who touched my life in some or the other way. Teachers, guides, mentors, soul-mates – Good bye. Last but not the least I want to say Good-bye to my most favorite city in the world – Rajkot. My soul lives in Rajkot and so where-ever I am, my soul is always there.

“Rahein na rahein hum…
Meheka karenge…
Bann ke kali, bann ke sabaa,
Raahein wafaa mein…”

I want a boy who...very romantic...guaranteed to bring a smile to your face :)

I read this somewhere and its too good and too romantic not to share. Enjoy!!!

I want a boy whose eyes will follow only me in a roomful of beautiful women,
Who will hold my hand in line at the mall and make all the girls jealous,
I want a guy who will tell his mother I have beautiful eyes.

I want a boy who knows the right things to say at the right times,
A boy who will write me romantic notes and leave them everywhere for me to find,
Who will give me flowers every once in a while for no real reason at all.
I want a boy who will dance in the rain with me,
Who will tell all his friends about me and smile when he does it,
Someone who would never be afraid to say I love you in front of his friends.

I want a boy who will count stars with me and be friends with my family,
A boy who could make me laugh like no one else can,
I want a boy who will hold me closer than normal when I'm sick,
But mostly I want a boy who is my best friend and will always be there for me.

I love airports and railway stations :)

Today morning I went to see off my hubby at the Beijing International Airport. It was 5:30 am, temperature was between -8*C to -10*C and yet I went with him. Why? The main reason is the hubby darling was going off on an office trip and I am going to be alone for the first time since we got married and I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. I miss him already :(. I know I am acting like a lovesick teen after five years of marriage but I love him. Okay, so this was the main reason but there's one more too.

I don't know why but airports and railway stations do something to me (not bus stations because I hate traveling by bus - can't stand the fumes). Its like they fill me with a childlike anticipation. Probably because I generally associate railway stations and airports with vacations. No school, no exams, no work, no worries - Just fun. People and planes and trains going to exotic places around the world, the apparent happiness in the eyes of the vacationers, the lovey-dovey looks of the honeymooners, the red eyes of the tired executives, the harassed look of the parents, the sheer energy and organization which goes into getting millions of people and luggage to the right destination at the right time. All that fascinates me.
I generally do not get bored at airports and railways stations because I can observe such places for hours. They are a great lesson in human nature. Its interesting to see how people pass time when they have got nothing to do but wait. Also the notion of going and seeing a new place, meeting different people, knowing a different culture and eating different food fills me with glee. I suppose I was a gypsy in my past life. So every time I get a chance to go to an airport or a railway station, though I might not be traveling, just to see someone off (I hate goodbyes though) or to welcome someone, I go. I go to see the sense in all the chaos and dream of all the lovely places that people are going to :)

Inspite of my love for travel, I do realize that flying contributes a lot to global warming and though I wish there were more ecofriendly ways of traveling and transportation, till they are found all we can do is take a train instead of flying all the time, grow more trees, walk or use the public transportation instead of taking a cab or using a car and last but not the least recycle, recycle & recycle and hope that people will see the truth before its too late.

What is this life if full of care...we have no time to stand and stare...

शहर की इस दौड़ में दौड़ के करना क्या है?

अगर यही जीना है दोस्तों तो फिर मरना क्या है?

पहली बारिश में train लेट होने की फिक्र है...

भूल गए, भीगते हुए तेहेलना क्या है?

सीरियल के किरदारों का सारा हाल है मालूम...

पर माँ का हाल पूछने की फुरसत कहाँ है?

आप रेत में नंगे पाव तेहेलते क्यों नहीं?

108 हैं चैनल पर दिल बेहेलते क्यों नहीं?

internet से दुनिया से तो touch में हैं...

लेकिन पड़ोस में कौन रहता है जानते तक नहीं...

Mobile, landline सब की भरमार है...

लेकिंग जिगरी दोस्त तक पोहोचें ऐसे तार कहाँ हैं?

कब डूबते हुवे सूरज को देखाथा याद है?

कब जाना था शाम का गुज़रना क्या है?

शहर की इस दौड़ में दौड़ के करना क्या है?

अगर यही जीना है दोस्तों तो फिर मरना क्या है?

Where are we heading?

Our distinguished poet Shri Rabindranath Tagore once dreamed this for us:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high...
Where knowledge is free...
Where the world has not been broken up into fragements...

By narrow domestic walls...

Where words come out from the depth of truth...

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection...

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way...

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit...

Where the mind is let forward by thee...

Into ever-widening thought and action...

Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

But today,

A 73 year old man in Austria keeps his daugher in a windowless cellar for 24 years and repeatedly rapes her and has 7 children by her. A man on Mira road rapes his daughter thrice a week for nine years with the consent of his wife because a tantrik told them that doing so would end their financial woes. He also lets the tantrik rape his daughter.

The girl who was raped was quoted as saying,'There were times when I had given up on life completely. When a child is in trouble, she first approaches her parents for help and protection, but who would protect me from my own father who behaved like a beast.' I would say its an insult to beasts to call her parents after them as even beasts protect their young. These people are worst. They have no right to have children. How can you hurt the very person you created? The person for whom you are responsible. And for what? Superstition? Money?
A political groups enters a pub and beats up women. A 19 year old medical college student is beaten up severely in the name of ragging by his seniors and he loses his life and his tormentors were training to become doctors! Three days in the wake of this incident a 20 yr old student in Andhra Pradesh tries to commit suicide after being made to dance nude in front of her seniors. Not even a fortnight after this ghastly incidence, another student is beaten up and has to be admitted to a hospital. A 12 year old dalit child is beaten up and thrown into the holi bonfire on the festival of holi. A female employee is murdered while she returns home from work and the assailiants go on a shopping spree with her money. Not to mention all the rapes, molestations, domestic violence, female infanticides, robberies, murders and other offences that go unreported. I could go on and on and on.

What is this world coming to? Every morning I am scared to open a newspaper or watch news. Who know what horror will be churned out next? Rape, murder, kidnapping, incest, bomb-blasts, riots, religious feuds, fraud etc. etc. etc. The list is endless. And the worst thing is that all these evils are man-made. Something that we have the power to stop. It is not in our hands to stop natural disasters but we can atleast stop these man made ones.

It seems that the world is spiralling towards darkness. Darkness of thought, action and karma. Lord Krishna has said in The Bhagwat Gita that he will come down on Earth when evil increases beyond limit. Messiahs and Prophets of other religions have made similar promises to their followers. So what are they waiting for? Do they still not think we need their help if they actually exist? After all most of the religous wars are because of them so they better exist or GOD will be the biggest lie of the human world. When people start raping their own children, when people are murdered in the name of fun, when there is no security for citizens, it does get you thinking how much worse we can get.

The mind is not without fear and the head is not held high...

Knowledge is not free but can be bought...

The world has broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls...

The words come out from the depths of lies...

The tireless striving is towards greed and corruption...

The clear stream of reason has lost its way in the dreary sand of dead habit...

The mind is led forward narrow religious views into ever-narrowing thought and action...

This is the state of my world today, my father, and it scares me.

Are we becoming less?

A friend sent me this mail recently and though it is funny, it does say a lot subtly about our life today.

21st Century

We are becoming lesser by the day...

Our Communication - Wireless

Our Telephone - Cordless

Our Emails - Useless

Our Cooking - Fireless

Our Youth - Jobless

Our Food - Fatless

Our Labour - Effortless

Our Conduct - Worthless

Our Relations - Loveless

Our Attitude - Careless

Our Feelings - Heartless

Our Politician - Shameless

Our Education - Valueless

Our Follies - Countless

Our Arguments - Baseless

Our Life - Aimless

Our Job - Thankless

Our Salary - VERY VERY LESS

This happens only in India...ha ha ha

I read this article in 'The Times of India' today and I think it is not one to be missed. A Policeman asked to return a bribe and that too with 9% interest. Its a first for India :) ha ha ha

Here is the link:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMDIvMjcjQXIwMDkwMw==&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

Also check this out. Lost & Found : A mobile phone in a buffalo's gut. Its hilarious :) ha ha ha
Here is the link:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMDIvMjcjQXIwMTAwMg==&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom
Have a great day and smile :) It increases your face value :)

I choose Love

When he won the Oscar award, A. R. Rahman said in his acceptance speech, 'All my life I have had the choice between love and hate. I have chosen love and I’m here.’ How true! Love rocks & Hate sucks. I think all the dudes from Taliban, Shiv Sena, Ram Sene, Jaish-E-Mohommad, Lashker-E-Toiba etc. should take a lesson from Rahman's simple words. Does it not make more sense to choose love and not hate? Why can't we learn to live and let live? What is wrong with sharing? Do these people really think they are showing manliness when they beat up women in bars or apply the Sharia laws which treat women worse than animals? Do they think they are making life better for people by banning all the beautiful things in life like education, music, poetry, books etc.? All my life I have seen the daughters of the strictest parents rebel while the daughters of the most liberal parents respect the freedom given to them. Why is it so? The simple reason is that every single person on this earth is looking for love and understanding. When you give someone freedom, you give them a message that you love and trust them and that feeling will be respected and reciprocated.

Once a reporter asked a very young and handsome religious guru with a huge female fan following how he practiced his celibacy. He said that you cannot change the world so when I feel that my eyes are registering something that I feel I should not be seeing, I advert my eyes. This should be a lesson to all those mullahs who say that there will be fewer rape cases if women are covered by a hijaab or burkha.

I once read some where that when a person seems least lovable, he/she needs the most love and compassion. History is proof that hate only brings pain and destruction so why not try love for a change? Instead of hating & complaining about the North Indians, why doesn't the Shiv Sena try to understand them and lovingly educate them about the Maharashtrian culture? I am sure they will understand. It might take time but then Rome was not made in a day. Painful as change is sometimes, it is the reality of life. You can't be struck in the stone age forever. Every person should have the right to be able to progress and you cannot curb that.

So why don't we all pledge to 'Make Love and not war' for a change. Why don't we leave aside our religious and geograpical differences aside and celebrate being human for a change and then one day like Rahman, we too shall proudly say that we chose love and we are in a peaceful world full of love and music. Jai Ho.

I feel helpless...

As I write this, 2009 has dawned. 31st December came and went and there were parties in all the cities of the country. The newspapers of 1st January 2009 carried headlines like 'People celebrated 31st December putting aside the terror'. Yes we all welcomed the new year with a dance party, food, drinks etc. Yes we all. Except the families of people who lost their loved ones in last month's terriorist attack.

Is public memory so short? Is there no value of life in this country of more than 100 crore people? So what if 200 people died? We still have a lot more. But ask the mother who lost her son, ask the wife who lost her husband, ask the children who lost their parent. They will tell you how helpless they feel. At one or other time in our lives we all have gone through this feeling and I feel we Indians have more than our share of helplessness.

We live in a democracy which boasts 'By the people, For the people'.But do we really matter? The people who died in the Mumbai terriorist attack died just because they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.And what did our Government which is by the way 'By the people, For the people' do? NOTHING. They just looked at 'Big Daddy' America to scold Pakistan. Why are we so helpless? Do we have no self respect? As a common citizen, why do I feel so helpless? Where do I vent my feelings?

There is anger. Lots of anger. Towards the terriorists who killed innocent people for money or religion, towards the government for not retaliating, towards God for making such twisted people. Is religion that important? We are all fighting for a God none of us has even seen. Have the Hindus seen Ram or Krishna or Shiva? Have the Muslims seen Allah? Have the christians seen God? No. We have not seen him but have we all not felt God in a baby's smile? In the beauty of Nature? In small everyday miracles?

When a baby giggles, it brings a smile to everyone's face. So does it mean that when a Muslim baby smiles,its Allah and when a Hindu baby smiles, its Bhagwan? Why can't we see the God inside Humans? So what if I fold my hands in Prayer or open my hands inBandagi? Does it matter? What matters is the God inside me, be it Ram, Krishna, Wahe Guru, Allah or Jesus. God forbid if there is a Nuclear war, the bomb will not distinguish between Hindus and Muslims. It will kill all. It will also kill or affect people in other countries. Even countries who are funding and fueling this terrorism for their own selfish benefits. Where the wind blows, it will spread destruction.

I do not have a solution to this problem and it makes me feel helpless. I do not know how to stop this hatred. I do not know how to make my Government value my country's citizens. I do not know how to save my loved ones from this mindless violence or war. I do not know how to make my prayer reach the ears of Ishwar, Allah or God. I feel helpless when I think that tomorrow it might be me or one of my loved ones who will be the target of such a mindless violence. And then what will happen? The Government will do nothing and after a few days a festival will come and the whole country will get busy in the celebrations and my loved ones or I will become a statistic. Is there really no solution to this helplessness? If you have one, please let me know.

Nostalgia

बीवी, बहु, बुआ, चाची, मामी, मौसी ना बनकर एक दिन फिर सिर्फ बिटिया बनना चाहती हूँ,
अपने बचपन के दिनों को फिर एक दिन जीना चाहती हूँ...

सुबह सात बजे फिर एकबार स्कूल जाना चाहती हूँ,
अलार्म की नहीं, माँ की पुकार सुनके उठाना चाहती हूँ...

रिसेस में फिर सहेलियों के साथ गप्पे मारना चाहती हूँ,
पुरानी रिक्शा में फिर अन्ताक्षरी खेलते हुवे घर लौटना चाहती हूँ...
माँ के हाथ के गरम फुल्के फिर एक बार खाना चाहती हूँ,
माँ के बगल में लेट के फिर सारी दोपहर बातें करना चाहती हूँ...

गुडिया की शादी में माँ की चुनरी ओढ़के नाचना चाहती हूँ,

शाम को सहेलियों के साथ फिर सायकिल पे सैर करने जाना चाहती हूँ...

पापा के साथ बैठके फिर होमवर्क करना चाहती हूँ,
दादा-दादी के पास बैठके फिर कहानियां सुनना चाहती हूँ...

माँ की लोरी और पापा की थपकियों से फिर सोना चाहती हूँ,
अपने बचपन के दिनों को फिर एक दिन जीना चाहती हूँ...
बीवी, बहु, बुआ, चाची, मामी, मौसी ना बनकर एक दिन फिर सिर्फ बिटिया बनना चाहती हूँ...

My Best Friend Hetal

This is a dedication to my best friend in the world. Today is her Birthday. Her name is Hetal Parekh and even though today she is no more with us, she will always be in my heart and in the heart of every person she came in contact with. Especially her family. She was her father's darling, her mother's pride, her sister's and brother's friend and guide and her son's life. I shall not include her husband and her in-laws in this list because she lost her life due to them. I shall not go into details about how and why she lost her life but I know two things for sure. I can never forgive those bas***** for what they did to her and I would not wish such a fate even on my worst enemy.

I want to tell what she meant to me. To me she was the sister I always wished for and never had, she was my best friend, she was also my agony aunt, she was the one who used to scare away boys when they came after us, she knew more about me than my own parents and family and ofcourse it was vice versa. We shared every big and little secret and event of our life with each other since we became friends in the seventh grade. There was not a day in our lives since we met when we did not remember each other, however far we were geographically. Ofcourse after she got married, we could not meet or speak to each other as frequently as we would have liked because her in-laws did not like and for that I shall forever resent them and feel guilty on my part for not making more effort. But we were always in each other's thoughts.

Hetal was a very religious person and so I sometimes wonder how the God she worshiped with such faith and devotion could give her such a horrible, painful death, not to mention grief and a very great loss to all the people who loved her. It makes me question if there is really a god. I cannot really describe our friendship in words but I know for sure that whatever time we spent together will always be the most precious time to me and I am fortunate that I could call myself Hetal's friend. I really hope we meet again in another life, with the same affection and friendship but in happier circumstances.

I also want to request everyone to cherish their relationships be they family or friends because once a person goes away, there is no bringing them back how much ever you wish it to happen. So please pick up that phone and call your best buddy or mom-dad and tell them how much you love and appreciate them. I know I shall never be able to get over her death or the fact that I shall never see her face again, never receive her call on my birthday or anniversary, never sit gossiping with her in the evening on the terrace of her home, never go for a drive or pani-puri or bhel with her, never see her family whole again and it pains me to the very core of my heart. I just hope where ever Hetal is, she is Resting In Peace and her son keeps her memories alive in his heart and becomes the kind of man his mother would have wanted him to be.

For all those times you stood by me

For all the truth that you made me see

For all the joy you brought to my life

For all the wrong that you made right

You're the one who held me up

Never let me fall

You're the one who saw me through through it all

You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldn't speak

You were my eyes when I couldn't see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldn't reach

You gave me faith 'coz you believed

I'm everything I am Because you loved me

Thank you for being my best friend Hetal