Ganesh Festival

This is a story I heard in my childhood. This is a story from Indian mythology that highlights the importance of honoring one's parents. Shiva and Parvati had two children. One was karthikeyan I think and the other was Ganapati. Shiva said to both of them whoever circumnavigates the world fast and reaches back here first will get a reward. Karthikeyan immediately set out on his peacock to circumnavigate the world. Ganapati told his father and mother to stand in one place. He then walked around them a few times. Then he said to Shiva and Parvati I am done. I have circumnavigated the world. Shiva and Parvati said let's wait for karthikeyan. Karthikeyan reached back after circumnavigating the world. Shiva and Parvati said the reward goes to ganpati since he circumnavigated the world first. Karthikeyan was very sad. He had taken all the trouble to circumnavigate the world. How did you reach back so fast, he asked Ganpati. My world is my parents. So I walked around them a few times. So Ganapati got the reward. This is probably why Ganesh is considered the God of honoring parents. This festival is celebrated by hindus a lot. During my early childhood, myself my older brother and parents lived in a suburb of the Indian state of Maharashtra. There I would see this festival celebrated widely. The statue of Ganesh is taken in processions amidst chants of Ganapathy Bappa Morya. Then two people can hold their hands in such a way that a Ganesh statue can be placed on the hands and they go in a procession and put the statue in the river or ocean. If you would like to see how this is celebrated you can check the internet for bollywood celebs celebrating this festival. I loved the saree worn by Ananya Pandey for the Ganesh festival in 2024 and the salwar kameez Ananya Pandey wore for the same festival in 2023. I hope you have a lovely day!

Photographs

This Sunday on the way back from church I photographed these. For some reason I like to photograph the streets on the way back from church on Sundays. At that time it is not very late in the evening yet it is not bright with natural light either. So to photograph all these lights on the streets, cars, buildings, and from the reflection on the road and later look at the photograph makes my life beautiful. I hope you have a lovely day!

Earrings from JCP.com

Hi all, today I would like to share these beautiful earrings. I found these in JC penny.com. I found them earlier this month. I hope you have a lovely day!

Table Topics

Hi all, Yesterday being a Tuesday, I attended a Toastmasters club meeting as usual. I was the Toastmaster. I really enjoyed being Toastmaster since there is not much to prep. I answered two table topics questions. The first one was about truth. Is seeking truth a way of life or a season was the first question I answered.

I answered that when we are children truth is given to us. We are given truth by our parents and in school we are given instruction in truth in various subjects whether it is social studies or science or languages. We live by it.

But when we are grown we sometimes are exposed to confusing times. We are exposed to other humans who have different ideologies or perspectives. Then we have to seek or try to find the truth.

When we find then we can rest and be happy.

An example can be yesterday I read in the newspaper that in the UN general assembly a resolution was passed by Ukraine that said about the Russian attack on Ukraine.

US did not want to acknowledge that Russia attacked Ukraine.

US lobbied to make Ukraine change the language in the resolution so Russian aggression could not be highlighted

Their rationale was when we are moving toward peace we should not say that Russia attacked Ukraine.

This was a violation of the truth, in my opinion.

Yet what I found astounding was that many European countries abstained from voting instead of raising a hue and cry about how wrong this was.

High level US officials supported this move.

Even some journalists commenting on this did not say this was wrong. The Wsj editorial criticized the US stance.

Others said US has changed it's policy in Ukraine and was on the side of Russia now.

That US is not supporting Ukraine while president Biden supported Ukraine.

I believe different presidents can have different foreign policy.

But the mistake is to say that Russia did not start the war with ukraine just because they are moving towards peace

Russia attacked Ukraine three years ago.

Everybody knows this to be true.

It was in the newspapers, TV everywhere.

That truth they are changing or trying to change.

But the fact and truth remains that Russia started the Russia Ukraine war.

In such circumstances we have to seek truth.

Once we find truth we may be in a season of being surrounded by truth and then we need not seek truth.

So yes seeking truth can be a season if we don't know the truth.

This is what I said. I may have added more details to what I said.

The other question was about definition of success.

My first thought was to lead a peaceful and quiet life that is Godly and dignified life in every way. This is a bible verse.

But I did not wish to say a bible verse in the club since it is secular environment.

So I said I would like to lead a balanced life as in a life not beset by extreme emotions.

I would like to lead a happy life.

I would like to be a good human as in not cause harm upon other humans.

I would like to fulfill my talents and reach a higher level in my talents.

These are my two Table Topics answers. I hope you have a lovely day!

Germany Elections

Hi all, yesterday I read an editorial on election results in Germany which got me interested in the topic. Just out of curiosity I was interested in knowing about the names of the political parties and trends in elections. I read that editorial and other articles on the internet about this. Here are some facts. 

Election results in Germany. 

Germans voted for change. 

Winner:  Friedrich Merz. 

Platform: Economic Reform and Immigration Control. 

Merz is leader of the center right Christian Democrats CDU. And their Bavarian sister CSU.

The likely vote share of 29% marks a four point improvement on Friedrich Merz's party's result under a different leader in the last election in 2021. 

Outgoing Chancellor: Olaf Scholz

Party: Social Democrats (SPD). 

This party has a 16% vote share down nearly ten percent from 2021. 

The other big winner: Alternative for Germany (AFD) on track to win about 20% of votes.

This party is anti US. 

This party increased its vote share (double) from 2021 despite serious concerns about Nazi sympathies among some of its leaders. 

This election centered in the fiscal and social costs of welcoming hundreds of thousands of middle eastern migrants especially amidst high profile terror attacks. 

The AFD has called for rethinking green fixations. 

Merz is for immigration limits. 

But his party remains divided on reform of green policies. 

The Christian democrats vote share is far below what the party won in previous decades. 

To govern Mr Metz will have to form a coalition with one of the elections losers.

The options for Mr. Mertz are the Social Democrats of the outgoing chancellor (SPD) Olaf Scholz. 

This party has a 16% vote share down nearly ten percent from 2021. 

Coalition with the greens whose 12% to 13% vote share is down slightly from 2021. 

I read in another internet article that the German elections shows the green wave has receded in Germany. 

No party wants to form a coalition with Afd. 

These are some important facts to remember about the German elections. The thing to be really happy about is that democracy is vibrant in Germany. I think I read in an internet article that voter turn-out was very high. I remembered a fact I learned in school about Germany. The German parliament is Bundestag. As the Israeli parliament is the Knesset. The Japanese is Diet. The Indian parliament is Sansad Bhavan. I hope you have a lovely day! 

Perspective on Foreign policy (Reposting!)

Hi all, Today I would like to share with you some insights about recent US foreign policy.

A few days ago I read an article that said PresidentTrump is rewriting the foreign policy of US from what was set in 1945.

In 1945 after the end of the second world war USA and USSR emerged as major super powers and USA took the leadership in nuclear nonproliferation and lots of other initiatives.

Here is a quote from the article in WSJ

"But few expected him to move so rapidly to reorient us foreign policy away from the course it has charted since 1945.

Since the end of world war 2 the US lead system of alliances has bolstered the country's power most foreign policy experts said. By vowing to defend allies in Europe the middle east and Asia the US more than any other country took on the global guarantor of free trade stability a mission that included countering the Soviet Union more recently China. "

All the presidents after 1945 sort of followed this basic pattern.

The current president is changing all of that.

With some very serious changes.

USA respected Canada as a sovereign democratic nation.

President Trump wants Canada to be the 51st state of US.

USA never wanted to annex Greenland a territory of Denmark.

President Trump wants to annex Greenland.

USA never considered the Panama canal a property of US.

President Trump does or wishes it could be.

USA took leadership through an organization like USAID to provide aid and support to poor countries around the world.

President Trump wants to stop that.

USA always supported Ukraine and never called a democratic leader a dictator.

President Trump called Zelensky a dictator for not holding elections during a war.

It said President Trump wants Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia.

Before this I read in another article that President Trump wanted the countries in Europe to not participate in the talks between Russia and Ukraine.

European countries are heavily invested in Ukraine.

They felt bad to be left out of the talks.

They have always participated in talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Also President Trump's views about evacuating Gaza by having Gazans go and live in neighboring countries is another foreign policy move that is not considered sound.

The most important thing I learned was that almost all the statements made by the current president in the area of foreign policy are a departure from what was being followed by most presidents since 1945. I hope you have a lovely day!

Doves

Hi all, I would like to share these few sentences I wrote in 2023 about A sight I saw while on the bus going downtown. Flying low over the Iowa River were lots of white doves. It was not just one or two. But a whole lot of doves and they were flying close to the water. They were flying to and fro and they were flying in circles. But they were not flying into the traffic or away from the river. The river itself was foaming and there was froth on the surface. Water flowed like in the dam near the bridge and then became foam. The sight was like an tranquil haven in the middle of the city. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Painting of a flower

I painted this flower yesterday. If you look at my post yesterday you will see a dress. While painting the flowers on the dress I realised I painted the flowers without much detail. So I decided to paint the flower again. This is the flower from the dress. Here is the close up of the flower from the dress.

Here is the dress that I painted and posted yesterday.

I hope you have a great day!

Several Paintings

I painted this dress. The inspiration for this dress is this dress here in dillards.com.

I like this dress because it is long, and has a pretty flower pattern on it. I liked the sleeves and the ruffle at the hem. Earlier this month I painted this dress. I did not look at any dress to paint this. I just remembered the pattern of the dress I painted before from Dillards.com that was posted yesterday. In this the colors are different.

I also painted this. First I made a drawing and after a few days I painted it.

This is a mug I posted before. I added some details such as handle and showed some of the inside of the mug. I hope you have a lovely day!

Updates on outfit painting inspiration!

Hi all, I love painting dresses. This dress in dillards.com inspired the painting here which I have posted before.

This is another outfit I painted. I have posted this before. Given below is the bollywood celebrity whose outfit inspired this painting. It is on the left.

I hope you all have a lovely day!

Questions for Table Topics

Hi all, Yesterday I participated in the Toastmasters Club meeting. My role was to lead Table Topics. Given below are the questions I asked. Several members participated in giving good answers. 1. What is your most memorable vacation as a child? Could you describe it? 2. What does it mean to be a self made man or woman? Do you know any examples of a self made man or woman? 3. Do you believe the US economy should be deregulated further in order to encourage businesses and entrepreneurship? If so could you elaborate? 4. Has anyone played any pranks on you? Could you describe the prank? 5. It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. This quote is from the play Julius Ceaser by Shakespeare. Could you describe what this means to you? Do you think it is true? That is all for today. I hope you have a lovely and happy day!

Anime drawing

Last year or so while looking for pictures of art I could draw some anime pictures drawing tutorials came on my phone. At that time I did not draw it. This year I remembered that and looked up tutorials on how to draw anime. Here is what I drew this last week. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Random facts

I thought I could do a blog post on random facts I collect from the newspaper. Here are two facts I gathered from the newspaper. One is about Greenland and the other about oil from Canada.

Psalm 119

Hi all, Today I decided to share a few verses in psalm 119 and what I understand about it. "Blessed are those who keep His testimonies. Who seek him with their whole heart. Who also do no wrong. But walk in His ways." Psalm 119: 2-3 One meaning of the word testimony is the tablet bearing the mosaic law. The mosaic law is the 10 commandments. If we obey these we are blessed and this is so not difficult. This is not difficult because there are only 10 rules to obey. Blessed means feeling like a lucky person. And feeling happy that all is well with your world. If we keep the testimonies of God we are blessed. We are also blessed if we seek Him with our whole heart. To be blessed by God we just have to seek Him with our whole heart. Meaning with all our being we have to seek God. What does it mean to seek God with our whole heart? To seek God with our whole heart means just always trying to find answers from Him. This means praying about things that bother us. Sometimes it is a foolish thing we said. Then we can take it to God. We can take everything in our life to God. Different people may have different ways of seeking God. Some people pray Bible verses. Some people attend mass. Some people do Bible study. Some people meditate on the word of God. Some people just pray their own words about their concerns. No matter which way you choose it just has to be sincere. That is also part of seeking God with our whole heart. We cannot be half hearted. Also sometimes inspite of all these things we may feel that we are not seeking Him with all our heart. There is yet another way. That is ask God for help in seeking God with all our heart. That way you lay the burden on God to help you seek Him with all your heart. Then you will be blessed. In addition we get a blessing when we seek Him with our whole heart. The blessing is we automatically walk in His ways. This means we walk in a way that is pleasing to Him and we automatically do no wrong. Walk in a way that pleases Him means obey the commandments and be happy, holy people. In general God likes it if we are happy, courageous, kind, generous, polite, respectful, pure, holy, sincere. God really would like us to take other decisions in our life by ourselves such as what sports team to support or what to wear for a certain event. God likes us to be as beautiful as we possibly can be. I hope you have a lovely day!

Bangles

I had collected these pictures of bangles last year. I have always loved the style of stacking bangles especially with traditional Indian outfits. I used to have a large collection of bangles as a child. I hope you have a lovely day!

Pearl Necklace

I liked this pearl necklace from JCPenney.com. I had uploaded this picture last year. I like colored pearls. I hope you have a lovely day! Btw Happy Valentines day to all!

Consolidate

Hi all, The day before yesterday I was given the role of Word in the Toastmasters Club meeting. The word I presented was Consolidate. Given below is what I said about that word. Consolidate means to combine into a single whole, merge or unite. It also means to become strong, stable, and firmly established. I came across this word used very frequently in the Business Section of WSJ mostly in the area of wealth management. I am sure this is a word that is used in other areas too but in the area of business, if an individual or organisation has wealth invested in lots of areas such as banks, government bonds, real estate, gold or art then consolidation means to merge all of this so that it is in a form most profitable to the person who owns the wealth. Consolidate can also describe aspects of the speech writing activity. When you write a speech especially about a topic you are not familiar with the first thing you do is gather info about that topic from diverse sources. After this you can combine all of this info into a speech which is to consolidate or the process of consolidation. So the word of the day is Consolidation. I hope you have a lovely day!

Table Topics

Hi all, As usual yesterday evening I found myself attending the Toastmasters club meetings. I answered two table topics questions. One question was about a person in history I admire the most. I said Mahatma Gandhi. I spoke about how India was a British colony and how Mahatma Gandhi wanted to win independence from the British using non violent means. Mahatma Gandhi is considered the father of Indian nation. Mahatma Gandhi won over those opposed to his ideas and did not ever harm and exhorted others to not harm the British colonists. In the end India won independence from the British without any violence. The second question was a place in history that you would have liked to be at because it inspired you. I spoke about the battle of Delaware in the American revolutionary war and the story of how George Washington lead his army consisting of untrained civilians who had no winter boots or soldiers clothes to wear. The army consisted of people drawn from all walks of civilian life life like farmers or store keepers. They were not trained soldiers. Yet they fought valiently because they believed in the values of the revolution. I remember feeling so awed by this story when I read it to my son who was at the time (elementary school) very interested in the American Revolutionary war. My son read so voraciously he knew everything about the revolutionary war. George Washington and his band of revolutionaries were at a disadvantage because they were unlike the british soldiers who had the training as soldiers and the support of the british empire The American revolutionaries had to face bitter cold winters trudging through snow to face the British in some fort. Yet they won many battles and the battle of Delaware was one such battle. These are the questions I answered. I hope you have a lovely day!

The meaning of Empathy!

Once my father told me this story about a hindu saint called Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was going in a boat with two other people. One person was whipping the other person. When Ramakrishna Paramahamsa watched it marks of being whipped appeared on his back. He was not being whipped but he empathized with the person being whipped so much that he felt every whip on himself. This is true empathy, my father said. I hope you have a lovely day!

Tech Wars and Trade Wars

A tech war is brewing between China and the US. Recently a Chinese AI tech start up called deep seek innovated with an AI model that is good in problem solving and reasoning skills. The chatbot of deep seek is called R1. This was found to be as excellent as open Ai's model. However deep seek made this without using expensive chips sold by nvidya the most important producer of semi conductor chips. Deep seek also allows others to freely use its methodology for creating R1. Open AI has accused several Chinese companies including deep seek of using open Ai's technology to create R1. The prices of Nvidya's shares plummetted in this connection. This is the tech war.

The trade war is between US, China, Mexico and Canada.

The new government in the US has been threatening to increase tariffs on imports from these three countries.

Economists and governments of these three countries fear this will result in damaging consequences to their economies.

US economists are also not sure the tariffs will completely benefit the US economy.

If tariffs are raised the price of the commodity imported from that country goes up in the US.

If a raw material that is used for manufacturing is purchased from Canada with higher tariffs then US manufacturers will be discouraged to buy that product due to the high price.

This will put a halt to manufacturing.

So tariffs may back fire.

It will affect the Canadian economy deeply since Canada exports maximum to the US

The earlier threat was 25% tariffs on everything that was imported from Canada and Mexico.

Later the US government said they will not impose this just yet.

I don't know the latest status on the tariffs situation. I hope you have a lovely day!

Fashion Jewelry

This fashion jewelry is from Jcpenney.com. I had uploaded this picture for blogging last year. I have not bought these. I think these earrings and this bracelet set go well together. I hope you have a lovely day!

Beautiful Hair

I like this middle eastern singer's hair. Her name is Hala. This year I am planning to take good care of my hair by applying hair masks.

Here is another picture of the same singer. I hope you have a lovely day!

Problems facing a few African Economies

Hi all, I subscribe to the newsletter from International Monetary Fund IMF. "The International Monetary Fund is an organization that works to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 191 member countries. It does so by supporting economic policies that promote financial stability and monetary cooperation, which are essential to increase productivity, job creation, and economic well-being. The IMF is governed by and accountable to its member countries."

I started subscribing to the IMF newsletter because the head of the international monetary fund is an excellent economist and I was inspired by her. Her name is Gita Gopinath.

I always get messages with detailed studies on the economies of various countries across the globe from the IMF. Recently I got a message about Benin and it had lots of info on several countries in the African continent and about the impact of IMF policies and financial assistance on these countries. So I decided I would make a blog post or write an essay about the problems afflicting these countries. Given below is some ideas I collected from some of the articles in the study by IMF.

Characteristics of African economies or Problems faced by some African Nations.

Benin:

Problems in Benin are deteriorating security, war in Ukraine causing higher living costs, severe and repeated shocks and a shock prone environment.

Togo:

Togo is afflicted by high debt, and is susceptible to frequent climate shocks. Floods are the most common natural hazard in Togo regularly causing damage to infrastructure and crops. Droughts result in high cost impacting the largely rain fed agricultural sector. The article also mentions coastal erosion, climate change, risks to infrastructure, and disaster risk. Vulnerable sectors are agriculture, forestry, water resources, health.

Guinea Bissau faces political crisis, social tensions, shocks to cashew exports, pressures to balance of payment and fiscal revenue, and public debt vulnerabilities.

Burkino Faso is challenged by Security conditions, Climate change, Below potential growth, Forced displacement, Disrupted economic activity in agriculture livestock and mining sectors, Terrorist attacks, Long standing fragility, Corruption, Poverty, Political instability, Security and climate shocks, Lack of diversification, Lack of governance, Being displaced internally, and Terrorism financing.

I hope you have a lovely day.

mandm mug

Today I would like to share with you all a picture I painted recently. It is the picture of an mandm mug. This is the face of the mandm. I was just wandering around at home and decided to paint this. I hope you have a lovely day!

Table Topics

Hi all, I hope you had a great Tuesday. On Tuesdays I try to attend the Toastmasters club meetings. Yesterday I answered two table topics questions. One question was about if there were fewer languages would there be fewer conflicts? I said the idea of language has to be understood in a metaphorical way. If in Portuguese language there is a word for rain and in English language there is a word for rain then it is likely that there would be understanding between Portuguese speaking people and English speaking people. If however Democrat politicians in the US and Republican politicians in the US who both speak English have different opinions on taxation then there is conflict even though the language is the same. So it is not the number of languages that matters in conflict but the mind set of the people speaking the language. The next question was about my favorite charity. I said my favorite charity is Mother Theresa's Missionaries of Charity. Mother Theresa is a European nun who served the poorest of the poor in India. In Calcutta the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal she saw extreme poverty. So she decided to help by rescuing infants from the streets and taking care of them in Missionaries of Charity. Calcutta is notorious for so much poverty that people die on the streets. She would bring them to the missionaries of Charity and give them health care and aid. My cousin in India named her daughter Agnes after Mother Theresa. I wanted to mention the book City of Joy which was very popular in India and which depicts the extreme poverty of Calcutta. But I did not mention the book during the speech. I hope you have a lovely day!

Light

Hi all, Earlier I gathered pictures of lights for a home. I made a blog post with the pictures. Yesterday I looked through my posts in my blog and found lots I had not posted. This is from a post I had made earlier and not posted. I am thinking of making a bank of blog posts so that even when there are not a lot of inspiring things I can still blog from the bank of blog posts. There are different kinds of lights in a home. First there is the lovely and ornate chandelier that takes you to a european palace a century or so ago. There are lots of regular homes that have chandeliers too.

A living room, family room, or any kind of room for that matter is incomplete without a decorative lamp.

A lamp to light up the page you are reading or the screen you are writing on is indispensible to good study habits.

Finally there is the sconce. A sconce is a decorated object that holds a candle or electric light and is attached to the walls of a room.

I hope you have a lovely day!