Today is International Women’s Day and it is a day to celebrate us, women, and have respect, appreciation and love towards us. Because everything starts from you and if you don’t respect, appreciate and love yourself, you can’t share that with the world.
There are many reasons why this day is celebrated but I want to celebrate it by listing all the good reasons why I rejoice being a woman.
Woman is a daughter, sister, wife, mother and a friend. I can’t imagine this world without them. Yes, that is who we are.
Women have so many choices. They can work or stay home. Be a nurse or a soldier.
How can I forget to mention the choices women have in fashion. One can choose to wear jeans or skirts or dress or shorts or Kurta or Sari or Omani or Kimono or Shalwar Kameez. Anything your heart desires.
Talking about fashion, how about high heels, they are my favourite and give women an instant boost in height and confidence or they can choose to wear a ballet flat or thongs and still look beautiful.
Make-up is a part of our daily regime and we can experiment with different, glamorous looks.
Doors are held open for us, chairs are pulled out for us.
We could dye our hair and get rid of the gray without being ridiculed.
We have the gift of female intuition which usually steers us in the right direction.
Women are great listeners and don’t always feel they need to fix things.
We can wear coloured nail polish to match the season, mood or our clothing.
Women can multi-task with ease.
Women are intelligent enough to know there is no such thing as a “Happy Period.”
Chances are in front of every awesome man is an awesome woman who made him that way
I think the song by Helen Reddy sums of everything I want to express right now. This is for all the ladies out there. Here is the video and lyrics if you haven’t heard it before.
I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an’ pretend
’cause I’ve heard it all before
And I’ve been down there on the floor
No one’s ever gonna keep me down again
CHORUS
Oh yes I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman
You can bend but never break me
’cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
’cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul
CHORUS
I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land
But I’m still an embryo
With a long long way to go
Until I make my brother understand
Oh yes I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to I can face anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman
Oh, I am woman
I am invincible
I am strong
FADE
I am woman
I am invincible
I am strong
I am woman
Also there is the song “ I enjoy being a girl”, which I love .
Saying this I don’t hate men. I think we complement each other, like wheels of a bike. It is just that I am happy and content to be a woman and I won’t have it any other way.
To the all the ladies out there, Happy International Women’s Day. Enjoy and be proud of being a woman.
Holi is one of the many festivals celebrated by Hindus in Nepal. It is also known as Phagu Purnima which is a festival of colours.
Holi is celebrated in two days in Nepal, today as Phagu Purnima (except in Terai) and tomorrow in Terai region as Holi.
Chir of Holi
People install Holi pole, “Chir’, a bamboo pole, fringed with strips of cloth representing good luck charms indicating the arrival of the Holi festival. This Chir pole is erected a week before the Holi festival is celebrated at all the three heritage squares of Nepal namely Kathmandu Durbar Square, Bhakatpur Durbar Square and Patan Durbar Square. Once the erecting is done, people throw red vermillion powder in the air as the symbol to mark the beginning of Holi, a time for fun and frolic. It is said to symbolize the tree on which lord Krishna hung the milkmaids’ garments while they were bathing. At the end of the festivities the Chir is taken to a bonfire.
Here are some of the legends behind Holi (source: internet)
There is a popular legend behind the installation of Chir. The story is again about the mischievous nature of Lord Krishna who loved to play pranks with the milkmaids or gopis. Playful as he was, it is said that once he seduced all the local girls with his dashing good looks. He then danced with them all and when they were fully engrossed in him, then he thought they were ripe for a tease. He doused them in coloured water and stole all their clothes while they were bathing in the water of river Yamuna. Naughty Krishna then hung their clothes on a tree to bug them. Chir symbolizes that very tree.
Holika gets burnt in the fire
Another myth following Holi, reveals that a fiend named Holika together with her brother, an atheist king by the name of Hiranyakasyapu conspired to kill his son Pralhad because Pralhad was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. But their attempts always failed for Lord Vishnu protects those who love him. Finally, Holika who having received a blessing from Lord Bramha to be immune to fire, jumped in a bonfire with Pralhadin her lap. But Brahma’s blessing could only be used for
Colours for Holi
good purposes and so Holika was consumed by the fire where as Pralhad was saved by the grace of the Gods. Thus, Holi is said to be celebrated to rejoice Holika’s extermination and the traditional bonfires are believed to commemorate her death.
Yet another legend says that there was an Ogress known as Putna. Lord Krishna’s devil uncle Kansa seeked the help of Putna to kill infant Krishna by feeding him poisonous milk.Putna disguised herself as a simple and pious woman and treacherously fed baby Krishna with her poisoned breast. Lord Krishna, however, sucked her blood which revealed the monster behind that pious woman and laid her to death.
On the night before Holi, there is a practice to burn an effigy of Putna – the Ogress who nearly killed Lord Krishna. The tradition is symbolic of victory of divinity over demonic forces. It also shows the end of winter and darkness – as typified by Putna.
I used to love Holi while growing up. It used to be a few days off from school and we loved playing will lola (water filled balloons) and abeer (colours). It was time of fun and frolic. People spent the day smearing coloured powder all over each other’s faces, throwing coloured water at each other, having parties, and dancing.
Lola
The only drawback of Holi in Kathmandu is for young girls and women who get lola thrown at them everywhere they go. I remember being bombarded by hundreds of balloons from someone’s roof top on the way to school or on the way back. It was days before the real Holi and it used to piss me off. Can you imagine, you are going somewhere and you are drenched with water from these balloons? Also as you know clean water is not available easily in Nepal so I am not even sure, what kind of water they used. I used to fight with these people who spoiled the real meaning of Holi.
If you are in Nepal, hope you are having a great time.
Sydney is celebrating Holi at the end of the month so hoping to go and have some fun then.
The weather didn’t cooperate with this year’s Mardi Gras as it was rainy and windy the whole day but it didn’t stop around 300,000 spectators from coming out in the aweful weather to watch the parade of 120 floats and almost 9000 participants. Here are some of the photos from the day.
Tomorrow, 3rd of March, is Sydney Mardi Gras which is a yearly parade for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and intersex communities in Sydney, Australia. Every year there are lots of people who visit Sydney for this event and it is one of the biggest of its kind.
Normally this parade consists of tens of thousands of participants with lots of floats and loud music. Then there are thousands more who fill the streets of Sydney to get a glimpse of this magnificent event. It is also telecast on TV so there are thousands more who enjoy viewing the parade from their homes as well.
This year for the first time, the parade will be broadcast to an international audience online.
In the 1970s, Sydney Mardi Gras started as a celebration following a morning protest march and commemoration of the Stonewall Riots where 500 people gathered on Oxford Street, calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals in employment and housing .
These days it has changed into a fun-filled parade with colorfully dressed men and women having a great time. There will be many floats with people dressing up as brides and grooms, cheerleaders, nuns, vampires etc.
For the last few years each parade has a Chief of Parade like Rupert Everett (2007), Margaret Cho (2008), Matthew Mitcham (2009), Amanda Lepore (2010) and Lily Tomlin(2011), Peter Tatchell (2011) and I am so excited about this year’s Chief of Parade. She is no other than the famous Kyile Minogue, Australia’s pop queen. I am so excited to see her float after watching her spectacular show. I am sure it is going to be amazing and breath-taking.
According to the news, Minogue’s song arrangements are completely tailor-made for the show, backed by 16 dancers, to be held in the Royal Hall of Industries at an unspecified time during the night.
Diverse music styles and more performance art mark this year’s party, with ’90s sounds fashionably strong. Long, leggy drag singer RuPaul is confirmed to be there as well.
I am looking forward to going and watching the parade this year. It will be AS’s first one too so I hope he will enjoy watching the fun and fabulous parade with some weird stuff mixed in. I will update all of you on this year’s parade soon.
In Australia (I guess every where in the world), many people die every day waiting for an organ donation. The main reason of this is because, even though people have consented to donate their organs when they are alive, their family doesn’t want to donate them once they die.
This is how organ donation works in Australia. When people apply for get their driving licence, there is a section where it ask you if want to be an organ donor. You can tick No or choose to donate all parts of your body or certain part of the body. So the licences of a person can tell if one is donor or not. [This is only in NSW]
Not enough people choose to donate their organs in the first place, but things go worse when the even people who do choose to donate are not able to do so. Because, when someone dies, their loved ones have to consent before the doctor can go through the organ donation process. According to the statistics, more than 60% of the family members will say NO at this stage. So this is really reducing the number of real donors, which in turn reduces the number of people who could have been saved.
Losing someone is always a hard thing to deal with and no one wants to go through that process but at the same time we have to admit that death is a natural process and one day everyone has to die. But even after death , one organ donor can help save more than 10 lives. Think about it. What good is your body when it is cremated or buried? But if you die and it can help save so many lives, why don’t we do it?
We never know how life going to turn out. May be you may need an organ donor one day. Imagine waiting in the queue for years to find a donor when every day is important for your survival. If you can’t imagine that happening to you then may be you don’t want anyone to go through that process either. Look at the list below. Imagine if any of the waiting patients was your loved one.
Last week when I was watching a TV, I came across this amazing story of parents, Oliver Zammit and RoseMarie Zammit, who donated their son’s organs. Here is what happened.
Doujon Zammit was 20 years and was on a holiday of his life time in Greece when the tragedy struck and died. Oliver Zammit flew immediately to Greece, to Doujon’s bedside, praying for a miracle – that his son would wake up. Unfortunately, he died but his family respected his wish to donate his organs, and those organs saved 4 lives. The story does not end here. The parents have met 3 out of the 4 receivers of their son’s organs. To top all this, Oliver Zammit became a best man on the wedding of the man Kostas Gribilas who received his son’s heart.
Here are some of the myths regarding organ donation which you can discard from today onwards. (Source: www.donatelife.gov.au)
Organ donation is against my religion.
Reality:
Most religions support organ and tissue donation as generous acts that benefit people. This includes Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. If you are not sure whether your religion is supportive, speak to your religious adviser. You can also read or download a fact sheet on organ and tissue donation in relation to all the major religions at www.donatelife.gov.au
I’m too old, too young or not healthy enough to donate.
Reality:
Almost any one can donate their organs and tissue. While your age and medical history will be considered, you shouldn’t assume you are too old, too young or not healthy enough. There’s every chance that some of your organs and tissues will be suitable for donation. Only some medical conditions may prevent you from being a donor, such as transmissible diseases like HIV.
My family won’t be able to view my body.
Reality:
Yes they will. The removal of organs and tissue is no different from any other surgical operation, and is performed by highly skilled health professionals. The donor’s body is always treated with dignity and respect. The donation of organs and tissue does not alter the physical appearance of the body, and your family will be able to view your body and have an open casket if they wish.
I’ve already registered. I don’t need to tell my family.
Reality:
You do need to discuss your decision with your family and friends, even if you have registered on the Australian Organ Donor Register (or, in some states, on your driver’s licence). Donation won’t proceed without your family’s consent. Families are less likely to give consent for donation if they do not know the wishes of the deceased. That’s why every family is encouraged to discuss and know each other’s wishes.
There won’t be any support for my family.
Reality:
The Intensive Care Unit team caring for you and the DonateLife Agency Donor Coordinator and Donor Family Support Coordinator give the family as much support as they need during and after the decision to donate. Families considering organ and tissue donation will also have access to free bereavement counselling. The DonateLife Donor Coordinator will be the family’s initial point of contact from the time donation is first discussed. They provide the link between the family and the medical team and will help the family after the donation, particularly with arranging a private farewell and/or a viewing of the body, if the family wishes. The coordinator will contact the donor family with details of support offered in their state or territory. The coordinator can, if the family wishes, provide information on the outcomes of the donation and give details on how to write anonymously to the recipients.
My organs and tissue will be used for research.
Reality:
Organ donation is about helping save or improve other people’s lives. Donated tissues and organs will never be used for medical research unless explicit written permission is given by your family.
Doctors won’t work as hard to save my life if they know I’m a donor.
Reality:
Not so. Medical staff does everything possible to save lives. Their first duty is to you and saving your life. Organ and tissue donation will only be considered after all efforts fail and you have been legally declared dead. In most cases, a person may only be able to donate organs where they have been declared brain-dead in an intensive care unit in hospital. Brain death is when blood circulation to the brain ceases, and the brain stops functioning and dies with no possibility of recovery. A series of tests carried out by two independent and appropriately qualified senior doctors establishes that brain death has occurred. People are sometimes confused about the difference between brain death and coma. Brain death is completely different from coma. A patient in a coma is unconscious because their brain is injured in some way, but their brain can continue to function and may heal. Medical tests can clearly distinguish between brain death and coma.
Organ donation may also be possible after a person’s heart has stopped beating, commonly referred to as donation after cardiac death. A far greater number of people have the opportunity to donate tissue for transplantation. Tissue donation does not require the donor’s death to have occurred in the same limited circumstances as organ donation for transplantation to be successful.
I don’t need to donate my organs because thousands of others do.
Reality:
Few people die in such a way that donation is possible. Organ donors must die in hospital where their body can be medically supported until the organs can be donated. There are some 1600 Australians on official waiting lists at any one time.
People only need organs because of bad lifestyle choices.
Reality:
Many people have an inherited genetic condition, a severe illness or disease that will kill them, often at a young age. Common genetic conditions are cardiomyopathy (which affects the heart), cystic fibrosis (the lungs) and biliary atresia (the liver). Corneal transplants restore sight to people following a disease or damage to their eyes. Heart valves are used to repair congenital defects in young children and replace defective valves due to disease such as rheumatic fever, degeneration and infection.
I was so inspired by this show. Please watch this if you are still not convinced why you should donate the organ.
If you are in Australia, please go to this website http://www.donatelife.gov.au/ (If you are somewhere else, please Google and find the website where you can register as a donor) and I hope it will help you change your mind about donating your organs after your death, if you haven’t done so already. Imagine, so many people can live longer because of you some day. Don’t you want that? Imagine if one of your loved ones is an organ receiver and have prolong their life by many years. Please think rationally and donate life.
Today is International Women’s Day and it is a day to celebrate us, women, and have respect, appreciation and love towards us. Because everything starts from you and if you don’t respect, appreciate and love yourself, you can’t share that with the world.
nepaliaustralian 